Star Wars pod racer 64

star wars racer 64

When Star Wars reignited after Phantom Menace debuted, there were a crap load of video games. One of my favorites capitalized on the pod race scene, which besides the final lightsaber fight was Menace’s most memorable part. Extreme speeds and a lot of damage, pod racing was the shit. This racing game used to make my heart stop as the other racers would smash the hell out of my pod, forcing me to pull back and repair my engines so I didn’t explode. The worst was getting slammed off course mid jump and crashing to my fiery death. Make no mistake, this game was a hard son of a bitch but it was really fun for a racing game which I’m normally not into. If you were disappointed by Star Wars Episode 1: the game on PlayStation, this makes up for it on the N64. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Welcome to October

Welcome to October everyone. As you all know every year me and @torstenvblog do something for our favorite month of the year. This month we have decided to go with our favorite monsters and creatures. This isn’t necessarily from movies, they might be from literature or real life or whatever. It will be one a day starting with me today and ending with one from each of us on Halloween. So we hope you enjoy, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The “Actual” Tale of Buggy the Bug

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We come to the final entry (so far) of Billy Kraser’s epic saga of intrigue, satire and dark secrets…ok, screw the pretenses. Buggy the Bug is about a bug that does bug stuff and may or may not be a surgeon in Cuba- I’m not allowed to say. The writer of such new age short humor stories as Sticks:A tool in Time , Sandwich?: the Ultimate Inquisition and the heart stopping read Plenty of Cones: Universal Utilities comes the last entry of his Earth’s Instruments Saga before his debut book coming next year. As I’ve said during all this young writer’s reviews, his humor isn’t for everyone but it’s a simple, fun quick read worth checking out- Amazon link below with the link to his GoFundMe. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

https://www.amazon.com/Actual-Tale-Buggy-Bug/dp/1070200271/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=billy+kraser&qid=1569546491&s=gateway&sr=8-1

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

Beast Quest Coming to Nintendo Switch

Coming October 1st for the Nintendo Switch from Maximum Games is Beast Quest. Previously available on mobile, pc, Xbox and PS4.

Here is the announcement pics and such, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Developed by Torus Games, Beast Quest is the first game to take place in the fantasy franchise, which has released over 150 books to date and sold more than 20 million copies globally. Inspired heavily by the universe found in the story, Beast Quest brings the series’ characters and world alive like never before.
Beast Quest will take players on an epic journey to save the mythical land of Avantia from ruin. Dark magic has corrupted the towering, noble creatures of the realm, which players must overcome in action-packed boss battles – dodging, blocking and countering attacks while chaining combos and unleashing allies to turn the tide of combat. Meanwhile, spectacular environments with rich, open-level design offer daring heroes opportunities to discover challenging quests, powerful upgrades, and ancient secrets hiding just beyond the horizon.

Bus Simulator (PS4 Review)

As always, huge shout out to the ladies and gents over at Astragon Entertainment for hooking me up with a copy of Bus Simulator. When I first got this one I thought to myself there was no way this game would be interesting or fun, and I would play it for an hour and regret that decision. Well before I go further here is one of my busses.

Bus Simulator_20190923132506

Cute isn’t it? Like the color? I got a bunch more some bigger some smaller, all different colors and designs. Yea what I thought would be a one hour and dislike game turns into one of the most relaxing games I have played in years. The graphics aren’t stellar but they are nice.

The game has some issues like any game. For example, pedestrians seem to just walk in front of your bus, which isn’t a big issue but it has still happened to me a couple times. This can cost you a lot of money. You also don’t get to see it, they just kinda disappear and your bus just teleports back to the road. You can however just plow over cars if you want. This will, of course, cost you money, but it is an option.

The real joy here tho is just making bus routes and taking a relaxing drive. The controller functions well with the L1 and R1 buttons turning on and off your blinkers, the D-pad controls other functions and open menus while you drive and you can mostly look around to hit stuff as well. You can also just use the square button, for example, to open and close the bus doors. Don’t do this while driving tho, it engages the parking break so to speak and slams the bus into stopping.

The game also sadly gets very repetitive quickly, like most driving games. This has less to do with the game itself and more to do with the genre itself. It is very relaxing tho and a joy to play, but it is a very niche game. For me, it is a 7/10. It is a must-buy for fans of simulation games, but everyone else should really wait for a sale. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Is Batman a superhero?

batman symbol 2017

The World’s Greatest Detective, The Caped Crusader, The Dark Knight- names given to Gotham’s most famous and infamous savior, Batman. This past week was Batman’s 80th anniversary so before I begin my argument, I have to say I love the Bat. He was the first superhero I’ve ever known, he’s my favorite DC hero, and his movies helped inspire me and taught me how to always keep fighting…that being said I’m here to join the argument that Batman isn’t a superhero.

To begin with, let’s talk about the Bat Family as a whole, a majority of which Bruce Wayne included as mere children. Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, and Tim Drake were orphans who were adopted by Bruce Wayne, one of the richest men in Gotham and surely the world; his son son Damian was raised to be a fierce and brutal warrior by his grandfather Ra’s Al Ghul and his mother Talia; Barbara Gordon was the daughter of Jim Gordon, one of Batman’s closest allies. Grayson, his original Robin, became Nightwing, leaving Batman’s side partly because Batman’s methods were becoming too brutal. Nightwing acts much more like a typical superhero than his former mentor, using his skills to dismantle the criminals of Bludhaven in a reserved manor with a more warm, friendly persona unlike Batman who spreads fear with a cold persona and causes extreme psychological, physical and collateral damage in his wake. Kids prone to violence such as Jason and Damian should have been counseled to vent there aggressive feelings in a calming, non destructive activities, not given costumes and told to beat the shit out of people. Even when Jason Todd was presumed dead in Batman: Death in the family  it didn’t stop him from getting another Robin, despite Todd’s brutal end in the field, leading to him becoming the vigilante Red Hood. Damian would also perish in DC rebirth. Barbara Gordon, would get paralyzed in The Killing Joke, and instead of seeing the error of the life he leads, he allows her to aid him as Oracle rather than help her lead a healthy life post Batgirl. His most trusted friend  and confidant Alfred Pennyworth enable him in these actions as Gordon turns a blind eye to his more questionable acts, not knowing Batman had a part to play in his daughter ending up in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

batfamily

Now that we established how Batman effects his friends, let’s talk about his foes. It’s a well known fact many of his foes are triggered by Batman’s presence in the world. Scarecrow aspire to bring the fear Batman does; Riddler persists to outsmart Batman; Bane wants to be prove he’s stronger than the Bat; Catwoman gets off on the excitement of getting pursued by Batman; and Ra’s Al Ghul focuses more on Gotham because of his interest in Batman just to name a few examples. Many of his other villains exhibit legitimate mental disorders such as Two-Face, Scarface, the Mad Hatter, Firefly, and of course Joker and Harley Quinn. Joker, Batman’s nemesis, has been responsible for more pain in Batman’s life than anyone and exists primarily because of him. Without him, Joker would give up. This has been proven in Death of the Family, The Dark Knight , Batman: White Knight and even in The Dark Knight Returns. Most would kill the psychotic clown, Batman allows him to live along with the rest of his villains, knowing they will break out and kill again and again. In Batman: Under the Red Hood Todd literally tells his former mentor this and goes out as Red Hood to kill the criminals Batman won’t, including the Joker, to stop him once and for all. While the subject raises a lot of moral questions and debates, it is a fact Gotham seems better off without it’s dark protector. Gotham is city of corruption and dirty dealings and Batman, for all his moral flaws does help combat that but also adds too the problem as well and can be seen as one of it’s rogues in a seemingly never-ending gallery. May the the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

IT Chapter Two (Review)

This one is hard for me to review. Any long-time followers know I loved the first chapter. It was one of my favorite movies of 2017. Which is why it pains me to say Chapter 2 is a huge disappointment to me. There was no reason this thing should have been almost three hours long.

It started out so strong is the worst part. One of the biggest things I disliked about the original was how long it took to introduce everyone as adults. This time around they got it right, it took much less time an got us right to the point. The group regathers and we get down to business.

This is at least what you would think. This is when we spend what feels like hours in flashbacks as they collect tokens for the ritual they will use to defeat this evil entity. It doesn’t stop there, unlike most of the scares in the first one, this is almost all jump scares, and mostly not even good ones. You could see them coming a mile away, even the woman next to me that screamed easily at first was laughing halfway through the movie. Yes, the movie was more funny than scary for many of us in the theater.

There was also like a 5 second musical part that was really out of place. Seriously, a monster spews black stuff into a guys face, pop music kicks in, stops and that is the end of it.

The movie wasn’t all bad by the way, the laughs were good and I enjoyed the special effects. The casting was also possibly the best I have seen in a movie in years. The adults were damn near perfect for each of the children and they even really come across as old friends coming back together.

The biggest issue tho is the pacing is all off, it never should have been so long. A ton of the movie was unnecessary. I won’t mention the ending because I don’t want to spoil that, but I hated that as well. This is one you should wait for Netflix or Redbox, Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Tropico 6 (PS4 Review)

As always I want to take a moment to thank my friends over at Kalypso for hooking me up with a copy of this one prior to release. It is always great to be chosen to receive a review copy of a game but when it is a series you are a long time fan of, it is truly special, and this time I abused the privilege

For those that are unfamiliar with the Tropico franchise, you will play the dictator of a tropical paradise. You will run every aspect of this tropical paradise. You will choose what to build, where to build it, what to important export and who to kill and imprison. That isn’t a joke, by the way, you can imprison and kill people if their existence annoys you, after all, you are El Presidente.

We will get into all that in a bit, but one of my favorite things they added is the ability to customize your palace in new ways. You change the layout and color, the windows or even what it is made of. Want to change that fountain into a hedge maze, have at it. Here is a picture of mine for exampleTropico 6_20190918151721. Honestly, I just wanted it to stand out so I could find it easily, plus I really just wanted to play with stuff and this is what I ended up with. You can also separate the building so it is on different spots of the compound, stuff like that.

Another great thing they have done is it is now easier than ever to sift through the information you need. There are separate tabs so you can see where the pollution is or happiness levels, just everything you can need. This for me made things run much smoother. All this info was available in the other games of course just this time around it seems much easier to find and utilize.

Speaking of utilizing information, you can now plan most of your island beforehand. You can now see the best places to build which types of plantations, where you can find what types of metals for you mines or even oil and fish. Honestly, I didn’t do this because I am kind of an idiot, but it can be done. I also encourage you to do this since you can for example build stuff on the best places to dig for oil or minerals.

Graphically the game isn’t a huge achievement but it does look great for what it is. I enjoyed watching the people run around and the fire trucks putting out my buildings that a volcano set on fire, a lot.

Tropico 6_20190922200419
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The control are also great to me, tho I do have some minor complaints. For example, the combat is still pretty terrible. You basically just build towers and bases and attacks happen. You have some control obviously, but I feel like if you had more the game would really benefit from it.

Another small issue I have is trade seems to be a bit unbalanced to me. I always seem to have a ton of money, or I am pretty much bankrupt and it really seems like this kind of discrepancy shouldn’t be so frequent.

None of this hurts the overall experience too much, the game is still beautiful to play and fun and I will continue to play it long after this review is posted. It is also worth noting the console version comes with a few things that weren’t with the PC release and those will be listed below. As for a score, easily a 9/10 for me. If you enjoyed the rest of the games in the series or are looking to get into it, this one is a must buy. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

  • Four new traits for El Presidente
  • New edicts (e.g. Free Housing)
  • New overlays
  • Special effects of buildings are visualized
  • Revised balancing (e.g. tourism, media building)
  • Revised pathfinding of the Tropicaner
  • New variations for parks and squares
  • New Decoration: Space Monument
  • New decorations for El Presidente in character adaptation
  • The language can be changed at any time during the game.
  • color-blind mode
  • More than 300+ bugfixes