Batman: Arkham Origins

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I wanted to talk about this when Christmas was closer because it is in fact a Christmas game, but I think holidays are holidays. So I saw the trailer and was blown away but the cinematic sharpness and come on, watching Batman and Deathstroke face off only to interrupted by Deadshot was amazing. So what happened?..

It’s Xmas Eve in Gotham. Batman is relatively fresh being a vigilante only pumping out a year or two at this point. Most of the police are corrupt as hell and a spunky Detective named Jim Gordon wants to take Batman down as well as the other trash in Gotham. The cruel gangster Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask, is fed up with Batman and decides to deliver an enticing offer to eight assassins to have Batman dead by Xmas morning and the killer will have a shit load of cash. These assassins are Killer Croc, Deadshot, Deathstroke, Firefly, Copperhead, Shiva, Electrocuitoner, and Bane. I loved it so far until one question popped up, and after that I groaned…”Who’s the Joker?” Yep, this entire game boils down to the first time Batman and Joker met, oh and the first time Bane used super roids.

For the most part, Origin feels like a glitchier version of Arkham City with a Xmas skin on it. Without internet, this thing kept freezing more than my experience with the trilogy combined. Not to say there isn’t fun. Fighting is just as fun and many of the boss battles are fun to play. Deathstroke steals the show as probably the best Arkham boss fight to date, followed closely with Firefly. The story isn’t bad on a whole but it becomes apparent a lot of the Dark Knight trilogy found its way into this thing: Joker’s face has been cut, Bane looks and speaks like Tom Hardy’s version, and Batman growls when he talks. Ugh, Batman pissed me off in this game. He ends up being a selfish, know-it-all asshole most of the game; Conroy doesn’t do the voice either, nor did Hamil return as Joker. Baker does a fair shot at Joker, I give him that. I’d say if you loved City, Origins is worth a single playthrough but not much further than that. I ain’t going to trash it but I won’t count it among the trilogy. Best wishes everyone and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

In The Army Now (1994)

This movie has a special place in my heart, not only because Pauly Shore makes me laugh (and no I can’t explain why) but I did my basic and AIT at Fort Sill Oklahoma where parts of this movie were filmed. Was pretty cool to see the places the movie was filmed. Anyway on to why you are here.

The movie is about two losers that join the Army reserves because they really don’t have much choice after they lose their job. They also have no clue what they are signing up for. Besides Paul knows a pool boy, how hard can it be?

Turns out in a time of war in a desert country such as Chad,a water purification unit is highly likely to be called to active duty.

So these two idiots and their new friends from basic, G.I. Jane and G.I. dentist are off to the desert to clean some water and piss off some special forces.

I won’t spoil the story to much for you, the movie is honestly just some cheap laughs like most of Shore’s movies with a story that is decent but hardly anything spectacular. If you like comedies its worth a watch but most people should probably skip it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Deadpool 2 “Wet on Wet” trailer

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Arguably the two most anticipated films of next year are going to Avengers: Infinity War and Deadpool 2, both I’m super pumped for. The first Deadpool was honestly one of the honest to god, truest comic book character portrayals I’ve seen. Well, if the other two teasers for the sequel didn’t prove it, this sure as shit will. Any Deadpool fan knows his love of parodies and whacky antics fused into his badassness; today I can say Deadpool taught me how to paint. Laced through his hilarious parodies of one of Bob Ross’s painting lessons, we got to see glimpses of what’s to come and HOLY SHIT IT LOOKS EPIC! Smartly, they don’t fully reveal Cable or the villain which I applaud them for. I really can’t tell you how pumped I am to get a full trailer but I do commend the trailers we got, now if you excuse me, I got chimichangas brewing :p

Darkest Dungeon (PS4)

Before I played this game I heard A LOT about it… So.. I lied. I heard it was hard and you could buy your hero hookers. I found one of those two statements true…pro tip. Its the hookers.

Seriously tho, the art style is interesting and amazing and the mature story is interesting and actually rather original but I won’t spoil that. And while the game is not as hard as it was made out to be, it certainly is not easy. You have to juggle plenty of heroes and keep your party balanced and trained as well as equipped all while keeping their mental state from going off the deep ending and actually giving them a heart attack and killing them.

All that being said, the game isn’t for everyone. First you really do have to be an RPG fan. Second you have to enjoy a game that has a lot of different things to focus on. And third and possibly most importantly you have to understand characters will die. That really can’t be avoided. The game is designed with that in mind. I imagine people out there have avoided that, but you are supposed to lose characters.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Give this one a shot, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Evil Bong 2: Devil’s Harvest

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Also called “King Bong”, we have the sequel to Evil Bong. Oh boy.So we join our stoners again after Alistair saved them from Eebee, the Evil Bong. Alistair is called by his old friends because they are suffering from bizarre symptoms from getting high like one dude who has constant munchies, another who won’t stop humping shit, and another who randomly keeps passing out. So randomly the dude who delivered the bong in the first one comes and some how we find ourselves going to a mysterious island to confront the ex boyfriend of Eebee the Evil Bong, King Bong and yeah…I laughed my ass off how fucking stupid this movie was but that’s the fun. As I said before in my previous review of the Evil Bong series, don’t watch this expecting a high brow comedy. If you enjoy dumb shit for the sake of dumb shit, you’ll have a blast. I know I did. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Sega Forever ESwat

I honestly never played this for the Sega. I had heard of it, just wasn’t my scene honestly. Must admit it was kind of neat to finally give it a shot. I also will admit I didn’t like it. Nothing wrong with the game. Sound is what you would expect. Controls just fine, looks solid enough. I’m just not a fan of police games or movies admittedly. They all just seem the same. Anyway, by all means give this a shot. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory

Hunger Games

hunger games book Something about the upcoming holiday made me think of the amazing book and the lame ass movie. Yes, I said it, the first movie sucked. Seriously, I almost got me and a friend kicked out of our local movie theater because I was that pissed. I’m going to predominately focus on the book, but oh I will get to the movie at the end.

Katniss Everdeen is a pissed off, quiet, depressed seventeen year old girl living in District 12 in the post-apocalypse of Panem.  Each district provides a service to the tyrannical Capitol that reigns supreme and every year, to prove there might and superiority, they hold the Hunger Games. Two tributes, one boy and one girl from each district are placed in a game for all to see where the only victor is the child who manages to kill and outlive the others. Prim, Katniss’s little sister is chosen but Katniss takes her place alongside Peeta Mellark, a handsome, kind young man who showed her mercy years before in her darkest days. Katniss is a survivor though and skilled with a bow, but will that be enough to survive?

Ok, so I am a huge fan of the book trilogy. I seriously devoured the book page to page when I first read it and still held up after a few rereadings which is impressive. Here is two reasons why I hated how it was adapted: the book was in first person and almost nothing was as I imagined it. As I said above, Katniss is a quiet, introverted young woman so the first person perspective added depth and melancholy where needed; during the movie there were times she acted bizarrely. If you read the book, it may make sense but as a casual movie goer it may make you ask WTF? Next, a lot of this wasn’t how I imagined. Much like an experience with the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the story in the first Hunger Games gave me hard, visceral images without really giving them to me, making me imagine them rather than washing the page in fictional blood and guts. The movie doesn’t show you jack shit but you get a nice assload of shaky-cam. Two huge gripes I have is that for a district riddled with poverty, coal dust, and starvation, our lead actors look pretty damn well fed and ugh- Peeta your damn family can barely afford food but you can gel your hair, bullshit ahoy!  And the second thing, the final monsters got WAY bitched down from the book and on top of that, the CGI effects for them look like shit. I do enjoy the music in the movie and Woody Harrelson is awesome as Haymitch but that’s about all the good I got to say. Please read the book trilogy. Best wishes, may the gaming gods bring you glory and may the odds be ever in your favor.

 

The Orville Revisited

I reviewed this after the first episode or two and while it wasn’t perfect I enjoyed it. But how does it stand up nine episodes in? Really quite well. The show still isn’t perfect and if you don’t like Seth’s other work you or Star Trek in general you won’t much like this one.

That being said the episodes are pretty interesting, the jokes while childish and not always clever are good for a chuckle and the visuals are comparable to anything else on television.

Sadly the shows ratings are pretty hit and miss it seems especially in the 18-49 range https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/the-orville-season-one-ratings/

The real question is, will the show be cancelled or will it get a shot at a season 2? Well thankfully for me the answer is yes there will be a season 2.

http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/seth-macfarlanes-the-orville-1202605463/

With a season 2 in the works now is the perfect time to give it a shot, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory

5 great stories from DC new 52

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The new 52 comic run brought us some cool new ideas as well as introduced me to a lot of new characters I feel in love with and even helped reshaped the way we viewed some of them. Working my way to number 1, here’s my list of 5 favorite DC new 52 stories starting with…

new 52 shazam 5. Shazam (volume 1)- I’m not a magic fan but I do love Black Adam, who stole every panel he appeared in for me. Menacing, intelligent, and powerful, he was a great way to start Shazam’s origin. After reading this, Adam became a favorite of mine.

new 52 suicide squad 4. Suicide Squad: Kicked in the teeth (volume 1)- I borrowed the first 3 volumes of the new 52 a year before the movie came out and absolutely devoured them. I loved a story based primarily of villains kicking ass and spouting dark 1 liners. Also, King Shark rules!

new 52 flash 3. Flash: Gorilla Warfare (volume 3)- I love Grodd. I love the Rogues. This book boils down to Flash and the Rogues teaming up to stop Grodd and his ape army. It’s badass and ends with a awesome fight and a Easter egg I loved.

new 52 aquaman 2. Aquaman: The Trench (volume 1)- Like many people, I never thought into Aquaman much. To quote Batman, “Arthur Curry, I hear you can talk to fish.) But the gorgeous artwork and epic fight got me on board instantly. 1 superhero vs a army of mutated piranha people, what’s not to love?

new 52 batman 1 1. Batman: Court of Owls/ Night of the owls (volumes 1 and 2)- It’s not everyday a great Batman story comes out that has nothing to do with Joker. In fact, this story brings the history we thought we knew deeply into question and not only is Batman and the Bat-family at match by these creepy, damn near unstoppable assassins but they truly test what Batman stands for and that is the sign of a great story.

Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Kerbal On Consoles Finally Fixed?

Is Kerbal Space Program finally fixed? Well not quite, but news this week from their official update at http://kerbaldevteam.tumblr.com/post/167097693084/ksp-weekly-expedition-1 reveals it will be by the end of January 2018.

Now I will admit, I am jaded. The game is fun even in its current and broken state. Waiting over a year for it to be fixed has been very frustrating to say the least, however recently seeing why the wait should be worth it.

http://blitworks.com/kerbal_space_program/

Blitworks was brought in to essentially rebuild the game on console from the ground up and the loud and clear update to it as well. The real question is will this be worth the wait, and will it finally be fixed? Hopefully we will see soon. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.