F.E.A.R 3

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First and foremost, it is ok to laugh at the actual, F3AR title of this game, if Fant4stic wasn’t bad enough. Why its a belief replacing letters with numbers for a title makes it hip or trendy, I’ll never understand. Fear 3 is another thing I’ll understand, but let’s try. Somehow Alma is pregnant with a super psychic ghost baby and it’s up to her sons Point-Man and Paxton from the first game to stop her as she brings on the apocalypse.

If you read my review of F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin , you’ll know how hard I gave up on the story. That being said, the graphics are the best of the series and the game does have two totally different ways to play. Point-Man we get the F.E.A.R staple of Slo Mo gunplay, only this time with a badass sliding kick. As Paxton, you can shoot blasts of psychic energy and possess others. I feel while the plot is the most disposible, the game maybe the most fun of the series and I can recommend checking it out for some quick FPS fun. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Pokémon Quest exclusive preview now available on the App Store for iOS 11 iPhone and iPad — Pokémon Blog

The Pokémon Company has released a new batch of stamps for the mobile app SNOW for iOS and Android devices. These special stamps are based on Pokémon designs from Pokémon Quest, featuring the Pokéxel versions of Pikachu and Eevee. There’s an exclusive Pokémon Quest preview now available on the App Store for iOS 11 iPhone and iPad, titled How […]

via Pokémon Quest exclusive preview now available on the App Store for iOS 11 iPhone and iPad — Pokémon Blog

Octopath Traveler (Preview)

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Octopath Traveler,what else is there to say besides well, I don’t own a Nintendo Switch, but this game makes me wish I did. This turn based RPG from Square Enix will release July 13th and is the story of, well 8 different characters. The visuals are inspired by retro RPGs which is a trend I as an old man (in gaming terms at least) thoroughly enjoy and appreciate. Check out the video below.

Strangers: Prey at Night

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I was skeptic when The Strangers got a sequel after a decade, even more so after Strangers 2, trailer 1 came out. Was I wrong to be nervous after a decade of waiting?

This installment picks up at a trailer park where the familiar trio of strangers murders an elderly couple and not long after, the whole park’s inhabitants while they sleep. We join a family, sending there angst y teenage daughter to boarding school. On there trip, they stay the night at there relative’s home- in the same park the strangers are lurking in, and of course the carnage ensues.

Sadly to say, I was pretty justified to be skeptical. Strangers 2, truth be told feels nothing much like the first movie. Where the first was very suspense heavy, Prey at Night goes for a more gorier, over the top approach. The characters aren’t bad for a slasher movie but Christina Hendrick’s performance is too good for this kind of movie. The son and daughter annoyed the hell out of me at times. The movie is well shot and the over the top scenes are done well. Honestly, if you want a more 80’s style horror movie done today, this isn’t a bad pick. Why I’m kind of pissed is the first movie was suspenseful and had a kind of realism to it the sequel lacks. It is worth watching whether approach you prefer. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Railway Empire

There are a few companies with games I always look forward to playing, the usual suspects we all do. But there are a couple that sometimes people don’t expect. About a week ago I woke up to an e-mail from one such company, Kalypso Media. They made Tropico 5 and Grand Ages:Medieval Review along with others of course. Most recently they release Railway Empire,so when they offered to let me review the Xbox One version with its Xbox One X support in 4K, I was on at the next station. However, did this play as beautifully as it look? And make no mistake, this game looks beautiful.

The first thing I noticed was the campaign isn’t truly your typical campaign. It mostly operates as a way to slowly introduce you to different aspects of the game, sort of like an extended tutorial. Don’t be fooled by this, you will still be challenged. The first mission will show you how to build tracks and add locomotives and show you the fundamentals of how to add stations and such. The second mission will show you something a little more intricate with how each city and place has different needs and will interact with different connections. The game truly has its own economy set up and you can, and most likely will at times, set things up in such a bad way that entire train lines will be worthless, or make you a ton of money.

Money however is not the only thing you will need to manage. You will also be researching new technology and new trains, managing employees, the stock market, sabotaging competitors and even managing smaller businesses. Each competitor has its own personality, one is a sort of southern belle,while another is a shady mob boss wannabe and we even get a scientist sort and a general. They all have their own perks as well such as the mod boss getting closer ties to the underworld and making it easier for him to sabotage people.

The game isn’t perfect, no game is. I wish there were some more options on the competitors as it seems like there isn’t a big variety. Don’t get me wrong there is enough, I would have just liked more. Building tracks while simple and easy isn’t always very precise and a couple of times I found myself wishing I could have moved things just a little more in one direction or another. None of this is enough to ruin the experience, it is just worth mentioning.

Now it is time for why you are all here, is the game worth buying at the $60 price tag? If you are a fan of the sim genre, absolutely buy this game. Solid 8.5/10 It is beautiful, controls well even on console, and is in no way short on things to do or challenges.  I am not even a fan of trains, but this one will be in my rotation for a while. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Control (Preview)

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Control from this years E3 by Remedy is quite the enigma. Its an enigma in that it doesn’t tell us much. We know it has a female main character, the has an odd shape shifting sort of gun and she seems to have super natural powers. The game however does look interesting and it does have some nice graphics to it. Remedy also has the titles behind it to back up such an odd title being worth watching that include Alan Wake and Quantum Break. The game is also being published by 505 games. Watch the video below and and let me know what you think, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Mysteries of the internet: the “I feel fantastic” video —

One of the first creepy mysteries I came across on YouTube was “I feel fantastic”. It’s a pretty old video but I wanted to talk about it because it holds a special place in my memories.

via Mysteries of the internet: the “I feel fantastic” video —

 

@torstenvblog Showed me this years ago, I forgot this was a thing until now lol

Resident Evil 2 Remake

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This is one of those series me and @torstenvblog disagree one. We both agree the stories are great and the series iconic, but we have had more than one argument over this aspect. The early games in the series actually sucked. There are 2 viewpoints on this one, those that know they sucked, and those that are wrong. Don’t get me wrong, the stories were great and the defined a genre, but the controls even at the time were garbage. The visuals were never that good and don’t even get me started on how nonsensical the puzzles were. You trekked all over the damn mansion, or in the case of 2 the police station, doing stuff like finding lighters or arrow heads in places they would never be to solve puzzles in places that made no sense that nobody in their right mind would have figured out. It’s why the first play though of the games took 20 hours and the 2nd took 3.

So why did everyone put up with it and have such fine memories of it? Well honestly they were freaky as hell and the stories were absolutely amazing. We all wanted to see what the hell Umbrella corp was going to do next. So when this rumor started years ago and was confirmed we all got excited. Except @torstenvblog because he is a purist and got all pissy about them changing the game play. Then E3 happened, and now even he knows this is about to be amazing. So I shall leave the video below, let me know what you think and if you fall into the group that is right or wrong. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin

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F.E.A.R was a pretty good game. Scary as hell at parts and a fun FPS game. Alma Wade, the creepy ghost girl on the covers of both games, main antagonist, is hardly seen and is chilling when you do…and then a sequel happened. After the events of the first game, we play as Michael Becket, who is sent to deal with the crazy shit going on near the climax of the first. There’s more phenomenon going on, more clone soldiers and way more Alma, and she’s way more naked.

Does this description sound phoned in? After playing the game through at least twice, its pretty damn evident this game is a phoned in sequel. The gameplay and easy mechanics are the game’s best attributes; the game is a entertaining FPS and the Slow Mo again is a nifty feature. The graphics are a good step forward and the sound is solid enough. F.E.A.R 2 pretty much throws any fear Alma created out the window; you will get ambushed by this pointlessly naked, bloody ghost girl A LOT and have to QTE her away. Alma became annoying really quick. The story is a mess, trying to be bigger but I have to honest, I quickly forget most of it due to it’s weak Si Fi channel quality, only without the fun. F.E.A.R 2 isn’t wholly terrible, it’s OK for a quick play through but you will quickly forget it. May the gaming gods bring you glory, and go away Alma.

 

Slumber (2017)

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You guys know I don’t always like to say bad things about the things I review. So I will start with the good things. For starters, the acting was great. Alice Arnolds played her role amazing as did the rest of the cast.

That is it, I am done. If you came here for a positive review stop reading. I have nothing left positive to say. I am about to list why you should not watch this movie. For starters, the story of sleep paralysis has been done in other movies. Those movies have pretty much universally in my experience done it better. They all also pretty much involve the same story. A family goes to a sleep doctor that tries to convince them its all a normal occurrence, finds out it is a demon and tries to help and oh yea, has personal experience as a child that a member of their family had a similar issue. In this case it was her brother.

The demon in this case also isn’t even scary, it’s just a shadow that occasionally pushes people in what looks like a special effect straight out of the 70’s. It is very badly done.  Also it will sometimes lift them up almost exorcist style about a foot off the bed, also badly done. Most of the special effects are badly done. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention the tip off on the demon comes from a janitor that our main character knew was stealing sedatives from the hospital but she never said anything about because she is apparently a horrible doctor.

Now the ending. In the next paragraph I will spoil the ending. I will post a couple of pictures to break up this paragraph and the next paragraph. You have been warned, after the pictures I AM GOING TO SPOIL THE ENDING IN THE PARAGRAPH AFTER THE PICTURES, STOP READING NOW TO AVOID THIS, AND MAY THE GAMING GODS BRING YOU GLORY.

Ok seriously, last chance to avoid me ruining this ending…and here we go. The ending is god awful. Basically we get the family in a small country home where they attempt to save the families little boy, because despite the entire family being tormented by this demon the little boy is really hated by this thing. So they decide to send the daughter off with the sedative thief on a car ride to protect her while the rest stay behind to protect the boy, which hey fair strategy. During all this the demon mostly attacks the good doctor while everyone else is slowly driven off the deep end. He posses the sedative thief’s grandpa because he owns the house, I guess and he escaped him once before and delivers a sick headbutt to the good doctor and attempts to kill the boy. At the last second she grabs a kitchen knife and stabs him. Thats how they kill the demon, a damn kitchen knife through the heart of gramps, who tells her she did the right thing and now he can finally get a good nights sleep.

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You didn’t think that was the end did you? Oh no, we fast forward to a beautiful hotel room and a Skype call between the good doctor and her husband and daughter. Things are good they are playing a game things are grand. Until the lil one starts humming a lullaby, mom freaks out and hubby says he can’t do this anymore and the camera swings around as two guys in lab coats rush in and the big reveal is, she is now in the nut house. Yup a horrible kill scene for the demon and a horrible twist ending that wasn’t even needed that is meant to leave you wondering, is she there because she killed a man, or because she is obsessed with this demon and her job? Thanks for reading this long, so long, and may the gaming gods protect your slumber.