Opinion – Page 39 – Savior Gaming

Sea Of Thieves First Impressions

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After playing the beta for Sea of Thieves I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the full game. Now I need to be clear, this is not a full review. I have got some play time in but obviously not nearly enough to truly give it a full review. I do have some thoughts on it tho. First the fun factor of the game depends deeply on who you end up playing with. With the right group hours can easily fly by. With the wrong group the game is actually a chore with team mates being it the way, slamming your ship into rocks or all around being a pain to be around.

The game also can be a breeding ground for toxic behavior. People will attack and sink your ship when its not protected, this would make sense if you had treasure or if there was some nearby but in my time I have noticed more often than none its done for no reason at all.

These things aside when the game is fun, it is a lot of fun. The simple act of sailing alone requires knowing when to turn and how, but with a group one person keeping watch for ships and islands, and another keeping an eye on the nap while another steers the ship makes traveling a joy. And the threat of storms that move and can potentially wreck your ship if you aren’t careful, but also is not likely is amazing. There is also a kraken floating around but admittedly I have not seen it myself.

There are also various different skeletons to fight during your adventures each with different strengths and weaknesses, for example one made of metal that swords can’t harm or one partly made of plants that regenerate health when the sun is up.

All in all for fans of multiplayer games there is fun to be had and you can set sail alone, but there other players at times can ruin the adventure. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Is Subscription Gaming Dangerous?

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Soon Sea of Thieves will be releasing, and if you have Xbox Gamepass you will have options on how you play it. You can either buy it the traditional way or if you pay $10 a month you can play it with the many other games. But, is this a dangerous way to do things? See year after year DVD/Blu ray sales drop little by little as Netflix and Hulu get bigger and bigger. We are at the point some movies never even come out on DVD, they simply go to a streaming service and that is it. Can this happen to gaming? A few years ago all games came out on disk and digital. A few years before that All games came out on disk and a couple on digital. Now days some actually only come out on digital, its simply cheaper.

However, in the future will it be more cost efficient for companies to simply charge money every month to let you play the games they choose for as long as they choose? When you don’t own a game you have no rights to it and they have no responsibilities to you. They don’t have to worry about you pre-ordering games or you getting upset and boycotting over pay to win practices. you will pay your money either way every month as Sony or Microsoft pays them every month to let them have their game. While now it seems cool to play a new game this way, is it possible this is how gaming in the future will be done and the days of buying games are slowly going to die? Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Sea of Thieves Open Beta Impressions

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So this weekend I played the open beta for Sea of Thieves on the Xbox one. I played for a bit with random people while drinking whiskey and discovered that the random British people I was teamed up with did not find it funny when we were being shot with cannons and I yelled “I thought you Brits knew how to use a navy.”..So yea, sorry about that my randomly assigned crew mates.

My first ship sank when the guy parked it next to the shore and a storm moved in. I don’t think it is fair to blame me. My second ship sank when the before mentioned British fellows didn’t know you needed cannon balls in your inventory to reload the cannons and we got sank to the bottom of the sea, that one was partly my fault. My third ship was me sailing a galleon alone and I slammed it into an island. Completely my fault.

My longest play time however was with a real life friend and random guy, Charlie. We spent hours sailing the high seas, finding treasure and selling it at outpost. Finally we took to some real piracy, attacked a few ships, most of which escaped. One we boarded and sank when he was alone and had no treasure, in a move of total pettiness. Then it happened. Out in the clouds we saw a skull with glowing eyes and we felt the need to investigate. We arrived at an island with a small fort crawling with skeletons. We fought them valiantly for 20 minutes or so when a 2nd ship arrived. We died a lot but you always respawn on your ship. Unless someone shows up and sinks it. Then you go back to a neutral port and start all over again.

The game is fun, and looks beautiful. The ship combat is amazing tho the person to person combat is a bit stiff and had a tendency to glitch at times with people suddenly appearing behind you. This was a minor issue tho and one that you can easily live with. The beta itself had no real story to speak of, but the fun was in creating your own. Was that ship chasing you? Should you swing around and fire? The choice is yours, and when the game launches there is sure to be a lot of fun to be had. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Violence in Video Games…Again

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It seems like every so often after a tragedy someone decides its the fault of video games. Before we go any further by the way, this transcends party lines. At one point Democrat Hillary Clinton took her shots at the industry and she wasn’t alone. The original Mortal Kombat was also attacked from what seemed like all sides for what was touted as realistic violence and blood.

This time around however it is American Republicans. Recently Donald Trump also decided to blame violent video games and movies and according to Robert Nardolillo of Rhode Island they actually need a special Tax applied to them, which while it would help schools it would exclusively be used to punish gamers for an alleged issue being caused by games that I will discuss in a minute, but spoiler, science mostly says otherwise.

In a recent study from the University of New York found no evidence to support the claim that video games make players more violent and in the opinion of Jesse Marczyk, Ph.D this claim also holds no water. There is also some simple common sense to this tho. Violent video games are played all over the world, yet these shootings aren’t an issue in every country. Hell it isn’t even an issue in every state tho I promise you will find a copy of Grand Theft Auto in all 50 states. Another study also shows no link between violent games and movies and real life violence.

I do apologize for all the links on this one by the way, I know they can be annoying at times. I do however realize this subject can be very divisive and I did want to share the source of where the claim was coming from in case people wanted to see that for themselves. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you safety and glory.

5 Games or Series That Deserve a Remaster, but Won’t Get Them.

Lunar is one of those series many of us remember fondly, but tons didn’t get to play at all. Lunar Silver Star Story was an amazing game, and a remaster for the PS4 would be amazing.

I have mentioned this game a few times on here, and it wouldn’t take much to just up the graphics and give it to us, but sadly the company that made it Camelot Software Planning now works pretty much exclusively for Nintendo, so this one is likely to stay in the past.

The Guardian Legend was a game I played back in the NES and involved flying a ship top down style blowing up ships, fighting a boss and then landing on a surface to fight more aliens before they reach Earth. It got mixed reviews and had possibly the longest passwords I have ever come across but the game was fun, and would be fun to see again as a budget title.

Shining Force was one of the earliest tactics RPG games and was followed by Shining Force 2. There were other games in the series but they varied in game type and quality. Tho oddly enough these were also made by Camelot Software Planning, so these will also probably remain in hiding as they continue to blast out hit titles for Nintendo.

The Phantasy Star series has had numerous iterations and has been on a few collections as recently as the PS3 and Xbox 360 but what the series hasn’t had is the classic Final Fantasy treatment where they up the graphics a bit, smooth things out and give us a proper remaster. I also do not believe this will ever happen, but it would be a great day if it did. Let me know what you guys would love to see, but know we probably won’t. Best wishes and may the gamin gods bring you glory.

Lucifer 1-3 Impressions

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As some of my early readers know, or friends even know I enjoy the Television show Lucifer. It happens to be based off a DC comic book character and I decided to check it out. Lucifer is 75 comics long as far as I can tell and I am about 3 in, so It is safe to say I really can’t give it a proper review so this is just my first impressions so far.

First the Lucifer character himself is very different than the one presented in the show. He really isn’t as whimsical or easy going, he is actually kind of a dick. Funny, but still a dick. He also seems to have some sort of a weird plan going on, he isn’t simply solving crimes because he is bored. There is actually something going on in the background that is building towards something.

Mazikeen is also vastly different. She wears a mask and so far speaks a strange language that at times almost seems English, but isn’t. She is still a demon from hell. The comic is very adult, there is nudity and violence and doesn’t shy away from things such as Neo Nazi youths beating up a gay man and shoving a bottle in a certain lower orifice.

So far I am enjoying the series even tho I am by no means a comic guy. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Is there a best Star Trek Series?

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After doing all the Star Trek movies a long time ago, I considered reviewing all the t.v. series, which hey I suppose if you guys want I can still work on. But the real question is, is there a universally best? My father for example would swear up and down the original series was the way to go. Don’t worry, i’m not here to bash any of them. I loved them all, except the new discovery which I haven’t seen because I refuse to subscribe to another service and I hate the idea of simply stealing it.

The original series is just that, the original. It was a bit rough at times. Plenty of over acting the special effects were primitive, but for its time it was pretty damn original. The next generation however has everything the original did, but did it better and by many is considered the best of the t.v. shows.

Deep Space Nine however took us off the enterprise and on to the space station of, you guessed it, Deep Space Nine This one actually took a different approach where the story was less from episode to episode and had a more traditional approach with an over all story. DS9 also took place at the same time as TNG, in fact many of the characters make cameos in both shows and O’Brien and worf actually become permanent parts of DS9.

Next we have Voyager which honestly was pretty much Lost in Space. Do to some jack ass species of alien the ship gets ripped to the opposite side of the galaxy and they journey home. While doing this they will run into new species, some hostile some friendly, and discover new things about the Borg.

Last but not least we have Enterprise. This show is about the early days of Earth exploration, before the Federation even existed. This show was quite interesting but for many reasons never seemed to take off.

But was there an objectively best? I don’t think so. I truly think it comes down to the old fashioned age argument. Older people love the original because they saw it first and it was new. Others in between saw it in reruns but fell in love with TNG, others may love the over all stories of DS9 and Voyager. But at the end of the day it comes down to people loving the world itself. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Top 5 Final Fantasy Games

Yesterday I did the top 5 games not named Final Fantasy, so today its top 5 Final Fantasy games. These are also in an order for once but because hey why not.

Number five happens to be Final Fantasy 5, the game is terribly underrated game. The job system was great, the cast of characters were fun and varied including a female pirate pretending to be a man. and the quest to save the crystals from Exdeath was fantastic.

Final Fantasy 10 seems a bit low on the list, and hey i’m sure some of the higher ones will come across as nostalgia but I will explain my logic later. FF10 was actually fairly linear but it worked out, a big part of why is it went with the story of the summoner being on a pilgrimage. They did a great job at making you feel like you had to be in a hurry without actually rushing you around. The game may not be perfect, but damn if it didn’t come close for its time.

Final Fantasy 7 may actually be the most influential title in the series. Before that the series and JRPG’s in general were kind of a niche hidden secret of the gaming world in the west. Actually many people in Japan thought the western world was to stupid to even play them properly at one point. Then this game showed up and exploded and opened up a whole world to people. The game graphically hasn’t held up great, but the materia system is top noth, and to this day is still one of the best systems in a game and the story is fun. Tho, as you can tell I don’t believe it is the best in the series.

Final Fantasy 9, what many believe is truly the best Final Fantasy game. In fact most of the time I hear people arguing between 7 and 9, and while 7 is great and far more influential 9 is just the better game to me. The story is better, most of the characters are better. The only real flaws is the materia system was better and the final boss of 9 made no damn sense at all, he just kind of showed up. But I am sure many of you are wondering, if 7 is number three and 9 is number two, how the hell do I choose number 8 as number one? Well I didn’t. In fact the best Final Fantasy doesn’t have a number.

Yes, Final Fantasy Tactics, the War of the Lions is to me the best of the Final Fantasy games, and easily the best Tactical RPG ever made. With dozens of classes and monsters to choose from with plenty of characters and an amazing story about the tragedy of war, betrayal and the secrets of history. It is actually a great tragedy the game never got a true sequel, tho there are some theories that Final Fantasy Tactics and FF12 are connected as well as Vagrant story, tho its not really the same thing. All in all however Final Fantasy Tactics is one of those games I would love to see remastered again for the PS4. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Top 5 PS1 RPGs, Assuming Final Fantasy Didn’t Exist.

If you were to make a list of best RPG’s for the Playstation one, or even of all time you couldn’t do it without a Final Fantasy game showing up on the list. Hell you probably would have to include at least one of them in the top 5 if we are being honest, whether it be 7 for the influence it had, or 6 because for some reason I don’t understand people think it was amazing or even 9 because it was actually as good as people think 6 or 7 was. But what would a list look like if we pretended it simply didn’t exist? Well here is my top 5 list, for once from 5-1 as if Final Fantasy just didn’t happen.

Beyond the Beyond is a title many people didn’t seem to play and as such doesn’t get much love. Its also a typical RPG in every fashion. Your home kingdom is attacked, you set out to find your dad, you flee the country, you end up as the chosen one to fight evil. But with how its presented and it turns out better than most on PS1.

Long before Persona 5 practically perfected balancing a home, school and dungeon life and before 3 introduced the concept, we were given Persona. Persona didn’t introduce the idea of an adult philosophical RPG, but it certainly was the most in depth and best done at that point. With the power of the PlayStation starting to hit its stride we were challenged to ask which one is the real you, and even shown why you don’t mess with crossing dimensions.

Grandia is one of those games I don’t even know how I ended up with. I think my mom thought hey hey this looks like the stuff Matt likes and my dear dead dad went ” hey this chick has green hair” and bought it ended up as a Christmas gift one year. Be that as it may it wasn’t long before I was calling Justin an idiot for not knowing Feena was in love with him and wondering how the hell I was supposed to win that fight against Gadwin, which it turns out I wasn’t supposed to.

This game was damn near number one, but you will see why it wasn’t. Breath of Fire 3 has multiple endings, great battles, character customization to rival many games even today with its master system and ability to learn moves and transfer them to others and it even had dragons. Add to that an amazing story about a war between dragons and a god and a possible betrayal and its no wonder this thing is remembered so fondly.

Anyone that knows me knew Suikoden was going to be number one, that being said while I prefer one over two, they are pretty much interchangeable to this spot. Both are amazing games, with amazing stories and their sprite characters hold up well even in 2018. Both involve wars in their respective kingdoms that take place in the same world, just different kingdoms. In fact you will visit the kingdom from one in 2 and many of the characters show up in multiple games in the series. Regardless collecting the 108 stars of destiny is an amazing feat to undertake that is both manageable and challenging at the same time. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Happy Birthday Torsten

Today our good friend Tors gets a year older,and for those wondering yes he was born on a Friday the 13th which may explain his love of horror movies. Or not, who knows. Either way to the best friend a guy could ask for, Happy Birthday bro. Sadly like most of he must work today which made me laugh, mostly because I spent an hour hunting down a small tree climbing rodant in his house that didn’t exist yesterday. Best wishes bro, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.