Opinion – Page 194 – Savior Gaming

Mortal Kombat 4

mk4

I’m going to go on a limb and say this was my first M rated video game and damn it was funny. I didn’t know all the moves or even how to do a fatality, because dammit it used to take like eight buttons to melt a face off. So why did I decide to review this beside the fact it was my first M rated game; well it was hugely inspired plotwise for the tenth entry, which was badass as hell. We got many our classic characters like Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Raiden, Lu Kang, and Johnny Cage to name a few but with four we also got Fujin, Tanya, and main antagonist Shinnok. I played it on the N64 so the character graphics are understandably crispy but the backgrounds are pretty well done for the time. For this game, every fighter is able to pull out weapons which added a new level of awesomeness if you could bring it out or a new level of dick-it-try if you can’t. What’s harder than fighting a spry acid spitting reptile man? How about fighting the same bastard who’s packing a giant double sided battle ax. Also there were throwable items left around certain levels and a titanic fan that can be used for my favorite fatality of all time. The game is fun but damn if the combos aren’t easy and the 3 dimensional moving can be kind of annoying but so much blood and Wilhelm screams, who gives a shit, put on the bitchin dance track, grab a friend, and get ready for MORTAL KOMBAT!!!

Sword In The Storm

sword in the storm

Sword in the Storm is book one of the Rigante series by David Gemmell and is the story of Connovar, the son of a dead man many believe to be a coward. This drives him to do many foolish and downright stupid things at times, but like Legend that i discussed in a previews review it is the starting point for an entire world full of people, cities all with different morals and cultures.

This book will take Connovar on an adventure from childhood to being a young adult on his way to eventually becoming the leader of his people. You will meet a ton of different people including a witch and what is this worlds version of a god, tho there are many variations of them. This one grant wishes but those wishes won’t always turn out how you want and are rarely given away for free, sort of like an old school genie. This series however does have a set order to them and you really do need to stick with that order to truly understand the story. Thanks for your time, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Body Harvest

body harvest

No clue why I felt like reviewing this but hey, we all have those days. I remember the cover to this game grabbed me as a kid because of the cover and I thought you played as Samus (the dude you play as looks like Samus and Stallone’s Judge Dredd had a boring ass baby.) I can’t tell you much about the plot because I found this game hard as shit to play. Even picking it up again as a twenty something, I still couldn’t fully get the hang out of it. It involves a space soldier who is on the run from giant bugs that shoot lasers and poop murderous gloobs of green jello looking shit- watch a play through and tell me I’m wrong. So I’m going to say this game wasn’t as fail for me because of crap controls but more like over ambition. It was the first open world game I can recall playing where you walk through towns, jump into vehicles and generally explore with shooting mechanics that looking back remind me of a primative Resident Evil 4. I feel like if this game came out on the Nintendo GameCube instead of the N64 I think time would have been there to flatten out and smooth the mechanics. I’m not saying it wold have been a good game but slightly less of a dump. There’s a funny as hell animation where you glitter and do a series of aerial rolls to enter a vehicle through its roof which is funny as hell. If, like my friend and supporter Hatter, enjoy old school games for the better or worse but I personally don’t recommend playing it as much as watching a Youtube video of it or something. As always may the gaming gods bring you glory and beware the green jello everyone.

Legend Review

Legend is the first book by David Gemmell in what is known as the Drenai Saga. The story of this book is the drenai are under attack by people from the desert known as the the Nadir. As people gather to defend the wall from attack and await the hero, Druss the Legend. Intermixed with the story of war are many smaller stories about various people manning the wall along with plenty of back story for the world as a whole. You eventually find out that the Nadir are far from evil and actually are victims of many raids by the Drenai as well as other countries and powers. See the story with in this book actually builds for what will become an entire series based around many people and countries and in different time periods within the same world. You can actually read any of the Drenai saga books in any order you want,but I would recommend this one first. As always thanks for reading, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Green Lantern: Agent Orange

agent orange

Agent Orange is our last story before Blackest Night, and it’s introduction to the Gollum of the DC universe in Larfleeze. Larfleeze is the a oddity in the world of Lanterns in that he’s the only flesh and blood lantern in his Corps, the orange light steals the likeness of all Larfleeze kills so he almost has a never ending army at his disposal. At the core of this story is a set up for Blackest Night, leaving off where Rage left off with the Green Lantern Corp still dealing with Sinestro and Atrocitus as Hal Jordan deals with the blue ring bonded to his hand. It may have broken the spell of the red ring but the blue continuously asks him what he hopes for, inhibiting his ability to use his own green ring, although his blue ring is keeping his fimiliar ring charged because a new threat is coming… ancient former accomplices of the Guardians stumble upon a hidden evil bearing an orange lantern. A trap is sprung and the trespassers are slaughtered by Larfleeze. Larfleeze, set upon revenge for a treaty broken, begins hunting the Green Lanterns. Larfleeze easily overpowers them, absorbing there green light, until he becomes transfixed with the new light emulating from Jordan’s other fist. The Guardians are even overpowered by Larfleeze’s hosting greed; consumed by the secret biting them in the ass. Long ago, Larfleeze and a band of thieves uncovered the orange lantern, unleashing it’s horrible power that couldn’t be contained by them, forcing them to comprise with the remaining thieves: they can keep the power but they would be banished to the Vega Sector. Both running on nearly unlimited energy, Jordan and Larfleeze clash until Hal learns the power of the blue ring and is able to subdue him. The Guardians make another deal with Larfleeze; with the blue ring spent off of Jordan, the Guardians reveal the homeworld of the blue lanterns, led by two of there own. And as the story concludes, all the Corps are at war and the Blackest Night begins…

Probably the shortest Green Lantern story I’ve read to date, it is a good character piece on Larfleeze and Hal Jordan. Larfleeze is a creepy, wretched beast that is bad ass; it’s cool to see Jordan’s take on hope. It’s also a good representation of how imperfect the Guardians of the universe are, feeling jealousy over the new power Sayd and Ganthet unlocked and the fear they continue to try to hide while the universe falls to shit around them. Overall it’s a fine, well written story about greed vs hope and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Happening

the happening

The Happening staring Mark Wahlberg is a rather interesting movie. Mark plays a science teacher in a world where a weird phenomenon involving mass suicide on the east cost of the United States. The movie waste no time at all getting into the meat of the story, the first scene shows two women on a park bench reading when one notices some weird shit going on and the other eventually stabbing herself in the neck with a knitting needle he for whatever reason has in her hair.

That being said with such a starting point as you can imagine there is no real high point or low point to the movie. Now I never really came to a point I wasn’t interested but I can see why others would. The movie is also pretty graphic which is part of kept me interested. I would avoid this movie tho if you have any issue with dead bodies or suicide in general. However if you don’t the movie is worth watching. Thanks for your time and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Alice, sweet Alice

alicesa

I heard a few years back that this strange ass movie was getting a remake and felt saddened; is nothing sacred anymore? I originally saw this listed towards the bottom of Bravo’s 100 scariest movie moments and like everything on that list, I wanted to see for myself to better myself at the craft that is horror.

Alice, sweet Alice (or Communion as it is sometimes referred to) is a 70’s mystery slasher set around Catherine Spages and her two young daughters Karen (Brooke Shields film debut) and Alice. Alice is jealous of her beautiful, sweet sister that everyone adores. Alice is a weird duck, always wearing hearing her strange translucent drag queen mask and going off by herself. Catherine and there church’s priest Father Tom are fussing over Karen’s debut at there big Communion ceremony; Alice is fed up with it all. Moments before the ceremony is about to begin, Karen is killed by a figure in a yellow raincoat, drag queen mask, and white gloves; her body dropped into a hamper and burned which brings the ceremony to a screeching halt. Annie, Catherine’s sister, suspects Alice was responsible for her sister’s demise on the merits of jealous rage but Catherine won’t believe her. The girl’s estranged father returns for the funeral. We’re introduced to the perverted, obese landlord of there apartment who tries to get fresh with Alice. Soon Annie is attacked by the same figure that killed Karen, screaming in the rain it was Alice. Alice is taken away to a home but the deaths continue by the same figure, making us ask whether it was her until the very end…

So I have to say, I really enjoy this movie. It’s filmed to have a dreamy quality made vintage by the film and clothes, while the music is a creepy, childish singing. The acting is on the verge of over the top but it works given everything else. There isn’t much gore but the figure is damn unsettling enough to carry the movie. The killer’s identity is clever but somethings when thought about at great length don’t make a lot of sense but it ain’t overwhelming. If you can find it, it’s worth a watch and may the gaming gods never give us a remake.

Civilization Revolution

civilization revoluton

Civilization Revolution is one of those games from a series that is mostly absent from consoles. In fact to my knowledge there is this one and a PlayStation one version of civilization 2 on console. Now in case you live under a rock, civilization is a turn based simulation of what I would describe as the timeline of humanity. You pick a world leader and build a city or eventually multiple cities. You build libraries, barracks and other general city things as well as various types of troops. As time progresses and you discover new technologies you can build more advanced buildings are troops.

The game has more than one way to win, for example building a space ship and getting to the next solar system or capturing all the other civilizations capital cities. There are also more world leaders than I care to mention. America has good ole Abe Lincoln and the Mongolians have Genghis Khan for example. Mostly its just famous people from their respective countries.

With all that being said this series may be the king of just playing for a little longer turning into hours of game play,as always thanks for reading and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Team America: World Police

team america

Well friends, when life brings you down, just remember AMERICA, F#$K YEAH… I was asked to keep this Pg-13, when the theme song for Team America is involved that becomes harder than any Dark Souls boss.

So Team America is another messed up satire by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone about an elite group of American specialists who have to save the world from Kim Jung Il and Alec Baldwin and the whole Screen Actors Guild…in puppets. I’m not shitting you one bit. This movie is made by marionette puppetry and models. So basically we follow famous actor, Gary, as he is recruited by Spotswood to aid Team America in there mission to infiltrate Alqueda. When the responsibilty gets too much Gary abandons the team, and goes on a soul search while the team gets there asses kicked so Gary has to man up and become a bad ass to save his friends…AND AMERICA! I promise that won’t get old.

I have seen some crazy ass things on screen. I’ve watched infamous exploitation pictures like Cannibal Holocaust and Salo: the 120 days of Sodam, so you know I’ve seen some shit. Team America hit me in that strange pit inside. I should be horrified at some of the places this movie goes, and downright offended but I’m not. On the contrary, I’ve nearly pissed myself laughing during this movie. It’s insane, it’s clever, it has a bitchin theme song and somehow in 2017 feels more at home than 2004. If you can get past the puppets, controversal topics and the way Parker and Stone address them, you’ll find a epic cult classic that will having you sing with Kim Jung Il, waving your arms in the air, and asking questions about yourself when you and your friends roar in laughter and amazement at the puppet sex scene…don’t judge me and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Cosmic Star Heroine

Wow. I could end the review there. I won’t, but I could. I was expecting a generic rip off of Chrono Trigger. I could not have been more wrong. Yes the battle system is basically the same, but there is enough of a twist to make it interesting. See instead of picking moves every turn you need to defend to recharge them after you use most moves. Combine this with hyper commands and the strategy really starts to build. The visuals have a very nice retro look while the sound is a nice mix of classic but new at the right times.

The story itself is a bit cliche but it is very well done. A classic tail of a good woman doing the right thing and being chased by an evil man you once trusted. I do have a few issues with the game. For starters even on the middle difficulty the game is very easy. I am yet to lose a single battle or even find one that is challenging, and I doubt I am some how that good at the game despite being blessed by the gaming gods. On that note, may the gaming gods bring you all the glory you deserve.