Tag: Reviews

Bird Box (2018)

The movie starts off like most movies, a lonely woman finding out she is pregnant. Why this is such a popular starting point I will never know. They always have friends and someone to knock them up so you couldn’t have been that lonely. Either way Bird Box doesn’t waste much time. It isn’t long before a hospital trip for Malorie (Sandra Bullock) sees a woman slamming her head off the hard glass of the hospital window. This is where people start seeing something and killing themselves. Yes, it is essentially The Happening at this point.

The movie is set up almost as a series of flashbacks between when everything started and Malorie’s journey with Boy and Girl to the safety of a new community. Yes, those are the children’s names, Boy (Julian Edwards)and Girl (Vivian Lyra Blair). The bouncing back and forth is actually done really well, at no point are you ever confused as to what is going on or when. Both points are self-contained with the past explaining how Malorie ended up where she is at and the present explaining where she is going, why she is going there and why she chose the manner in which she is doing it.

The movie is entertaining and suspenseful but I do have a few complaints, none of which are the fact that it is essentially The Happening or A Quiet Place as many have compared it to and rightfully so. No, I don’t mind those things. Hell, the Lion King is essentially Hamlet. Stories are often retold. My issue is the many things the movie doesn’t do for example show what is causing these deaths or truly explain why some batshit crazy people are immune to it.

This movie is a love it or hate it situation. It has a 50% on Metacritic for example and a 68% on rotten tomatoes (65 critics 75 fans) and it is mostly from some people saying the movie is amazing and others saying it is a flaming pile of turds. Except for one person from The Root that thinks the movie is about racism, but I think this person didn’t actually see the movie. One of the things they claim they didn’t explain in the movie is quite clearly explained, and some of their ideas are quite the stretch which is sad since the page is usually quite well informed and well written (especially Mr. Harriot)

All in all tho, the movie isn’t all that new or different and each person will view it differently, whether you love it or hate it, or even see it as an inditement about racism in America, give it a watch and see what you come up with then let me know what you think. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Surviving Mars (PS4)

So during the sale on PSN I picked up Surviving Mars on PS4. I loved it on Xbox. Surviving Mars (Xbox One) So I really wanted to see how it stacked up, and this time I had all the DLC. If you want to know about the actual game please feel free to see my Xbox review. The game is pretty much identical, even the looks are quite comparable.

The DLC is also quite nice, giving you more options on what to build, songs on the radio. The DLC also adds a lot of great things and the tutorial is pretty nice. There is a small issue, in fact, this will be the first time I ever say to buy a game but to avoid a certain console. Do not buy it on the PS4. The game runs great, in fact, I really enjoy it. I did not, however, enjoy having to restart the game every time I wanted to play. See when I try to load a game, it would simply crash the game and I would have to restart it. This is apparently quite a common issue. While there are some workarounds the game has been out long enough this shouldn’t be necessary and while I love Paradox and their games, this one on the PS4 is best avoided. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Aquaman (2018, Savior Review)

As a late birthday gift @torstenvblog decided we needed to go see Aqua daddy on the big screen since he was the best part of Justice League (2017) Justice League (second opinion)

Now we all know how I personally feel about the DCEU. Most of the movies for me range from train wrecks to amusing train wrecks. Wonder Woman being the clear exception, but the question remains what does the future hold, and how does it hold up? Well honestly Jason Mamoa and Aquaman may not be the hero the movies wanted, but it is the hero the movies needed.

The movie is a combination of flashback origin story that simultaneously takes place after the events of Justice League. The first 20 minutes or so is Arthur Curry explaining how his parents met and a bit about his childhood. This, however, doesn’t drag on like I expected it to. I won’t lie, I went into this to at some point crash into a crapshoot of a movie that relied on action to cover up a horrible story and questionable CGI.

Around now is when we hit the present time and a submarine being attacked by pirates that have stolen a submarine of their own. It is a pretty cool scene that introduces the man who will eventually become Black Manta. The action here is nice and yet there is a touch of humor. The entire movie is like this in fact and it is something I didn’t know I wanted from the movie.

I don’t want to give the entire movie away, but Black Manta is both a major part of the plot and yet very minor at the same time. You will see him chasing his famous trident and fighting his biggest enemies all in one movie. The movie, however, stands alone. If you have never seen a single movie in the DCEU, you can pop on Aquaman and be perfectly fine.

The 2 biggest surprises here for me were how good the CGI was and how bad the soundtrack was. I hated the music for the movie and truly was the weakest part for me. Regardless any fan of superhero movies (and ladies that like Jason) should check it out. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Cooking Game-Master Chef Kitchen For Girls

The cooking game is a mobile game by Play Spirit Games with quite the simple concept. Cook food, sling soda and wait on customers. It looks pretty great and the sounds are quite nice as well. The game admittedly starts off pretty was. You can make a burger and one soda while customers come in one at a time, occasionally a 2nd will overlap a bit.

As you raise funds however you can upgrade to pour more soda, cook more burgers, toss toppings on them and need to handle multiple customers at a time. The game is challenging at times but fair, and while not really my kind of game fans of this style of game will surely enjoy this one. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Settlers Online

The Settlers Online is one of those rare in 2018 browser-based games, tho it did come out in 2011. The Settlers is honestly an odd game for me, I didn’t much like it but I wanted to. It is a typical builder game with wait periods and all. You will tame a wild island, battle enemies to ensure the safety of the people in your care.

It is essentially a pay to win game for mobile on your laptop tho less pay to win. The sad part is there truly isn’t a lot to even say about the game. The sound and graphics are nice, but nothing impressive and everything else about it is a standard city builder game set in a medieval time period. There are certainly better games out there and most are on your cell phone. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory/

Aftercharge Beta — Gaming with Noobs

So I was recently sent a key to participate in the beta for aftercharge from checking it out on steam the game puts you into 3 v 3 matches of search and destroy with being ramdomally thrown to the side of enforcer or workonics, those are what each side is called. Now I didn’t get […]

via Aftercharge Beta — Gaming with Noobs

Idle Champions Of The Forgotten Realms (PS4)

Idle Champions is just what the name implies, an idle game. You pick a level and your characters will simply walk and fight monsters and collect gold. You can use that gold to recruit and upgrade your heroes so they do more damage. This will let you kill stronger monsters to collect more gold. This sounds like an odd choice for a console game sine with multiple screens on a PC you can let it play while you work or so other stuff and simply do stuff when needed, and I don’t doubt that is what people do.

The game does allow the player to attack with the Circle button. The faster you hit it the more damage you can do. This isn’t why the game is interesting tho. What makes the game somewhat interesting is the fact that where you position your heroes matters. Some give bonuses to everyone in a row, another has a higher attack if nobody is standing in front of him. These are just two of many examples.

At the end of the day, however, this is still a free idle game. Progress at times will screech to almost a halt if you aren’t willing to drop a few bucks. You can eventually get passed it since the game will continue to collect money while you are gone but it can take awhile. The game is fun in an odd way, but only for some people. It is, however, free, so it truly is no risk. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Online Revisited

So after the most recent update and the fix of the in-game economy, I decided to revisit Red Dead Online with a friend that just got the game. Also, thanks for the free money and gold Rockstar. I used it to create a posse. I have to say some of my biggest complaints are still there but we will get to that. The economy feels much better, for example after a couple of story missions and some hunting I had enough money to buy a new gun which before the first update was not at all true. This was huge for me because finally, I could feed me and Thor (my horse) and not be bankrupt.

Tho sadly many of my complaints are still there. Really there isn’t much to do and the stuff there is to do many times is quickly ruined by other players. Hunting is kind of a chore since people will randomly shoot you and your animals despawn and people tend to hand out near the butchers.

Some of the weapons that are locked at higher levels also seem a bit odd, for example, the bow being locked at around level 9 or 10 seems weird considering its the best way to hunt and the fishing rod is locked at an even higher level. So if you just want to hang out with your friends in the world and hunt or go fishing it is not going to be a good time.

All that being said Rockstar has an excellent history of supporting their games and we all know there will be plenty of adjustments and things added as time goes on, and the game is still fun regardless. The potential of robbing banks and trains with friends is still exciting, so we just need to be patient. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Smallville Season 4

Its been a bit since I have done a Smallville Season, and please don’t let this be viewed as an indictment of how the season was in terms of quality. I actually just got really busy with other stuff and simply didn’t get to watch it as much as I would have liked, and I really would have liked to. This season will follow our friends through their senior year of high school as friendships are strained, new relationships are formed and broken and deaths pile up. This season was excellently done but there is one episode, in particular, I want to talk about.

Episode 5 titled “Run” will see Clark and his father Johnathan go to Metropolis for some medical test after his dad’s heart attack when a truck goes out of control. Johnathan is saved from certain death only by the super speed of, not Clark. Bart Allen moves fast enough to not only cut off Clark and save Johnathan but steal his wallet. This will send Clark on a quest to not only find Bart but to help him change his ways. The ending of this episode represents the first time (in this universe) that these two race, and the end is spectacular. Bart promises to stay in Smallville with Clark if Clark can simply catch him and takes off running. Clark gives chase with everything he has and after a minute Bart simply turn around and runs backward and waves goodbye, and vanishes to leave Clark standing on a dirt road to realize while he may be faster than a speeding bullet, he is far from being as fast as he thinks.

This season has quite a few moments that are turning points for Clark that make him question things he has always believed were unquestionably true. Chloe will also discover Clark’s secret, unknown to Clark when his girlfriend takes it on herself to decide he needs people to know. She also keeps this secret even from Clark until he loses his memory. He sadly forgets everything that happened that day when he regains it, and Chloe tells him the amazing thing about him is when he had the chance to start with a clean slate he made all the same decisions except one. When he pushes her that it is important all she tells him is that this time he trusted her.

This season honestly while maybe not the best did an amazing job of making you truly feel for Clark and the burden he carries. Between having to hide who he is and the damage it does to his life, but in the words of Clark, the fact that every moment of his life, whether its playing football, hugging someone or shaking their hand he makes the conscious decision not to hurt them. I have always said the biggest issue with Super Man is he is not interesting because he is pretty much a god. You need to care about Clark Kent and Smallville has done that better than any iteration ever has. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Magic The Gathering Arena

I have a small history with Magic the Gathering. I played quite a bit when I was younger with friends, and by younger, I mean like 20 years ago. So yes, we are going back away. Then I saw a commercial for this and thought why not check it out.

Graphically it is pretty nice, each card is nicely crafted and it is clearly established what each one does which has been a problem in a few card games I have played in digital format. Many times the print is too small and you end up guessing what to do with it.

Another nice thing is the tutorials explain very clearly what you should be doing and what the rules to Magic are in the first place. The game is easy to play and understand in this format and it is quite nice. Tho I will admit it doesn’t really feel the same as holding a deck in your hands and talking to your opponent face it face and sadly this cannot be replicated. Fans of Magic, however, looking for a fix would probably enjoy it and I think those looking to learn would get a pretty good grasp of it, but it is far from perfect. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.