It’s sheer perfection, my precious G Virus, nobody will ever take you away from me, -Dr William Birkin
Our favorites Day 20, The Fly
I’m a comic book and sci-fi nerd so this should be no surprise but I love this messed up tale of a science experiment gone wrong as one of my favorites. The ongoing transformation of Jeff Goldblum into the Fly is deeply disturbing and I can’t recommend this at all to the weak stomached. Scenes stick out to me like him melting the guy’s hand with his bile or the end where the creature put’s the gun to his head or Geena Davis giving birth to the giant maggot. It’s one of the best remakes ever for good reason. May the gaming gods bring you glory.
Ron White:If You Quit Listening I’ll Shut Up (2018)
Ron White is back with his 2018 stand up,and honestly i wasn’t expecting much. Not that I don’t love his work it has just been a few years and he is now over 60 years old and how long can a guy make jokes about being a raging alcoholic? Turns out at least one more show. Ron is as funny as ever covering such topics as the death of his ex wife’s divorce attorney, gay marriage, and building a new house.
The show starts off with a quick flash back to his past shows which is a nice trip down memory lane. He also makes a few reverences to the past in the show, but happily this isn’t a nostalgia act. It isn’t his best show, but it is interesting and you will laugh. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
The Suikoden Series
The Suikoden series is one of my all time favorite series. The series involves the 108 stars of destiny and true ruins. Each game tells a different story of a different ruin, but they all have that much in common. The combat is a typical turned based as you can see below in Suikoden 2.
This is in no way meant to be a review or an exhaustive explanation of the series. No that would require me to take each game one by one as they each deserve as they each have their own strong and weak points and they each have their own individual stories, tho it is worth pointing out that many characters do appear in multiple games. This was simply a quick over view to point this out. For years there has been a movement to get this series going again, literally it’s called http://suikodenrevivalmovement.com/. Well recently in a random and surprise move as reported by numerous websites and you can easily go there and verify it yourself, for the first time in 4 years the Japanese Suikoden website has been updated. For more on that visit https://gearnuke.com/konami-relaunches-suikoden-portal-website/.
This is exciting for fans of the series because it signals Konami may be interested in reviving the series. The only other real explanation is possibly a hack job but I have my doubts on that. Regardless for fans of the series there is some hope, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
For those that are interested in the games and helping us out,here are some links for the Suikoden game series on Amazon.
Our favorites Day 19, Alien
Savior specifically told me I wasn’t allowed to do all 6 Alien movies for our Halloween special. While I love the series as a whole, there are of course 2 that traverse the boundaries. What can I say about Alien I haven’t already said: legendary creature design, tense atmosphere, some great body horror and a heroine for the ages. The first movie was the last I’d seen of the original 4 and as I kid I didn’t really appreciate it but like a fine wine I found it better with age. May the gaming gods bring you glory.
Affleck and Cavill probably done as Batman And Superman
As reported by cinemeblend and really common sense at this point. There has been no shortage of rumors floating around about either of them being done with their roles and it seems that may be true. Ben has had his own set of personal things going on and Cavill is in a similar boat and even had a small thing recently on social media as well. This obviously isn’t definitive but it would very much seem to be true. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Truth or Dare (2017)
Truth or Dare is a movie that has a pretty cool premise. A group of teens around Halloween rent out a supposedly haunted house to have some fun. Back in the 1980’s a different group played truth or dare and all but one person died, and now these people decide to have a few drinks and play themselves. Sounds like good fun until it turns out the house really is haunted, and the ghost is using this normally harmless game to kill people.
In reality the movie isn’t very good. Sure the acting is fine and so are the effects, but the movie is just trying so damn hard to appeal to millennials. The story itself makes no real sense, with plot holes and contradictions. Towards the halfway point the find the original survivor ( yes they leave the house) and are told it in fact isn’t a ghost but an evil entity that isn’t limited to one place and that is why the game has continued. However, they have to go back to the house since that is where the game started and it has to end there.
The movie has moments of being fun and entertaining but for the most part the movie is simply a train wreck and it is sad because potentially the movie could have been great, it simply needed to stop trying to be cool for a certain age range and try to be the movie it needed to be. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Our Favorites, Day 18, The Thing
There are few remakes I ever consider worth watching, let a lone being better than the originals. John Carpenter’s Thing remake is the magic of a simple premise pushed to the Nth degree. I’ve played the Resident Evil series as well as the DeadSpace trilogy, both of which took a lot of inspiration from the Thing in a means of body horror. Images like a human head ripping itself off, growing spider legs out of it’s neck and crawling on it’s own or a body rip itself open full of shark like teeth and tentacles. Besides the amazing bodily horror, there’s is a fantastic sense of paranoia. There is no real telling who the creature is and isn’t, even til the very end. This and tomorrow’s entry were gross out favorites of my dad’s he shared with me as a kid which is why I’m adding it to my list of must sees this Halloween. May the gaming gods bring you glory.
Why DLC/Microtransactions Aren’t Going Anywhere, and it is our fault.
In gaming today you will basically certainly see the debate about DLC and in-game transactions. Is it good, is it bad? Should it count as gambling? Shouldn’t companies sell complete games? In my day we got the entire game and alternate costumes were awarded for doing stuff! These are all things we have heard before. Hell many of us have probably said them. But why do these things exist? We all know its money.
There are good aspects to it tho. For example games have been $60 for years and haven’t gone up in large part because of DLC and in-game transactions. It allows companies to continue to profit off a game after release and more importantly profit off used games as well. This allows them to deal with the very small, if any profit margin from selling games at $60 when they should probably cost $70 or $80.
Another good aspect is stories can continue, The Witcher 3 for example had DLC that extended the life of the game for over 100 hours probably. It allows new weapons and enemies or even game modes to be introduced. Don’t worry, I understand there are bad things and I will get to them next.
The down side of things however is it also encourages companies to bombard you with offers for stuff or even to leave things out and sell them to you later. Not every company does this, but to say it doesn’t happen is insane and naive. Another issue, as we have seen in Assasin’s Creed Odyssey, is them selling you experience boost to level up faster and it is not the only game this has been seen in. I have heard from numerous people “Yea but it is a fun grind so its ok” but that is hardly the point. The point is they intentionally designed the game to sell you that experience booster. Just because some people are cool with that grind doesn’t mean it wasn’t designed that way or that others aren’t going to buy it.
They aren’t the only company that does stuff like this, they basically all do it. EA is pretty much always getting the brunt of these joke because of their over indulgence of doing things like this. You also see a ton of games selling skins and loot boxes to the point you can’t even turn many games on without them saying hey come buy one, in game advertising is becoming rampant.
The truth of the matter is this will never go away, and the reason for that is honestly ourselves. The fact is we spend billions on this stuff a year, and that is why it exist in the first place. Simple economics is, if there is a demand for something someone will supply it. If there is no demand, the supply will try up. Now obviously you will never convince millions of gamers to stop buying things they want, so you will never get rid of DLC or microtransactions.
Clearly some companies have gone to far, and I do miss the days when I bought a game and got everything in one neat little package, but this is the world we live in and it does help keep the cost of games down. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
American Truck Simulator
This game actually has a funny story behind how I got it. See I didn’t buy it, but it isn’t a review copy. A guy in a Facebook group I am in was like “hey who wants it, post a funny gif, best one wins” and I won pretty much by default. Even better I am fairly sure he was from somewhere in Europe and I am an American, so I enjoyed that as well.
Also if you are curious about the other version of this, I did review that. Euro Truck Simulator 2
Now, on to American Truck Simulator. First you should know, I am not going to bash this game. Most people who played it do not. It has amazing scores on Steam and great reviews in other places, and rightfully so. The game looks good and its fun to watch the scenery fly buy as you drive across California and other west coast states.
The controls are also nice with them making the trucks control quite realistically without relying on simply making the controls unresponsive or sluggish. They are smooth and responsive without losing that feeling of driving a huge truck, and it does change based off your trailer. I also enjoy that you can put your own music into the radio and have it play in-game. It is a nice touch that adds to the immersion of it all.
The game however isn’t perfect, no game really is if we are being 100% honest. The game can get repetitive and if you aren’t into this style of game you will get bored really fast. Also if you are playing with a mouse and keyboard driving can be a tad weird at times because they aren’t are precise as driving a real car when it comes to controlling your speed. The game also does a poor job of teaching you things like how to turn your lights and windshield wipers on, two things you will obviously need. Thankfully its just a quick google search away.
That being said, I know I got the game for free but if I had paid for it, I would be quite happy with the purchase. If you are trying to decide between the two honestly go with what country you are from. My biggest issue with Euro Truck was having no clue about their traffic laws and kept driving down the wrong side of the road ( which would have been the correct side in America) and I don’t have that issue with American Truck Simulator and that makes the game far more enjoyable for me. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Savior Gaming 