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.

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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.

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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.

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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

Original Jurassic Park cast are returning for Jurassic World 3 — Wardculture

It was revealed earlier this week by Jurassic World 3’s director, Colin Trevorrow, that Sam Neil, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum will be reprising their iconic roles as Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler and Ian Malcolm with plenty of on-screen time. Since the first Jurassic Park in 1993, the original cast have only been featured in small cameos with Dern […]

via Original Jurassic Park cast are returning for Jurassic World 3 — Wardculture

Some great news.

My first ever book reading live via Facebook 9/19/19

9/19/19 was the 17th birthday for my unfinished book, Pinstriker (Ps  for short). I started when I was 11- I’m 28 now, almost 29. I faced my fears and shared a portion with my friends on FB and it was a big success. Savior agreed I should try sharing it with all of you because, by doing this not only has it boosted my morale but also gave me faith my work can be appreciated when it’s finally complete. So sit back and enjoy my first ever reading and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Bill Burr Paper Tiger

Bill Burr Paper Tiger is going to piss off a ton of people. Seriously, he makes fun of everything. From a discussion on racism with someone, his experience with being sexually assaulted at a show to first ladies and robots. He does this all in his usual brash and abrasive way. It is also hilarious. I spent the entire time laughing.

He even took a shot at Stephen Hawking for thinking he was too good to stand up and make his point. I know sounds offensive, watch the stand-up tho and you will still be offended but you will be laughing.

Truthfully his style hasn’t changed, Bill is just Bill. He is simply telling the truth about a lot of things, and others he is clearly just going for a cheap laugh. I love comedies like this because he knows someone is going to hate him after, and he isn’t saying anything inherently wrong but like twelve people are going to overreact and be pissed off more than they should be. So go, enjoy the show and laugh at those twelve people. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Civilization 6 Coming to Consoles

For fans of the Civilization serious some amazing news for console players, you will finally get to experience it in all its glory. Yes, it is coming to consoles in November, and yes the expansions are coming with it. Sold separately the expansions bundle includes Rise and Fall as well as Gathering Storm. Enjoy the trailer below and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Star Wars Episode 1: the game

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With the final movie of the Skywalker saga in Star Wars coming out at the end of this year, I’m going to start looking at pieces of the Star Wars I growing up. Given to me as a gift way later in life so I checked it out before upgrading to the PS3, brand new at the time. I can tell you this game did not age well at all.

The Phantom Menace game recounts the events of the game ( minus the pod race and thankfully the debate scenes). You play as Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Padme, and her bodyguard dude I can’t remember the name of. For Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan you primarily use your lightsaber and try to reflect blaster shots back at the enemies which requires pretty acute timing but is still hit and miss. You can use a force ability which helps. The other two characters are strictly shooters which wouldn’t be so bad if the game didn’t use tank controls. Yes, tank controls, so be ready to feel like you are going through a chore. The graphics are pretty bad, and you don’t get much resolution in the characters which can look kinda creepy at times. The music is fine but loops too often and the sound is Ok. This is one of those games I rage quit and didn’t look back from; between getting lost so often with the bad controls and bullshit deaths I just couldn’t bring myself to get past level 4. I can’t tell you if I would’ve liked this game more back then but in a more modern day, hell no. Regardless of your opinion on the movie, I can say you are good to skip this game. May the gaming gods bring you glory.