Gears of War 4 Deebee Campaign

"What the hell did you guys do?!"
"Funny story, Dad. We have no idea."

I loved Gears of War, all the way through, even the rough patches. The rough patches being much of Gears of War 3. Overall, I had a great time with it. It wasn't as creepy as the first two, not as tense. There were moments that were just as difficult, though, like the enclosed area with that huge lambent Berserker, and I was playing on Hardcore. So, when I finally killed that one it was satisfying. Normally I would play through a second time so I could play on Insane, but I don't think I bothered with another round of Gears 3, because it wasn't smooth sailing.

There were some problems that, while not terrible, had me moving onto a different game right after the credits rolled. I was more satisified with the emotional storytelling than the gameplay because of the silly-stupid decisions the AI would make. They would either rush off into the fray and get themselves knocked down, while I was pinned down fighting everyone by myself just trying to inch toward my brothers in arms before they died, or they would mow down the Locust and leave nothing for me to do. And then there was a certain suicidal-sacrificial character. I was okay with that because it worked within the story and seemed to be where he was headed since the second game. There was no coming back for him.

Related article: Read Rod Fergusson's comments about what he thinks went wrong and how that was addressed that in Gears 4.

But my brothers were having none of that; those few problems outweighed the good for them. One was so disappointed in it that he regretted purchasing the deluxe edition and never fails to take an opportunity to remind me. He just can't look at the statue of Marcus without being annoyed with the decisions that were made for Gears 3. That and his disappointment in Assassin's Creed IV, Dead Space 3, *Halo 5, and some others over the years, have made him very wary of the last in a trilogy or the next sequel that has been rushed out. If that ever happens to Grand Theft Auto or his newest obsession, Shadow of Mordor, then I'm afraid it will dampen his enthusiasm for games in general.

Well, I hope The Coalition does enough to convince people who who felt betrayed by Gears 3 or Judgment (my brothers didn't even bother with that one) to give the series another chance. I'm excited at least. The gameplay looks like Gears, I hear Marcus, I see enemies being taken down by the Lancer. Crossing my fingers that this is one worthy of our time like the near perfect Gears 2. I say near perfect because nothing is perfect, but I had not one complaint with that game. Just a damn lot of fun.

*By the way, I adored Dead Space 3 and Halo 5. Crank up the difficulty, turn off the lights, and send the Necromorphs or Guardians my way. Holy shit, those Guardians were tough bastards and the Necromorphs always had jumping out of my skin.

Related article: More news about Gears of War 4.

Gears Goodies

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Lambda Boy

Half-Life and Fallout together! There have been a lot of mashups with Vault Boy, but I think this one is my favorite so far. I adored Half-Life 2 and I've wanted to replay it for quite a while. But maybe I should finish Fallout 4 first. I loved that game, too, spent so many hours with it. Then one day my brother moved away before I finished it, taking his Xbox 360 and all the games that he hadn't played. My other brother and I moved on with a different box and I've played many games since, now having an Xbox One and even more to play. I still have a backlog of games for all the old systems, a couple even dating back to the SNES and Genesis.

So, you can see how I sadly never got back to Fallout, though I do now have a copy and my saved game. Maybe I should start over from scratch. That seeems like a lot of work, but it's not like I remember too much about where I left off. There's also a side mission that would never end because the NPC disappeared.

But enough about me. Here's the information on the tee. It's available today only from RiptApparel. Shirts start at $11 plus shipping. Hoodies, posters, sketchbooks, coasters and more are also available.

Buy at RiptApparel

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Kill Him, Mr. B

Life. It's half of the name of this blog. It's a wonderful thing. It's also an exasperating, exhausting thing that often prevents me from doing what I want. What I want is to update this blog with something...anything! And I finally have a few minutes to do so. I could not pass up the opportunity to showcase this gorgeous Bioshock t-shirt. There are so many I would have loved to post - and still will eventually in the future - but I've been so bogged down with other stuff that it was impossible.

Since Bioshock is one of the most memorable games I have played, this is the perfect excuse to finally interrupt life for once. Go away work, no thinking about Christmas shopping, put the tons of holiday baking out of my mind, because "Kill Him, Mr. B" perfectly captures this underwater nightmare in shades of green and blue, with menacing eyes of red, a Big Daddy towering over the ruined city that quakes underfoot and cowers with the spin of his drill, protecting the Little Sister in his charge. Chilling. I screamed every time I heard one of them running at me from behind. I need to play it again. It's been too long.

Buy "Kill Him, Mr. B" at TeeFury

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Missed this tee? If it's any day other day than the day I published this post then the answer is yes. If I haven't updated the links yet, just ask and I will try to find it at another site for you.

Got your fill of gaming tees? Looking for something else? Please also see Reinbeast.com for other shirts, hoodies, posters and more depicting, and often mashing up, my favorite things, such as Doctor Who and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Not only do I post shirts; often I'll talk about the particular series or movie and what it means to me. Sometimes I'll even start with a novella's worth of words about an episode and then maybe have a shirt at the end. It all depends on what's avaialble on the day and the mood of the piece I've written. Sometimes I don't even post a shirt at all. If you'd prefer to not wade through all that, I'll be sad, but you can just go directly to all T-Shirts.

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Emergence

Finally I have a reason to post again! There have been other opportunities, but nothing got me to stop in my tracks because I just had to write about it. This one is special. I have never seen a more eerily gorgeous Batman shirt, or Batman anything. I would absolutely buy this for me, or my brother (who is REALLY into this series), if only I hadn't spent so much money satisfying my new Twin Peaks obsession recently. I'll definitely be buying it in the future if the artist, AlynSpiller, makes it available somewhere else. For now it's available for today only starting at $11 at TeeFury.

[UPDATE] At the end of the day I ended up buying my brother this t-shirt in two different colors, because I asked him if he wanted it and he couldn't decide which was better. :)

I heard this morning that the PC port of Arkham Knight is buggy, via this hilarious Ctrl+Alt+Del comic and then in a comment below this shirt at TeeFury. But I don't play on PC anyway usually. Always had to do with the fact that I was perpetually broke and couldn't afford good tech to play the latest games, so I was console most of the way. So I'm not disappointed by that, and it looks like Arkham Knight is getting good ratings on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

I walked away from Arkham Knight shocked, satisfied, and in dire need of someone to discuss the story with.

~ Andrew Reiner, Game Informer

Good thing, because my brother was putting off getting into the shiny new generation of consoles. No games really interested him enough to justify spending so much money again, especially since there's such a huge backlog of games for every console previous that are just sitting around gathering dust while he works. You know, being an adult means games come last far too often. Happens to me, too. Every day I have to choose between playing a game and actually getting off my butt and exercising or taking care of my blogs...or, *ugh*, household chores. I'm actually finishing up some side missions I missed before Arkham Origins forced me into catching The Joker and completing the game. Yes, I'm still on Origins. I haven't even started Assassin's Creed: Revelations, and I just remembered I never finished Okami! It's been years. I think I've said that before. If only someone would do my job for me. I just want to play all day.

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Wander Vs Fox McCloud

I'm a couple days late getting to TeeFury's Super Gaming Collection, but don't worry because there are still five days to go. The two tees here are my favorites of the collection. McCloud's Arwing Academy and Wander's Colossal Creature Control, both by GamerPrint, are $15 each. I loved the loneliness that pervaded Shadow of the Colossus and had tons of fun with Star Fox 64. It would take too long to write about all 18 shirts, and 2 posters, but I encourage you to check them out. There are shirts inspired by mainstays, such as Mario, Zelda, Pokemon and more. Now, it's time to go start a new game plus of The Last of Us. I'll share thoughts about that one soon. I wonder if there are any good shirts featuring Joel and Ellie.

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