Is Pokemon Go Dead?

pokemon go

The question has been asked many times, is Pokemon Go dead? For many people the answer seems to be yes, but i’m inclined to disagree. Sure it has died down from its popularity of last summer when thousands of people all over the world would congregate to one spot in hopes of catching that one elusive pokemon they wanted at the time. That being said i still know plenty of people that play, and the gyms by my house are constantly changing and i still see people daily walking around with their phones in their faces. I’m not ashamed to admit i also still play and now with the weather nicer will absolutely be going on the occasional pokemon hunt. I can’t really think the game is dead when millions of people in the world are still playing and the game is regularly updated with new pokemon and locations. While I admit I do miss the days of tons of people wondering around and forming little groups even with strangers to chat about what they hope the future of the game will bring or where a certain creature can be found, I still find it somewhat relaxing to just see whats out there. As always thanks for your time, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Phantasy Star 2 mobile review

phantasy star 2

I have always been a huge fan of the Phantasy Star series ever since my parents randomly bought me a game. See it was that time of year us poor people love, income tax season. Its where we get to pay some bill and buy a few things we otherwise could not afford. I remember being sick and saying i wanted a game, obviously unable to pick a myself my parents offered to do it. Most kids would have been worried, but my dad was an old school gamer. Really old school, i’m talking pinball and asteroids and home consoles didn’t exist yet, and my mom used to watch me play all the time. Now i can’t say how the conversation at the store went but I always assumed it came down to them arguing over 2 games then saying  screw it and buying both. My reward? Shining Force 2 and Phantasy Star 4, two of my all time favorites.

Obviously when I heard Phantasy Star 2 would be free on mobile i was excited and skeptical. The game has an over lay of the Genesis controller that i thought would be annoying and cumbersome which i’m happy to say i was wrong tho admittedly they can be a bit unresponsive at times. The sound and graphics both sound as good or maybe  little better than on the Sega, but not as good as some of the collections that have come out since, but for free i won’t complain especially knowing these are all basically direct copies of the Sega versions. The adds also are not anything major, basically only showing when you start or pause the game and I have not seen one mess with game play at all. as always thanks for joining me and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Elite Dangerous PS4 review

planets

After years of waiting, Frontier finally brings Elite Dangerous to the PlayStation 4. Graphically it looks superior to the Xbox one version but not as good as the PC version making it visually the middle of the road. That being said none of them look bad. There are a few glitches in the game sadly, in both open and solo play I experienced some rubber banding where I would  move and be ripped back and eventually shoot forward, once it even destroyed my ship. That is few are far between, after probably 10 hours I’ve seen it twice. The sound is pretty much top tier a well with no noticeable issues.

For better or worse, and this will depend on the person playing, the game simply does not care about you. the tutorials are out of game (if you played the xbox version the controls line up perfectly between systems) and if you skip them the game basically explains very little. Outside of one optional mission the game gives you there i no real guidance on what you should be doing. The galaxy is a very large place, and the game does not make you feel as anything more than 1 pilot among the stars. If you are a fan of space or simulation games you should check it out, and if you are a fan of both you owe it to yourself to play it. As always, thanks for joining me, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

 

Beginner Money Making Elite Dangerous

Ship

Elite dangerous can be a grind and a half, so here are just a few ways to help make money a little quicker from the start

  1.  The Sidewinder is your starter ship, and its weapons are legitimately useless. They can’t really be sold so toss them into storage. The extra jump range will come in handy.  I did this in open play but you may feel safer in solo.
  2.  Boom missions at the start are the best thing to go for. They are simple missions where you simply deliver items that are given to you. Early on just make sure you plot the course in the galaxy map before you accept the mission, last thing you need is to accept a mission someplace you can’t get to.
  3.  Some of those boom missions also supply free items, sell those for 100% profit.
  4. Unless for whatever reason you happen to like the Sidewinder don’t bother upgrading it, its a waste of money. A few boom missions tho can get you over 100 grand each tho, 2 or 3 of those and you will be set to buy a hauler or eagle with some upgrades. If you want to continue doing boom missions and trading i’d recommend the Hauler or the Eagle for combat.

That’s basically it for the very beginning of the game. After you get the hang of it and can afford a cobra mark 3 is definitely pick one up. its not great at anything, but its good at everything. Now get out there and have some fun. Thanks for joining me, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Don’t Breathe

Don't Breathe A lesson from Torsten V and the makers of this movie: breaking and entering is a very bad idea. Also the general point of Don’t Breathe in general. I don’t have much to say about the movie’s plot except that besides the trailers giving you everything you need to know about the plot. Three petty thieves plan one seemingly easy last score by breaking into the home of a old, blind army vet who’s holding onto a fat settlement from the people who killed his daughter in a drunk driving accident. What was supposed to be a easy task turns into a live or die game of cat and mouse when they quickly discover this old man is extremely dangerous. He’s attuned to his other senses quite well, being a formidable shot with a 9MM and a brutal hand to hand combatant, along with one mean ass seeing-eye rottweiler. Besides a very disturbing revenge plot from the old man against the woman he’s holding captive in his basement, the same woman who killed his daughter, this cat and mouse is the bulk of the movie. It is paced well and the movie is overall good. Stephen Lange is great as the blind old man, a very good villain in his own right and damn right creepy once his true intentions are known. The suspense is good throughout most of the movie but the The ending overstays it welcome by going on an extra 5 minutes longer than it should have. My biggest gripe about it is that theirs alot of fake outs with the other male lead. With most horror movies, it’s acceptable and pretty much expect once, maybe twice. But I swear it happens four or five times with this poor bastard throughout the film, finally killing him with twenty minutes left and feeling kinda lackluster because it got annoying. Lange had his share of fake outs too but he’s the villain so I can cut the man some slack. Overall I liked it and loved the concept but I can’t say I’d own it but worth some netflix watchings in a dark room with a chickenshit friend

Killing Floor 2 Review

killing floor 2

Killing Floor 2 is a game I got for free from the playstation network and admittedly i was not expecting much. It looked like a standard first person shooter that was basically a horde mode. While i admit that’s basically what it is, it is also pretty well done. Far more gory than i was expecting the controls are pretty fluid and the depth of weapon customization far surpassed what I thought we would get. I only played the multiplayer online mode and it was a nice mix of challenging and fun tho the boss did pretty much annihilate my entire team pretty quickly. One guy was caught alone and unprepared and the rest of us had no where near the team work required to beat this thing. There were a few things that got me tho. For example there is an extremely limited time to find the upgrade station that moves each round and upgrade your weapons which seems pretty daunting for new players. Another issue is there doesn’t seem to be a clear cut explanation of what each character is good for even tho a few of them are pretty self explanatory. All in all its a solid game that i would have been more than happy to have spent money on, and for free that makes it all the sweeter. Once again thanks for joining me and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Sega Forever

sega

Some times something is announced that both excites me and confuses me. This is one of those things.

Sega forever is, for all intents and purposes, games made by Sega free for your cell phone and tablet. With a few games already out including Phantasy Star 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog more will be added periodically until every Sega system is represented. I know some of you are going to be wondering, how does Sega make money on this? Well there will be adds when you start the games up but for a small fee ( $1.99 i believe) you can remove the adds from a game. As of now i have not gotten the chance to play any of them but as we speak Phantasy Star 2 is downloading on my cell phone, look for my review this weekend or early next week. As always thanks for joining me, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Green Lantern: Secret Origin

gl2 If you caught my previous review of the live action Green Lantern movie, you’ll realize I sorely don’t recommend it. This book, Secret origin, is a much more cohesive , better told story of Hal Jordan’s coming of age into being one of the most powerful Green Lanterns of all time. The story begins much like the movie with the story of young Hal Jordan; a young boy who dreams of growing up to be a pilot like his father. After he dies in a tragic plane explosion, his life begins a slow, lonely spiral of trouble making, straying further from his living family until he joined the air force at 18 at which point his mom disowns him until the day she dies because of his choice to follow this father’s footsteps. Hal is a natural flyer but his smart mouth and rebellious nature cause him to hang onto his job for dear life…Light years away, the great Abin Sur- greatest of all Green Lanterns- is transporting the savage Atrcitous of the five Aversions across the galaxy to interrogate him. Abin has been uneasy and paranoid unto the clasps of utter madness over a prophecy the Guardians of the universe and creators of the Green Lantern Corps may have been hiding. He fears the coming of the Blackest Night. Atrcitious breaks free and because of Abin’s fear, he’s weak to the attack and becomes mortally wounded, and there ship crashes to earth. Atrcitous escapes. Abin commands his ring to find a suitable replacement- Hal Jordan. The story after stays fairly close plot-wise with the exception of Parallax. Inside a rookie Jordan and now dubbed greatest Green Lantern Sinestro must put there differences aside to defeat Atrcitous, whose armed with a weapon fueled by the power of their rings, before he murders young William Hand who he believes is the key to Blackest Night.

Between the live action movie and Secret Origin, I’d would say the general plot is 65% similar. The difference comes with Geoff Johns’s fantastic writing.  The story is fast paced but were able to get attached and sympathize with Jordan, get to see the beginnings of his stormy but true love for Carol Ferris- his childhood friend, old boss, and future Star Sapphire (pink lantern) and well as his tragic relationship with Thal Sinestro- mentor, partner, and rival that would one day turn his back on willpower’s green light and embrace fear’s golden light as the Corp’s greatest threat. The world is more flushed out and what I enjoy about much of John’s writing is it’s a extremely easy book to follow, even if you never knew anything about Lantern lore or even comics in general.

Final score:  9/ 10

May the gaming gods be with you all and til next time, I’m Torsten V and I’ll be back in a few days with my review for Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War.

Grand Ages:Medieval Review

Grand Ages

Grand Ages Medieval is a world simulation game by Kalypso that seems to fit a nice niche that PS4 is missing. The game has a campaign mode as well as a sandbox mode with the campaign largely acting as the tutorial. The game takes place in a beautiful work that represents Europe and the basic idea is to reach the rank of emperor through the use of war, diplomacy and most importantly trade routes that you can either use to trade between your own towns, rival towns or like me, a combination of both. The controls work pretty nice on console, which is no surprise since Kalypso has plenty of experience bringing these types of games to console having done so with both Port Royal 3 and the Tropico series. Speaking of Port Royal, if you enjoyed that game, this game s basically that without all the boats. As always thanks for joining me, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Digital vs Disk

disk

This has been a debate for years in gaming, and just to be honest at some point the question will be moot and companies will simply require digital downloads and disk wont be an option. However for me i still prefer the disk whenever possible. Part of the reason for that is honestly its rarely cheaper for the digital version. Another issue is its usually quicker to install off disk for me than it is download an entire game. On the flip side digital is pretty convenient, I don’t have to wait in line at the store, which on midnight releases is pretty much  a blessing.  I also don’t have to worry about my disk getting scratched by the kids or my cat ( yes that happened once) Now it sounds like digital is the way to go, but here is another issue for me. With suck limited space I spend more time uninstalling and reinstalling than I would like, and on rare occasion companies remove games from the stores, which means i can’t reinstall said game. All that being said the question really has many ways of looking at it, and as i said at the start eventually it will be the only way to buy games. Once again thanks for joining me, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.