Savior Gaming

What’s the difference- mutant, mutate, or inhuman (Marvel)

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In Marvel, many of it’s fine heroes and heroines have extraordinary abilities and powers. In Marvel, these folks can be broken down into three main categories though of course not every character fits, for example Thor, Vision, or Ghost Rider but this will help clear up questions I’ve gotten in the past such as ” is Captain America an Inhuman?” ” Is Spider-Man a mutant?” “What’s the difference between a mutant and mutate; what’s the difference between mutant and inhuman?”

Mutants primarily exist within X-men and are people who naturally develop powers around puberty. There powers can vary in there degree of devastation and physical change; I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t notice Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, or Jean Grey walking down the street but guys like Beast, NightCrawler, or Apocalypse are a little harder to hide. Besides the X-men, other famous Marvel mutants include Submariner, Franklin Richards, and Cassie Lang (Stature). Submariner has flight capabilities unlike an other Atlantean and while Franklin’s parents aren’t mutants, he was born with powers, much like Cassie’s who developed later. Blade doesn’t count because he’s vampire hybrid. I do get questions about Scarlet Witch, in regards to if she is magic or a mutant and I can’t really tell I’m afraid.

A mutate is someone who got powers from a source of some kind. This is where the Fantastic 4 fall into place as well as Spider-Man, Deadpool, Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Hulk just to name a few. The Four and Hulk got hit with radiation, Daredevil got chemicals to the face, Parker got bitten by a radioactive spider, and Deadpool and Cage got experiments done. Capt. America is a interesting specimen in this regard. Project Rebirth pushed his body to its upmost peak, pretty much the best a human body can be. Does he qualify? I think not just because he doesn’t technically have powers in that way but the argument is still there.

Finally there are Inhumans. Inhumans don’t really live on Earth exactly but on Attila, a moon kingdom per say. This gets weird. So they basically start as human, but through a rite of passage are exposed to the Terrigan Mists which transform them either, and depending how depends where you go in society. I’m not the biggest on Inhuman lore but I can tell you the royal family is not to be screwed with, especially Black Bolt, who is voluntarily mute because his voice causes mass destruction. I also know that if you expose a mutant to the mists they die. Members of the royal family include Black Bolt, Medusa, Gorgon, Triton, Karnack, Crystal, LockJaw, and Magnus; another notable Inhuman to include is Kamela Khan, the new Ms. Marvel.

I hope this helps put things into perspective a little better. As always best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Boondock Saints (1999)

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The Boondock Saints is a rather odd movie in that it probably shouldn’t be as good as it is. Sure the premise is good. Two guys take it upon themselves to kill the undesirable criminals that the law can’t take down themselves. The issue is the addition of the religious twist. This usually makes things come off as weird.

However this time around their religion while very much in the forefront of who these Irish brothers are, it isn’t in your face. It is the reason for what they are doing, but it isn’t quite the catalyst. It does however drive them. Oh, and did I mention its also a damn comedy? Seriously it is a serious movie and a comedy at the same time. The entire movie on paper reads like something a drunk guy wrote down or a couple of 15 year old kids made some weekend. It should not work. Yet it does, it works well. The movie is interesting and has some parts that are hilarious and may be one of the most quotable movies of its time. Admittedly the movie is over hyped at times, it is far from perfect and has its issues. The story has so many plot holes its ridiculous. Don’t try to think about the movie, just enjoy it for what it is. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

5 Marvel stories that hooked me

As a great man always said, “Hey there, true believers.” Though the amount of DC content we have here on Saviorgaming may suggest differently, I don’t consider myself a DC fanboy. I like to think I have a love for both pretty equally. While maybe not considered classics, these were stories I’ve read from Marvel that just hooked me I want to talk about in no particular order, starting with…

cap dimz 1. Captain America: Castaway in Dimension Z – this story brings Cap to another time and world out of place, a wastleland of horrors and hardship ruled by Baron Zola. Aided by the boy Zola claims as his son, Cap must survive living hell in Dimension Z.

2. The Thanos Imperative- the scope of this massive space story was breathtaking, featuring the Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova, Medusa, Quasar, Gladiator, Silver Surfer, Galactus, Captain Marvell, and of course the Mad Titan Thanos, there’s a epic fight amongst our universe and the Cancerverse, leading to a sad farewell to some beloved characters.

ultron book 3. Age of Ultron- disclaimer, this isn’t what the movie was based on. This story focuses on the dystopia of the world after Ultron took over and consumed Vision and became perfect, essentially this is the worst case scenario. It was a punch in the gut to see how destroyed what remaining Avengers become and the book ends with Wolverine and Invisible Woman going back in time to assassinate Hank Pym (Ant-Man) so Ultron is never born.

deapool kills the marvel universe 4. Deadpool Kills trilogy ( Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, Deadpool: Killustrated, and Deadpool kills Deadpool)- as these titles suggest, there’s a lot of killing. An evil Deadpool goes on a murder spree through Marvel, than through the realities of fiction to murder the influences of Marvel, and finally murders his own multi-verse selves. Just wow. Dark, morbidly hilarious and creative, and bloody as hell.

5. Guardians of the Galaxy/ All New X-Men: The Trial of Jean Grey- if both teams didn’t have enough problems to deal with, a league of alien rulers piss themselves to discover Jean Grey is alive and walking about, not caring she is young, naive, and only vaguely aware of the horrors of the Phoenix in her future. Taken, it’s up to the two teams to band together to get her back, filled with some cool action and laughs, it’s a good crossover.

I hope you enjoyed, best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory. Excelsior!

Dazed and Confused (1993)

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This is another movie I didn’t see until well after it came out. I actually had a friend that kept calling me Matthew McConaughey and when I asked why he wouldn’t tell me, all he kept saying was watch the movie. Finally I did and well, my girlfriend while legal was a bit younger than me. We met freshmen year in college, tho I went through the army before college and she went straight from high school. You do the math.

The movie itself however is amazing. Its a coming of age story about a few of the football players and choosing between giving in to the demands of the coach, or staying true to themselves. It doesn’t stop there tho. There is a love story as well, there is some philosophy talk and even a fun side story about the tradition of of High School seniors essentially chasing the soon to be freshmen down and beating them with paddles.

Now I am not quite old enough to know anything about what the 70’s was like. I was born after that, but the stories I hear makes it seem pretty accurate. The acting is also amazing and they really capture what many think of when they think stereotypical high school experience. It is one of those cult classic movies people love and there is a reason for it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Chris Rock: Tambourine (2018)

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Chris Rock has always been a favorite of mine in the stand up world. Not only has he always made me laugh but there was always some great social commentary and was usually pretty thought provoking and his newest addition is no exception. There are some parts that when taken out of context sound HORRIBLE and a few will probably make a few people a bit uncomfortable regardless. He however hasn’t lost anything in all these years and any fan of his will also enjoy this one, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Violence in Video Games…Again

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It seems like every so often after a tragedy someone decides its the fault of video games. Before we go any further by the way, this transcends party lines. At one point Democrat Hillary Clinton took her shots at the industry and she wasn’t alone. The original Mortal Kombat was also attacked from what seemed like all sides for what was touted as realistic violence and blood.

This time around however it is American Republicans. Recently Donald Trump also decided to blame violent video games and movies and according to Robert Nardolillo of Rhode Island they actually need a special Tax applied to them, which while it would help schools it would exclusively be used to punish gamers for an alleged issue being caused by games that I will discuss in a minute, but spoiler, science mostly says otherwise.

In a recent study from the University of New York found no evidence to support the claim that video games make players more violent and in the opinion of Jesse Marczyk, Ph.D this claim also holds no water. There is also some simple common sense to this tho. Violent video games are played all over the world, yet these shootings aren’t an issue in every country. Hell it isn’t even an issue in every state tho I promise you will find a copy of Grand Theft Auto in all 50 states. Another study also shows no link between violent games and movies and real life violence.

I do apologize for all the links on this one by the way, I know they can be annoying at times. I do however realize this subject can be very divisive and I did want to share the source of where the claim was coming from in case people wanted to see that for themselves. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you safety and glory.

Punisher (2004)

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While I’m ridiculously behind on my Netflix MCU stuff like Daredevil, Defenders, and most recently Punisher, I’m glad the vigilante Frank Castle is back in the spotlight once again. It always bugged me his 2004 film never really took off. As far as character origins, Punisher’s is good old revenge, plain and simple. Left for dead after a mobster kills his entire family, ex military man Frank Castle declares a one man war on criminals. Simple but satisfying. Thomas Jane was underappreciated as Castle, the movie had pretty decent acting all around. The action scenes were appropriately gory and badass but weren’t flashy. One of the biggest gripes I hear is it was too depressing- no shit it was depressing. I’ve never heard anyone use comical, light-hearted, or whimsical to describe a Punisher comic. It’s not a classic in the genre but it’s still a good, solid action movie that I hope gets more love in time. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

5 Games or Series That Deserve a Remaster, but Won’t Get Them.

Lunar is one of those series many of us remember fondly, but tons didn’t get to play at all. Lunar Silver Star Story was an amazing game, and a remaster for the PS4 would be amazing.

I have mentioned this game a few times on here, and it wouldn’t take much to just up the graphics and give it to us, but sadly the company that made it Camelot Software Planning now works pretty much exclusively for Nintendo, so this one is likely to stay in the past.

The Guardian Legend was a game I played back in the NES and involved flying a ship top down style blowing up ships, fighting a boss and then landing on a surface to fight more aliens before they reach Earth. It got mixed reviews and had possibly the longest passwords I have ever come across but the game was fun, and would be fun to see again as a budget title.

Shining Force was one of the earliest tactics RPG games and was followed by Shining Force 2. There were other games in the series but they varied in game type and quality. Tho oddly enough these were also made by Camelot Software Planning, so these will also probably remain in hiding as they continue to blast out hit titles for Nintendo.

The Phantasy Star series has had numerous iterations and has been on a few collections as recently as the PS3 and Xbox 360 but what the series hasn’t had is the classic Final Fantasy treatment where they up the graphics a bit, smooth things out and give us a proper remaster. I also do not believe this will ever happen, but it would be a great day if it did. Let me know what you guys would love to see, but know we probably won’t. Best wishes and may the gamin gods bring you glory.

Hulk

hulk 2003

So what happens if you a visionary director, a all star cast, a huge budget and hell, even a legendary composer for the score come together to make a superhero film? Surely this was a sure thing, right? I’m sure we all heard the story of Hulk before but here it is as Lee told it. Bruce Banner was a scientist with some personnel issues that crapped on his relationship with Betty Ross; he did some experiments with gamma radiation that went great or belly up, however you want to look at it. His repressed rage manifested itself with the energy, turning him into a savage beast when he gets angry.

Ang Lee, if you ever read this, you tried. I respect that. This movie tries to be a deep, dramatic character piece full of symbolism and depth. It comes off as a bored, pretentious mess. None of the actors really seem to give much of a shit and with the exception of rumble crack-head bursts of energy from Nick Nolte as the villain (please don’t ask me to tell you what villain he was supposed to be, 15 years later I still don’t have a fucking clue who or what he was supposed to be.) Hulk himself is cartoon-ish, depicted as like 10 feet tall and bright lime green. For a movie about a pissed off green dude on a rampage, there’s very little action. There’s comic panel transitions between scenes which become annoying quick and random trippy scenes added through to be artistic but just crap on the mess. I won’t call this movie a shitpile because I can tell you effort was put into this but it isn’t good. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Rainbow Six Siege

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Siege is one of those games I have seen others play, friends have tried to get me to play and I just had no real interest in. Tho this past weekend there was a free to play weekend on both Xbox and PS4, and I had nothing to lose. I decided this would be a good time spend some time on my One X and see what it was like. Graphically speaking the game looked nice. The operators all felt different and each had their own strengths and weaknesses and the weapons all felt different enough to be worth trying different ones out. The game was far from perfect, for example some walls you can shoot through but another wall that is a slightly different color but also made of wood is a no go. I know its a balance issue but until you pick up on this and start memorizing maps its pretty damn annoying.

The biggest problem siege has however is its community. It may be the most toxic and ridiculous community I have encountered outside of Grand Theft Auto 5 online but at least GTA5 has the excuse of its GTA and you are supposed to be a dick. In a couple games playing with friends in casual games people actually wanted to vote me out of the game simply because I was new. I didn’t shoot anyone on the team or anything, was simply new and inexperienced. In a ranked game this would make sense, in a casual game tho?

Which brings me to the next issue. Team killing is a very common thing. Easily in over half the games I played someone on a team killed someone on their own team. Many times its for some reason on purpose by the way. I don’t know what causes this, but its there. The game is fun, and obviously the community isn’t holding it back any. But new people trying to get in should know at times you won’t be welcomed in with opened arms by many. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.