Category: Opinion

Pier Solar And The Great Architects

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Pier Solar has a complicated back story. Not the in game itself, like the actual development and release of the game itself. It also may be the last Sega Genesis game released.  You can find more info here.

The game itself is a fun old school RPG, but at times offers very little to go on in terms of where to go. People used to this style of game will be fine, but many will just be pissed off and should look up a walkthrough. The battle system is a classic turn based system, and doesn’t offer anything new to an experienced gamer but it is still fun and engaging.

The story while pretty standard is interesting and has enough twist and turns to remain interesting and keep you playing. The game has its faults but for its price any old school fan should check it out, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Fantastic 4 (2005)

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If you’ve followed my work for a while, you know I love the Fantastic 4 and the idea of them in the MCU makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. If you want to know why, this movie may not really answer why.

Our story centers around five people who participated in a experiment with disastrous results. Reed Richards, a quiet, dorky nerd. Sue Storm, Reed’s hot ex girlfriend. Sue’s asshole brother Johnny. Reed’s best friend Ben Grimm. Then we have the incredibly rich current fiance of Sue, nemesis of Reed and totally obvious villain Victor Von Doom. During an experiment in space, they run afoul with a cosmic storm that essentially changes them. Reed can stretch; Sue can turn invisible and make forcefields; Johnny can fly, shoot fire and be hot; and Ben mutated into a giant, living rock. Seemingly, Victor seems untouched at first. The four quickly become celebrities after they are put into a scenario where they got to save people; Reed just wants to cure them. Tensions rise as celebrity keeps in, Ben gets labeled a outcast by his deformity, and the attention goes to Johnny’s head; behind the scenes Victor starts to change as well, but realizes he can be the ultimate power if the others were out of the way. Can the Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing unite to stop Dr. Doom?

As far as superhero movies go, as well as incarnations of these heroes have gone, this is just meh. Not great but not a crap shoot. The film captures the dysfunctional family aspect of the group fairly well. Best part of this movie hands down is Michael Chiklis as The Thing, he perfectly portrayed the pathos of the character but wasn’t overly brooding, but sold his sarcastic, light hearted side too- also he aced “It’s Clobberin Time!”. Lowest point of this is Dr. Doom. Doom went from one of Marvel’s most fascinating villains with a huge array of technology and magical abilities  to a bitchy rich pretty boy with generic superpowers. A huge flaw is that for a superhero flick, there seriously ain’t much to hit. There’s one fight at the end that lasts 5 minutes, a fly chase that lasts like 3, the bridge scene which is about 5, and you don’t see everyone in costume until the final fight. Besides that, comedy, stunts, and melodrama. The movie is forgettable but fine on netflix or shit bin. As always, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Mockingjay

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Happy Thanksgiving again, one and all from me and Savior. We come to the conclusion of the Hunger Games trilogy. Arguably Mockingjay ties with the first for my favorite of the series and it is one of my favorite conclusions in all of fiction. I tip my hat to you Suzanne Collins.

So Katniss is in a fucked up place after being decisively rescued at the end of Catching Fire. District 12 was burned to the ground; Peeta and a few of the surviving tributes were taken captive by the Capitol; she discovers District 13, which we are told was destroyed by the Capital during the last rebellion since book 1 still exists under the ruins and is trying to unite the other districts in full out war. Katniss is on the brink of sanity after 2 rounds of murder and mayhem, her and fellow survivor Finnick are trying to cope. Snow still finds to psychologically torment her. President Coin, head of 13, starts pushing Katniss to become the Mockingjay as others have started calling her, to be the poster child of rebellion. Katniss agrees if only to make things a lil less shitty for her and her family and to make rescuing Peeta and the others higher priority. Katniss is suited up in a fancy combat suit with a new high tech bow and is sent out to make connections with real people after failing hard at making TV promos. These trips, while damaging her further inside, are helpful. In a daring move, the other tributes are rescued, but all is not well. Peeta violently attacks Katniss and damn near kills her.  He’d been tortured and brainwashed. Everything comes together in a last ditch effort to finally capture Snow, but it turns out to be one last game…

Writing this review was hard for me because I want to get into spoilers but I want anyone who never saw the movies or read the books to pick them up and experience them as I did. I will say the ending is ballsy, especially for a YA book and I respect that much darker, realistic ending than some bullshit Hollywood happy ending. As for the movies, both were really done well but I prefer 1 over 2. Somehow the ending feels watered down to me on film than the book. Overall, it was a great end to a pretty great trilogy. I have a special friend who seemed interested in the series, so I’ll list them order below. Happy Thanksgiving and may the odds be ever in your favor

Hunger Games- Catching Fire- Mockingjay

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Battlefront 2 Loot Boxes Gambling?

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There is no quick answer to this question, but maybe. But that is a question many people have been asking lately it seems. Belgium Justice Minister seems to believe it is, tho Translations seem to be a bit off and there has been an update to the story that can be found here.

Hawaii Rep. Chris Lee also wants to fight what he calls “predatory behavior” more on that can be found here.

Now i’m not sure gambling is the right word, but I can understand the argument. You are spending money and may or may not receive something of equal value. On the flip side of things you will get something for your money so is it really a true gamble? This is definitely an interesting thing to watch. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Thanksgiving Grindhouse trailer

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Happy Turkey Day one and all! So this is a weird ass thing, even for Saviorgaming, but I’m going to talk about a trailer for a movie that even real, but hot damn brought me so much enjoyment.

Some explanation is due first. So we had two amazing directors, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, come together in 2007 to bring us a double feature showing off there love for the old Grindhouse films. I had the privilege of seeing the whole thing in theaters and it was GLORIOUS! Well between films, we were treated to mock trailers directed by actual directors inspired by the sub-genre like Rodriguez, Rob Zombie, and in this particular case, Eli Roth (Cabin Fever and Hostel 1 and 2). Some like Machete and Hobo with a Shotgun did become actual movies in time.

So Thanksgiving is meant to be a slasher film in the spirit of Halloween or Black Christmas, and holy shit I wish this was a really movie. The film is grainy and raw like an old school 70’s horror movie. There is a creepy ass narrator. And I shit you not, the killer dresses up in a pilgrim suit and beheads  a turkey mascot with hedge clippers during the damn town parade. the final tag line is “This Thanksgiving everyone’s coming to dinner…in a bodybag!” I love this trailer as much as I love the Grindhouse. The trailer made me laugh and was just gross and insane and awesome, so I implore all you horror fans to check it out on Youtube if you never seen it. Best wishes, and I will return later to cover Mockingjay.

Final Fantasy Tactics (PlayStation One)

I have a history with this game. And that history is not good. See I got into a trap with the first battle that lets you save in between fights. I didn’t create a different save. Then i got stuck and couldn’t win..restart the whole damn game..then my memory card broke…then my PlayStation broke..then disk broke. Then my new disk didn’t work. This took about a year to straighten out.

After that year I was treated to one of the most glorious games ever created. The job system was put together to damn near perfection, with each one leading to a bigger and better one and each choice leading to a new tactical advantage or weakness.

The battle system itself requires strategy and thought and can be punishing to mistakes, but it is also fair and rewarding to good decisions.

The graphics for the time looked great and even now for a retro game are passable and fun to look at with sound that was amazing. But all that fails in comparison to one thing.

The story. This was easily the most mature story in the Final Fantasy world and to this day in my opinion still is. Two war torn countries killing each other for power, while the poor starve and the high born nobles struggle to win favor with the ruling class and consider the poor as nothing more than animals.

This game should not be missed by anyone, even people that don’t normally play this type of game should give it a chance. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Catching Fire

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Catching Fire is the second story of the Hunger Games trilogy, for which I’m covering Mockingjay on Thanksgiving. So to get us in the mood, let’s get into the book and movie.

Picking up almost a year after Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark won the 74th Hunger Games, the pair is about to set off on there victory tour, still pretending for the cameras they are madly in love. Unfortunately, President Snow is not convinced. He shows up to Katniss’s house, telling her that there stunt at the end of the games triggered problems in the other Districts, unrest was beginning and the people were rebelling. If she wants to bring peace, he tells her they’d better act more in love so the public would think they were just lovesick teens and weren’t trying to spit in the Capitol’s face. As hard as they try though, the other Districts are already riled up. The fire is catching. As the 75th Hunger Games approaches, the third quarter quarrel, snow delivers the special rule of this special game: the tributes would be limited to the past champions of games past. Being the only female winner from District 12, Katniss is selected by default. This time it’s Katniss and Peeta against the old champions, being forced into uneasy alliances to survive a game Snow will make damn sure they can’t win…

Both book and movie are really good sequel; the movie was a major improvement over the first. The book is a bit slow at first but racks up tension really well, leading to a epic oh shit ending. My favorite part of the book are the backstories of the other tributes. As for the movie, the acting and action improved a lot as well as the special effects. This time they add some humor to it but it surprisingly works well and well placed. In the end I think the book and movie are definitely worth checking out. Best wishes and may the odds be ever in your favor

Rampage trailer

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I’ve been hit by some pretty strange WTF movies in my day. Dragonball: Evolution, Alien and Halloween: Resurrection, Jason X, Slither, and Repo: the Genetic Opera to name a few. So why the hell am I surprised a video game I played and loved as a kid is getting a movie staring none other the Rock, Dwanye Johnson. Hell, I was actually pissed about it but for you guys I watched the trailer and I’m glad I did. George, Ralph, and Lizzie look pretty damn sweet and the Rock seems solid enough. I recommend checking it out if you ever played the games, giant monsters and a fun actor, it looks to be a good time so far.

The Dark Tower

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I finally got to sit down not long ago and watch it finally. I was cautious Sony was going to crap on it. I was mostly right…

Separate from the books, the movie is a new tale. Walter, a inter-dimensional wizard is kidnapping people from our world with the gift of the “Shine” to power a device to destroy the Dark Tower at the center of the universe and is basically existence itself. He is being ruthlessly hunted by Roland, the last Gunslinger, who is out for revenge for the deaths of his father and friends. Walter’s experiments are effective but not to the magnitude he desires, until his Taheen forces (creepy ass animal people that wear human skin) track down a kid named Jake Chambers that has a huge “Shine”. Jake, having visions of crazy shit like a Gunslinger and a Man in Black and a long Dark Tower, tries to find it before Walter can shatter the last beam…

As a writer, I get how adapting this would be like trying to play Dark Souls with your dong. There is a epic ass load of exposition which makes the movie feel longer than it really is, and kind of slow. I think the actors did the best with what they were give; I believe Matthew Mcconaughey would have been spot on if given a R rated script. Seriously, who’s bright idea was it to make this movie PG-13? As for action, there isn’t much but I can definitely say the finale is pretty badass. A huge peeve I had was you can tell this was the first movie of a cinematic universe, but a lot of the Easter eggs were pretty cool all the same. Overall, my feelings on the movie are kinda meh. Wasn’t great, wasn’t shit. I’d say it’s worth a Red Box trip or stream but I can’t really recommend owning it at full price, maybe Wal-mart crap bin price at max. Long days and pleasant nights.

Beyond Oasis

Sega Forever strikes again with another classic for the Sega Genesis in Beyond Oasis. Once again this is a pretty faithful recreation. The controls work as well on the touch screen of a cell phone as well as it ever did on the Sega controller.

Graphically the game looks good and I didn’t hit any issues with slow downs or lag or anything like that. The sound also sounded good. If you enjoyed the original and want to play again now is the chance. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.