Resident Evil VIII: Village

Resident Evil Village | CAPCOM

There are very few times I’ll eat my words. I thought introducing werewolves and vampires into Resident Evil, a game franchise famous for zombies and strange monsters, was a stretch. I thought thought we were going to get a solid game. I was absolutely shocked what we got and I’m thrilled to say Village is a new renaissance for the Resident Evil…

Years after escaping the Baker family and the Molded under the control of Eveline in Resident Evil 7 (Torsten’s thoughts) , Ethan and Mia Winters are trying to move on with there baby girl Rose, relocated in Europe under the protection of Chris Redfield. One night, Ethan’s whole world is shaken by Chris and he finds himself alone in a terrorized village of ancient monsters under the hand of four tyrannical lords under the mysterious Mother Miranda. Betrayed, alone, and desperate Ethan must venture into a terrifying new unknown to save his little girl…

There is so much I can’t say in this review and I don’t want to spoil. This game has some serious balls with how dark it gets and I have a lot of respect for it there and the level of storytelling they have. I respect the callbacks to 7 and Resident Evil 4 but it has it’s own identity. The gameplay is perfected from 7, adding more varieties of horror with a bit more action but not overdoing it. The graphics and score are beautiful. The story is surprisingly damn good and the villains are fascinating. As a weird bonus, because of the twists in the last act, it made me appreciate 7 more but also 0 at the same time. In the end, Village is fantastic and so far it’s my game of the year I can’t recommend more. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Leviathan

Leviathan (1989 film) - Wikipedia

Miles beneath the Atlantic Ocean, a group pf miners lead by a geologist are harvesting minerals from the ocean floor. During a routine sea-walk, a pair of crew members stumbles upon a Russian sea wreck named the Leviathan. Within the confines of the ship, there were casualties, questions, and a flask of vodka. It isn’t long before the crew discovers it isn’t booze in the flask and not only do the crew members that drank from it die, but suffer a series of heavy genetic alterations, creating a beast unlike any other. Can the survivors not only survive the beast but the crushing sea waiting to destroy them?

Leviathan is a movie I grew up with, and off the bat I have to say it’s a pretty decent B movie. This movie is trying to be Alien and The Thing just underwater and it does pretty decent at it until you get the creature effects. Back in 89, I think the effects were fair enough but today, in 2021, the creature effects are pretty cheesy looking. I do have to give credit though, the underwater scenes and general atmosphere are impressive for the time and have a great sense of claustrophobia. The acting is pretty fair but admittedly Ernie Hudson was my favorite character in the movie and had my favorite line in it. The score fits and adds to the movie in a couple spots. In the end, while not great by any means, Leviathan is a decent B movie worth checking out. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Bar Rescue

Bar Rescue (TV Series 2011– ) - IMDb

One of the very few things I claim as a guilty pleasure is reality TV. Of course, reality TV is never real but it’s pretty fun just to see the shit show for the camera. My all time favorite is Bar Rescue. Master businessman and bar expert Jon Taffer travels the US, saving bars from neglect and failure with a slew of experts. What can I say, I love watching crappy bar owners getting ripped apart by Taffer and seeing how bad is truly bad before the rescue. You will see some gross things in this show, and frankly, it did make me think twice before entering a bar. The show is great for learning new recipes not only for drinks but food as well which is unexpectedly cool. I have to say, in a world of bullshit reality tv, I find myself fascinated where reality and fiction divides; I believe Taffer is a good dude, I believe most of the gross shit in these bars is real, and I absolutely don’t believe all the back door you see is real because- hey there is some damn good camerawork for these private moments. In the end, like most shows of this kind, it’s repetitive but oh so satisfying and I recommend checking it out.

Venom: Let there be Carnage trailer 1

Here it is, the debut of Carnage, a fan favorite gritty psychopath and nemesis of Venom. First of all, again, actual Venom and especially Carnage look great. Everything else looks lackluster. I’m hoping for the best and I know Hardy will give his all but will it be enough? May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Greenland

Warning may contain spoilers I just wanna say Gerald butler can definitely do drama well. So I just finished watching Greenland and man that was the most stressful suspenseful movie I’ve watched in a while. What do you do when out of no where a meteor is blasting through our solar system and the smart […]

Greenland

Ara Fell Enhanced Edition (PS4)

Myself and the guys at Stegosoft Games actually have an odd history that I am 100% positive they don’t know or care about. A lot time ago when this game was about to release back on PC, believe it or not I asked for a copy of this to review and they politely and professionally said no I wasn’t big enough for them to do that sort of thing.

I’m not bitter about that, it’s totally understandable, the funny thing was however, my social media at the time was bigger than theirs. I just thought it was a funny story I would share.

Now for Ara Fell, this clearly retro inspired turn based RPG. The story is of a world above the ground in the clouds. A world where vampires hide in the dark and people live in fear of them starting a war.

The world is full of people and life and places to explore and lore to be found. All this would mean nothing if the combat was awful. Happy to say that is not the case. Every character has a sort of class with moves to learn and be upgraded. They also have set equipment and rather than trying to find new equipment you will be finding the materials to upgrade those items.

There are of course downsides to this JRPG style. The combat can get repetitive and the story while interesting does have all the usual clichès you would expect. But of you are looking for an older style JRPG that feels new, this is worth looking at. It took a few extra years to play this one, and I don’t mind that I waited a bit longer to get the full experience. Worth the time and money. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Road Fury Review (PS4)

Road Fury is one of those simple concept games with simple controls. There are only two options in fact, you can either use the movement controls of the controller itself or switch it in the options to work of the thumb stick/D-pad.

From there it is a simple matter of blowing up cars, collecting power ups, avoiding a few obstacles and killing bosses. You don’t even have to fire weapons, the game does this automatically for you. Just focus on the driving. Collect we much money as you can before you die and use that to upgrade your cars weapons, armor and power ups and do it again. You don’t even restart the game. If you make it 3 levels and die you will start on level 3. Go another 2 and die, restart on level 5.

This doesn’t make the game easy however. I found myself sometimes dying on the same board 6 or 7 times until I had enough money to upgrade my car enough so I could cause enough damage to beat a boss or simply hitting stuff because I wasn’t moving fast enough.

The game does have it’s limits of fun tho. With only 3 cars to choose from, 2 of which need to be unlocked and each far more powerful than the last I found the game far too repetitive around level 50, and I don’t believe there is an ending. The game is cheap tho so that helps. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Adventureland (2009)

I think the weirdest part of this movie for me is seeing a young Ryan Reynolds. Seriously nthe dude hasn’t really aged in the last like 12 years. Did Betty White check out and toss the keys to the fountain if youth to that guy?

Anyway, back to the movie. Adventureland is about a kid that was supposed to go to Europe for the summer and when his dad gets demoted can no longer pony up the money as a graduation gift as promised.

So our college grad James (Jessie Eisenberg) decided to get a summer job to save some money and go off to college in New York to further his education, but before than he falls in love with our cute Emily (or Em as she is called played by Kristen Stewart) that has a horrible relationship with her step mom and works at adventure land to piss off her parents. Coincidentally this is also the only job James can get.

These two hit it off but we soon discover our married local handyman/musician/cool guy Mike Connell (Ryan Reynolds) kind of has this thing with cheating on his wife. By that I mean he does it a lot. This summer with Em.

Connell isn’t exactly a bad guy so much as he is a um…ok so he is a bad guy but he is friendly, but he also never exactly gives James bad advice even when he discovered he had a thing for Em despite the fact he wasn’t exactly happy with it.

Honestly while I would like to say that whole thing is a side part of the plot it really is just the plot. It isn’t a love story however, this is simply used as a focal point to explain how one summer and a change of perspective can change what you see as important and that when things change that doesn’t mean they are over.

James for example loses all the money he saves up for New York and the friend he was supposed to stay with decided to go to a different school. He soon realizes however that doesn’t mean he can’t still go to New York and work his way through school.

Each character has a sort of summer that either changes them or at least makes them examine what they are doing, and it is good for a laugh along the way and that honestly is all I ask for. I can happily recommend this movie. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World Release Date

Today we have the happy news to give that both the digital and phsycal versions of Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World from ININ Games and STUDIOARTDINK will be coming west on May 28th 2021.

The retail editions for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 will be available for €39.99 / $39.99 / £34.99 and include the original Monster World IV exclusively.

I would like to point out there will be a Steam version, however that will be coming a month later on June 29th.

Limited and exclusive physical editions

Three limited editions for Switch and PS4 can exclusively be pre-ordered at Strictly Limited Games. All three editions include the original Monster World IV:

  • The Limited Edition is available for €39.99 and includes exclusive color manual & reversible box art.
  • The Collector’s Edition includes terrific items like the Monster World Map, 2x soundtrack (Original & Remix), Artbook, a Squishy Ball Pepelogoo and more (€99.99). 
  • The Mega Collector’s Edition celebrates the origins of the game and includes everything from the CE and even more fantastic items like the Asha and Pepelogoo Figurine (18cm / 7.1″), Asha Pixel Pin, a Vinyl Sticker for your console and more (€179.99).