A Way Out

a way out

Here is the concept for  A Way Out, 2 guys in prison must break out, go on a revenge mission. There is a small catch here tho. This game must be played with a friend, and both in-game characters have very different personalities and ways of doing things. Every so often the 2 players that must choose one of the 2 characters will have to pick which idea to take.

Leo is more of the loose cannon hardened criminal type. He meets things more head one.  Vincent on the other hand is more down to earth and thought out. That isn’t to say he isn’t willing to go off the deep end a bit, at one point you end up torturing a guy together.

The game play itself is smooth and the game while not the best looking game is still quite beautiful, I had no complaints in this department, especially at the $30 price point it’s offered at. The game does run a little on the short side, but this is most likely so people can play through multiple times with various people. The game is actually one of the few games I have played that required 2 players that I honestly did not mind the requirement. Also the fact that one person can download the free trial then play the full game with someone who owns the game is fantastic in itself. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Sun Tzu: The Art of War

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One of my favorite books of all time even when I was younger is The Art of War, by Sun Tzu. The book is famous for being a military strategy guide discussing topics that range from how to use a spy properly to why capturing enemy supplies are worth far more than your own. However the book is also used by many other people in life. For a time many business people all over the world have read it for guidance.

Looking into the history of the book tho it becomes even more interesting.  Sun Tzu wrote what even today is considered by many the greatest military book ever written. Its thirteen chapters weirdly don’t focus much on actual combat but how to make plans. Born around 545 BCE Sun Tzu was a Taoist that believed combat was at times unavoidable, but was the most dangerous thing the state could undertake and as such should be done only as a last resort and only when plans were meticulously planned.

What is also surprising to many, he may not have existed at all. More on that here. Some believe Sun Tzu was actually a title of a man in the Sun family ( I once read maybe Sun Wu but admittedly can’t remember where or how reliable it even was) and many people over the years have added to the book and left it under the name Sun Tzu.

Regardless of who wrote the book, over 2,500 years later lawyers, military generals, sports coaches and people in business still use it today. It is very much worth reading. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Mermaids (1990)

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When I was flipping thru the movies on Netflix and Hulu my girlfriend saw this one and wanted to watch it. Now being an idiot..I mean good boyfriend, I said sure I will watch and review that. I mean I overlooked the fact that Cher was in the movie, plus Winona Ryder and Bob Hoskins are always solid. So this had to be good right?…right?

No, no it didn’t. First Charlotte (Ryder) is a very religious 16-year-old girl in the 1960’s, all good. She is also discovering herself in a sexual manner. Pretty normal. But this has been blown WAY over the top to the point a stereotypical teen boy would be telling her to chill out. And this is legitimately something that happens in the movie, she pursues and sleeps with her much older and adult bus driver.

Mrs. Flax (Cher) is the worlds worst mom, first off she encourages the actions of her daughter,and has more emotional baggage than a large international air port. Seriously she has a great guy in Lou (Hoskins) and she does everything in her power to drive him away. At one point he even turns an entire room in his house to look like the bottom of the ocean so the youngest daughter can know what it feels like to sleep on the bottom of the ocean ( she is a swimmer and loves the water and ocean) and Cher treats him like garbage and even accuses him of attempting to use her kids to get closer to her like what he did was some nefarious scheme.

The movie did however have some funny parts, but all in all just wasn’t very good. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Look Who’s Talking Now

look whos talking now

The last of the look who’s talking movies, and in my opinion the best of the group, tho also the most odd. In the first movie, Look Who’s Talking (1989) we met Mikey and in the second, Look Who’s Talking Too we met Julie. In Look who’s talking now, we meet their dogs, and yes we will hear their side of things. Rocks ( Danny DeVito) and  Daphne (Diane Keaton) Come home when both the parents decide to be the cool parent and bring home a new family pet

Like the other look who’s talking movies, this one was predominantly met with mixed reviews by both critics and fans with what seems like younger people and parents enjoying them and others not liking them so much. The story also revolved around typical family problems where one again there is almost a divorce. The movie honestly does nothing new from the last two, they just did it better and added animals to the mix. If you enjoyed the last two you will probably like this one, if not you probably won’t like this one. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Look Who’s Talking Too

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Look Who’s Talking Too is obviously the sequel look Who’s Talking, and sadly it is kind of the black sheep of the three movies. This time around Mollie (Kirstie Alley) and James (John Travolta) are married and having a little girl, and she is now added to the children we hear from.

We also get to deal with potty training issues, a separation of Mollie and James, the murder of a stuffed Penguin and even the first steps of a new little girl named Julie. (Roseanne Barr) As far as family comedies go, the movie isn’t bad. In fact it has its moments and is even quite cute and pretty well written. The problem is older adults that don’t have kids usually tend not to like those types of movies, so much so the movie was actually demolished on Rotten Tomatoes by both critics and fans, tho fans did rate it higher. This is another one of those movies some will like it, but most probably won’t. Its cute, but it’s for a very niche market. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ice Sharks (2016)

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Oh man oh man I love a good B movie, and this one starts out fantastic. Looks solid but still corny and the sound effects are nice. The acting is pretty good as well, but too to. You can still tell this isn’t an upper tier movie. As you can tell, this one takes place in the arctic a research facility. Some of their instruments start to either malfunction or  the ice is melting real damn quick, they aren’t sure which it is but we know it’s the ice melting. It isn’t long before the sharks start attacking. The movie is pretty good right up until around half way when the facility sinks to the bottom of the ocean.

Seriously the sharks use their dorsal fin to cut around the center and it floats out to sea. They then use propane tanks and a blow torch to scare the sharks away damaging the little bit of ice they are on and sinking them. The movie falls apart there pretty much completely. My girlfriend stopped watching it and even I was just hoping it would end. This is a movie best avoided my friends, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Look Who’s Talking (1989)

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I first saw this movie years ago, so seeing it on Hulu kind of brought me back to my childhood. I don’t even remember how I saw it first saw it, probably my mom honestly. The movie is actually a very simple concept. A woman has an affair with her married boss, woman gets pregnant, woman has baby, woman meets a guy in the gab while labor weird friendship ensues. What makes this movie weird? The movie actually takes place mostly from the narrative stand point of the kid. As the movie takes place you hear the internal dialogue of the kid. His thoughts, his wants etc.

The movie sounds kind of weird but it’s actually a very well written and funny comedy. Kirstie Alley and John Travolta play their parts amazingly and while both had careers before and after this was one of the first movies I saw them in, tho Bruce Willis was equally amazing I will always associate him with Die hard. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Surviving Mars (Xbox One)

surviving mars

This is one of those games I pondered, should I or should I not buy this game. Then I saw it had three versions. Which one do I buy? Do I risk buying he base $40 version, loving the game and having to buy all the bullshit later? Or do I buy the biggest version and risk blowing money on a game I hate? So like any irresponsible gamer I picked up the Deluxe edition with some of the cool extra stuff . Turns out it splitting the middle bit me in the ass a little since it turns out I loved the game.

I started out pretty excited since I have always enjoyed the genre ever since I played the original Sim City on Super Nintendo. So I loaded up, set it up and picked a landing site. Upon landing I started to set up some basic resources. Cement, metal and electricity.  It wasn’t long until water and air followed and then I finally called in some living humans to settle the red planet. That is when it all went down hill. the pipes carrying air to the dome busted and everyone started to suffocate. After rushing to find some extra metal to fix the pipes, because I ran out, I managed to save them. Then an electrical wire went and they lost everything again. As I called Earth requesting more and more supplies in an attempt to catch up I never really managed to do it as my early bad decisions and even worse timing continued to kick me when I was down. Time to restart.

So I pick a new landing site, My rocket hits the ground and I immediately get to work. This time every resource gets its own dedicated depot for storage. I start minding mining concrete and metal as fast as I can while calling in multiple resupply ships. As I build my first dome I also focus on building more air and water than I need and double up on pipes and power lines so if one goes out everything keeps functioning. This time goes much smoother and as my colonist arrive and my second dome goes up and starts moving thing faster things start getting easier.

The game looks beautiful and the music is great and varied with each station having its own fun little commercials. I also wouldn’t classify the game as hard but it can be a challenge, but the game does punish you for your mistakes and one disaster can have a cascading effect on colony as a whole. The game is very well done and any fan of the genre would be wise to give this one a chance. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Brothers Grimm (2005)

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This is one of those movies i am not 100% sure how to score.  The movie from a critical stand point is not good. The story is all over the place, much if it making no real sense and doesn’t actually line up with the actual Brothers Grimm Stories themselves. The special effects even for the time were quite corny tho much of that was intentional admittedly for a story purpose.

Here is why I am torn, with Matt Damon and Heath Ledger the acting was great and the movie was simply a fun and entertaining experience and really that is the point of a movie in the first place. The plot holes aren’t distracting, tho they are clearly present. The characters never go thru any real building, they simply are what they are, which for the most part is fine since they are solid characters anyway. The best way of putting it is if you are looking for a deep, meaningful and insightful experience this is not the movie for you. However, if you want something fun and entertaining, this movie is an excellent choice. Best wishes and ma the gaming gods bring you glory.

Dark Souls 2 Scholars of the First Sin

dark souls 2

A pretty long time ago @torstenvblog covered Dark souls 2…oh my Tho I myself never really got to play it. That changed recently when I got a pretty sweet deal on it for Xbox. And I have to say having played it on PS4 a little and my Xbox One X visually there is a substantial difference. That being said the game looks pretty damn good either way. But it is a bit dated seeing as how since than we have has Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3.

@torstenvblog hit the nail pretty much right on the head when he said some of the bosses were amazing and some were pretty much the same as bosses from the previous game. Some are even just boring as hell mob bosses that serve no real purpose other than to be annoying. The difficulty bounces between why did I bother and who the hell beats this without getting hit? All things considered the game is fun, but it is far from being the best in the series. In fact I would go so far as to say it is probably the worst in the Soulsborne series, tho that still makes it the worst in one of the best series ever created. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.