Video Game Review #538: Panzer Dragoon II: Zwei

Panzer Dragoon II: Zwei

Sega Saturn

Before playing:

I first played Panzer Dragoon II: Zwei when I was about 15 years old. I had played the original Panzer Dragoon, and I only sort of liked it. Aside from Star Fox and Solar Eclipse, these types of rail shooters weren't really my thing. This game got much higher scores than the original Panzer Dragoon. I remember reading nothing but positive reviews in video game magazines. So of course I had to play it.

I rented this game from Blockbuster and came away unimpressed. To me, it was just more of the same, but with better graphics. Still, I continued to read about this game in various video game magazines. It was getting a lot of very positive feedback, often being brought up in the conversation of best Saturn games of all time. I rented the game a second time, thinking that surely I must have been missing something the first time around. Nope, still didn't like it.

So, I rented it twice and never bothered to even beat it one time. It was too difficult for me, and I just didn't have the patience for this kind of game back then. I moved onto bigger and better things, and I never returned to this game.

Until now, the year of our Lord, 2024; about 27 years since I last played the game. In that time span, I've played through the original game, the remake of the original game, and Panzer Dragoon Orta. It's always been my intention to play through all the Panzer Dragoon games before finally tackling Panzer Dragoon Saga, my personal Holy Grail of video games. I've been wanting to play that game for so long!

Anyway, I digress. Before I can play Panzer Dragoon Saga, I have to make it through this one first. So how did I like it, all these years later? Not to give too much away, but this may now be my favorite game in the series. Keep reading for the full deets. 

Story:

These Panzer Dragoon games never make any sense to me. From what I could gather here, the world of the game is a post apocalyptic future where biological weapons have decimated mankind. The remaining factions of humans are furiously digging to unearth ancient weaponry to take out their foes.

They never learn.

You play as a boy names Lundi. He lives in a small village. Unbeknownst to the people in the village, he has taken in and sheltered a baby dragon creature - which are forbidden within the village. One day, he is out riding the dragon, trying to see if it can fly - when his village is attacked and destroyed. It seems like a squadron of Imperial soldiers are chasing something, and the village got caught up in the battle.

The game consists of you and your dragon, flying through seven different stages and fighting hordes of enemies until you get to the end of the game, where you catch up to the mysterious object that destroyed your village. You fight it, only to discover an ancient dragon within it. You defeat the dragon, and lose consciousness, entering a trippy 2001: A Space Odyssey-esque sequence. You wake up and enter a cave, where you encounter a picture of your dragon drawn upon the wall. The game ends.

I don't understand what really happened. I am not sure what the point of the story or the moral of the story is. I am not sure if I am even supposed to feel anything one way or another. Like I said, these games never makes any sense to me. I got nothing out of it.

Gameplay:

This is what we call an on-rails shooter. You have limited control of the dragon you are riding. You are mainly just moving the cursor around on the screen and pressing the fire button. You can tap the button for rapid fire shots. You can hold it down to lock onto enemies and launch heat seeking shots at them. The lock on attack will quickly become your dominant form of attack.

Unlike other shooters such as Star Fox, you are not just looking directly in front of you as you fly through these levels. You can tap the shoulder buttons to rotate the camera. Enemies can attack you from the side and from behind you, so being able to rotate and react quickly is key to success at this game.

On the bottom of the screen you have a health meter and a meter that charges for your special attack. Charge this meter by shooting down enemies. When the meter is fully charged, you can unleash a powerful attack to all enemies on the screen. You also can't be hit while this attack, which lasts somewhere between 5 and 10 seconds, is underway.

The game is comprised of seven stages. Each stage ends with a boss fight, where you have to find a boss's weak point and exploit it. You also have to get good at dodging enemy attacks and shooting down their projectiles.

That's pretty much the entire game right there. It is very straightforward. It is pretty challenging, though. The first few stages I passed with relative ease, but I started running into problems around the forest stage. From then on out, you are pretty much trial and erroring your way through these stages. You almost never get it on your first attempt, but once you've played through it (sometimes multiple times) it becomes much more manageable on subsequent attempts. It's all about memorization and pattern recognition.

I finished the game in a little under two hours. It's definitely doable if you put your head down and just do it. I don't think I was quite as patient (or as skilled at this type of game) when I was younger, which is probably why I gave up on it after renting it two times.

Before I forget, one thing this game does differently from the original is that it offers branching paths. I don't think these choices make too much difference in the long run, but they do give some replay value to the game. 

Graphics:

This game was considered a real beauty back in the 1990s, but it clearly shows its age. The characters are very jagged and messy looking. The scenery flickers and has draw distance issues. Textures tend to look sloppy and overly pixelated. It's a very "Saturn" looking game. But it works.

The game just has a great vibe to it. It's very dark and brooding and atmospheric. I like the stage where the snow gently falls around you, or the stage where you are racing along, close to the ground in the forest. The battles are swooping and epic. The fight with the giant fish machine that jumps out of the water is epic. The water looks great in this game, for a Saturn title, by the way. Don't see that too often. If I had to compare the feel of the game to a more modern title that people know, it would be something like Shadow of the Colossus. Not exactly the same (this game has flying dragons and giant air battles), but there's just something about the mystery and magic surrounding you that feels the same.

Sound:

This game has a very grand, sweeping orchestral soundtrack. It really soars during battle and gets your blood pumping. It is also very serene during the game's quieter moments. As I've mentioned already, this game succeeds in its atmosphere, and the music and sound effects play a big role in that.

If I had to offer any criticism, it is that there are not any standout tracks to me like there were in the first game. Nothing that is going to go on any of my gaming music playlists. So this is a little bit of a disappointment in that regard.

Overall:

I had a pretty decent time with this game. I'm not gonna lie, I'm still not the world's biggest Panzer Dragoon fan, but I think this is probably the best game in the series so far. Better than the original and better than Orta. Even though I say it is better than the original, I am still going to give it the same review score, though. I just can't go any higher than a B+ for this game.

That said, I am glad I played this, and I think everyone should give the series a look. When I think back on the Sega Saturn, Panzer Dragoon is one of the first games to come to mind, and it is a shame that the Saturn was such a big flop and no one got to experience these games. As far as rail shooters go, this is a very good series that I think would impress a lot of people if they ever got to play it, because it is quite good. It's not my favorite genre of game, but I have to admit that it does what it does very well.

That's that! Now that I've played through all these Panzer Dragoon games, there is only one left for me: Panzer Dragoon Saga. Like I said earlier, this is like the Holy Grail of video games for me. I've been wanting to play it since it came out 26 years ago in 1998, but I've never been able to track the game down. This ends soon, by whatever means necessary.

THE GRADE:

B+

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Video Game Review #537: Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon

Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon

PlayStation 3

Before playing:

I normally do not review DLC, but when it is essentially an entirely separate game like this (and not just an extension of the original game), I am willing to make an exception. 

I've been aware of this game for years and years now, and I've really been wanting to play it. The whole 80's action movie aesthetic really appealed to me. But I'm someone who plays things in order. I was not going to skip ahead and play this when I hadn't played the other games in the series yet. Well, I finally played through Far Cry 3 late in 2023. As soon as I finished up that game, I thought to myself: I can finally play Blood Dragon now!

Nearly a year has passed since I finished that game. What happened? I started playing other things and kind of forgot about it, to be honest with you. Well, the game popped back into my head again when I was looking through my collection for a new game to check out, and I finally decided to circle around and dive in. Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon... how would I like it? Let's find out!

Story:

To be honest, I did not really care too much for this game's storyline. The game really tries to keep you invested, with its cutscenes before the game and between missions. But it just wasn't doing anything for me. Go here, shoot these people, rescue this hostage, take over this outpost, hack this. It doesn't help that the game just kind of throws you into this strange, unique world with little to no explanation of who these characters are, what this island is, or what the state of the world even is in this game.

From what I was able to gather, the plot is similar to Heart of Darkness? There is a bad guy on this island who has defected from the military, and is running genetic experiments on these giant dinosaur things, even ingesting their blood to give him special powers. The game starts with you dropped in via helicopter. You have to travel the island, shut down all his outposts, and defeat him.

There is other stuff going on, too. But like I said I didn't really care for it. Once I lose interest in a game's story, it is hard for me to get that interest back. I just kind of zone out during the cutscenes. I remember a sex scene, and a few other odd things happening in the cutscenes. But really, I was just here for the gameplay. I did not care about any of that.

Gameplay:

Here we go: the gameplay. The whole reason I am here to begin with. So how is it?

Well, if you have played a Far Cry game in the past, you should know what to expect here. It is a first person shooter. You can run, walk, crouch, and jump. You have a weapon wheel full of different weapons to pull up. There's a scope where you can highlight enemy targets. There are stealth elements, like crouching, hiding, and performing instant sneak kills. Picking people off with a bow from long distance is always the *chef's kiss* in video games, and it is here, too. 

There's an open world map full of things to collect, like VHS tapes and notes from the scientist. There are enemy outposts to take over. There are side missions to take on, like hunting animals and rescuing hostages. If you've played Far Cry 3, the gameplay is very similar. Only major difference is that this game is more forgiving in its difficulty. If you ignore stealth and run in, guns blazing, you aren't automatically screwed. In fact, this is often a perfectly valid approach. On the whole, this game feels like it focuses more on the shooting aspects and less on the stealth.

The element that makes this game unique: the dinosaurs. That's right, this game has dinosaurs. They act as a big, difficult opponent that you encounter in the open world. Early in the game, you want to avoid them. But you can use them to your advantage, luring them into enemy outposts and having them do your dirty work for you. Fighting them, avoiding them, and using them to your advantage is a giant part of this game - and part of what sets it apart from the other games in the series (aside from the 80s aesthetic, which we will get to shortly). 

The game is a blast to play, and it never gets old or repetitive. I found myself staying up waaaay too late at night playing this, trying to collect just one more tape or take over one more outpost. The decision between using stealth versus just charging in and fighting makes the game so much fun. The dinosauts are nice wrinkle, too.

The game is short, only six to ten hours in length, depending on how much you want to do. Personally, I completed the game to 100%. I was having so much fun with it, I didn't want to stop playing after the final credits rolled. I was kind of disappointed it was not longer.

Graphics:

As you can tell from the screenshots I posted, this game definitely has a specific vibe to it. Neon purple lights, glowing weapons, cyborg soldiers. Very, very 1980s. This may be a PS3 game, but I still think it looks pretty darn good. The whole atmosphere of the game just makes it so unique and easy to lose yourself in.

You are going to find lots of little Easter Eggs as you play, like pizza boxes in the sewer when you are trying to kill mutated turtle creatures. Small stuff like that which really adds to the charm of the game. I also enjoy the presentation of the cutscenes and how they are done with pixel art that reminds me of the 16-bit era. Big time Snatcher vibes.

Sound:

This game has some terrific music. Mainly you are going to be hearing a lot of 80s synth, reminiscent of the Stranger Things intro music, or something you'd hear in the movie Manhunter. You'll also hear some pretty intense battle themes, too. One of the songs used in this game sounds like the Terminator theme, and I am certain that this was not by accident.

The highlight of the game musically for me is during the helicopter introduction scene. Little Richard's Long Tall Sally plays during this action sequence, and it is freaking great. Really gets you pumped to play this game.

Voice acting is okay. The main character is voiced by Michael Biehn of Terminator and The Abyss game. I almost did not recognize his voice. He is so gruff and brooding sounding. I do enjoy all the one-liners, many of which are most definitely NOT politically correct. This game would get canceled if it came out today. And I freaking love it.

Anyway, here is a link to a playlist featuring some of the game's music, if you are interested in checking it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvTDKr4MSgc&list=PLu6_FOgZp3ehDEMebGB4uDbN5yMYOthnP

Overall:

This was a very enjoyable game for me. Short, but enjoyable. I had fun almost the whole way through, and encountered very few flaws that irritated me. I suppose one flaw is the same thing I noticed in the Far Cry 3 base game - my controller would often freak out during battle. My character would keep putting his goggles on or throwing rocks as I was trying to shoot enemies. I was like WHHHHHY???! I was not hitting these buttons. And this would only happen during battle. It is like the controller completely grew a mind of its own all of a sudden. And like I said, this happened to me with the base game, too. I've googled it online and only saw one person who had the same issue, and all the responses were: "it's your controller." But it happened to me too, and on two different controllers. Is it the game or my controllers? Hmm....

Aside from that, I find very little to gripe about. This was a fun little excursion. I don't think it was necessarily an amazing game or anything I am going to be remembering 20 years from now as an "all-time classic." But it was fun! And that's all that matters to me. Is it fun or not. And this game definitely was.

THE GRADE:

A-

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Video Game Review #536: Sonic Frontiers

Sonic Frontiers

PlayStation 4

Nostalgia Factor:

I've been aware of Sonic Frontiers since it came out back in 2022. However, coming into this playthrough, my knowledge of the game was very limited. I knew it was an open world Sonic game, and I knew that the reviews of the game were very mixed. Sonic has lost a bit of its luster for me over the years, so I was never in any great hurry to play it. However, when I found out that my local library had a copy I could play through for free, I decided to jump on it and give it a chance.

Would Sonic return to its glory days, or would this be another disappointment in a long, frustrating line of disappointments? Let's hop in and find out.

Story:

This is a game that desperately tries to make you care about its story. Whether or not the game was successful is up to you and your attention span, plus - what you are expecting from a Sonic game. It didn't work for me. I quickly got wrapped up in solving puzzles, collecting items, and zipping around and exploring the big world of the game. In fact, whenever a story sequence would start up, I would get annoyed that they were interrupting the flow of the game. I did not skip any cutscenes, but I easily could have done so, and I would not have missed anything. I would have gotten pretty much the same experience out of this game that I would have otherwise.

In case you are someone who cares about the storyline, let me give you a brief synopsis of what is going on. Sonic, Robotnik, and all of Sonic's pals have landed in some kind of world that was once inhabited by an ancient group of beings. These beings have created a cyberspace area that they can explore the same as they would the outside world. Robotnik and Sonic's friends are stuck in this cyberspace area. Sonic is the only one walking around in the "real world", and he has to solve puzzles, explore, collect memory fragments, and find a way to save his pals and bring them back to the real world.

Robotnik, of course, is looking for a way to use this all to his advantage and take over cyberspace and use the technology to take over the universe. 

This is an extremely basic synopsis, and most of it might not even be accurate. Like I said, the storyline was secondary to me and I was not really paying attention to it. It is hard for me to recap it, because I just simply did not care enough to pay close attention.  I'll say what I've said in past game reviews whenever I am kind of half-assing it: "some reviewer I am."

Gameplay:

I was a little worried about how Sonic would translate to the open world format. Turns out, I had nothing to be apprehensive about. The game is split up into four major islands. Each island is essentially a "level", so this is not truly an open world. However, you can backtrack and return to any island at any time to grab anything you may have missed, so in a way it is.

The game starts on Kronos Island. Amy is trapped in cyberspace and you have to find memory pieces, which are little pink hearts located on the map, and bring them back to her. Each time you do this, it unlocks a little bit of the game's story. Be prepared to collect a lot of these things, as this is a major gameplay device on each of the four islands. These little collectibles can be found all over the place. Each island is littered with literally hundreds of little platforming challenge areas. They mainly consist of ramps, grind rails, floating platforms, and springs that launch you all over the place. Completing of these usually gives you a memory piece or two. As I said, these little areas are littered all over every single island in the game, so you should never have any trouble scrounging for memory pieces. You can collect them in other ways too, like by defeating enemies or by using your cycloop attack to dig up buried pieces.

Each island contains a set number of transporters, which take you to a traditional behind the back Sonic level, similar to something you'd see in Sonic Colors or a Sonic Adventure game. To open these up, however, you have to earn Gears to unlock the level. These gears can be found by defeating the mini bosses found on the open world map. Beat one of these levels and you earn a key, which you can use to unlock a Chaos Emerald from its podium (also hidden on the world map). These levels contain special challenges to complete, like earning an S-Rank or collecting all special red star icons in a stage. The more challenges you complete, the more keys you earn. Your ultimate goal is to earn enough keys to unlock each island's set of Chaos Emeralds. Once you collect them all, you can fight the island's boss character. Defeat the boss, and you move onto the next island. I found that each island took me several hours to complete.

So, to wrap it up, on each island you need to:

1. Collect memory icons to bring to the trapped character in order to advance the story

2. Fight mini bosses on the game map to unlock gear collectibles

3. Use the gears to open up challenge stages

4. Complete the challenge stages to earn keys

5. Use the keys to unlock all of the stage's Chaos Emeralds

6. Fight the boss character once you have all the Chaos Emeralds

You need to have all the Emeralds and advance the story far enough on each island in order to move onto the next island.

Each island is also filled with optional challenges. These challenges are varied, and include things like jumping on a puzzle grid and moving around on it in order to turn off all its lights, running through a series of blue rings before the timer runs out, parrying a set number of enemy attacks in a row, and side stepping a certain number of enemy projectiles in a row. Completing these tasks earns you items like memory tokens, gears, as well as fruits you can use to upgrade your ring and speed capacity. They also reveal hidden sections of the map, one area at a time.

I feel like there is so much content crammed into this game. I haven't even mentioned how you collect EXP and can level up, the fishing minigame featuring Big the Cat (really), or the high score challenges - which I could never really figure out. The point is, there is a lot of stuff to do in this game. Even if I were to come back to the game after beating it, I could probably roam these islands for several more hours unlocking and finding things I missed the first time around.

Basic gameplay should be familiar to 3D Sonic fans. You can run in each direction. You jump. You hit the jump button in mid-air to launch yourself at enemies and springs. There's a wall jump move. Oddly, there seems to be no spin dash in this game, at least that I could discover. Occasionally when you are riding a grind rail or doing one of the memory challenges, the game will shift to a side scrolling perspective. This can be annoying because sometimes I will wander into these areas accidentally and then I struggle to break out of them. It is also very hard to land on grind rails sometimes. The game could have benefited from a Sly Cooper style lock on where you can land on things with precision. It is very hard to be precise in this game, given that you are traveling at high speed most of the time.

Minor control gripes aside, I had fun with this game. My only major qualm is how easy it can be to get lost at times. For example, let's say a marker on the map will show you that you need to get to an island in the distance in order to advance the story... but there is no way to get there. There is one specific level where I must have wandered around for about two hours before I finally figured it out. There was a grind rail in an area that made NO sense, that I needed to ride in order to make my way over a large chasm. Then I needed to jump on some more grind rails, and some more, and some more. Super irritating, and this happens quite often in this game. The game overall is pretty easy, and I don't need my hand to be held or anything, but I have to admit that this was quite frustrating.

Graphics:

The game looks pretty great... for the most part. I only throw in that last bit, because there are some open valleys that look quite plain and bland. You'd expect a Sonic game to be constantly full of color and energy, and that does not always come across here.

But I would just be nitpicking if I harped on that too much. The game looks good. Sonic is the perfect Sonic you'd envision in this kind of game, to his design, his colors, his moves, and his attitude. The supporting characters look great, too. The worlds are beautiful and full of moving things. I imagine this game must have been very difficult to design. 

This is easily one of the better looking Sonic games out there. It moves along at lightning speed and never loses a beat. I approve.

Sound:

The music of this game is absolutely one of its highlights. Not only is the original music great, but you can collect musical notes on the map that unlock classic Sonic songs, like the Sonic 3 intro music and the beach in Sonic Adventure. As you play, you unlock more and more. It was truly a treat to be able to play this game and rock along to some of my favorite Sonic songs of all time.

On the sound effect side of things, the classic Sonic ring collecting and jumping noises are back, and so is the iconic noise it makes when you take damage and lose all your rings. The voice acting was kind of a non factor for me, since I did not really care about the game's storyline. But I suppose it was okay.

Anyway, to hear some of my favorite songs, click the link to a small YouTube playlist I made. Maybe I'll start doing this for some of my reviews going forward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTJtkEVL-7I&list=PL8Sdr_u0PmxgHkQHeCDZVzd1BDAIdYHhG

Overall:

I really enjoyed this game. It's very satisfying to finally have a fully realized 3D Sonic game that is not set on rails or linear in fashion. I've been wanting a free roaming Sonic game like this since Sonic Xtreme was teased for the Sega Saturn, and then canceled. What about Sonic Adventure, you may ask? To be honest, I was never really a huge fan of the series. In fact, I gave Sonic Adventure the low score of a D+ when I last played it. Honestly, that seems a bit low, but it kind of tracks with my memories of being unimpressed when I was a kid.

So what I'm saying is that this is the best Sonic game to come out in a while. Sure, Sonic Mania, Sonic Generations, and Sonic Colors were decent games. But not like this. Those other games did not leave much of an impression on me. I played through them. I forgot them. But this one is special.

I recommend this game, easily. There are a few things holding it back from getting a truly elite score. The controls can be janky. It's easy to get lost on the map. The camera is uncooperative at times. It also begins to feel repetitive once you figure out the formula of the game. I also couldn't help but compare it mentally to Super Mario Galaxy, which I recently played. That game was a lot more fun. But that doesn't mean I didn't like this, because I did.

Don't sleep on this game like I almost did. This is a surprisingly good title. Maybe not a truly elite Sonic game, but one of the best offerings we've seen in a long time. I hope to see Sega experiment more with open world Sonic games in the future.

THE GRADE:

B+

For a complete index of all my past posts and game reviews, click

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2024 Movie Rankings (September)

I watched nine movies in the month of September. As always, I will briefly run down these movies and pick which five of them will advance to my ultimate year end movie ranking. The nine movies I watched in September were:

Grave of the Fireflies

Carnival of Souls

The Help

Timecop

Manhunter

Field of Dreams

Trauma (2017)

Saw IV

Stephen King's IT miniseries

Alright, time to see which ones are moving on.

Not Moving On:

Timecop

I have been in the mood for some Van Damme movies lately. I had planned to watch several of them, but unfortunately Timecop might have ruined my interest in doing so.

As a kid, I remember my parents and brother watching this movie and saying it was hard to follow. For some reason, I never bothered to watch it though. I finally came back after 30 years to give it a try. I am familiar with time travel so I thought it would be easy to follow, and I started playing around on my phone while I watched. I was wrong. I quickly lost the thread of what was going on because I was not paying close enough attention. When I finally realized what was happening and put the phone down, I was already hopelessly lost. No way was I going to go back and rewatch the movie though, because it kind of sucked. I did not enjoy it one bit, and I think even if I was paying attention I would have disliked it. So it gets the heave-ho here.

Carnival of Souls

I have seen this movie a few times now, and every time I watch it, I come into it desperately wanting to like it. I enjoy the premise, but unfortunately the execution is not great. I only watched it in 2024 because I had listened to a podcast about it that made the movie sound underrated and better than it actually is. I thought "oh, I haven't been giving it a fair shake all these years." So I came back and gave it a fair shake.

Nope, still don't like it.

Saw IV

I'm not a movie snob. I like the Saw movies. But I have to say that this is probably the worst of them (at least of the ones I have seen). I'll keep going and continue on and watch the rest, but this one killed my interest in the series for a little bit.

Field of Dreams

Everyone keeps telling me "You've got to watch Field of Dreams! I can't believe you've never seen it before!" I finally got off my butt and watched it. But, uh.... it was not at all what I was expecting.

Is this a ghost movie? A movie about mass delusion? What is even happening here? Even if you look past the improbabilities and loopholes, I still did not think it was a very good film. It is certainly a watchable film, and not necessarily bad. But it is a bit hokey and ham-fisted. It is also very, very off-putting to someone who watches movies with a rational eye, wanting an explanation for everything. I just could not get past a LOT of things in this film.

Moving On:

Stephen King's IT miniseries

This one just barely made the cut. It may have been a fun and terrifying film when I've seen it in the past, but for some reason it just wasn't doing it for me here in 2024. It is a good story and it kept my interest at least, but I just wasn't as invested in this as I have been in the past. It definitely shows its age too. It barely edges out Field of Dreams to make my top 5, but don't expect this film to do much when it comes to my year end ranking.

Manhunter

Finally, a movie I truly enjoyed in September. I've seen this movie in the past, and I have always had a soft spot for it. It's so unique, with a different feel and tone from Silence of the Lambs or other Hannibal movies. I loved every second of this film, and it even made me run out and start re-reading the book (Red Dragon) for like the fourth or fifth time in my life.

Trauma (2017)

I'm kind of a soulless, emotionless human being, so I'm always on the lookout for movies that can elicit some type of reaction from me - whether it is happiness, sadness, terror, or disgust. After reading about this movie online, I knew right away I just HAD to see it. People were all up in arms about how disturbing it was, and how they could not make it through the first five minutes. Sold.

This movie is pretty darn disturbing. The depictions of violence are very gruesome and upsetting. This is not about just blood and gore though. There is a feeling of dark oppression and dread that permeates every second of this film. And I love it. I'll save my spoilers for the year end review, but if you like dark and disturbing movies this is a must watch.

Grave of the Fireflies

My motivation for watching this was similar to my motivation for watching Trauma. I wanted to watch something that made me feel human emotions. While I did not cry during this movie, I did enjoy it and I was invested in it. I've seen this before (a long time ago) but this was my first time watching it as a father, and it truly made me appreciate the film more.

The Help

I had forgotten how good this movie is. I instantly lost myself in this as soon as I turned it on. The acting, the story, the cinematography, the emotional heft of the film. It is so dang good. I was in tears like the entire damn movie. The Help is a masterpiece, and a film that is destined to make major waves when I do my year end ranking. I don't know if it will win or not, but it is certainly a contender.

With these 5 movies advancing, here is a look at the top 45. 9 months down, 3 to go! At the end, we'll have 60 movies - 5 from each month that move on. And then I will determine my favorite. In no particular order, here are the 45 that have moved on:

Last Night

The Help

Doctor Sleep

A Star is Born

Mystic River

Stephen King's IT miniseries

Stand By Me

Dune (1984)

Dune: Part One

Dune: Part Two

Legends of the Fall

Cloverfield

Grave of the Fireflies

Glass

The Shape of Water

Milo and Otis

Gerald's Game

Dr. Giggles

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Edition

Ghost

Milk

Forrest Gump

Platoon

Fried Green Tomatoes

The Four Falls of Buffalo

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Open Water

Old

The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker

Bone Tomahawk

Deadpool & Wolverine

Grizzly Man

Dumb and Dumber

The Skeleton Key

The Illusionist

The Prestige

Trauma (2017)

Rear Window

Martyrs (2008)

Transformers

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Extended Edition

The Disaster Artist

Manhunter

Saw

Halloween

Past 2024 rankings:

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

For a complete index of all my past posts and game reviews, click

>HERE<

2024 Things (September)

January 2024

February 2024

March 2024

April 2024

May 2024

June 2024

July 2024

August 2024

9.1: Watched 1 episode of Jurassic World Chaos Theory (1.08). Watched 1 episode of Terminator Zero (1.04). Listened to 1 episode of Collateral Gaming podcast (Ep 45 Part 2). 

9.2: Listened to 1 episode of Stephen King Cast (ep 68). Listened to 1 episode of 7th Rule podcast (T7R #245). Listened to 2 episodes of Unsolved Mysteries podcast (The Sudden Departure of Granger Taylor Parts 1 and 2). Listened to 1 episode of The Retrograde pod (ep 188). Listened to 1 episode of Fantasy Football Happy Hour pod (8.29.24 episode). Watched 1 episode of The Challenge (37.08). Watched 1 episode of Terminator Zero (1.05).

9.3: Listened to 1 episode of Cartridge Club pod (ep 51). Watched 1 episode of Big Brother (25.22). Watched 1 episode of The Challenge (37.09). Listened to 1 episode of Unsolved Mysteries pod (The Kuria Family Murders).  Watched 1 episode of Terminator Zero (1.06). Watched 1 episode of Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial (ep 3). Watched 1 episode of Squid Game (1.01).  

9.4: Watched 1 episode of The Challenge (37.10). Listened to 1 episode of Ear Biscuits (ep 41). Watched 1 episode of Survivor: South Africa (1.01). Watched 1 episode of Terminator Zero (1.07). Listened to 1 episode of Fantasy Football Happy Hour (8.30.24 episode).

9.5: Watched movie: Field of Dreams. Watched 1 episode of The Challenge (37.11). Watched 2 episodes of Squid Game (1.02 and 1.03). Finished video game: Finding Nemo. Watched 1 episode of Terminator Zero (1.08). Listened to 1 episode of Staff Picks (The 100th Episode). Watched 1 episode of Receiver (ep 7).

9.6: Finished video game: Legend of the Skyfish. Watched 1 episode of Big Brother (25.23). Listened to 2 episodes of Fantasy Football Happy Hour (9.3 and 9.6.24 episodes).

9.7: Watched 1 episode of Big Brother (25.24). Watched 1 episode of The Challenge (37.12). Listened to 1 episode of The Loser's Club podcast (The Stand Miniseries Rewatch Pt. 1). Listened to 1 episode of Sega Saturn Shiro pod (Editor's Corner 3). Watched 1 episode of Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial (ep 4). Watched 1 episode of Survivor: South Africa (1.02). Watched 1 episode of Squid Game (1.04).  

9.8: Watched 1 episode of Squid Game (1.05). Listened to 1 episode of Unsolved Mysteries pod (Something in the Sky). Listened to 1 episode of Stephen King Cast (ep 179). Listened to 1 episode of Collateral Cinema (ep 35). Listened to 1 episode of Fantasy Football Happy Hour (9.4.24 episode).

9.9: Finished Video Game J.J. Squawkers. Watched 2 episodes of Squid Game (1.06 and 1.07). Listened to 2 episodes of Stephen King Cast (Bonus Episode-Happy Anniversary! and ep145). Listened to 1 episode of Digging Six Feet Under (S04E10). Listened to 1 episode of The Retrograde pod (ep 189). Watched movie: Saw IV.

9.10: Watched 1 episode of The Challenge (37.13). Watched 1 episode of Big Brother (25.25).

9.11: Watched movie: Trauma (2017). Watched 1 episode of The Challenge (37.14). Listened to 1 episode of Fantasy Football Happy Hour (9.5.24 episode). Listened to 1 episode of Dynasty Happy Hour podcast (ep 408). Watched 1 episode of Squid Game (1.08).  

9.12: Watched 1 episode of Squid Game (1.09). Watched 1 episode of Batman: The Animated Series (Moon of the Wolf). Watched 1 episode of Big Brother (25.26). Listened to 1 episode of Collateral Gaming (ep 23 Part 2). Watched 1 episode of Survivor: South Africa (1.03).

9.13: Watched 1 episode of Big Brother (25.27). Watched 1 episode of The Challenge (37.15). Watched 1 episode of Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial (ep 5). Listened to 1 episode of Fantasy Football Happy Hour (9.9.24 episode). Watched 1 episode of Receiver (ep 8).

9.14: Watched 1 episode of The Challenge (37.16). Listened to 1 episode of 7th Rule podcast (T7R #246). Listened to 1 episode of Staff Picks (Carnival of Souls). Listened to 1 episode of Stephen King Cast (ep 166). Watched movie: Manhunter.

9.15: Watched 1 episode of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory (1.09). Watched movie: Carnival of Souls. Listened to 1 episode of Digging Six Feet Under (S04E11). Listened to 1 episode of Fantasy Football Happy Hour (9.12.24 episode). Listened to 1 episode of Arcade Attack (AAPOD175). Listened to 1 episode of The Loser's Club podcast (The Stand Miniseries Rewatch Pt. 2). Listened to 1 episode of Unsolved Mysteries pod (Wanted for Murder). Listened to 1 episode of Stephen King Cast (ep 67). Watched 2 episodes of Star Trek: TNG (The Best of Both Worlds Pts. 1 and 2).

9.16: Watched 1 episode of The Challenge (37.17). Listened to 1 episode of the Cartridge Club podcast (CC Portable #6). Listened to 1 episode of Fantasy Football Happy Hour (9.10.24 episode). Listened to 2 episodes of Unsolved Mysteries podcast (Two Missing Brothers and Update: Texts from a Killer?).

9.17: Watched 2 episodes of Survivor: South Africa (1.04 and 1.05). Listened to 1 episode of The Loser's Club podcast (The Stand Miniseries Rewatch Pt. 3). Finished book: Jurassic Park. Watched 1 episode of Big Brother (25.28). Watched 1 episode of The Challenge (37.18). Listened to 1 episode of Dynasty Happy Hour podcast (ep 409). Watched 1 episode of Batman: The Animated Series (Day of the Samurai).

9.18: Watched 3 episodes of The Challenge (37.19, 37.20, and 37.21). Watched 1 episode of Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial (ep 6). Listened to 1 episode of Fantasy Football Happy Hour (9.11.24 episode). Finished video game: The Terminator.

9.19: Watched 1 episode of Survivor: South Africa (1.06). Watched 1 episode of Big Brother (25.29). Finished video game: Heavy Rain. Listened to 1 episode of Arcade Attack (AAPOD176). Watched 1 episode of Batman: The Animated Series (Terror in the Sky).

9.20: Watched 1 episode of Survivor (47.01). Watched 1 episode of Invincible (2.03). Watched 1 episode of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory (1.10). Watched 1 episode of Batman: The Animated Series (Almost Got 'Im). Listened to 1 episode of Unsolved Mysteries pod (Ice Cold Killer).

9.21: Watched 1 episode of Survivor: South Africa (1.07). Listened to 1 episode of Ear Biscuits (ep 42). Watched 1 episode of Big Brother (25.30). Watched 1 episode of The Challenge (36.01). Watched 1 episode of Agatha All Along (1.01). Listened to 1 episode of the Cartridge Club podcast (ep 132). 

9.22: Watched movie: Timecop. Listened to 1 episode of Collateral Cinema (ep 36). Listened to 1 episode of The Retrograde podcast (Stray Review). Listened to 1 episode of The Loser's Club podcast (The Stand Miniseries Rewatch Pt. 4). Listened to 1 episode of Fantasy Football Happy Hour (9.17.24 episode). Finished video game: Donkey Kong.

9.23: Watched movie: Grave of the Fireflies. Watched 1 episode of Killing Eve (2.01). Listened to 2 episodes of Fantasy Football Happy Hour (9.16 and 19.19). Listened to 1 episode of 7th Rule podcast (T7R #247). Listened to 1 episode of Digging Six Feet Under (S04E12). Listened to 1 episode of Unsolved Mysteries pod (Two Dead Wives). Listened to 1 episode of the Cartridge Club podcast (CC Weekly #74). Listened to 1 episode of The Losers Club (Recapping The Stand: The End). Watched part 1 of Stephen King's It miniseries. 

9.24: Watched 1 episode of Batman: The Animated Series (Birds of a Feather). Listened to 1 episode of The Retrograde pod (Snowboard Kids). Watched 2 episodes of Survivor: South Africa (1.08 and 1.09). Watched 1 episode of Big Brother (25.31). Watched part 2 of Stephen King's It miniseries. 

9.25: Watched 1 episode of The Challenge (36.02). Watched 1 episode of Survivor: South Africa (1.11). Watched 1 episode of Agatha All Along (1.02). Listened to 1 episode of Staff Picks (The Muppet Movie). Watched 1 episode of Killing Eve (2.02). Listened to 1 episode of Dynasty Happy Hour podcast (ep 410).

9.26:  Listened to 1 episode of Fantasy Football Happy Hour (9.23.24 episode). Watched movie: The Help. Watched 1 episode of Big Brother (25.32). Finished video game: Virtua Fighter 3tb. Listened to 1 episode of Arcade Attack (Comic & Retro Gaming Chat with Chris McAuley). Watched 1 episode of Agatha All Along (1.03). 

9.27: Watched 1 episode of Survivor: South Africa (1.12). Watched 1 episode of Killing Eve (2.03). Listened to 1 episode of The Retroblast podcast (Ocarina of Time). Watched 1 episode of Big Brother (25.33).

9.28: Listened to 1 episode of Retrograde podcast (Greatest Heavyweights Plus Year in Review). Watched 1 episode of Survivor (47.02). Watched 1 episode of Killing Eve (2.04). Watched 1 episode of Survivor: South Africa (1.13). Listened to 1 episode of Arcade Attack (AAPOD178).

9.29: Listened to 1 episode of Collateral Gaming (ep 46 part 1). Listened to 1 episode of Fantasy Football Happy Hour (9.25.24 episode). Listened to 2 episodes of Digging Six Feet Under (S05E01 and S05E02). Listened to 1 episode of Sega Saturn Shiro podcast (Editor's Corner: EP 4). Watched 1 episode of Invincible (2.04). Watched 1 episode of Batman: The Animated Series (What is Reality?). Watched 1 episode of Killing Eve (2.05). Listened to 1 episode of Unsolved Mysteries pod (Body at the Bottom of the Stairs). Listened to 1 episode of Retrograde podcast (Jurassic Park SNES). Listened to 1 episode of 7th Rule podcast (T7R #248). Listened to 1 episode of Collateral Cinema (Top 5 Favorite Horror Movie Moments).

9.30: Listened to 1 episode of Retrograde podcast (Most Anticipated Releases of 2022). Listened to 1 episode of The Retroblast podcast (Fatal Frame II). Watched 1 episode of Batman: The Animated Series (I Am the Night). Watched 1 episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (3.18). Listened to 1 episode of Worth it or Worthless podcast (ep 1). Listened to 1 episode of Arcade Attack (AAPOD179). 

****Unable to watch Survivor South Africa 1.10 because it does not seem to exist anywhere online.

16 episodes of The Challenge watched

15 episodes of Fantasy Football Happy Hour podcast played

12 episodes of Survivor South Africa watched

12 episode of Big Brother watched

10 episodes of Unsolved Mysteries podcast played

9 episodes of Squid Game watched

9 movies watched (counting the It miniseries as a movie)

7 episodes of The Retrograde podcast played

7 video games completed

7 episodes of Batman: The Animated Series watched

6 episodes of the Stephen King cast pod played