Goosebumps: Horror Town (Mobile)

Goosebumps Horror Town is a mobile game quite similar to Family Guy the Quest for Stuff or The Simpsons Tapped out. You build a city based on the books and show. Each character has small activities they can do to gather coins and items to help level you up and unlock new buildings and unlock new characters. The story is, of course, made for the game and of course it rather nice for fans of the series. You can play the game entirely for free, tho to be honest many of the more notable characters, Slappy, for example, require premium currency. You get some of this playing the game of course but it does help to use real money.

The game also relies mainly on making you wait for actions to complete so you can use it as a nice way to waste some time, but all in all if you aren’t willing to spend some money to get a few of the classic characters you won’t ever get them and this sadly is the way for most mobile games like this. Fans of the series will enjoy it, but for most people, it is just kind of there. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Mo Amer: The Vagabond

As some of you may have noticed I have been back on my stand-up kick lately, so today I was checking out Mo Amer. I hadn’t seen him before or even really heard of him beyond seeing him as I scrolled pass on Netflix. The good news is, I am happy I decided to watch this. This Arab American Muslim uses his experiences to make people laugh in unexpected ways. Admittedly in today’s world, many people would see some of his jokes as inappropriate, for example, he talks about how his brother Omar decided to become a pilot or that he has a nephew named Osama and he can’t really use his name at Walmart and has to use fake names. Which he finds it unfair because all the terrorist attacks from white people haven’t forced people named Timothy to change their name.

Again obviously with context, these jokes make more sense, but if reading about this strikes a nerve with you, maybe you shouldn’t watch him. However, I enjoyed it including his story of going back to Kuwait, the country his family fled when he was 9 to do a comedy show for the troops. For me, it was a pretty cool perspective from a comedian. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Star Trek Fleet Command (Mobile)

Honestly, there isn’t a ton to say about this game, which saddens me. As a Trek fan, I was hoping for something special and fun, and it is a decent enough game. What it is tho is a free to play base building game with both PVE and PVP elements to it. It is also just like any other more or less pay to win. You can obviously grind out the materials and such to grow strong enough to play, but you will never compete with the people sinking money into the game,

The one thing I did like tho was while you are waiting for the inevitably longer and longer times to tick away you can use your ships to kill CPU enemy ships or eventually other human players. It was a pretty nice touch but it isn’t enough to really change it from just being more of the same. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Breath of Fire 3: Under Rated Classic

Breath of Fire 3 was the first Breath of Fire on the original PlayStation. It is the classic turned based JRPG that like every Breath of Fire tells the story of Ryu and the dragon clan. The characters are well written, the transformations were amazing and for their time were quite original. The battle system also lets you examine enemies during your turn and certain moves could be learned this way if they used them.

The game is loved by many but it surprises me how many people actually prefer Breath of Fire 4, a game I feel is far inferior in both story and battle system. From the very start of 3, your attention is drawn into the young dragon that becomes a young boy that is found by other orphans Rhi and Teepo.  Later after they get into trouble you struggle to find them and end up with a princess and guardian. The story explodes from there but always the quest to find your friends Rhi and Teepo continues. Breath of Fire 4 never really had that for me. At no point was I truly attached to the characters or really cared what was happening to the world like I did 3.

For me, Breath of Fire 3 is one of the greatest games of all time, yet for some reason, people I know continue to look at 4 as the better game and I don’t understand it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Beyond the Beyond, The Game I Enjoyed That People Seem To Hate.

download.jpg

Beyond The Beyond is a game I played as a kid. I liked the characters and the turn-based battles and just the graphics at the time. The game isn’t perfect and is well known for having an insanely high encounter rate, dungeons that were long and insufferably annoying and even had a character that spent half the game cursed and was pretty much useless. All of this is true, and I enjoyed it anyway.

Don’t get me wrong, all the criticisms of the game are warranted and have merit. You really couldn’t walk 6 feet without a battle and god forbid you wanted to simply attack with Sampson, the guy I mentioned was cursed the entire game. The story was also cliche and cliche comes. A child turns out to be the chosen one, fights a great evil that is controlling an empire. Nothing special at all, yet I still loved the game, and I can not truly explain why. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Civilization VI (PC)

With the new expansion coming soon, called Gathering Storm, my friend got quite excited and wanted someone to play with. So with Black Friday sales abound I get an email on steam, turns out my friend decided I was the one to play this game with. I was a huge fan of Civ 2 and Revolution and I put a little time into Civ V so I am hardly a noob in the series, but this one is quite a bit different.

First, very few upgrades are built in your cities. They now are built by aptly named builders, units with limited uses. Districts are built in tiles around your city, just like farms and such would be. Another addition is governors, each one has their own abilities and skills to help run your cities.

Outside of a few of these finer points, the general idea of the game is actually quite the same. Build units and towns, grow your empire and win certain types of victories tho now you can win a religious victory. For me personally, I have enjoyed this Civilization game more than most and I suggest picking it up. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Samson Meteor Mic Review

Lately, as many of you know have been toying with the idea of starting a podcast with @torstenvblog and as such, I had to pick up a microphone. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it tho. Enter the Samson Meteor Mic. It cost less than $100, comes with everything you need to hook it up to your computer an record with no installation required. The legs are adjustable and stable. I have had nothing but good experiences with it. Obviously, there are better-sounding equipment on the market but if you are looking for something to get you started and are on a budget, this may be the one for you. I am also including a video as a 2nd opinion and an Amazon link in case you want to pick one up and help us out at the same time. Amazon Meteor Mic

 

The Forest (PS4)

The Forest is a survival horror game much like many others. It is also sort of like the TV show Lost. You crash on an island with weird stuff going on and you have to survive. The twist here is the cannibals running around that steal you son right after you crash.

Your mission here is to survive on the island, unravel its mysteries and find your son. Sounds easy right? Well, a lot of things sound easy. But can you find food and water while building a shelter all while avoiding people that want to eat you?

The cannibals are smart, they will watch you and occasionally strike but not always right away. Sometimes they will circle around and try to catch you when they think you have left. They also will many times retreat as opposed to dying and will even come back with friends or simply not attack at all if they don’t have superior numbers.

The cannibals aren’t the only enemy, the weather also plays a part. The rain will soak your clothes and getting cold is also an issue. I won’t cover all the dangers, as some of that I will leave as a surprise for those playing the game. As a huge fan of 7 Days to Die Revisted I have to say this game is probably better. At the very least graphically it is, tho it is not perfect. It does have the occasional frame drop and rendering does take a second on occasion in heavily populated areas but none of this is too bad, tho admittedly the game is pretty dark even if you pump the brightness up. Regardless, the game is well worth the $20. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Dragalia Lost

Dragalia Lost is a mobile game from Nintendo with quite the good story. It works quite simply with the touchscreen, simply use your hand to guide the character and taps to attack and choose abilities. The story itself is a tale of wonder and dragons as you search for a stone to keep the fiends at bay. This is why it pains me to say I can’t honestly recommend this game for everyone.

The issue is quite simple. The game is huge, but it doesn’t start that way. You start with a small download, then get hit with another one that is about a gig. Then each mission hit me with another. None as big as the gig but the game takes up quite a bit of space, space that many either don’t have or won’t want to part with. Added to this it does have the usual buy stuff with real money to get better stuff, but by now with a free game, this is expected. You do get a full party for free tho and they were quite useful during my time with the game. Regardless, if you don’t have plenty of space you are willing to part with this is one you will want to skip. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Sega Heroes (Mobile)

Sega Heroes is a new mobile game from, of course, Sega. It is a puzzle game much like many of the other puzzle fighters out there. You match colors to make your characters attack the enemies, all of which are Sega characters.

download (3).jpg

The game is fun and quite honestly easy to play, my only real issue is if you want to collect all the heroes, it is going to cost you some money. Now the game is free, so obviously they need to make their money, my issue is you can’t really choose which characters you buy. I would love to collect all the PhantasyStar characters and I would even be willing to drop a few bucks on them, but I can’t simply buy them, I have to hope that is who I get and that is an issue for me. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.