The 13th Friday (2017)

I have never put something like this, but today I will. If your name is Justin Price, the man who wrote and directed this, stop reading now. You will not appreciate this review. I am sure you are a nice guy who loves films, and I don’t doubt you know your craft well, and I will happily watch your next movie. You do however owe the actors and audience of this movie an apology.

To the actors within the movie, you did the best you could with what you were handed, and I am sorry you were treated this way. I hope you were well compensated tho, and not just with experience. I am not the only one that feels this way either, Film Threat was also not very kind to this movie, and nobody should be. The plot pretty much makes a mockery of every part of horror movies and is so convoluted and ridiculous as to serve no real narrative purpose. It was so busy seeing if something could be done it was never asked if it was even worth doing. It then had an ending that existed for the same of having an ending, not because it was an ending anyone wants or more importantly needed. It is almost like having a twist ending for the sake of having a twist ending, but there was no twist. The movie just ends, almost randomly and tossed together real quick before the budget runs out.

All I can say is, do not watch this movie. It isn’t even a fun train wreck, it is simply an example of how to not make a movie. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

More Thoughts on Imperator Rome

So I have decided to do this less as a review and more as a series of post on my thoughts as I play. You can find my first one Imperator Rome First Impressions.

I have bounced around a bit, played a few countries, got killed, started over and finally settled as playing Carthage because I wanted to create New Carthage and destroy Rome. It is probably a pretty standard goal I admit, next I will use Boi to take over a bunch of stuff cuz reasons.

Anyway, I am still having a ton of fun with the game but there are a few things bothering me that others have also brought up. This is mainly the games mana system. You get certain powers such as religion and military and others which let you perform certain actions, and I spend a lot of my time simply waiting for these things to build up. This is by no means a deal breaker, and I get they needed a way to balance things, but maybe they could boost it a bit so I spend less time sitting around waiting.

Aside from that, I really enjoy spending time planning wars, who I want to attack and when, forging new alliances and deciding what I need to trade the most. Changing history is always a good time for me and I can see myself playing this long into the future even tho I know paradox will probably screw us with DLC. A lot of other people have complained that many of the aspects of the game just don’t go deep enough, for example, you can interact with characters like Crusader Kingdoms 2, but not as in depth and by combining so many aspects of games but to a lesser degree you take away from the total experience. For me tho I simply don’t see it. While I can agree where they are coming from the enjoyment is still there and none of it seems overly watered down.

The game is still having bugs fixed tho, and it seems like this will be a bigger process than many expected so it seems like there will be more of these updates. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Spider-Man Far From Home Trailer (Endgame Spoilers Inside)

As I have stated in the title, and you will be warned in the trailer itself, there are extensive spoilers for Endgame in this trailer. If you haven’t seen it, don’t watch it. The trailer, however, is good, and I am looking forward to this new phase in movies. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Endgame Now 2nd Highest Grossing Movie of All Time

Now if you want all the exact numbers and nitty-gritty, Deadline has a great article. But the short version of it is after this weekend (and an even smaller gap by the time you read this) Avengers: Endgame passed Titanic and became the 2nd highest grossing movie of all time in both America and the world behind Avatar as it passed the 2 billion mark Sunday, and only about 600M separating Endgame and Avatar.

There is always the small chance Endgame doesn’t make it, but with plenty of time left in theaters, it is hard to imagine any scenario where Endgame doesn’t take the top spot, the real question for many is will it be the first movie to top 3 billion worldwide? Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Spider-man: Far from Home trailer 2

I have to say I had to chuckle that they start the trailer with a spoiler warning for Avengers: Endgame from Tom Holland, who was notorious for spoiling stuff during Infinity War. I have to say, being a long time Spidey fan , I think I figured out the plot from this latest trailer but I’ll call it out in the review. Mysterio looks great and the monsters look pretty cool. I think it’ll be a cool movie and it has the potential to be a great sequel. May the gaming gods brig you glory.

The Meg (2018)

The Meg is a 2018 thriller about a deep sea research station that sends a submersible down to explore the ocean floor, possibly even deeper than the Mariana Trench, past a cloud of section thought to be solid ground but is actually just a pocket of gas that is freezing cold. Beyond there is life people never dreamed of, an entire never before seen ecosystem. It is also home to a shark long thought extinct. The Megalodon.

This is the part where Jonas Taylor, a person long thought to be crazy or to have been having hallucinated or even made up due to cowardice, a similar attack on a sub rescue where he lost about 8 people at a similar depth year beforehand. In fact, he only takes this mission because his ex-wife was the pilot, and he kinda wants to say I told you so.

The movie itself rather intriguing, I always like a good shark movie and while I know it isn’t really all that possible for this to happen I do like how they attempt to make it seem at least plausible. I rarely say this tho, I really think this could have benefited from an R rating. The concept was good and the action scenes were ok but, but it always felt like they were holding things back to keep it into that PG-13 rating. The huge shark felt less threatening most of the time because of it, even when it was devouring whales you never really got the feeling it was doing much more than swimming by. I know Jaws (1975) was rated PG and is an all-time great, but this is just a bigger shark they tried to make scarier and simply didn’t. Then they didn’t make it gorier either.

It does have some things going for it tho, for example, Megalodon is a cool concept. The comradery and friendships are also fun to watch grow. The movie may have been met with mixed reviews and it has its faults, but the movie is enjoyable. I would happily watch it again.. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Looking For Alaska

looking for Alaska

I’d like to dedicate this review to the only girl who ever gave me a chance and understood why I loved books. In a strange way this book reflected one of the most painful times of my life, the before, the cataclysm, and the aftermath. We always cling to the before when after falls when all we have is a billion questions and wet, crushed petals of what could have been…

Miles Halter is a smart, quiet young man who is fascinated by last words. He isn’t an outcast but just doesn’t seem the need to stand out. He is sent to Culver Creek, a prestigious boarding school in Alabama, all the way across the US from his native Florida. At Culver Creek, he finds himself amongst a host of snotty rich kids but he finds friends of his own in the prank loving group lead by his his roommate Chip ” The Colonel” Martin and Alaska Young. Alaska’s eccentric ways and mysterious past fascinate Miles, now dubbed “Pudge”, and he can’t help but be drawn to her. Maybe even love her. Hi-jinks ensue when they pull a epic prank on the rich kids and they spend a night drinking to celebrate. Life seems to be going great for Miles until Alaska storms out one night and the After begins, and Miles is left to watch the belonging and life he loved break apart…

For those who read the book, you’ll understand why I pretty much couldn’t talk about the second half of the book. I have to say I really enjoyed this book. The story is well paced and the characters are really likable. The way Green writes is very natural and I have to admit, it was pretty easy to lose a few hours inside of it’s pages which is one of the best compliments I can give a writer. I give him credit on the ambiguity of the ending and for not copping out with a forced happy ending. In the end I highly recommend this book as a good read but also to young inspiring writers too. I’d like to thank my dear friend again for sharing this story with me and I’d like to wish her a happily ever After in a new chapter of her life. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

BOOK REVIEW. — The Happy Book Blog.

This book briefly explains Lowry’s early life, how he became an artist and the recognition he received for his works, but for the most part the book contains many images of his paintings. Lowry is famous for painting industrial towns in North West England. These works include mills, smoke billowing from chimneys and dark overcast […]

via BOOK REVIEW. — The Happy Book Blog.

Mortal Kombat, Mario Kart and Solitaire into Video Game Hall of Fame

As always it is that time of year for games to be added to the video game hall of fame in Rochester New York. Mortal Kombat and Mario Kart are in for pretty obvious reasons. Both changed an aspect of gaming, but Solitaire is a bit weird for most people. After all, it was just a packaged game that came with most computers. It is also a game that most people know how to play and have played because of it. It made casual players look for other games to play and really brought an entirely new group of people into gaming and for that, I understand why it is there. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Metro Exodus Review (Xbox One) — BeardedGamer82 Gaming Blog

Metro Exodus Review (Xbox One) Developed by: 4A Games Published by: Deep Silver Released on: 2/15/2019 Played on: Xbox One The Metro Series has long been acclaimed for its gameplay and storytelling. With the release of Metro Exodus, the Metro series takes itself out of the Metro underground and focuses itself in various areas above […]

via Metro Exodus Review (Xbox One) — BeardedGamer82 Gaming Blog