Opinion – Savior Gaming

Tomb Raider (2013)

Remember that time when everyone ran out of ideas in the late 00s, mid 010’s and we kept getting gritty remakes no one asked for? Torsten remembers. The Tomb Raider reboot found it’s way into my staggering backlog as did its sequels and I haven’t played them mainly because I assumed they would be Uncharted knockoffs- but edgy! Was I wrong?

Young archaeologist Lara Croft is part of an expedition to a island in search for relics about an ancient sun princess. A freak storm destroys her her ship, leaving her and her crewmates stranded on a island full of militarized zealots aiming to resurrect the princess. Can Lara overcome the odds, save her friends and escape?

Ok, let me be frank, I wasn’t invested in the characters or plot worth a damn. The game wanted me to take it seriously but I couldn’t. Mostly because of the gratuitous, over the top action scenes that made me wonder if this rendition of Lara Croft was a Kryptonian or was a X mutant the whole time. On top of that, some of Lara’s facial expressions during the few scenes that are supposed to be heavy or intense are unintentionally funny as hell. The characters are ok, nothing special, though Mathias, the main antagonist is a cookie cutter villain. I wasn’t expecting an unforgettable villain like Dutch from Red Dead Redemption 2 or Vas from Far Cry 3 but I wanted something more than his generic ass.

Speaking of Far Cry, the game feels like Far Cry, Uncharted, and a lil bit of The Last of Us gameplay went into a blender with a Michael Bay movie. The game is fun. Combat is smooth but simple. Platforming is pretty well done except some of the set pieces caused a few bullshit deaths. The survival instincts holds your hand bigtime when it comes to combat, puzzles, item finding, and platforming. Its a nice palette cleanser after weeks playing SystemShock. My biggest grievance with the gameplay is this game feels like a time capsule of every PS3 era gaming trope I can think of: QTEs galore, forced multiplayer, COD health regeneration, gritty paintjob on a existing IP, voice and motion controls no one asked for, blood splatter all over the screen after each stealth kill, and hunting akin to Assassin’s Creed 3 without purpose.

In the end, the Tomb Raider reboot is a fun product of its time. It’s not great but a fun, disposable playthrough worth checking out if you find it on sale. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

System Shock (2023)

We begin our story as a hacker getting busted by the Trioptimum Corporation after failing to steal tech. Edward Diego, the man in charge, offers us a deal: face the wraith of the company or do disable the safety protocols on Shodan, the AI for Citadel Station. After disabling the AI, we find ourselves on Citadel. Shodan has gone insane. Most of the crew is slaughtered, many reconfigured into cybernetic monstrosities, the machines have gone rogue, and genetic experiments are running amok. Can you escape the wrathful clutches of a wannabe god?

The original System Shock is a pioneer of immersive sims, heavily inspiring games like Bioshock and Prey. I was thrilled when the remake dropped, having never been able to experience the original.

First, Shodan is easily my favorite part of the game. Terry Brosius is absolutely iconic with her cold, hateful delivery. Shodan has become one of my all time favorite game villains. She is a all encompassing presence on Citadel with multiple Doomsday schemes to eradicate humanity. The game is a lot more eerie and unsettling than I thought it’d be, even more so having Shodan’s face following you, and her cameras eyeing your every step. The enemies themselves are haunting. I love he game’s overall cyberpunk sci-fi horror aesthetic.

Gameplay is very old school in some of the best and worst ways. This game does not hold your hand. You had better pay attention, take some notes, and be ready to dig through every nook and cranny for audio logs and data sticks for what the hell to do and where to go. Like the horror games of old, there’s a hell of a lot of back tracking but I found it fun. The environment tells a story and every floor I found either something fascinating or terrifying. Most of the combat is FPS which is solid, even awesome at times. It was pretty awesome beheading Temu Borg with a laser sword or setting mutants on fire with dragon breath shotgun rounds. There are plenty of puzzles and the cyberspace segments which give me a retro Star Fox meets 80’s space shooter vibe.

While there’s so much of this game I love, I’d be lying if I said this game didn’t piss me off at times. Their were times the game’s objectives are too abstract and for the second half I had to lean real heavy on Youtube to finish the game. Much like Dark Souls dying has big consequences. Autosave is unpredictable and more than I want to admit, it made my life way harder so save often. I also love the game’s retro approach but dammit a few small quality of life improvements would’ve done wonders like having your total ammo on your HUD, not just what’s in the clip. Automatically reloading would be nice too. Like every game, there are pain in the ass part, System Shock’s are FromSoft levels of brutal. I played the game on all the easiest difficulties possible and still took me 36 hours because of the back tracking and difficulty spikes. It wasn’t always fun but it was fulfilling much like my time with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

In the end, I loved the System Shock remake and I’m willing to say it’s up their with Resident Evil 2 (2019) and Dead Space (2023) as far as horror game remakes go. It’s absolutely not a game for everyone, its hard as hell but well worth a play. May the gaming gods bring you glory, insect.

Hellraiser: Revival release date trailer

Holy hell the horror nerd in me is freaking out. I love Clive Barker’s work. I’ve read the The Hellbound Heart at least a dozen times. Hellraiser is one of my favorite horror movies, and even Hellbound: Hellraiser 2. I’m hyped Doug Bradley is voicing Pinhead. The visuals are gritty, gory, and kinky as they ought to be. This might be the first game n a long while I buy day one. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Alien: Isolation 2 trailer

Hallelujah! Alien: Isolation was my nightmares come true in the best ways. I heard whispers of a sequel but I didn’t believe it until we got the full reveal. We’re stuck on a dark, dreary planet being hunted by the Alien. So far I enjoy what I see. We don’t get much information, which I’m glad for. I’m absolutely going to follow Isolation 2. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Resident Evil: Veronica remake reveal

We finally have our next RE remake after the banger that was Resident Evil 4 Remake . Personally its Veronica as opposed to the original or Resident Evil 5. I can already tell just from the reveal trailer it’s going to be a wildly different game in a lot of ways. The set up isn’t the same and I know damn well they are redoing the Ashford lore. Overall I’m pretty pumped and I’m sure it’ll be a good time (even Resident Evil 3 (2020) wasn’t all that bad.) May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Until Dawn 2 reveal trailer

Until Dawn was one of my biggest surprises of the PS4 era. I loved the story, the atmosphere, and there was passion behind it. I never really expected a sequel to Supermassive’s masterpiece. Upon seeing this, I’m just very confused how this is a Until Dawn 2. I feel like this might’ve been a project they slapped the title on to generate buzz. It doesn’t look bad by any means, just hardly what I think any of us were expecting. Hopefully we’ll get a better idea what’s coming soon. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Advice for a New Game Journalist/Blogger Part 1

Every so often, while I screw around on Twitter, yes, I refuse to call it X still, or Facebook, or that toxic hell pit we call Reddit, I come across someone asking for advice on how to get into reviewing games and how to make videos, or even podcasting. Sometimes it is even a real-life friend, and I always felt weird answering these questions because who am I to give this advice? I have always been upfront about the fact that I don’t make my living doing this; this is my passion project, so to speak. I simply love gaming.

Lately, however, people in my life have been pointing out that while I don’t make a living doing what I do, I have come a long way for someone who does this as a hobby. 10 years ago, I was a guy reviewing games and movies I owned, and I wouldn’t send a company an email because I didn’t think anyone would ever send me even a small indie game. When I finally did, I was mostly ignored. When I wasn’t, I was told I didn’t have the viewers, or they didn’t know who I was, and good luck. Now I’m not exactly being sent AAA titles or anything, EA and Rockstar aren’t exactly kicking down my door to review their stuff. They don’t need to either.

I have gotten to review games like Disgaea from NIS America, all of them that have come out in the last like 8 or 9 years, actually. I got to work with Sega and review Two Point Hospital Review (PS4), in fact, some of the very same companies that once told me no, now send me emails asking me to cover their games.

So my first piece of advice in what I hope becomes a series of weekly advice posts is this. Stay the course, and measure success in your own terms in a reasonable way. Maybe it is getting your first review code, which you can’t get unless you ask. Maybe it is your first 100 views or your first 1000. Whatever it is, don’t let other people define it for you, or it will eat you alive, and you will fail. Remember, sometimes success is simply holding the line and taking a step forward while everyone else takes a step back. Feel free to drop a comment, hit me up on Twitter, or shoot me an email if you have a question about this, and I will do my best to help. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Cabin Game reveal trailer

There’s a few rare times I see a trailer for anything and truly have no idea what the hell went on. This game is one of those cases. I got a bit of a PT vibe meets Cabin in the Woods feel which could be pretty cool. Some of the imagery was interesting. Honestly this one of those games I’m pretty invested in just to find out what the hell is actually happening. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

How My Review Scoring Works

Recently, I was asked how my scoring system works. This is a fair question, considering I always consider myself quite transparent. For example, plenty of companies send me review keys, and I always reveal this, and those are the games I give real scores to. I feel like this helps people know the difference between a game I am simply playing and a game I am reviewing. A fail-safe, if you will, if you happen to miss me thanking the company for the game, you will see the score. If you see neither, you know I am just playing a game. Also, I’m adding random ferret pictures for your enjoyment.

Also, I judge games based on what is expected. I will never compare a $20 indie title against a $60 AAA title. I didn’t review these games as I was not sent copies, nor are these the scores I would give them. But IF I said Final Fantasy 7 Remake was an 8 and Vampire Survivors was a 9, that does NOT mean Vampire Survivors is a better game; it simply means Vampire Survivors is a better game than what one would expect from an indie game at that price point.

Now, how did I come up with the actual numbers? Basically, my scale is 1-10, with a 1 being the lowest score possible. I have never been sent a 1, but a 1 would have to be quite literally unplayable and have no redeeming qualities. This would be the type of game that proves God is dead, and this is the weapon that killed it. It would have to crash constantly, have no story, or make no sense, falling through the levels. It is hard to describe how bad this would have to be.

Now in the middle is a 5. This means the game functions as intended for the most part. The game has no or an acceptable amount of issues that don’t prevent someone from enjoying the game. I have been sent a few of these. The concepts in the game are nice, but they aren’t done better or worse than anything else out there, and the game does nothing interesting, but it also doesn’t do anything wrong. It is a fun playthrough, at least it will be for some people. You are probably better off waiting for a sale than risking your hard-earned money.

I have never been sent a 10; these games are damn near perfect. Anything wrong with them is being nitpicky to the point that it is meaningless to bring it up. These are the holy grail of gaming, and very few of these exist in my opinion. One of my biggest pet peeves in the game reviewing community is how often people toss this score out there. Almost every time I have ever bought a “Perfect 10” game, I have been left feeling lied to. Some deserve it absolutely; Elden Ring and Red Dead Redemption 2 are legendary, for example. Baldur’s Gate 3, for as good as it was, was not a 10. Phantom Pain was also not a 10. Anyway, I digress; that is essentially how it works. Depending on how bad or good things like glitches, music, and graphics are, or just how fun the game is, determines where I move it. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory. Also, I hope you enjoyed the ferrets.

The Florist-Gardens of Death gameplay trailer

So once again I came across a game channeling some old school horror vibes ala the Tortured Souls series. Admittedly this game gives off a huge, classic Resident Evil 1 vibe with the scenery. What I think is cool is the idea of killer plants and plant monsters. In that regard I was getting a lil bit of Poison Ivy’s section of Batman: Arkham Asylum feel too. The tank camera is a lil bit of a con but if the game is smoother, I’ll be ok with it. In the end, I’d definately would keep on eye out for it when it comes to PS5. May the gaming gods bring you glory.