Opinion – Savior Gaming

5 Games I Can’t Wait for in 2026

The start of the year is usually pretty slow for new games, but it is always exciting to realize we have a ton of new games and news to discover. So here are five games I can’t wait to get my hands on in 2026.

Resident Evil Requiem is the upcoming mainline title in the Resident Evil series, and while it has many people nervous with its splitting the game between two characters and game styles, the action-oriented Leon Kennedy and survival horror Grace Ashcroft, I remain hopeful after the last couple of games.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is making the list because it has a November release date, not because I believe it will come out this year. Don’t get me wrong, I look forward to playing it, but I don’t care to look at the game or news about it. It will simply arrive when it arrives.

Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is a game most of you probably knew would be on this list. I am a sucker for old turn-based RPGs, and Dragon Quest has been one of my favorites since the days it was called Dragon Warrior.

The Severed Gods has a lot in common with Octopath Traveler, but has a much more mature story. A small indie title with big dreams set to release this year, I am hoping this one is a good as it looks. The people developing it are very friendly and very active with the community, which are very good signs.

Steel Artery is a Train City Builder, one I have actually already played during a playtest. It basically covered the tutorial and covered how to build the train and get it running, and let you see how the game works. There was quite a bit to it all, but it was very simple to get into, surprisingly for how deep it was, and getting my hands on the full game can’t come soon enough.

Those are the five games I am most excited for, in no particular order, so best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Happy New Year, And Thank You All

Today, I wanted to be a little sappy rather than give you all gaming news or a review. It’s been a long couple of years for old Savior; some things have gone wrong, and some have gone right. Thankfully, one thing has stayed pretty consistent. My readers at Savior Gaming, while not the most talkative bunch, always show up to read what I have to say. That means more to me than any of you can really know. In a world where I teach people to throw axes ( yes, that’s my real job), I get to come on here and share what games I am playing with you people.

And to all the companies that trust me enough to send me review codes, tabletop games, or even an umbrella, it has been a great year and fantastic to work with all of you. I hope to work with all of you more in the coming year. Stay safe everyone, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Flies Inside

Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and Yippie ki ay motherfuckers one and all! I bet this ain’t what you pictured a Savior gaming Christmas special, but here it is. On a day of love, family, and glad tidings, I wanted to talk about our own Torsten’s book, which debuted back in 2021, and in many ways, is the opposite of everything I just mentioned. So let’s look at The Flies Inside.

Charles Porter’s world has been shattered when his love, Remy Wade, commits suicide. Charles had never seen so many flies in his life. Riddled with guilt and longing, Charles descends into madness, unable to leave his shabby apartment for fear of the Vultures outside, leaving his only company to be the unending hordes of flies that promise him the impossible. But is Charles a victim or simply an evil getting his just desserts?

So Flies is Torsten’s debut as an author, and to his credit, he does do some things incredibly well. The book starts with a hard-hitting opening. The body horror is really damn gross and unnerving at times, and I genuinely wanted to know what the hell was really going on. He said he was inspired by Resident Evil 7 and The Shining movie; I can believe it. As for flaws, well, most of it is in the design of the actual book. There are no page numbers. The formatting is cramped, and the printing is small, so it’s physically hard to read. You can also see where the interior needed more work, as when it was printed, more care needed to be taken. The book is short, at roughly 160 pages. I’m torn on the length; I can see it being better if it were a little bit longer and drew out the relationship a bit more, and developed the pretty vanilla detective investigating Remy’s suicide. In the end, it’s a pretty solid first go at writing a book that I recommend checking out. You won’t find many books for $10 with this much heart despite its flaws. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Deathless The Hero Quest, 5 Things I wish I knew Sooner

Deathless: The Hero Quest comes out today on console. You may have seen my review from earlier this month. I have, of course, continued to play the game, and as you finally have a chance to get started, here are five things I think you may enjoy knowing that I wish I had known a little bit sooner.

1. Go straight into the options menu and find the game speed. You can crank this a bit, and the animations will be faster, but not so fast that you miss anything. 1.5X is game-changing in the best way possible.

2. This map isn’t just for show; you can see mostly what’s coming up, but more importantly, you can skip bosses. They will show up later and save all three for the end until you have better cards, fight them right away when they are weaker, or try to save them until after you heal. I used to fight them as soon as they showed up out of fear of missing them, and this definitely made the game harder.

3. You aren’t obligated to do each character in a row; feel free to bounce around. Yes, you have to finish a run and beat the character’s boss with all 4 to fight the true final boss, but nothing says you have to lock yourself into each character one at a time or in the order presented to you.

4. Dead enemies are shields, and sometimes it’s best to leave their bodies for a few rounds instead of attacking them. In my first few runs, I got rid of them as fast as possible so I could keep attacking. It took a few runs to realize that leaving a dead enemy in the front row so physical attacking enemies couldn’t do anything would leave me free to waste a few rounds playing expensive boon cards or buffs, so when the dead enemies vanished on their own, I was in a much better position to attack.

5. Don’t ignore the shop; there are relics and boons in there that can quickly change your entire game and play style. Relics in general are super important, so don’t pass up the chance to potentially choose exactly which one you want.

Hopefully, these five tips will make your early runs much easier, and my failures will lead to your success. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Anime Umbrella, a Great Gift

Every so often, here at Savior Gaming, I get emails that make me question what I am doing with my life. Usually, it’s about local women in my area who want to meet. This time, it was something that actually surprised me, and that doesn’t happen often after almost 10 years of doing this.

The nice people over at Anime Umbrellas asked if I would be interested in reviewing an umbrella. Now I have always been completly up front with you guys about things like this. They did send me a beautiful umbrella, completly free of charge to check out, that I personally picked off their website. There was no stipulation on which one I could choose,there are no affiliate links or payments involved. You will however notice the pictures have the Anime Umbrella water mark on it. I took them right off their website, this way if you see one you like you can go purchase it. I am not being payed for it, I just enjoyed the product and thought you might like it as well.

Now with that out of the way, lets get to talking about the umbrella. Once again to be upfront, I was not expecting much. It is an anime umbrella, we have all seen these things at conventions or local shops. They usually sell for 40 or 50 bucks, are made from a cheap plastic, and will break as soon as you use them. This is the exact opposite of what is being sold at Anime Umbrellas.

The is the heavy cardboard box it was packaged in

I was greeted with a heavy cardboard box when I opened my shipping package. Yes, it was unfortuantly dented a little in transit, but I can’t blame them for this, it was clearly done in shipping by shipping company. It also means my umbrella arrived safe and sound BECAUSE of this extra care they take. It is still a beautiful keepsake that my umbrella is currently stored in.

Now I was going to post a picture of the actual umbrella I received but truth be told, I am not a fan of having my picture taken, and getting a quality picture of an umbrella is no easy task. Suffice it to say, if you have ever used an umbrella you know what the canopy feels like, truthfully I don’t know what those things are made of and I won’t insult anyones intelligence by pretending otherwise.

The ribs and handle however are definetly made out of fiberglass and stainless steel and open and closes at the push of a button. This all sounds nice, but I am sure you are asking,how sturdy is it? I am sure by now you have clicked on a link and noticed they cost $38.50 (US) and that is a fair question. So I asked myself, how do I test an umbrella? It looks like its advetised, it feels good. So I handed it over to my kid. She is 8, handed it to her and sent her outside and just watched her with it.

Now, I was 100% prepared to lose the umbrella, and I don’t recomened doing that with every child. She mostly just kept opening and closing it because she was amazed by the function. That being said, if it will survive being opened and closed as much in 20 minutes as any umbrella will be opened in a life time while a kid runs back and forth in a yard, its safe to say its pretty well built and will survive normal use. So if you are looking for a gift for a christmas gift for that anime fan in your life, or maybe just want an accesory for that next convention that will start a conversation, definetly check out Animeumbrellas.com Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

5 Games I just Can’t Care About

There are some games that, regardless of how many times I try to play them or how many times I see trailers, I just don’t care about them. Sometimes it is something to do with the genre, even though I recognize they are objectively great games. Others, it’s simply someone associated with it said something stupid, and I don’t want to reward their bad behavior. Either way, here are five games I just do not care about.

Hollow Knight Silksong is a game I tried to play; I even tried to play the original. I have nothing bad to say about either game. This is not me bashing them. They are objectively great games. Silksong might be the game of the year. I just don’t care to play it anymore than I did. I don’t enjoy the genre really, and these games were no exception.

I know I am supposed to love the God of War series, but I just don’t. In the early games, you could beat them by just mashing buttons. In fact, that is exactly how I beat the first one. The later games did get a bit more tactical, but the repetitiveness never wore off for me. Again, I don’t deny they are great games. It is simply a case that they are not great games to me personally.

Most of you will understand without me saying anything about Call of Duty Black Ops 7, for those that don’t, you probably also buy every Madden and NHL game as well.

The whole Virtual Boy thing can suck my..Sorry I try to keep it family-friendly. I do not approve of this. The requirement of needing to buy between $25 and $100 (depending on what you prefer) accessory on top of a monthly subscription to Nintendo Expansion, just to play like 14 games that mostly gave people migraines years ago, is outrageous to me.

Grand Theft Auto VI is, well, let’s be honest be honest none of us care anymore. We are all sick of waiting and the mind games, and the occasional delays, and the supposed leaks that aren’t leaks, it’s them being a tease. Yeah we are all gonna buy it. But I don’t care about the game. I just want to know what day I can buy the game, and I don’t want to hear another word about it until then. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

My Kid Made Me Play Dandy’s World

This isn’t really a review so much as it is an acknowledgement of its existence and an experience. My daughter, like many kids loves Roblox. And of course like any good parent,I monitor what she does so I watch her play these games. She started with things like Daycare Story and Obbys.

Eventually,she came across Dandy’s World. For those that haven’t played it or seen it you play as one of a bunch of different characters and will be attempting to avoid their “twisted” counter parts as you fill machines with ichor.

My daughter loves Pebble because he is “super cute” and I have to admit,it really is. That being said, I can’t deny the game is pretty well made and interesting. Each character has its own stats and abilities that make them pretty unique. They can be further customized with items and skins.

The games only real downfall is that you only start with one character and you need to unlock the rest through a combination of buying them with ichor and in game tasks. The ichor can be earned or bought with robux which unfortunately does encourage people to use real money, but the in-game fast can’t be avoided.

All in all,while I would never play this myself,it was a fun way to spend time with my kid. Best wishes,and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Doloc Town Pastoral Waves Update

RedSaw Games and Logoi Games are excited to announce Doloc Town’s first major update, Pastoral Waves, launches in Early Access tomorrow, August 26th at 10AM CEST/1AM PDT. Expanding the side-scrolling post-apocalyptic farming sim, this update introduces two major systems, Animal Husbandry and Aquaculture, alongside new quests and facilities to make your homestead more lively than ever. Since its Early Access launch, Doloc Town has earned 94% positive reviews on Steam with over 1.1K reviews, earning praise from the community for its cozy yet adventurous gameplay, charming pixel art, and immersive world. With the Pastoral Waves update, players can now dive even deeper into the highly acclaimed world, adding exciting new layers to their farming journey.

Players can now raise animals on land and in water with the newly added Animal Husbandry and Aquaculture systems. Alongside these, the update brings ranching-related buildings, facilities, and a full new ranching tech tree, allowing players to choose the style of farming they want to pursue. A new ranching faction and NPC unlocks early in the adventure, providing fresh quests, main story progressions, and much more awaits to be discovered.

“The Ranching Update is our first big step toward making Doloc Town a truly living, breathing world,” said Fan Yao the producer of Doloc Town. “From tending your crops to raising animals, players can now dive deeper into life in Doloc Town while exploring new quests, factions, and enjoying all the little joys of cozy farm life.”

Key Features in the ‘Pastoral Waves’ Ranching Update:

Ranching & Aquaculture System: Raise land animals, farm fish, and manage resources with new ranching tools and buildings.
New Faction and NPC: Interact with a new ranching-focused NPC from the Tengri faction. Unlock new quests and progress further into the main storyline.
Expanded Farming Tools: Two semi-automatic tools added for easier cultivation, obtainable through new faction quests.
Creature and Plant Encyclopedia: Track all discovered flora and fauna with informative pages.
Enhanced Construction Controller:Move and dismantle buildings more efficiently and quickly rearrange equipment & platforms with ease.
Visual & Environmental Improvements: Refined lighting, color grading, terrain adjustments, and additional environmental modifiers for a richer post-apocalyptic atmosphere.
Quality of Life:Addressed known issues in the current build to ensure a smoother, more enjoyable experience.

Early Access Roadmap

➢ Main Storyline Updates

➢ Even more Sidequests

➢ Gene System for Advanced Farming

➢ Additional Factions

➢ Enhanced Automated Farming

➢ New Map

➢ New Festivals

➢ Favorability Updates

➢ Additional Quality of Life Improvements

➢ Steam Community Workshop Support

➢ And More…

Endless Night: The Darkness Within Steam Beta Review

Endless Night: The Darkness Within is a Beta that was tossed my way by Little Guy Games, which is always appreciated. Now this isn’t a typical review; I won’t be tossing out any numbers or recommendations here beyond whether I think the game is worth keeping an eye on. But if you want a spoiler, it definitely is.

The premise is simple: you play as Jake, a man with a darkness deep inside him. This platformer task has you solving different puzzles, fighting horrific creatures, and nightmares, all in an attempt to help Jake discover a truth hiding somewhere in his subconscious.

Now that all sounds pretty, and most people would think that is interesting, but is the gameplay fun? If you like platformers, then yes. The jumping is very fluid, even at this early stage. Better yet, the hover mechanic is beautiful. Missing jumps never felt like anything other than my own fault.

Is this game going to be amazing? I don’t know it is a bit early to tell, does it have the potential to be? Absolutely. The puzzles are challenging but fair, the battles are fun, and the platforming is top-notch. I can also see this being a sleeper hit for the speed-running community for some reason.

Keep an eye on this one, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Dogma, The Theater Experience

As many of you may know, I have always been a fan of the Kevin Smith movies. I won’t exactly be reviewing Dogma, it’s a great movie, and it is 25 years old. I feel like if you cared to see it by now, you probably would have. What I wanted to talk about was the movie experience as a whole.

I don’t go to the movies often these days, but damn has it gotten expenive. My buddy picked up a large soda and a medium popcorn; these combined cost over $20. This was about the same as a movie ticket. The Regal theater we visited was very basic, and it is one we have been to in the past. Gone were the days of there being movie decorations everywhere. It almost felt like a tomb or a labyrinth where you walk in and can buy some food, then get ushered through some dark paths to a movie screen.

When people discuss the movie industry and the movie experience dying, this theater really showed me why. Going with my friends, and most movies i have gone to see, I go see with @torstenvblog, so it wasn’t who I was with, it has been the same great experience. This time, while the company was great, and the movie was fantastic, the experience itself just felt off. I leave you with this thought: movies and theaters have changed. Do not accept that if you have options, where you live. We have other great theaters near me, but Regal is not one of them.

Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.