Captain America Civil War (Iron Man Side)

captain america civil war

As many of you know, myself and @torstenvblog will occasionally choose sides for a sort of dual review. Some times we do it for fun where we flip a coin debate style and we take a side. Others we simply disagree. He did a great job last night with Captain America: Civil War (Cap side) and how he felt. I mean he is a complete jack ass agreeing Captain betray a friend over there, but he did a good job. I won’t bore you guys rehashing the story a second time since I will assume you either read his from last night or checked it out prior to getting this far down. No, instead I will focus on explaining why Iron Man was right.

First you got a bunch of super heroes flying around, many with damn near god like powers. Like literally Thor calls down thunder and has a flying hammer he flings around at will. Hulk occasionally snaps out and takes out the military while Iron Man accidentally invents Ultron. Yea maybe that should be watched a little bit.

It goes even further tho. Poor Black Panther and his family FINALLY leave Wakanda and what happens? A bunch of them end up dead when Scarlet witch blows up part of a  city. Who the hell does Captain hates America think he is that he should be allowed to let his team continue to wantonly murder people with incompetence?

Enter Iron Man, finally learning from past mistakes and trying to do the right thing, and yet here we are. Captain sucks at life can’t have his way, sides with a traitor and runs away. All in all tho, the movie is amazing and you can’t help but be entertained. Also enjoy the trailer below, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Iron Man (2008)

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“The best weapon is the one you only have to fire once”-Tony Stark

Ok so thats a bit paraphrased, but still I always liked that one. Tony start, billionaire, philanthropist, all around genius, whats not to love? Well he is kind of an egotistical jackass and it turns out his company is selling weapons to terrorist. Tony doesn’t know that, well until after he is overseas helping out the United States military and captured by terrorist and forced to build a weapon for them. Instead he builds what will eventually become the first Iron Man suit.

The movie is considered by many to be the movie that launched the juggernaut that is the Marvel cinematic universe. The story is great, the visuals spectacular and I am pretty sure when Stan Lee and crew created Tony Stark and Iron Man they did so specifically with Robert Downey Jr in mind.

The only real issue I ever had with the movie was the villain. Obadiah Stone just was never an interesting bad guy for me. Sure he was good enough, but he was just kinda there. The story of a father’s friend trying to take over the company just is no longer interesting to me, and I wish they chose a different route. But as far as an origin story goes, it worked. Most importantly tho with the ending while most heroes hide their identity we get Tony Start just saying yup, I’m Iron Man. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Tera (PS4)

tera

I don’t normally play MMO’s to be honest, a little guild wars, some World of Warcraft and a bit of Neverwinter. Now I know that sounds like quite a few, but I haven’t put a lot of time into them. Maybe 60 hours across them all and that is high balling it. I am far from an expert on the subject.

With that out-of-the-way, I am having fun with Tera. The game looks nice and plays pretty well. Admittedly inside of cities the game does suffer from some lag issues, but that is more annoying than anything that messes with game play. The combat is similar to most action RPG games where you are free to move around and your skills all have cool down times associated with them, all of which is pretty par for the course.

All the MMO staples are here as well, you can get mounts and pets, many that will collect items for you. There is no monthly fee and the game is free to play, as such cosmetics and skins cost a decent amount of money and there is a $15 a month upgrade you can buy that gives you a 100% boost in experience and gold as well as a discount on the micro-transactions.

The story is a bit cliché, starting out next to a special tree. Helping some special kids you quickly find out you are also special and will be chosen to help save the world, of course. It is still quite interesting, but nothing new. With the game being free to play tho on PS4 and Xbox it worth a try even if you aren’t big on MMO’s. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Hits (2014)

hits

Every so often I watch a movie that leaves me wondering what the hell did I just watch. This is one of those movies. The movie wasn’t bad, it was just weird as hell. Katelyn wants to be on The Voice and be a music star. She loves to sing and practices and even borrows money off her dad to get a guy to record a demo to send in, and does some less than lady like things in the process.

Speaking of her dad, he just wants the damn pot holes in the roads around town fixed. One of them is about to become a YouTube star, and it isn’t Katelyn. The movie has its ups and downs, with some fun moments and some serious moments. It also isn’t a great movie and is far from terrible. It simply exist. Dad has some less than memorable rants about the government where he sounds paranoid and Katelyn sounds like the usual stuck up brat. It is however entertaining at times. Realistically tho, there isn’t much incentive to watch this movie unless you are curious, there is simply better comedies out there. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Crusader Kings 2 (PC)

crusader kings 2

I first heard of this game long ago, but not being big on computer games (yea I am a console guy) I never really got the chance to play it. But when it was tossed up on Steam by Paradox for free for a few days I couldn’t pass it up. So I tossed it on the starting kingdom they recommend and went to town on what they told me to do while adding my own thing to which the game allows for. For example they tell you to get married, but don’t really tell you who to marry. Here is a short summary of the first hour of game play for me.

So I start-up my game and fumble thru some menus and read the descriptions and quickly see there is a lot going on, much of it self-explanatory. this makes me happy. The game is constantly moving, days are slipping by. The game informs me I wont be attacked until my character reaches age 40. This is a plus because I have no clue what is going on.  I send my king into hiding just in case. Moments later I discover I need to get married. Time to come out of hiding. But what kind of wife should I get? Do i marry for land? Peace? Alliance? In true Medieval fashion I choose to marry my cousin so that when my uncle dies I can claim his kingdom as my own. I also discover the plot commands and choose to attempt to murder my older brother so I can take his land next door. My spymaster discovers dear brother had the same plan. What a prick right?

Not long after a small rebellion starts, after struggling I figure out how to send my army to put down a few hundred ungrateful peasants. My dear old brother chose this time to attack a neighboring kingdom. Now is my chance to strike, I move my army into his territory. That is when my assassin poisons him. Victory is mine…except I failed to notice I have 2 brothers. I simply moved my self up to next in line for his land, my other oldest brother is now in charge.

As you can see, this game is kind of like a computer version of Game of Thrones. Graphically it looks nice but is nothing special and the sound is solid. But the real genius here is how in-depth it actually is. Do you raise your armies and take land by force? Do you marry off your children and let the generations pass as you take the world thru guile and brains? Some odd combination of it all? The choice is yours, and it is all very exciting. Personally I can’t wait to finish off my brother. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Day of the Dead:Bloodline (2018)

day of the dead bloodline

Day of the Dead:Bloodline is a re-imagining of Romero’s 1985 Day of the Dead, tho it is quite a bit different. While the same general Idea is there about zombies taking over the world and people living in small armed camps that are heavily guarded in order to keep people safe the over all story has changed significantly, and that is actually a good thing.

Rather than trying to do the same thing better they have realized it is hard to beat someone who has already done great, and they have simply tried to be great on their own which is succeeds at nicely. While searching for antibiotics to save a sick girl at a place the doctor used to go to school they discover a legitimate stalker of hers when she was a student that follows her back to base. After discovering he still maintained his human memories of her and that he hadn’t actually turned they captured him and attempted to use him to find a vaccine for the zombie virus, or as they call them rotters.

While it is well-known I am a sucker for a good zombie movie it is also well known I am overly harsh on a bad one. This movie doesn’t fall into either category. You won’t see anything new or exciting here and visually it isn’t anything worth writing about, that being said I can’t honestly say it failed anywhere. The movie was entertaining and the gore looked good and at no point did I feel like I was let down anywhere. It was just a good old-fashioned zombie movie. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Final Fantasy 15 Comrades

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I bought Final Fantasy 15 the day it came out with the season pass. That day I asked myself, why? You hated 12. Seriously, you can read about it. Final Fantasy 12 Review I also hated the 13 series of games. You can’t read about that because it has been so long since I played it that I haven’t written a review. But, I did it, and I loved I loved Final Fantasy 15. I actually got the Platinum for it. Then the DLC came out and I didn’t touch it, not because I didn’t want to I just got side tracked.

My friend then started harassing me to play Comrades with him recently, so I gave it a shot. It starts out with your character pretty much suffering from some sort of amnesia and being told he is one of the Kingsglave. As one of the glaves left in the years between Noctis disappearing and coming back you must keep the power on and keep things running until he comes back.

The game is actually pretty fun, tho a bit grindy as you pretty much do hunting missions to get power to unlock new areas so you can do new missions to power new areas. It’s a typical MMO in that regard really when it comes down to it. It is however fun for what it is and I wish I tried it sooner and it is Best played with friends. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Sonic CD (Sega Forever)

sonic cd

Sonic Cd is one of those games that people either loved or hated and many never even played for the Sega CD, probably because a lot of people never even owned one. I was fortunate enough to have owned one and can compare it to the original. Eventually I will also get around to playing it on the Xbox as well, but for now my cell phone is good enough. It looks nice enough , tho a little weird to play on a small screen. The controls and sound tho are nice. It’s nice to be able to play a full-fledged sonic game on the go and honestly of all the sonic games on Sega  Forever this one runs the smoothest on my phone. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Mortal Kombat X

mortal kombat x

If you are like me you grew up playing Mortal Kombat. The first Mortal Kombat actually caused quite a bit of controversy. The games were always great to me, and so simplistic. The story was easy. War between realms, decided in a tournament. Pick a fighter, win the tournament see how the story ends. Sure according to the actual story there was a definitive winner and an over all story but it was always so much fun. Admittedly I fell off the series for a bit. Sure I played nine at a friend’s house and X here and there but I never really played the story. The combat itself is fluid and graphically its beautiful, of course. It is Mortal Kombat after all.

The story here tho is amazing but weird for me. Sonya and Johnny Cage having a kid? Liu Kang and Kung Lao being dead? All that weirdness being aside the story is compelling well written, possibly the best story in the entire series and that actually pains me to say considering how much I love the rest of the series. Mortal Kombat X is a must play for fighting fans everywhere. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Let Me In (2010)

let me in

I watched Let Me In more on a lark than any real interest in watching another vampire movie. After the Twilight movies every one I watch just seems to be trying to hard to reinvent the wheel rather than just improve it. Let Me In however is a rather nice surprise. The movie is a heart wrenching story about a young 12-year-old boy being bullied at school for being quiet and a bit odd back in the 80’s. He has no friends really, and is a rather quiet scrawny child.

One day at night he meets a 12-year-old girl, at night of course. As they strike up an uneasy friendship things get worse at school. The movie continues and as their friendship grows so does Owens confidence. Abby however seems a little off in the world as they visit the arcade, and doesn’t eat candy or really anything.

Owen will eventually learn to defend himself and that Abby isn’t quite as young as she appears, tho we never learn how old she really is.  The movie isn’t even a horror movie tho there is plenty of death. Abby does drink blood, even kills a few people. Getting bit by a vampire but not killed still results in becoming a vampire, as shown when she is interrupted and later when the person turns the victim is shown bursting into flames in the sunlight as a nurse opens the curtains at a hospital. Vampires are quite traditional even needing to be invited inside or risk death.

The movie won’t be for everyone admittedly. It has a lot of down time much of which wasn’t really that great. Others will find the friendship good enough and worth watching, for me I prefer a little more action. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.