Project Hospital (Preview)

download (3)

Project Hospital is a sort of spiritual successor to theme hospital, as you can see in the picture. However it seems a but more serious. Here is a short video with many of the details.

The game looks pretty nice, yet pretty intensive on micromanagement. My biggest fear is that you will need to interact with patients heavily and this will take away from the building and running of the hospital itself. It would be nice if this is a more of an optional feature that you can dive into when you want or in emergencies than something you spend a large amount of time doing. This game from oxymoron looks fun however and is worth watching.

There is another hospital game on the way however, and that we will cover tomorrow. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Paranormal Activity 3

pa 3

Around this time I was a fan of this movie and had a job; my old writing partner and I had a WTF late night adventure trying to see this at midnight to no actual avail, but I digress. The teaser was chilling, and I’ll include it below. Many of the trailers were freaky as hell. Most of the cool shit never made it to this short ass movie.

Paranormal Activity 3 is a huge prequel, going back to when Katie and Kristy were little girls and we get to explore the very origin of the disturbances, the fire, the reason neither of them remembered anything as adult women. It begins when little Kristy finds a imaginary friend that no one thinks twice about; kids will be kids. But things begin to happen and before the family knows it they are on the run leading to perhaps my favorite WTF climaxes I’ve seen on film in a long time.

3 is the last of these movies I would call totally good. There are some crazy effects but I can say it’s a bit toned down from the previous movie. The acting again is solid but I have to say the kids nailed it; watching Kristy talking to nothing freaked me out a bit. By the third movie we find ourselves getting used to the formula, especially how frequently they were coming out, and with the exception of the WTF ending that kicks your ass, there isn’t much new ground covered. Something that bothers the shit out of me is a combination of the the pacing and how short the movie is. When you hit that WTF ending, the movie feels on the cusp of entering Act 3, not the tip toes of it which is jarring as hell. It adds to the scare but after the surprise wears off, you feel oddly let down. In the end, it’s a good found footage film that completes a solid trilogy. I’d end it here, save face, and call it a day. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Special Correspondents (2016)

download (2)

This movie is going to be a like it or hate it situation, I doubt anyone loves it sadly. Ricky Gervais (Albert) and Eric Bana(Frank) play a news tech and a news reporter respectively in New York. Eric is a local celeb that is boss sort of hates and Ricky is a man doing his best that his wife, well his wife is a bitch he just doesn’t know it. Yet.

One day they are chosen to go do a report in Ecuador, the issue? Albert and his wife have a small falling out and in his despair he accidentally tosses the passports,and the tickets and the money. So basically he messes up a lot. This however will be the least of their problems as Frank decides to fake the entire trip.

This starts out pretty well, small phone call, some general info and computer and sound tricks from Albert. Then they invent a leader that other news agencies run with. This sounds like it can not get worse doesn’t it? Until they fake being captured. Yup, this movie takes all kinds of weird turns from bad to even worse. It actually gets even worse from there, but I won’t go any further. I actually really enjoyed the movie and do not understand the hate from many people. The script was nice and it was just different enough to be interesting. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Paranormal Activity 2

pa2

The craze for Paranormal Activity was on after the buzz and bucks the first movie got and oh how found footage found life in horror cinema again, The Last Exorcism being a prime example of the time. Well, of course there was a sequel and it was made and out in blinding speed…

Paranormal Activity 2 can strangely be called a prequel in that it takes place just before the events of the first one kick off. We follow Kristy, younger sister of Katie of the first movie, and her family as they are terrorized by an unseen force after her son Hunter is born. We begin to discover clues about the sisters past and we learn a dark family secret, leading to a pretty dick move that ultimately bites the family in the ass at the end…

Somehow I found myself thinking the second installment of this series is both better and worse than the first. Better because it is more eventful with some crazier shit going down in the second and third acts and the back story does become quite intriguing. The acting is still solid and performed by people I can see as regular normal people, in fact I cared about there well being throughout. Worse because while the effects are better and more entertaining to watch, the third act breaks the straw on the play at realism.  Granted it’s not unforgivable or damage the film at all really, but you know it’s a damn movie now. Another thing I have to say is I found the pacing in the first act slower than the first movie’s and pretty boring. In the end it’s a solid sequel and worth a watch late night. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Love, Simon (2018) — Dan the Man’s Movie Reviews

We all do. Simon (Nick Robinson) is like any other high school kid living in America. He’s got a group of dedicated, loyal and lovely friends, parents who love him, and a solid education that may have him go somewhere in life. However, he’s also got a little secret: He’s gay. But you know what? […]

via Love, Simon (2018) — Dan the Man’s Movie Reviews

Paranormal Activity

pa1

In 2009, my last year in high school, my class was taken by storm by a little horror movie called Paranormal Activity. It’s a simple found footage film about a well off couple, Katie and Micah, who have weird shit going on in there house and get a camera to record it overnight. As days go on, the activity becomes more malevolent and it takes a toll on Katie and a mystery unfolds about Katie’s upbringing that can prove dangerous.

This is kind of a tricky movie to talk about. When I first saw it in 2010, it actually scared the shit out of me at the end and I will give it this, while it is a slow burn, it does do well to build suspense and does have a good pay off at the end. You get a fair sense of the characters and how they change throughout. The lack of music and opening credits and the fact the actors are convincing enough to be normal people. It does drag, the pacing is slow and there is a huge unintentionally hilarious part in the middle, and I mean laugh your ass off funny when the ghost expert guy returns. In the years, following it and the bullshit sequels and corny effects, it has lost some luster but it is a Ok horror film that is worth checking out but turn off the lights and watch it in the dark. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Farming Simulator 17 (Xbox One)

download (1)

I picked this game up on sale not long ago because I was curious, and admittedly kind of expected Harvest Moon with tractors to some extent. Don’t make that mistake. This could not be any further from that. That is not a bad thing at all by the way. There is a bit of a learning curve tho.

First thing is first, each piece of equipment does have a purpose and that is all it does. You can’t use your pick up truck to pull around huge equipment. You will also need some sort of lifting equipment to toss pallets of stuff into your truck to transport it around town. Don’t be an idiot like me and assume the store will deliver it, they don’t.

The game however is pretty fun, and you can hire workers to do much of the work if you want and have the money while you go do missions for other farmers, they do supply the equipment. This has a double benefit of getting you some money and familiarizing you with much of the stuff in the game, because if you are like me you probably have no idea what any of this stuff does.

Graphically the game is beautiful, but you can easily mess with the games physics engine. They clearly did not count on you taking large trailers in barns and attempting to empty things so the trailer goes through them, it can have some hilarious consequences. Using rocks as jumps in a truck also sends you flipping end over end and spinning while over loading a forklift and trying to do donuts is also something I recommend trying.

Another warning, the game does take a poor look on taking a trailer full of animals into the river. I was curious and it was late at night, I failed that tutorial and immediately had to restart. The game however is fun if you like simulation games, it is easy to learn and easy to control and on the Xbox mods are there, tho you don’t have a ton of space for them. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Spawn: Armageddon

spawn armegeddon

If you didn’t get enough Spawn after my combo blog on Spawn/ Spawn: origins , we’re going to talk about my favorite piece of Spawn media and was my first intro to the character. Pretty much the war between Heaven and Hell is going to fall on Earth and Spawn is in the middle with his huge array of guns, powers, signature chains, and his trusty Ax of Agony.

Right of the bat, let me be frank: this game is not special in any way shape or form but it is fun as hell. You start off pretty damn powerful and there’s a huge collection of powers and weaponry to combo and slaughter the hordes of Heaven and Hell and it goes farther than that but the enemies quickly become a threat. If you enjoy Devil May Cry, essentially the game play feels the same. The bosses are huge and epic and challenging towards the end. The story isn’t much but it’s a damn fun hack n slash game I’d recommend if you want a high energy blood and gore game. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Masked Saint (2016)

images

So I am rummaging thru Netflix and I come across this movie. Now I am a sucker for a wrestling movie, I used to be one. Then I see it has Roddy Piper in. I was a huge fan. There is no way I’m not watching this movie. opening credits end with “Inspired by a true story”. I am hardly convinced. So I watch the movie. But we will get to that,but I want to share this.

download

Yes for you book lovers, there is a book by Chris Whaley that the movie is based on, he also happens to be the Pastor/wrestler from the story. I have not read it, but it is something that is out there.

Now back to the movie. First, the acting is pretty good, better than I expected. I was honestly expecting some train wreck level acting like many of these style of “true story” movies have, but that isn’t the case.

The story itself is rather interesting, a retiring wrestler is injured after a shady promoter ( Piper) breaks his word and the new up and comer (The Reaper) intentionally breaks The Saints leg. When he takes over the new perish Chris discovers it is failing pretty hard as most of the people have abandoned it and it is mostly kept running due to one wealthy man and his donations that he will soon lose when he gets into a fight with him.

When Chris is invited to a wrestling event by a friend, coincidentally his former employees event, he prevents The Reaper from injuring his friend which gets him an invite back into the ring. Trust me, leaving the ring is not easy, and it never truly leaves your system. On the way home however he puts his mask on to stop a woman of the night from being mugged, and that is when things truly start to change.

I won’t get into too much more detail. The movie is however worth watching and unsurprisingly the wrestling segments are pretty well done. They don’t give away anything you honestly can’t google, but they don’t treat people like they are stupid either. We all know in 2018 the stuff is scripted and they don’t hide that and I appreciated that. So go give the saint a watch, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Deadpool: the game

dp game

Well, because my luck sucks, we weren’t able to see Deadpool 2 but if you’re like us and your local movie theater randomly shuts down and you lose the Savior- mobile, and you need a decent Deadpool fix, let’s talk about the bittersweet experience that is the video game.

We join Wade in an adventure to kill generally evil bad guy Mr. Sinister, coming across some beloved X Men characters like Wolverine, Rogue, and Psylocke (as well as a funny ass cameo from Gambit during a dream sequence.), a few X Force favorites like Cable and Domino and of course fighting a list D level villains like Archlight and Vertigo. Get ready for hilarity, action, and utter insanity as we slay our way to Sinister.

Ok, let’s cover the sweet of this bittersweet equation. This is one of the funniest games I’ve ever played and this Nolan North is phenomenal doing the voice of Deadpool. If you love the character and X men lore, because you will get a hell of a lot of cameos and fan service like the Island of Genosha and going on a killing spree inside of a Sentinel boot. There is a shit load of great fan service in the game. Ready for the bitter part? The game is laughably short, but not a good laughable. You can easily finish this game on hardest difficulty in about 4-6 hours easy. It’s really linear. The gameplay is fair, not great but not horrible. I can’t say there is a huge amount of replay value in it, I bailed out of my second play through. I think the game is worth playing but $20 maybe pushing it if you aren’t a Deadpool or avid X men fan. May the gaming gods bring you glory.