Category: Uncategorized

Dragonball Z Boudakai Tenkaichi 3

dbz bt3

Has anyone ever picked up a licensed video game, yearning for the experience to live out your favorite series? You ever feel a heap of soul crushing defeat when you realized this game was crap? Well, good news, this post won’t be about that terrible experience.

Dragonball Z Boudakai Tenkaichi 3 is is the best DBZ gaming experience I’ve had. Combat is fast and the areas are open. The character roster spans from Dragonball Z ( The Saiyan Saga) to DragonBall Z: Buu Saga (Kid Buu) and the full list of movies while including key moments from the original Dragonball and Dragonball GT as well as having a few What IF segments that are pretty good. The roster is impressive, including transformations that are show accurate; Saiyans can go ape during the night stages, you can fuse Goku and Vegeta as well as Goten and Trunks mid fight and the story mode evolves as the story does, instead of multiple one fight missions. Besides a full sized story mode, there is also a variety of tournaments and even a mini RPG surrounding a fight with Cell. Throughout the story, Dragonballs are hidden throughout  the environments and once all 7 are collected, the Dragon can be summoned and exclusive items can be found which is epic as hell. The entire time, I felt like I was in the show. It’s one of my favorite fighting games of all time and I highly recommend checking it out if you have a Wii or PS2. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

DragonBall Z: Wrath of the Dragon

dbz wrath

Hey, wait a second, aren’t I forgetting a movie? Didn’t Broly have a third movie before Super? Why, yes, reader; yes he did. Bio-Broly was white hot liquid dookie and shall not be spoken of on the blog, nor should it be spoken of by anyone…so let’s talk about Wrath of the Dragon instead.

Ages ago there was a dark wizard (not Babadi) who created a unstoppable badass with magic (not Buu) who rampaged a whole world. There was a hero named Tapion who could save everyone from a terrible monster, Hirudegarn who could potentially destroy the universe. When informed of this legend by a mysterious alien, they release Tapion but also half of Hirudegarn. Young Trunks befriends Tapion and restores his confidence but the unstoppable Hirudegarn is complete. Can Tapion and the Z Fighters stop this latest threat?

I have to admit, my recollection of this movie is pretty fuzzy but it was a solid movie. Hirudegarn is cool and it and funny seeing some of the series’s biggest badasses getting beaten down by a torso and a pair of disembodied legs. Tapion was a decent character but he was mostly forgettable. The connection with Trunk and the sword at the end was kinda corny. Overall, it’s not the worst DBZ movie but not the best so it’s Ok to miss. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Music Monday: “Lion’s Mane” by Iron & Wine — Perpetually Past Due

Music Monday is a meme, created by Drew at The Tattooed Book Geek, where I focus on a song I absolutely love and feel needs to be shared. Song: “Lion’s Mane” Artist: Iron & Wine Album: The Creek Drank The Cradle (2002)

via Music Monday: “Lion’s Mane” by Iron & Wine — Perpetually Past Due

Outlast 2

outlast 2

I tried…I really, really tried. I tried my ass off to hop on the Outlast bandwagon. When I wrote 5 more games that were a huge bummer , I briefly talked about my experience with the first game. When the second game came out I gave it a week long shot, driving myself forward after the Outlast 3 announcement trailer . As I said dear readers, I freaking tried…

We play as Blake, a journalist investigating a series of brutal kidnappings and homicides in the deserts with his wife and fellow journalist, Lynn. Unexpectedly, in the dead of night, there chopper gets shot down and crashes on the outskirts of a rundown old mining town. The deformed, mad townsfolk take Lynn to appease there twisted religion and it’s up to a helpless Blake to rescue his wife and uncover these isolated atrocities while uncovering his own childhood sins as well…

Sin is the name of this game and I warn those with weak stomachs, don’t even bother. This game is gory as hell and there is some great imagery and some great, intense atmospheres. The graphics are pretty impressive. The sound is really good, though the chase gets really annoying really fast. The story has promise but most of it is told through missing bible pages and hidden notes and a lot of it feels cliche. My biggest problem is the gameplay itself. Running is 90% of the game’s content; hiding is hit and miss at best but most of the time running, even not knowing where the hell I was going, solved most of my problems. The night vision on the camera, which is a vital tool in the game, drains batteries super quick so you constantly have to keep a look out. I’m fine with the idea of flight over fight but it’s irritating as shit to get killed by these withered meth-head looking motherfuckers in surroundings loaded with dangerous farming tools and all you have is a damn camera; I mean seriously, a rational bastard would at least swing at these nut jobs.  In the end, Outlast 2 is meh at best but I really can’t get the hype over the series. I won’t tell anyone not to try the series, but I will tell you this game will piss you off. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Book of Travels: choose your own journey — Later Levels

There may still be a few more weeks to go before 2019 draws to a close, but it’s a pretty safe bet what my game-of-the-year will be. Unless something comes along next month and absolutely blows me away, Eastshade by Eastshade Studios is the title I’ll remember most and which has now earned a worthy […]

via Book of Travels: choose your own journey — Later Levels

A Quiet Place

a quiet place

We live in a age where it’s been said every idea has been done. When I saw the trailer for this last year, it looked like a breath of fresh air, especially in a era of remakes, reboots, and sequels.

A Quiet Place is a story of a family’s survival where sound means a swift death. There are mysterious creatures that hunt via sound so silence is the key to living another day; they are blind but incredibly fast and armored with acute hearing. The mother of this family is due to have a baby and the near yeah and a half has taken a toll on the whole family. But what can you do when you’re alone, giving birth, and the monsters come out?

This is a perfect example of a simple premise followed through damn well. The actors are great as a family dealing with tragedy, loss, fear and love in a quiet world; it was impressive how much emotion they conveyed through facial expressions, body language, and sign language. The score is amazing and crucial to the film. It’s filmed fantastically and I love the creature designs. With all these positives, I can say this movie won’t be for everyone. 98% of the movie is told through subtitles, you don’t find out much about the monsters, and it’s based on suspense rather than gore or jump scares. Regardless of how you may feel about it, I highly recommend it and it’s one of the biggest standout horror movies I’ve seen in a while. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Total Recall

total recall

As a kid Arnold Schwarzenegger was my favorite actor, and while he hasn’t been in many great movies in a long time, the dude never sleepwalks through a movie. Surprisingly, unlike many, I never saw Total Recall until a few days ago. I was in for a hell of a ride…

Douglas Quaid is a normal dude with a lame ass job who keeps having strange dreams about Mars. He wants to take a trip to the colonies up there but his wife refuses to go. To spice his dull life up, he goes to the Recall center, where they implant memories of your choosing into your brain to reinvent your reality. Doug ops to be a secret agent. He gets way more than he bargained for when armed men start trying to kill him, he discovers his wife is a spy and corporate assassin, and the memories weren’t fully implanted. Doug heads to Mars, unraveling the reality before him while starting a a revolution on the red planet in the process…

Total Recall is a fun, batshit WTF movie that’s pretty awesome. It’s a good blend of action, suspense and deep sci-fi that never feels preachy. Schwarzenegger sells the movie and makes it fun without losing the cool cerebral points the movie is trying to make. Visually there is some really cool scenery and even a three boobed prostitute. The pacing lags at times and I admit the plot has moments where it’s hard to follow so you have to pay attention more then your typical action movie. Overall, Total Recall is a fun and thoughtful sci-fi action movie I’d recommend checking out. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Terminator: Salvation

t4

I’m going to say this first and foremost: this movie has one of my favorite trailers ever but damn it spoiled 90% of the movie. Being ten years old as of this date, I feel spoilers aren’t a big deal now and this movie gets truck loads of hate anyway.

The future is grim and the resistance against the machines is on the brink of defeat. John Conner is fighting to keep control of a military that believes he’s unhinged because of the foresight he has towards the mechanical threat. The machines have stopped there slaughter, kidnapping people for experiments in making what Conner believes is the legendary T-800. When a young Kyle Reese goes missing, Conner goes in search of him, finding a horrifying anomaly in Marcus Wright- a machine who believes he’s human. The future has changed, but can we save ourselves from uncertainty?

While not a great movie, this movie doesn’t deserve a fraction of the hate it gets; I’m going as far as to say it’s my favorite Terminator movie besides the original and Terminator 2: Judgement Day . I like that this movie doesn’t involve time travel and doesn’t recycle the old plot formulas. I like Christian Bale as John Conner and feel he’s the believable badass Conner should be and Marcus Wright was a interesting character in his own right. I thought it was interesting getting glimpses  of the early Terminators leading up to the dawn of the T-800; added points for making the classic Terminator model badass have gravity again. A problem I had was the PG-13 rating, which meant it couldn’t delve into the nightmarish horror elements of the first 2 films. Another issue I have is I thought the ending was pretty cheesy. The movie deserves a watch and if you don’t like it, at least it tries to do something different. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Outlast 3 announcement trailer

I always wondered when the hell this was going to show up. If you saw my list of  5 more games that were a huge bummer, you’d know I’m not on the Outlast hype bandwagon. So far it looks like a run for the course for the series but I’m sure the sound and visuals will be good. May the gaming gods bring you glory.