Magpie Gamer

Story: There is a story to this game but it is murky. From what I could gather: Space people wielding cannabis-powered guns, travel to a desert planet where they are worshiped as gods by the native people for introducing cannabis to the planet. At some point everyone has to evacuate to Earth because sand worms have become too much of a problem. The protagonist may be a native that rediscovered the portal, or they may be a time traveling space-person. It's unclear. Gameplay: The player starts out as a marathon runner caught in a sandstorm (likley inspired by Mauro Prosperi ). They take shelter in an old building and emerge to an alien desert with Earth animals. It's an odd mix of survival game and walking simulator that tries to imitate the feeling of being stranded in the desert by having nothing but sand all the way to the horizon. Landmarks are rare. There is no compass. The only save points are the ones the player crafts themselves, and the map is a blank sheet o...

Review based on patch 1.29. I went back to Borderlands 2 after finishing 3 just to compare the two and couldn't believe how much better Borderlands 3 looked and felt. Gun-play is smoother and punchier. I loved the design direction, new customization options, and being able to switch between elements on the same weapon. Each brand has its own gimmick and enemies have more of a reaction to getting hit. The environments are gorgeous and more varied compared to its predecessors. I had put off playing Borderlands 3 for years after hearing about its abysmal characters and poor performance. Apparently Gearbox managed to salvage this one with patches, although my play-through wasn't without a few hiccups here and there, and at least one crash. After producing a legendary villain like Handsome Jack, I knew whatever came afterwards probably wouldn't be as good, and the BL3 twins are... unique. They are purposefully written to be cringe streamers that went from a life of compl...

Werewolves Within is a 2021 American film loosely based on the video game of the same name; itself an adaptation of the social deduction game Werewolf . While the game was set in medieval Europe, the film is set in the modern day United States. Filming was done in New York State's Hudson Valley, near the town of Woodstock. The historic Fleischmanns Yeast family estate served as the Beaverfield Inn. Due to the movie's meager budget, they were not able to afford the license to the U.S. Postal Service's logo. A made up "National Mail Service" was used instead. Spoiler Warning: I am going to give a synopsis and my opinions at the very end.

Intro: This is a series on old dinosaur movies. Specifically, I am looking at anything released before 1990; before Jurassic Park revolutionized cinema with its CGI animation. I will not be covering anything "dinosaur-adjacent", such as kaiju monsters like Godzilla or the creature from The Giant Behemoth, which are perhaps inspired by dinosaurs, but clearly not meant to represent any real world genus. I will also be skipping over films that are heavily dependent on "borrowed" footage from other films, such as the Valley of the Dragons / Prehistoric Valley . Also known as: The Valley Of The Mists The Valley Where Time Stood Still Gwangi's Revenge - The Valley of the Dinosaurs Runtime: 1 hr 36 min Background: The Valley of Gwangi is a 1969 American film and the last dinosaur-themed movie to use stop-motion effects by Ray Harryhausen. Willis O'Brien, who was responsible for the effects in 1933's King Kong, had planned to make The Valley o...

I am still very new to Fire Emblem; Three Houses was my first foray into the franchise and initially I wasn't interested in Engage at all. The gameplay in the trailers looked fun, but there didn't seem to be a storyline and the new art style was too ostentatious for my taste. First impressions are often wrong though, and after watching some YouTubers playing Engage, I decided to pick up a copy as an impulse buy. Gameplay: One thing Engage does really well over Three Houses is balancing the various units and encouraging diversity on the team. Armored units have better movement for example, while magic users are good for support. The various infantry units each have unique traits and roles now, such as halbediers having guaranteed follow-ups while heroes give the party damage boosts. The weapon triangle from past titles makes a return: sword > Axe > Lance > sword; Martial arts beats thief, mage, and archer. The triangle further discourages class homogeneity...

Rune Factory is a fantasy farming sim series with combat and dungeon crawling. You tame monsters and then put them to work on your farm or ride them around town and into battle. Rune Factory 5 is the series first foray into 3D and it is a downgrade from its predecessor - almost a clone of Rune Factory 4 - in the best and worst ways possible. Fundamentally RF5 is the same game - dungeons, fighting, farming, socializing, dating, and learning new recipes are all here and mostly unchanged, but the mechanics are more awkward in 3D. The camera auto-sets to a top-down perspective when farming, which wouldn't have been so bad if I could use the D-pad to move the farmer. Instead I am forced to use the analogue stick, which causes the player character to slide a short distance forwards rather than coming to an immediate halt; I lost so many valuable crops to this. I still had a reasonably good time despite the bugs and unfinished state of the game. Time moves much slower in RF5 tha...