Category: Opinion

Borderlands 3 first impressions

bl3 characters  Like many I’ve been wild with anticipation over the release of Borderlands 3; I sold most of my hard copy games just to afford the $100 edition. So far, I’ve put roughly 10 hours into the game with Moze and about 3 hours with Zane.

In terms of raw gameplay, 3 is the biggest leap since Borderlands 2 from the original Borderlands and the strongest feature of the game. There’s a lot of small changes that welcome like the ability to power slide, being able to climb ledges, being able to customize vehicles more and the addition of alternate fires on some weapons. Speaking of customization, there is a huge amount of customization when it comes to your characters skill trees. For Zane as an an example, you can chose between 3 different skills to choose from, that you can switch up at anytime; each tree is dedicated to a skill and there are augments available to pump them up. It’s a bit to get used to but well worth it. Combat is much more intense because the enemies are smarter and you take damage much quicker. Guns also handle much better and feel crisp. It’s undoubtedly the best shooter I’ve played in a while.

So what’s the drawback? Sadly the story. After the awesome opening, the game hits a stagnant patch for much of your stay on Pandora. It tries to be funny but comes out flat a lot of the time. The Calypso Twins aren’t terrible as main antagonists but they get annoying when you figure out they are pretty much evil Twitch streamers. A change I didn’t like was getting rid of the Badass rank and replacing it with Guardian rank that you can’t access until you beat the story. Also, if you take too long to figure something out, the game will pester you until you figure it out at certain times.

Overall, it’s a awesome game so far and the review will be out soon. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Empire In Ruins Beta

As many of you know I am a big supporter of this game an the guys over at https://twitter.com/EiR_TD. They are a great bunch and always make time to answer any questions anyone has. So when I got a message saying hey you want to check out the latest beta you guys know I was going to give it a go.

The idea behind this game is pretty interesting. They took a 4X and a tower defense basically and just tossed them together. The graphics are beautiful and the sounds amazing. Personally, it contains one of my favorite songs in gaming, and I don’t mean just on the indy scene, I mean anywhere. Plus baby Savior dances to it and leaves me alone so that is a huge bonus.

The game does tower defense well, it isn’t easy but at no point did I feel like it was unfair. I lost a few battles and realized pretty quickly how it was my own stupidity. All the menus on the mao can be a bit daunting at first but they do an excellent job explaining things I thought. I do have to be fair, I do play games like Stellaris and Imperator Rome so maybe that gave me some advantage.  Regardless it won’t be long before you are making decisions about if you want to help build more food to keep people happy or try to fortify the defenses. Do you want to try to talk those rioters down, or just be a tyrant about it? The choice is obviously yours.

The story tho is where it is at for me. I appreciate Sgt. Hans Heimer and his need to save his booze and wanting to stick it to the system a bit. The dark humor really set this game apart for me from what I am used to playing. The loading screens alone made me laugh, which I have included some screenshots of a couple so you can see what I mean.

The only real issue I ran into while playing I can truly complain about. It is a beta and it easily could be my PC. Occasionally while playing the game would force close at loading screens. I never lost any real progress from this and was just more annoying than anything else but I do feel obligated to point this out tho I am confident this won’t be an issue by the time the game releases assuming it isn’t just my PC being a pain in the..well you get it.  So head over to https://store.steampowered.com/app/604510/Empires_in_Ruins/ and wishlist this bad boy and get in on the early access. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you brandy and glory.

5 Best Written Characters on Television

As always with my list, they aren’t in any real order. They simply get tossed on here in whatever order I feel like putting them on here. For me to get tossed on this list they just have to be characters I enjoyed that seem either realistic or just all together interesting.

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Al Bundy of Why Married With Children Wouldn’t Work In 2019 is easily on this list because he comes across as an everyday man. He works at a shoe store, his wife and kids annoy the hell out of him. He more or less reminds you of a lot of older guys you know that are just generally sick of life, except much more exaggerated.

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Lucifer Morningstar of Lucifer Season One is possibly my favorite on this list because he represents a side of the bible many people never stop to think of. That may be the devil (who is an angel himself) isn’t so evil as he is simply misunderstood. He is given a personality but it isn’t perfect, he is, for example, egotistical and oblivious much of the time. He is not only well written he is also quite unique.

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Norm Peterson from cheers is another character I always loved simply because of how realistic he is. Come on, let us be honest. We all know at least one functional alcoholic that goes to the bar and everyone knows him and probably has a favorite seat. That is actually a good chunk of my family weirdly.

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Angel (Season one) is another character I always enjoy because of how well he grows from his time on Buffy until the end of his own show Angel. His character growth is just always fun to watch and while maybe not the best show ever his character itself is worth checking out.

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Lorelai Gilmore is possibly my favorite on this list if I am being honest. Her relationship with Luke alone is worth watching the show for, and she is also another great example of an exaggerated figure that we all know. She is a silly and crazy single mother that loves her coffee a little too much that can kind of a be a bitch. She also happens to be pretty hot so that helps.

So what do you guys think? What are some of your favorites? Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Sandwich?: the Ultimate Inquisition

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Here we come to another bone chilling look into the human mind full of twists, turns, and melodrama…oh and sandwiches. People like sandwiches.

Once again Billy Kraser, author of such short humor books as Sticks:A tool in Time , Stones: The Eternal Instrument , and Plenty of Cones: Universal Utilities , gives us another quick read sure for a few good laughs because, well, you just sat down and read a book pondering about the nature of sandwiches and that is some absurd shit. As I’ve said for the other books in this series, the humor isn’t for everyone and many will call it dumb but I always enjoy a good laugh so I recommend giving it a read and supporting a new author by dropping a link to this book and Billy’s GoFundMe for his new project. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

https://www.gofundme.com/6oioxh4

Terminator: Dark Fate trailer 2

Am I the only one who wished Terminator ended with Judgement Day? I mean seriously, the second movie wrapped everything up nice, it was an outstandingly epic action movie and one of the greatest sequels of all time. Well here’s yet another reboot. It does look better than the last trailer but I can’t say I feel any sort of excitement for this. this a series that should’ve died but keeps going. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Star Wars: Rise of the Skywalker D23 trailer

Well, if they were trying to keep us guessing, they are doing a good job because I don’t know what the hell in going on in this movie so far. Beside most of the trailer being stuff we’ve already seen, I am looking forward to the rematch between Rey and Kylo Ren. My question, look most of the internet’s is, how the hell did Rey go Sith? Her compact red dual bladed saber is pretty cool but I can’t help but kind of groan after seeing her turn; while kind of a Mary Sue, I do genuinely like Rey as a protagonist and I liked her arc in The Last Jedi (second opinion) . While my interest has smouldered a bit, I’ll still check out the final entry in the Skywalker saga. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Star Wars Episode 9 poster revealed

star wars episode 9 Along time ago in a galaxy far far away some Star Wars fans complained J.J Abrams ripped off Star Wars when he did The Force Awakens . I personally disagree; I’d say he paid omage to it but there was enough difference to have it be it’s own movie. But I digress. When I see this poster I immediately think of a poster I’ve seen for Return of the Jedi or rather “Revenge of the Jedi” as it was originally going to be called.

rev of the jedi The poster For Skywalker looks pretty but I can’t help but wonder how much of will be a Jedi retread. Also, another point I have to ask because a friend pointed it out, are we the only ones getting a Lion King vibe from the poster? May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian trailer

So D23 was this weekend and we got some big Star Wars news, including two trailers dropped. The Mandalorian on Disney+ is pretty much looking to be a show about the bounty hunters of the Star Wars universe ( for casual fans, Mandalorians are the race and enemies of the Jedi that Jango and Boba Fett belong to, hence the main character’s garb.) While the trailer doesn’t give many plot keys, I do like the western vibe and the main character does look like a badass. It looks like it’s shaping up to be a cool show. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Dragon Ball Z Budokai

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Well, after one of the longest stretches I’ve ever done on this blog, I’m nearly at it’s end after covering DragonBall Z: The Buu Saga so I thought I’d take a look at the first DBZ game I ever played. Budokai covers the beginnings of Dragonball Z ( The Saiyan Saga) to Dragonball Z: Android Saga (Cell Games) and is essentially an old school fighter. For most part, I have to admit, the game follows the events of the show faithfully to a reasonable degree. The controls are solid enough and the combos are simple enough to execute. The cut-scenes are pretty well replicated and with the classic voice actors, narrator and so,me of the show’s classic music and a great feel for the fans. Besides story mode, there are the usual vs mode but you can also face off in the famous World Martial Arts Tournament.

There are some down sides to the game however. The character roster is pretty limited and doesn’t go past the Android saga and doesn’t touch the movies. Also I don’t like that transformations take spaces in your attack inventory in which you only get 7 slots; Goku has 4 transformations which takes most of his attack slots. Another detail I don’t like is the beam attacks just look like puffs of light and have no range to them what so ever; normal ki blasts are far more effective and have a way farther reach. Because of the small roster and limited game modes, the game will eventually get stale but its fun for a go if you are inclined and worth a play. May the gaming gods bring you glory.