36 Fragments Of Midnight

36 Fragments Of Midnight is a rather simple concept. You are a little square block, bounce around the map dodging all sorts of traps like saw blades and lasers to collect 36 fragments. The game itself is also kind of simple, in fact, in about an hour you can get a nice shiny platinum trophy. The real questions here are is the game fun and how does it play?

Well, it plays pretty well, at no point did I die and think it was the games fault. Getting around is simply a matter of hitting left and right and using the jump button to jump once or twice. As for fun, eh. I didn’t find it very fun at all. There isn’t anything fundamentally wrong with the game, it looks good and plays well I just didn’t enjoy my time with it. For $3 tho, it is worth it for the quick platinum if you are into that sort of thing. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Rogue Aces (PS4)

Rogue Aces is one of the PSN free games for February, its a small game ( less than a gig) so I figured I would try it out. The game is essentially an airplane fighter game, you take off from an aircraft carrier, run quick missions and land again. You get one life, and three planes. I make this distinction because if you fail to eject on time, even with the first plane and die, it is game over. You also get game over if you lose all three ships.

The game seems quite easy, take off, kill stuff, land. There are some advanced things, however, like when you jump out of your plane it is possible to land in an enemy plane and take it as your own, however, the few times I have managed to do this I didn’t see any difference between them and your own.

The graphics and sound are nice but my main issue is honestly the controls are a bit weird at times. A small tap up will occasionally send you up far faster than it previously did and landing is very imprecise. Despite that the game is fun and you should really go check it out, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

ESO: more fun with two — Later Levels

Knowing we’d have almost two weeks off work, just before Christmas I decided to dedicate some time to playing new video games during the holidays. I managed a good start: after enjoying the strangeness of The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker last year, I purchased Wales Interactive’s next full-motion video (FMV) title The Shapeshifting Detective […]

via ESO: more fun with two — Later Levels

 

It really is more fun with friends.

Sony Sells over 91 million Systems

As the clock ticks down on this generation of consoles and rumors fly about next-gen leaks and specs, Sony passes the 91 million units sold mark according to Techradar. These numbers seem to be slowing down, for example, they sold around 800 thousand more this time last year.  Unless there is a sudden massive drop off, this will be the year Sony passes the 100 million mark which is pretty cool. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Thoughts on Ben Affleck Batman Departure

By now we have all seen the confirmation that Ben Affleck won’t be Batman anymore. If not, here is an article from cinemablend. This is a bit weird for me tho, since when he was first announced I hated the idea. The truth is I actually rather liked him as Batman and it kind of sucks he never got a true solo Batman movie. Not that I think he was the best at the job, but he was far better than I personally expected.

That being said, it did become quite obvious in Justice League he was there more out of obligation than any desire to be there which I understand, it wasn’t exactly a good movie. He was cursed with being a great Batman in a time of mediocre scripts. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Xbox Live on IOS Android and Switch?

Yes you read that headline right, and yes it sounds pretty weird but that is the rumor going around due to a session description for a 2019 game development conference. Polygon has more of the finer details about who and how many, but for me, this is both exciting and weird. It could be interesting to be able to combine your online friend’s list to see who is playing what across console or even on the go. Maybe even the potential of Achievements for mobile and Nintendo games? Now all of this is 100% speculation on my part, but it’s all quite exciting. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Earth Defense Force 4.1: the shadow of new despair — Gaming with Noobs

So this is my first earth defense force game I’ve ever played even though it’s been out for a while and I gotta say this game from what I have played so far is a blast. This game I will most likely do another blog post or to as I progress farther into the game. […]

via Earth Defense Force 4.1: the shadow of new despair — Gaming with Noobs

Avengers: Endgame Superbowl trailer

Well, Disney is continuing it’s trend after the first Avengers 4 trailer of keeping things hush hush. Pretty much we get Cap’s pre-war speech and we get to see the rest of the crew suit up for what’s sure to be a cataclysmic finale against Thanos. I’m curious why Captain Marvel hasn’t popped up yet but since I imagine she’ll be the turning point of the battle they likely wont show her til the end. I’m glad much isn’t being revealed and I’m pumped as hell. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

When Is A Villain Not Truly Villain?

Not long ago @torstenvblog and I were talking about nerd stuff as we always do and we got to talking about the bad guys in comics and movies, and when maybe they aren’t really the bad guys. Some of them are quite cut and dry, like Jason Vorhees or  Freddie Krueger. One wears a hockey mask and kills horny teens and the other was basically a child molester that later killed people in their dreams. No sane person will ever make a real argument for them and say hey he was just misunderstood or those campers deserved it. There are however villains that, maybe aren’t quite villains, at least not in the traditional sense of they are bad guys, just bad from the perspective of who the hero of the story is.

A good example of this, however, is Magneto from Xmen. He isn’t really a bad guy, he simply disagrees with Professor X on how best to protect mutants. Sure he does some questionable things, but if someone was trying to hurt you and everyone you cared about and your people wouldn’t you be willing to do some less than honest and moral things to protect them?

Another solid example is Ocean Master in the Aquaman movie. All he really wanted to do was stop the humans from destroying the ocean his people live in, and sure while he did steal a submarine and kill a ton of people to start a war under a false pretense but his heart was in the right place. He wasn’t doing it because he wanted to hurt people or he hated anyone, he thought he was doing what was best for Atlantis.

So really, at what point are people no longer villains? Is it when they can reasonably and appropriately justify what they are doing to a reasonable person? Or is it when they give up their quest and die for the greater good like Loki? I’m not sure there is an easy answer, and everyone will have a different one but for me, a big part of it comes down to intent. Look at Thanos from the MCU. Nobody would argue what he was doing was truly good, but he wasn’t really wrong. It would have saved his world, and it did help other worlds he had conquered. Most importantly his intent is good, he wants to make sure what happened to his world doesn’t happen to others. While he is quite misguided it isn’t really fair to say he is evil or a villain, he is just a bad guy from the perspective of the heroes. A future blog we will discuss what makes a hero, and why Captain America wasn’t truly a good guy recently. Until then tell me what you think, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Batman: White Knight

batman white knight

If you’ve been following our humble blog lately, you’ve likely noticed the villain posts lately, including such as 5 great Superman villains and 5 great Flash villains . Well, let’s face it, when it comes to super hero and villain relationships, none are more enigmatic, traumatic, and psychotic than Batman and Joker. But White Knight asks the question, what if Joker went sane, what would become of Gotham’s Dark Knight?

After the millionth or so go between the iconic figures, enough starts to seem to be enough. The collateral damage Batman inflicts on Gotham is huge but the day is saved; Joker bets Batman he he can be a greater hero and idol in Gotham than him. In Arkham Asylum he begins taking an experimental medication that does the impossible- makes the Joker sane. As Jack Napier, he wins his freedom back in the court of law and begins his long road to saving Gotham. He reignites his relationship with Harley, while breaking the second Harley Quinn’s psyche in the process and begins aiding the police. Meanwhile, Batman is riding the line as Alfred lays dying and he has become more quiet and violent than normal. Not even Mr Freeze’s aid can aid him and his anger is affecting Nightwing and Batgirl, who fight amongst themselves what to do with Bruce. If that wasn’t enough, a horde of Batman’s deadliest villains is running amok and the second Harley, now christened Neo-Joker, is out to get her psychotic hubby back but who be the one to save us and the one to damn us, the former clown prince of crime or the Batman?

I consider this a modern Batman classic but I have some tiny issues. The story is complex and exciting, raising some good points about Batman and exploring the relationship between the two enemies. There is a really good villain cast and Mr Freeze has some good character moments. Napier steals the show for the book and that’s actually refreshing because he’s a separate, flawed character in his own right. The artwork is cool and there is a lot of action. An issue I have is that the story takes a few liberties with Batman’s lore that don’t outright piss me off but one I feel can be used to make a tired ass sequel if followed. In the end, it’s a great story and I consider it to be one of the better Bat stoies. May the gaming gods bring you glory.