Opinion – Page 28 – Savior Gaming

Project Highrise: Architect’s Edition

As always, time for a full disclosure moment. I did receive a review copy of this from Kalypso Media for which I am extremely grateful and honored. These things are pretty limited so being chosen is pretty cool. That being said, lets get to the nitty-gritty of it all.

First the game is a business sim and tower builder. I played it on PlayStation 4 but it is also available on Xbox one and the Nintendo Switch as well as Steam and comes with the Las Vegas DLC as well as the content packs for Miami Malls, Tokyo Towers, London Life and Brilliant Berlin.

Graphically the game is not the greatest looking however the graphics are perfect for what they are trying to represent. Watching the characters go about their daily lives in their offices or apartments is a pleasure. The sound falls into the same category with elevators making a satisfying ding or hearing the slots on the casino floor. None of the noises ever feel annoying or out-of-place. The sound and graphics aren’t the best out there, but they fit the game, get the job done and are quite enjoyable.

The game play however is where this game is at its best. You have plenty of options to choose from when you start from money to the background and even the amount of space you have to work with. And for those that just want to build there is an option from the start for unlimited money which had led to some impressive things being built by people who aren’t me as you will see soon enough.

My first go was an office setting. I started out by building a small entrance to welcome people and a place to buy some lunch.

From here as a small profit started to come rolling in I added to it quite a bit with more offices.

Each office requires certain things to be present in order to move in and stay happy, for example a water service for delivery or phone line. As you advance they want more expensive services like copying services. For me the different types of buildings you could go for actually acted like a difficulty setting with offices being pretty easy. Next I set up an apartment complex.

This was actually a bit more difficult for me as they want more stuff from the very start. Still quite manageable tho, as you can see I managed to set up some parking and stores. This was really my only issue with the game. You can’t actually just set up an apartment complex or office building as you will need to add stores and restaurants as well since some of the other building options are locked behind having an assortment of those.

Another major thing people should rightfully be worried about are controls. Many games like this simply do not control well on console, which makes sense and is understandable. It has far less buttons and no mouse. I am happy to report however the controls work just fine. Obviously they are most likely better on PC, but I never had any issues controlling or building things.

Now for the end, is this game worth your hard-earned cash? Short answer, yes. This is honestly the best tower building game I have ever played and I happily sank many hours into it and will sink many more. If you like the management genre this game is great and allows you to build many interesting things. Of course the game isn’t perfect and if you aren’t a fan of the genre this game won’t hold much for you, but if you have been waiting for this style of game to hit console there is no reason to wait, 9/10 must buy for fans of the genre. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

As always if you want to support the blog and pick the game up you can do that here at Amazon.

PS4

Switch

Xbox

Seven In Heaven (2018)

Seven In Heaven is a Blumhouse production and damn is this movie weird as hell. Two teens at a party are not so willingly sent into a closet to play Seven Minutes in Heaven, and end up in an alternate dimension. Think more realistic Chronicles of Narnia. As soon as they get to the new place they find themselves in the same house, at a similar party, yet much more violent. Jude(Travis Tope) is kind of the class nerd and June (Haley Ramm) is sort of dating the class bully that most people don’t like. These two will be stuck on the other side, and things aren’t pretty. In fact Jude is accused of stabbing the class bully Derek (Jake Manley)

I don’t want to go to in-depth with the story since honestly all of the joy in this movie is in figuring out what the hell is even going on in the first place. Not that the movie is confusing by any means, it just leaves you to figure it out right up until the very end and has a few twist and turns. The acting and visuals are nice and honestly I see no real reason for the low scores the movie has on IMBd as I rather enjoyed it myself. If you have the time check this one out on Netflix. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Spoilers are Sadly Happening, but not here.

First I feel obligated to say this, this is my opinion on the fact that spoilers are being out there, this is not a place where you will find those spoilers. So if you want those spoilers, keep looking. If you are worried about them, you are safe.

As with all big releases, leaks and spoilers happen. Now to an extent what people count as spoilers is a bit weird and vague, like a map really isn’t a spoiler. It tells you nothing of the story or what happens when you get there, it is just a map. Some generic game play also isn’t a spoiler. Sadly like all other stuff if you know where to look other stuff is being leaked, some of it clearly a joke like ” Arthur kills john” which we know isn’t true. However this trend of ruining big triple A titles really needs to stop, especially considering chances are the ending will most likely be everywhere by the time the game launches, much like the ending to GTAV was. So as always everyone, be kind, don’t ruin the damn game, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Friday the 13th, Produced by LeBron James?

Yea you read that headline right, ScreenRant is reporting that none other than LeBron James is in talks to reboot Friday the 13th as producer. This may seem odd but with him being heavily involved with Space Jam, his career most likely winding down and the new era of horror in full swing this is quite a smart move on his part if its true. It will be interesting to see where if anywhere this leads. Best interest and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

G-Star 2018

Coming up in November is G-Star 2018 in Korea. For those of you like myself that are not familiar with it, here is a link with some info. G-Star. G-star seems to be similar to American E3 with events set up for the press and companies to show off upcoming products as well as having an E-Sports event.

I actually heard about the event when i was asked by a representative of Intragames if i would be attending and if i would be interested in visiting their booth, which sadly for me being in America that really is not a realistic trip for me to be making as much as me and @torstenvblog would have loved to have gone. Mostly I am sharing this so that hopefully others can keep an eye out and learn about another even that features all kinds of games. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Netflix Cancels Luke Cage and Iron Fist

Recently it was announced that Netflix canceled both Luke Cage and Iron Fist, and many are worried that Jessica Jones may be next. (who knows by the time you read this it may already have happened) There are plenty of ideas as to why this may have happened, lack of interest maybe. I however feel it’s a different reason. See in late 2019 Disney will launch its own streaming service and in a world that already has two major services in Netflix and Hulu and many other smaller ones Disney will need a way to draw in customers.

There are a number of ways to this, for example they will obviously have plenty of their own Disney movies but they also own Star Wars and the Marvel. What better way to bring in customers to a fledgling streaming service than with the already established Marvel shows being revived or the entire MCU being available at launch?

I also would not be surprised to see them open the Disney vault and put their classic cartoon movies on there like Bambi and Aladdin. Disney is a power house and has a huge amount of resources to draw from and they will likely abuse that fact. For the time being losing your favorite show sucks, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they come back. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ron White:If You Quit Listening I’ll Shut Up (2018)

Ron White is back with his 2018 stand up,and honestly i wasn’t expecting much. Not that I don’t love his work it has just been a few years and he is now over 60 years old and how long can a guy make jokes about being a raging alcoholic? Turns out at least one more show. Ron is as funny as ever covering such topics as the death of his ex wife’s divorce attorney, gay marriage, and building a new house.

The show starts off with a quick flash back to his past shows which is a nice trip down memory lane. He also makes a few reverences to the past in the show, but happily this isn’t a nostalgia act. It isn’t his best show, but it is interesting and you will laugh. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Suikoden Series

The Suikoden series is one of my all time favorite series. The series involves the 108 stars of destiny and true ruins. Each game tells a different story of a different ruin, but they all have that much in common. The combat is a typical turned based as you can see below in Suikoden 2.

This is in no way meant to be a review or an exhaustive explanation of the series. No that would require me to take each game one by one as they each deserve as they each have their own strong and weak points and they each have their own individual stories, tho it is worth pointing out that many characters do appear in multiple games. This was simply a quick over view to point this out. For years there has been a movement to get this series going again, literally it’s called http://suikodenrevivalmovement.com/. Well recently in a random and surprise move as reported by numerous websites and you can easily go there and verify it yourself, for the first time in 4 years the Japanese Suikoden website has been updated. For more on that visit https://gearnuke.com/konami-relaunches-suikoden-portal-website/.

This is exciting for fans of the series because it signals Konami may be interested in reviving the series. The only other real explanation is possibly a hack job but I have my doubts on that. Regardless for fans of the series there is some hope, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

For those that are interested in the games and helping us out,here are some links for the Suikoden game series on Amazon.

Truth or Dare (2017)

Truth or Dare is a movie that has a pretty cool premise. A group of teens around Halloween rent out a supposedly haunted house to have some fun. Back in the 1980’s a different group played truth or dare and all but one person died, and now these people decide to have a few drinks and play themselves. Sounds like good fun until it turns out the house really is haunted, and the ghost is using this normally harmless game to kill people.

In reality the movie isn’t very good. Sure the acting is fine and so are the effects, but the movie is just trying so damn hard to appeal to millennials. The story itself makes no real sense, with plot holes and contradictions. Towards the halfway point the find the original survivor ( yes they leave the house) and are told it in fact isn’t a ghost but an evil entity that isn’t limited to one place and that is why the game has continued. However, they have to go back to the house since that is where the game started and it has to end there.

The movie has moments of being fun and entertaining but for the most part the movie is simply a train wreck and it is sad because potentially the movie could have been great, it simply needed to stop trying to be cool for a certain age range and try to be the movie it needed to be. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Why DLC/Microtransactions Aren’t Going Anywhere, and it is our fault.

In gaming today you will basically certainly see the debate about DLC and in-game transactions. Is it good, is it bad? Should it count as gambling? Shouldn’t companies sell complete games? In my day we got the entire game and alternate costumes were awarded for doing stuff! These are all things we have heard before. Hell many of us have probably said them. But why do these things exist? We all know its money.

There are good aspects to it tho. For example games have been $60 for years and haven’t gone up in large part because of DLC and in-game transactions. It allows companies to continue to profit off a game after release and more importantly profit off used games as well. This allows them to deal with the very small, if any profit margin from selling games at $60 when they should probably cost $70 or $80.

Another good aspect is stories can continue, The Witcher 3 for example had DLC that extended the life of the game for over 100 hours probably. It allows new weapons and enemies or even game modes to be introduced. Don’t worry, I understand there are bad things and I will get to them next.

The down side of things however is it also encourages companies to bombard you with offers for stuff or even to leave things out and sell them to you later. Not every company does this, but to say it doesn’t happen is insane and naive. Another issue, as we have seen in Assasin’s Creed Odyssey, is them selling you experience boost to level up faster and it is not the only game this has been seen in. I have heard from numerous people “Yea but it is a fun grind so its ok” but that is hardly the point. The point is they intentionally designed the game to sell you that experience booster. Just because some people are cool with that grind doesn’t mean it wasn’t designed that way or that others aren’t going to buy it.

They aren’t the only company that does stuff like this, they basically all do it. EA is pretty much always getting the brunt of these joke because of their over indulgence of doing things like this. You also see a ton of games selling skins and loot boxes to the point you can’t even turn many games on without them saying hey come buy one, in game advertising is becoming rampant.

The truth of the matter is this will never go away, and the reason for that is honestly ourselves. The fact is we spend billions on this stuff a year, and that is why it exist in the first place. Simple economics is, if there is a demand for something someone will supply it. If there is no demand, the supply will try up. Now obviously you will never convince millions of gamers to stop buying things they want, so you will never get rid of DLC or microtransactions.

Clearly some companies have gone to far, and I do miss the days when I bought a game and got everything in one neat little package, but this is the world we live in and it does help keep the cost of games down. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.