Category: Opinion

Jax Mortal Kombat 11 Ending Controversy, Sort of.

For those that don’t know and don’t want to know, now is the time to stop reading. From here on out there are spoilers for one of the endings to Mortal Kombat 11, and there is no way to avoid that.

Here we go, the ending to the classic arcade mode will see Jax going back in time to end slavery early by stopping the slave trade and getting his wife and daughter back into his life. (these 2 events are not related, he just does them both) This has a small number of people that are being quite vocal screaming racism. The argument goes simply like this, Shao Kahn also has slaves for generations and by not freeing them when he has more slaves from dozens of worlds, races, and species Jax is racist because he only cares about black people.

That is it, that is the argument in a nutshell. This is the most ridiculous argument for racism I have possibly ever heard. Forget the fact that he would need to do something multiple gods have failed to do in defeating Shao Kahn, you are expecting one guy to cross worlds and time to stop something while ignoring his own ancestors and planet. It is also a video game, why are people thinking so much about it?  Just enjoy the game and realize that the vast majority of black people in the world would do the exact same thing with that power, and rightfully so. It was a horrible time in world history that humanity should be ashamed off not arguing over a fictional character for ending it. It is, however, a very small minority of people upset about it as far as I can tell, and I doubt anyone upset about it even reads this. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Imperator Rome (Preview)

Imperator Rome is the newest grand strategy game from Paradox Interactive, the people that made Victoria 2 (PC) and Stellaris Console Edition (PS4). Due to release April 25th (Yes tomorrow) this time the fine people over at paradox bring us all the way back to the classical era and the founding of the Roman Empire. It has many of the same characteristics of the others, a massive map you will spend most of your time looking at and a ton of menus but they all look much more crisp and clean.  They also gave out copies very early for people on youtube so you know exactly what you are buying (I will share a couple videos below) which I love. Nothing beats a company that is upfront and confident in their product. They are hiding absolutely nothing about this which I appreciate.

If you like grand strategy games, this one is worth looking at but if you haven’t played one before I have to be honest, be careful. They have a huge learning curve. They can be frustrating and hard to learn but once you do you will wonder why you struggled. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

This one is a bit long but gives a good idea of what you are buying and how to play.

New Rules In China Gaming May Cause Problems

China has started approving games again, this is about the end of the good news. Some of the most popular games, mainly based on their imperial passed are banned. Mahjong and poker are outright banned. They also now have a ban on blood and corpses as they are worried about violence in video games.

They actually have a new authority on that sort of thing called the State Administration of Press and Publication and they seem to be heavily concerned about violence and addiction in young gamers. It seems like devs and publishers got around this by simply changing the color of blood t other colors and a sort of loophole, which they have now closed and banned in all colors and have even gone so far to ban certain political metaphors. If you want more details engadget.com has an excellent article. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

girl dragon tattoo

I remember hearing about these series of books just as I got into reading in my late teens, mainly because of the disturbing nature of there subject matters. Going into them, I was excited as hell to read them, especially considering the David Fincher movie was right around the corner then. The question is, did it live up to the hype?

Mikael Blomkvist was a well off journalist, publisher, and co owner of a popular magazine until a lawsuit turned his life to shit and nearly destroyed his career overnight. With his career in jeopardy, he figures he has nothing left to lose when he’s summoned to a private meeting with Henrik Vanger, a millionaire with a task for Blomkvist: discover what happened to Harriet Vanger and in return he’ll get the evidence to win his suit and save his career. In this he isn’t alone, crossing paths with anti-social, strange hacker and researcher Lisabeth Salander, who’s dealing with her dark past and present. Can these two solve the dark mystery of what happened to Harriet Vanger?

Before I begin, I only read the first book and haven’t seen any of the movies so my familiarity with the series ends here. The book was pretty fascinating with two interesting lead characters and a lot of twisting back stories in the Vanger family. Salander keeps you’re attention because the first few chapters are slow. On the whole, the mystery is good and there is some really dark shit in it; the ending I feel was disappointing. Also I have to note something that was a bit disorienting. Like Let the Right One In it was translated into English from native Swedish and the sentence structures and wording feels odd and takes getting used to. In the end, I found it to be a solid book worth checking out if you like mysteries or dark thrillers. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Easter weekend At the Box Office Worst in Over 10 Years

As reported by Screenrant this was the worst box office easter weekend in a long time, almost 15 years to be exact. The Curse of LA Llorona which reportedly cost just over $9 million to make and had $26.5 million in ticket sales opening weekend. Breakthrough and Penguins did quite a bit less, however, with those being the only notable releases I would not take this as a sign of things to come. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Alien: Night Shift

Here we have the 3rd of 6 Alien anniversary shorts. Of the ones I’ve seen this maybe my least favorite, maybe just because it feels a lot like Alien: Containment in a different atmosphere. The setting is damn good but I have to say the chestburster looks kind of off. It’s not the best, but it’s not bad either. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption

sinner 2

I can’t help but love a great boss fight in games and honestly there aren’t many outside the Souls series and the flock of games that followed in it’s steps, just in there own way. Sinner is a member of that flock that says F the grinding and gets us the main attractions from the get go.

We play as a lonely knight who has survived a cataclysm of sorts and has sinned to do so and become strong. For redemption, they must sacrifice their power and strength to vanquish the beasts and fiends sin created. With dwindling resources, can you face such greater evils?

Sinner is a cool game I can’t help but to have fallen in love with. If you are familiar to Souls type combat layout, you will have an advantage going in although you may want to customize the button configurations a bit. The weapons you get are what you get, but they are simple but effective. I like the art style and how it has a dark, fairy tale twist to everything. What enthralled me a lot is the strategy aspect there is to the game, having to decide which bosses to take on first and learning to cope with the piling of debuffs you accrue throughout the game. In the end, Sinner is a nice is on the Souls formula and for less than $20 on PSN it’s well worth the price. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

sinner

 

Blockers (2018)

Sorry, I couldn’t properly name the movie in the title, I didn’t have a picture of a rooster and I didn’t want to type out Cock Blockers in the title. You all know the movie tho, it features Leslie Mann and John Cena amongst many others trying to ruin their kids attempt at having an amazing night at prom.

Seriously, that is what this movie is. Julie, Kayla, and Sam are about to graduate high school and go to college but first is prom night. They decide to lose their virginity in one night. After their parents see their text messages tho, they decide to follow them around town and try to stop them.

As you could imagine the movie was quite commercially successful tho it did get some rather varied reviews from both fans and critics. Personally, while I recognize the movie wasn’t great it had its moments, and it did an admirable job of being an R rated adult comedy yet still having a nice message of family and friendship behind it. There was also a car explosion so I always enjoy that as well. This comedy won’t be for everyone and if you don’t like John Cena this won’t really change your mind tho it is a far cry from his wrestling persona. This is one of those times tho where there are no surprises, the trailers are what you are getting in the film. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Alien: Ore

Happy Easter everyone, and to celebrate, here’s the 5th short Alien film we’ve gotten before this special Alien day. Honestly, this one may be my favorite of the five. The atmosphere is good, the characters solid, and decent effects. I liked the touch with the full grown Alien at the end. It’s a really cool little movie I think true Alien fans will appreciate, may the gaming gods bring you glory.