The Flies Inside Pre-order

The time has come my friends, our very own @torstenvblog and his first book, The Flies Inside is now live for pre-order.

https://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-flies-inside-torsten-v/1138929829?ean=9780578858821

For $10 you can support a new author and check out his first book, in paper back. Stay tuned for my review, and possibly an interview. Thank you for the continued support. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Aliens: Fireteam reveal trailer

As a Alien fanboy, I bet you want me to be excited for this new game in the Aliens universe. Truth be told, I’m not. I wanted another horror game, not another action shooter. The graphics look fine but I’m not really impressed at the look of the Aliens. Maybe it will be good and slay those awful memories of that game we don’t speak of, but I’m not holding my breath. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Flies Inside by Torsten V, Coming March 19th 2021

This is one of my proudest post to have ever written if I am being 100% honest. Our own writer, and possibly the best friend I have ever had, @torstenvblog will soon be releasing his first book, The Flies Inside. It will be up for pre-order soon on the Barnes and Nobles website and cost $9.99.(It is a physical release) Which is funny because until today I did not know the full title, that is how kept in the dark I was.

I also want to give a huge shout out to https://twitter.com/CatzkriegArtz for the great work she did on this preview of the back cover of the book, and you can even check out her soon to come Etsy store. https://www.etsy.com/shop/catzkriegartz/

Cat is a personal friend of Torsten, and I think it is pretty cool that from the bottom up this entire process was completed by friends just working their way into getting started. Obviously this was just a quick post to let everyone know it was coming, and I do have plans to follow up when those pre-orders go live and I will have a full review shortly after release.

I am told its a sort of Horror/mystery deal by a friend that has read an earlier draft but the author described it as more of a horror/dark drama. It seems like an intriguing combo, and knowing he wrote this for his father that he lost last year it makes sense. They bonded a lot when he was a kid over horror movies and comics, and this has really colored his writing style. His father whom we affectionally called Duke was a good man, one you couldn’t help but love and respect. Where ever he is I know he is as proud of him as I am. May the gaming gods smile upon you all, and please consider supporting one of our very own when the time comes.

Green Lantern: Earth One (V2)

Image result for green lantern earth one vol 2

A few years have passed since the events of Green Lantern: Earth One(V 1) and the Green Lantern Corp is struggling to maintain order. Beside ridding the universe of the Manhunters, a new power emerges from a old threat when new, yellow lanterns appear. Proclaimed saviors armed with power rings far stronger than those of the Green Lanterns, it isn’t long before the last Guardian emerges as their creator, offering amends for follies and offering to adopt the Green Lanterns under his stronger new regime. The offer causes discourse amongst the Green Lanterns and a divide. If things weren’t dire as it were, Earth’s first contact with alien life has gone terribly wrong as it appears Earth attacks them war is on the horizon where Jordan discovers the Yellow Lanterns at the scene. Can Hal Jordan stop the oncoming war as well as refuse a greater power?

I loved the first volume of this Earth One series and awaited the second hungrily. While not quite as good as the first, the second book goes into some interesting directions I really liked. I really liked the design of the Yellow Lanterns and how they were portrayed as well as the questions around power they present. Hal’s story is continued pretty well and I like how his story plays out. I wish Jon Stewart was a bit more flushed out and he joined the Green side at the end. The art continues to be gritty but colorful. The only minor complaints I have is how the plots are juggled, getting a bit hard to follow at times and the lack of construct play in this series- the Lantern’s basically pretty much rely on forcefields and lasers which seems kind of bland after a while. In the end this is a damn good follow up to the first book and I’m pretty excited to see what Book 3 could be. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Anthem

Anthem (video game) - Wikipedia

Anthem, the game that collapsed whatever reputation EA had after the failure of Mass Effect Andromeda and Star Wars Battlefront 2 (EA) . I’m going to do this review a bit differently than my usually format because frankly, I didn’t finish this game but holy crap was it a struggle to get as far as I did. Another thing to keep in mind is I’m reviewing this game in 2021, well after it’s release because I’m sure we all heard about the lackluster shape it was released in but I was curious to see if EA and Bioware reworked it.

Well, for one, the game is stable in my experience which I was grateful because this is a always online game. I experienced some minor frame rate drops but nothing that killed my game. During about 6 hours, I had 2 crashes but I can’t be entirely sure if it was necessarily the game’s fault.

The first few hours, the experience is pretty mind-blowing. Flight and exploration is spectacular; the first time diving into the water and jetting back up into the sky was pretty nuts. The Storm Javelin, which focuses on elemental damage, is pretty awesome and by far my favorite as the stand out of the 4 available Javelins. With good/ great class attacks with solid gunplay, combat feels pretty good.

I bet you are waiting for me to say Anthem is a great game you should try? Well, no. The first few hours you basically get a pretty good picture of what the game has to offer and it ain’t much. Essentially I felt like I was playing Destiny 2’s most repetitive missions. Having to load into the Javelin between missions gets really annoying, especially when an average mission is about 2-3 minutes but you’re going to spend an equal amount of time in loading screens and walking around getting missions. takes more time than actually playing. The enemies are bland and I couldn’t give an eighth of a shit about the story because I wasn’t convinced the game did either. The guns are pretty standard and don’t really look different so it’s pretty clearly a numbers game when it comes to loot. The raids aren’t special and don’t offer much epic loot. I waited and kept playing, getting about 10 hours in before coming to the conclusion nothing was changing and I couldn’t really bring myself to finish the game.

In the end, I’m sad to say skipping Anthem isn’t a bad idea. It looks, sounds, and plays great but it’s painfully shallow and undercooked. There are way better sci fi looter shooters out there. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Mortal Kombat 2021 trailer

So here’s my surprise of the day. When I found out a new MK movie was coming out, I was skeptical but hopeful. Off the bat, I have to say I love the character designs. Sub-zero steals the show for me and at the end, seeing Scorpion and Sub-zero face off was badass. I’m unexpectedly hopeful. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Cruella trailer 1

First, I have to say I’m really glad to see Emma Stone back in the spotlight. She sounds and looks like Cruella Deville which is really cool. Surprising I dug this trailer and kinda forgot it was supposed to be the origin of a Disney villain. Either way, the movie looks pretty decent and I hope the best for it. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

JLA Snyder Cut trailer 2

Ok, I’m nervous as hell for this movie but also painfully optimistic here. Do I think it’s perfect? Hell no. Do I even think it’s a step in the right direction- to be determined but can’t be worse than the other version. I want a good Justice League movie and this looks more promising than before, so cross my fingers and hope. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Green Lantern: The Animated series

Green Lantern: The Animated Series Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes

It’s no secret the Green Lantern movie is one of the most hated superhero movie of all time and with some pretty damn good reasons. I didn’t have much faith in the animated series when it debuted on Cartoon Network around the same time, more than likely to cash in on the movie. I’ve never been a fan of this kind of CGI animation style, especially as I got older, but I decided to give the series a chance, a decade after the awful movie.

Wow. Just wow. My surprise at this show is pretty damn unmeasurable. First of all, I have to stay the best part is the writing. In the series entirety, there are 2 main storylines that are well executed, both with fantastic endgames that have some pretty deep impact. I cared about the characters. Essentially we follow Hal Jordan, Killowog, Razor- a Red Lantern turned good, and AYE- their ship’s A.I turned into sentient Lantern. The show has a good blend of classic style sci-fi adventure, epic fights, emotional moments and dark themes at times but with humor that works. Pretty much this series has everything I pretty much wanted from a Green Lantern anything. The voice acting is really good with some really cool cameos sprinkled through. The show has sadly 2 things that bugged me but the first I can’t really really pin on them. The show teases some really awesome characters and story threads: Sinestro’s dark turn, Krona ( Green Lantern: Brightest Day ), a Black Lantern symbol, and Alan Scott. I can’t tell you how much I would’ve loved to see these stories unfold and see Jon Stewart, the Alpha Lanterns, Dr. Polaris, and Hector Hammond as well. The overall story ends well on its own but it does leave you wanting at least another season. The other mild complaint I have is some of the character designs look wonky because of the animation style, namely Atrocitus and Larfleeze who looked really off in my opinion. In the end, the show is a great piece of Green Lantern that’s short but sweet I recommend to DC fans. May the gaming gods bring you glory.