Opinion – Page 87 – Savior Gaming

Why We Need to Stop Gatekeeping In Gaming.

We have all seen it, maybe some of us even participated in it. Not in the joking “git gud” to your friends sort of way when they died 27 times 12 minutes into Dark Souls either. You know the type I am talking about, the type that snaps over the idea of Elite Dangerous getting some features that make the game more approachable for newcomers or that will openly bash and complain over people using docking computers. Don’t get this confused with people that have the legitimate argument that all games aren’t made for everyone and you should improve your skills, not dummy down the games.

For example, I suck at puzzle games and first-person shooters aren’t exactly my strong suit. The answer for me was to not play puzzle games much and to practice at shooters I enjoy playing. Dark Souls type games simply require more practice than most games but demanding an easy mode would change the entire concept of the game. This isn’t the same as complaining over things that don’t do this.

Flight assists in most flight games don’t change the fundamentals of the game and for me, this is the key difference between attempting to be a gatekeeper in gaming or not wanting the fundamentals of a game changed. Is what you are asking for going to change the fundamentals of the game as a whole and does it even have anything to do with you? This is really the key point in all this if it isn’t something you are forced to use and doesn’t do anything to the gameplay for you personally, why bash others or complain? Sure I don’t think Dark Souls type games need an easy mode, I just won’t use it. Worse, bashing others that may want it (and not in a friendly banter way) doesn’t do anything besides make all gamers look bad. We already have enough problems with the media claiming games are making people violent school shooters.

So let’s focus on improving how we personally play or helping our friends get better and stop making the industry and fans, in general, look like jackasses by trying to make sure only people we feel are worthy play our games. Don’t get me wrong, by all means, joke around and bust balls, but we don’t need gatekeepers. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Endgame Spoilers Are Out, But Not Here

As is inevitable with any major release, someone managed to record the movie or at least parts on their cellphone at a rescreening and now spoilers are out. Don’t worry, I won’t be sharing them nor will I be advocating going to find them. Mostly I just wanted to warn you all that they are in fact out there and nobody should share them. If you need to go look for them, be kind and keep them to yourself. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Anno 1800 Open Beta Review

It has truly been a long time since I played an Anno game. I am talking early 2000’s long time. I didn’t really know what to expect coming into this, but it was free and I will always check out a free game or beta when I have the time.

The beta starts off with you needing some money to get home to your sister so you use dynamite to blow up some fish. This will teach you how to use items and move the ship around, and it made me chuckle so that was fun. After this, it is a quick sail home to shock your friend and servant whose life you saved at some point with the fact that you are rich which will admittedly annoy him since you were just blowing up fish for cash and sleeping in barns while you and your family own an island and hundreds if not thousands of buildings.

Turns out dear old dad died in prison after being accused of treason and your sister needs your help to not only clear his name, but build a new empire and deal with your jackass uncle. I won’t go further into the story they shared because it does go along with the game they will be releasing but you will be attempting to unravel a pretty in-depth conspiracy it seems, and it did have me quite interested and I was a little disappointed to see it end.

As for the gameplay and graphics, both were smooth and offered me no problems even on my laptop even on medium settings. Building your town feels fluid and offered no problems and I never really felt like I didn’t know what was going on. Each building is explained pretty well and I didn’t really have to ask how they worked which I appreciated. The full release is looking like it will be worth buying. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Surge

the surge

I don’t know what it is about Souls type games but they help me unwind. There is just something about having to adapt to a hard situation overcoming some huge obstacles, and feeling awesome after beating them. I also hate machines so a game that combines the uphill battle aspect and the destruction of our possible mechanical overlords was a game for me.

We play as a dude named Warren about to get a job at the Creo corporation . Warren is a paraplegic who is given a robotic exo- rig like a majority of Creo’s employees to help with the heavy lifting. During the process, Warren wasn’t properly sedated and blacks out, waking up in the wastes of there corporate facility. The rigs have caused the workers to go insane and the robots have turned. Armed with weapons and armor made of scrap, Warren finds himself alone to discover what the hell happened…

I found The Surge addictive as hell as many games of this type and while the combat mechanics are pretty similar to Souls or Bloodborne, there are some neat mechanics that make the game stand. Being able to decide whether to finish an enemy quick by aiming directly for there weak spots or trying to smash off there armored pieces and use them for yourself. I also love being able to bank my credits so I can explore more safely. While Warren is kinda bland as a character, the creepy atmosphere and weird enemies make up for it. My only complaints are pretty small like the upgrade system could be better and I have the wavering shoulder lights in the pitch black areas. In the end, the Surge is a cool game that’s a steal for free on PS+ right now and worth checking out. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Rim World

oh Rim World, how the hell do I describe you. Well here is what Steam says.

A sci-fi colony sim driven by an intelligent AI storyteller. Inspired by Dwarf Fortress and Firefly. Generates stories by simulating psychology, ecology, gunplay, melee combat, climate, biomes, diplomacy, interpersonal relationships, art, medicine, trade, and more.

That is copy and pasted directly from Steam. It kind of tells you what the game is, but it really doesn’t tell you anything. My game started with three people crashed on a planet, it can be three random or customized people. You will start by gathering some resources and then building yourself a home. This is around the time a crazed rabbit attacked my startup colony and killed my dog. That isn’t a joke, I skipped the tutorial because I figured how hard can it be? Well, I didn’t know how to do anything and the damn bunny killed my dog before I figured it out.

After I went back to the tutorial, which you should play, things got a bit better. Notice I did not say easier. Why? Because the entire game is just trying to kill you. From food to raiders to animals, it can all kill you. In fact, the game is more or less designed to kill you. Yea you can escape the world you crash on but until you get some experience this isn’t likely. For me the fun was just building stuff and trying to survive raids and seeing what happens. Is a bunny going to attack? Are their robots in these ruins? Who knows. There are also some pretty insane mods. I don’t use mods but I saw one that basically let you build in space, one that lets you make prisoners work for you.

The game, in general, is just a lot of fun, even when you lose. If you like building and survival games, this one is worth checking out just know that it isn’t easy. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order trailer

As every main hero of Star Wars has had to deal with, I too feel a powerful sense of conflict after seeing this trailer. The trailer’s story looks awesome; I love the idea of a young Jedi having to live in secrecy, hiding from the Empire and the Inquisitors, not trying to fight a grand rebellion but simply stay alive. BUT, there is a dark side- its a EA game. After the complaints about Anthem, as well as the last hand full of games they produced, it’s no wonder a game fan would cringe. There is hope I’m sure as always, at least I’m praying to the gaming gods there is but I ain’t holding my breath. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Silence (2019)

The Silence is a 2019 horror movie from Netflix and follows the trend of don’t make noise or you will die. It is actually quite similar to A Quiet Place except The silence is based off a 2015 book by Tim Lebbon. The book goes into more details about certain things but all in all the movie does a pretty good job explaining some things, but we will get there.

The movie starts by showing some miners busting through a wall and unleashing what appears to be some bats. These bats quickly swarm and kill them and thousands are released into Pennsylvania. We are then introduced to the Andrews family, most notably Ally (Kiernan Shipka) who lost her hearing in a car accident and Hugh (Stanley Tucci) which this may be the first time he hasn’t played at least a semi-gay man that I have seen. I mention this because he does that amazingly so I wasn’t sure how I would feel seeing him here as a straight man in a serious role, and he played his part amazingly as did the rest of the Andrews family.

The ancient bats quickly start terrorizing the eastern seaboard and even the military is powerless to do much. Entire cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are quickly overrun and pretty much everyone killed. This isn’t explained great on how this occurs with a few thousand bats escaping a cave but they do show that they reproduce very quickly when they kill, to the point in a few days there are millions of them.

They, of course, can’t see and hunt off the sound everything makes, and there is plenty more going on. The movie isn’t getting great reviews but I can’t see why. The acting and script are solid, the movie does what it wants to do quite well and there are no glaring plot holes or defects with some pretty tense scenes as well. I can only assume people are just tired of the formula which I honestly understand. It is worth a watch, but if you are tired of movies like A Quiet Place and Bird Box, this may not be for you. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Disney Plus Cost and Shows

We finally have details on Disney plus, and if you want a full breakdown on the cost you can check Polygon but it is basically $6.99 or a discounted $69.99 when paid for a year. Some of the more recent confirmed things for launch will be The entire Simpsons series and Captain Marvel. Cnet has a pretty good list of shows, but for the price, it is pretty solid, and we can expect a package deal with Hulu at some point. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Apollo 18

Starting off I have to say I’m pretty sure this maybe one of the most ambitious found footage horror movies I’ve seen. I can’t say I ever saw one that left the confines of planet earth, going to the moon.

The Apollo 18 mission was the last supposed manned mission to the moon. Officially it didn’t happen; the movie tells us what really happened. Three astronauts journeyed up there and while two landed to surface. All begins well as they collect what appear to be harmless rock samples. Small things begin going awry but questions arise when they find the remains of a Cosmonaut ship and the ravaged bodies of the astronauts. It starts appearing that something is alive on the moon, lurking in it’s dark craters, beneath the rocks. Millions of miles from home, isolated, a lone survivor has to try escaping from his mysteriously infected comrade the horror of our moon…

What the movie does really well is feel period appropriate and I have to admit it’s blended well with stock footage to mostly feel authentic. I like the utter silence and tension in the creepy atmosphere. The acting is solid enough and the sound is solid. I feel the creature aspect hurts the movie on a few levels, mostly because how the hell does a living thing survive without food, water, or any vegetation whatsoever? I think it should have dealt with the psychological aspects of the intense claustrophobia and isolation. What also kills the movie is the pacing, it takes a real long time to build for not a huge amount of pay off considering the movie alludes to the ending in the opening anyway. In the end, it isn’t terrible but you aren’t missing too much if you skip it. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Octopath Traveler to PC? It Seems Yes.

According to Gematsu Octopath Traveler will be coming to PC on June 7th. This comes from a now-deleted blog post directly from Square Enix and it will be available on both Steam and the Square Enix Store. They didn’t mention any sort of changes, and obviously, I would take this with a grain of salt, but for people that don’t own a Switch, this could be exciting news. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.