Slug in Arms! Metal Slug is crossing over with World War Toons!!

(originally I intended this post to be about my disappointment with Samurai Spirits/Shodown being announced since I care little for the series just like KOF but recent events changed my mood)

Holy hell, I figured this was coming but I never thought that SNK would go through with it, the Metal Slug franchise is crossing over...again, this time with none other than World War Toons, a VR FPS game for the PS4 that's well very cartoony and takes pretty silly liberties with the historical setting (which at least is more forgivable and understandable than BF5 does, though I still want me swastikas...not that I'm a fan of Nazism mind you, lord no, but I digress). And given that the two franchises are technically cartoonish, military themed franchises where realism often goes to the sidelines for the sake of not taking themselves seriously, it seems to be a perfect fit for a cross over between them, though WWT takes place in a WWII setting while MS takes place in a pseudo-modern-ish setting that was sort of WWII-esque but not really so since MS2. And yeah I know it's going to be in a FPS perspective but frankly I don't give a damn, neither do I about the possibility of some of the Metal Slug Asstack waifus making appearances (though it'd be funny to have MS-Alice be a playable character, albeit in her Slug tank). That and it's all in 3D, 3D rendered and by golly they look pretty good; like holy s--t check out these models of Marco and Eri:

And of course there's the titular SV-001 tank to feast your eyes on but I couldn't get a good image link here so you have to go to the text link yourself. Still, they're all mighty better than what they looked like in Metal Slug 3D. Granted I didn't think the style in that game was bad but still SNK could have done better and that of course we have Studio Roqovan succeeding where SNK stumbled. And speaking of SNK (Moneymore), quite frankly, I did fear that the company would have opted to have KOF or Samsho-Spirits be the crossing over franchise since the two are more well known than MS and that the two did appear in fantasy settings...fantasy settings! Thankfully my hopes have come to fruition and now MS is getting represented at last, and in 3D no less (HD 3D graphics mind you). The last time MS did crossover was with Battle Cats...in a mobile tower defense game with the old Neo Geo sprites and that disappointed me given that I felt the MS could have done better (and chosen a better franchise to crossover with though I'm willing to bet Battle Cats is somewhat more fun to play than both Derpfense and Asstack altogether but I digress). Still, this crossover is part of what I have advocated for ever since the damn company's like gettting into the liscensing business and getting back into video game development, cuz you know, the MS series NEEDS REPRESENTATION at least!? Something that SNK often FUMBLES, MUMBLES, and STUMBLES time and again with their unwise decision to put them in mobage apartheid (which I do not need to revist) and having much of their stickers be in the aftermentioned sprite form instead of like having someone like Falcoon draw stuff on them like he did with KOF (hell I wouldn't have cared if it was Dai doing it). Yeah I may have nick picked the merchanizing aspect but still I can't help but feel like SNK has almost no idea what to do with the series but at least this news proves that now the Slug is getting the representation it deserves and I don't care if it does in 2D or 3D (or both).

Still, this is good news for the franchise and I'm glad that the MS is getting a crossover in a good way and not in a mobage at least. Heck at this point, hopefully it'd open the road to other possibilities with other franchises like World of Tanks, Armored Warfare, and wait for it...Smash Bros. Ultimate. SNK ought to have it be featured in the upcoming game with Marco being a playable fighter and the team being "different colors" of sorts, similar to how Bowser Jr and the Koopalings are respectively if you know how they go; but then again that's another discussion for another time. Still, to quote Syndrome from the Incredibles, "oh man! I'm still geeking out about it!". You done good SNK, you done good...for once.

Dairontou! Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Announced! and then some...

(this took a bit of a while to even get started given how much I know about the series and that it has been over a week since the news but screw it I'm putting this up).

A new installment in the Super Smash Bros. series (of which is one of my faves) has been announced and to my surprise, is not a port of Smash 4 but rather a new game with all the fighters and I mean ALL the fighters, including Snake from the Metal Gear series. That alone makes me happy considering that I loved playing as him in Brawl and as a fan of the Metal Gear series, and of course David Hayter is reprising him which makes me even more pleased. Though I do have my own thoughts on that but I'll save that for later in this post. Anyway, besides ALL the fighters, there will be new fighters and new stages, though I kind of wonder if all the stages that appeared in the games will be featured or that some might be omitted for whatever reason (especially the Miiverse one since the eponymous service has been discontinued), but who knows? maybe they all might, with some tweaks to some sets granted given the advanced hardware of the Switch.

Speaking of tweaks, some have noticed that Samus and Snake have their assets reduced for some reason, yes I'm putting Snake in the same league since well does it matter if the guy or gal is getting an aspect of his/her bod changed for the worse? I find that pretty stupid considering that their assets showing off wasn't a problem, but lo and behold they're changed up. I get the argument that Samus needs to have some fat reduced since typically muscular people need to have that for obvious reasons and that it needs to be more realistic for her to have a toned figure but then again Mario, Wario, and other characters have obviously non-realistic figures so what's the point? It's as if Nintendo doesn't want the game to express the message that busty women can be bad asses (or possibly catering to SJWs but I'll hold off on that argument); that and can't guys have nice rears. Granted I'm sexually attracted to women (and there is NOTHING wrong with that) and I don't care if I don't find Snake's rear to be nice to look at (if anything I find Raiden's to be slightly more amusing to comment on), but still pointless changes to the bodies of characters are pointless changes. Honestly I hope Nintendo notices and puts them back to their original proportions but who knows? Though at least they'll be awesome to play as in the long run. (oh and some places like the Verge are rightly calling out the changing of Snake's rear but is fine with Samus's reduced bust, f--k them; though unfortunately I wasn't able to archive them but I'll link them indirectly via the KiA subreddit).

And as for Snake himself, again I am really glad he made the cut though I was honestly worried about his inclusion and the representation of the MG franchise since I feared that Konami would compromise that considering how bad the company has gotten these days (for one they subjected the franchise into the recent sodomy that is Survive). Thankfully, we are getting him (plus good ol' Hayter along) and the Shadow Moses stage in the game; though I have a good feeling that it would have some stuff from Peace Walker and the Phantom Pain added in to update it, so it might be possible for the AI Weapons and Sahelanthropus to make an appearance from those two game respectively (though I wonder if more elements of the MG universe get represented as well?). That and maybe Raiden might become either a playable character or an assist trophy, either in his MG4/Solid 2, MG6/Solid 4, or Reveangance look but I have a feeling he might not but who knows? Speaking of which, I'm not even sure if Col. Campbell, Otacon, and Mei would make an appearance as codec contacts for Snake to talk to when doing battles on that stage, though my good theory is that they'd be replaced with Kaz Miller for the Colonel and Paz for Mei respectively, Otacon would either be himself or replaced by his dad, Huey; it largely depends on if Christopher Randall is up for being in Smash Ultimate. Come to think of it, it'd be amusing if Revolver Ocelot in his MG7/Solid 5 getup either makes an appearance as a fourth codec contact or replaces Otacon. As for the codec, I think the stage would go with the post-MG4/Solid 2 ones or have a different one that mimics the imagery from the menu of Phantom Pain (something I wish that game had but I digress). Though I hope the voice actors would reprise the abovementioned characters to get the authentic Metal Gear experience, it'd be a disservice not to and I take issue with that as an MG fan (that and Konami but that's another story). Oh and I notice that the franchise logo for MG is changed from the Fox logo used in Snake Eater to basically the "!" one that shows up when enemies spot you (or notice something), which is usually a bad sign in the world of MG. Other than that I await to see how the Ultimate will represent the games in the MG series that came out after both Brawl and MG6/Solid 4.

Of course, let's focus on other aspects of this game, there are like a few new characters, like the Inklings and Ridley, and of course Daisy...frickin' Daisy (and yet Waluigi gets regulated to being an assist trophy once again...) and plenty of the main cast would have some changes especially with Ryu always facing his opponent in this one which would end up confusing me considering my distaste for fighting games, save for Smash Bros., and that now Marth's English voice actor sounds like a teenage boy trying to act tough in some brawl with high school bullies (frankly it's another case where I prefer the Japanese VA over the English one, same with Fox); though I'm hoping that the game might have an option to change the language of the VA's similar to how Melee had a language option which is frickin' interesting. With the larger roster than the previous games, I have a good feeling that me and my older sister and my friends would have plenty to play with, though some of them would have to be unlockable and that's fine, it's a Smash tradition I'm down with, as long as it doesn't involve being solely through difficult means (not that they should be ridiculously easy either); same for stages. And speaking of which, I'm quite surprised to learn that ALL of them will not only be altered to their Alpha or Omega forms but also their hazards turned off, meaning that I don't have to worry about them when I want to emulate the tournament experience. In addition, plenty of them will be returning ones including the DK Jungle stage with the area being situated on a waterfall like in Melee that has the catchy and awesome intro rap remixed from DK64 (and mind you I loved that part in that I can have my favorite fighter Kirby dance to the tune). And of course given that there will be MOAR stages to play in compared to the others, there's a lot for me and others to play around in and that some will be unlockable (same applies to not being difficult nor easy to do so). Though I'm willing to bet that ALL of them will make an appearance in the game, it'd be stupid not to do that. Same for the items, including the paper fan, of which is one of my faves to use for sheer schnaps and giggles. Trophies are trophies and I'm sure there's some way to get them like through Shops or that gacha thing (of which I'll tolerate if it's not the mobage/lootbox kind). And speaking of systems, I hope the menu gets improved in that it's closer to the Melee and Brawl ones rather than the jumbled up 4th one. As for what kind of modes there'll be, we are not sure, but I do hope it'd be more akin to the first three games in that there was an adventure mode of sorts along with a classic and all-stars, though it's doubtful there'd be anything on par with Subspace Emissary that Brawl had; still for all I know there might be a bunch more modes for both singleplayer and multiplayer (and that online would have many options and not divided up into this either "for glory/fun" nonsense).

Hell, make the game more akin to Melee physics wise, since to me and others, it is the best game in the franchise, and perhaps Ultimate, from what I've seen so far, is looking to match that and perhaps top that, which is good, that should the aim for the game for as far as I'm concerned. Not that the other games that came after Melee were bad, they're quite good in fact, all of them even the original one for the 64. I'm not one of those types that think Melee is the only good one and nothing matters, nope, that's the mark of an ignorant fanboy and fanboys can f--k off. Though if the Melee elitists and I can agree with it's that the Smash franchise is best played on the GameCube controller and thankfully Ultimate is allowing us that option, though can Nintendo at least make sure that SSBU isn't the ONLY one to use it? It was stupid of them to do that with SSB4WiiU and look where that got them; though they could rerelease the Wavebird since it'd fit in well with the Switch's portability). And if there's one sure fire thing about SSBU, it's that it will sell like hotcakes and that it would greatly help the Switch, which itself is a good one (and one I look forward to getting, perhaps for this Christmas) and that it would be a boon to not only Nintendo but to us since we like games that are good to play when it comes to something like Smash Bros and we should reward a company like Nintendo if they give us good quality games to play on good quality systems.

As for what other newbies would make an appearance besides the abovementioned 3, we do not know. There could be like a couple more of them for all I know, and that maybe there might be a few more that are guests from third party companies, not counting SEGA, Konami..., Bandai-Namco, and Square-Enix. Now here I'd like to take the time to advocate for SNK to put in their own guest fighter and it sure as hell isn't Terry nor any of the schmucks from their fighter franchises, no siree (not even that Kyo c--t), nope it's Marco from the Metal Slug franchise. Why? Because Metal Slug is SNK's best known IP (aside from KOF) as I have said before and it'd be stupid for the company to have KOF instead of MS; I mean SNK's collaboration/cross-over crazy right now and they're ripe for a good opportunity to get more visibility from something so popular and beloved as Smash Bros. It'd be insanely stupid for them not to do so along with having KOF take the place. Anyway, I chose Marco to be the candidate guest for Ultimate considering the franchise is known for being a platform-run-n-gun one and if Smash Bros. can have someone from a dark and violent one (Metal Gear) and one where she flaunts her sexuality (Bayonetta) and both have guns, then I think the MS franchise can fit in. Of course I spend the rest of this paragraph about how Marco moves and such and that the other leads, Tarma, Eri, and Fio, can stand in for him similar to how the Koopa kids did with Bowser Jr. and that other guy with Olimar but that's another post for another time. Still SNK better take the opportunity to get a crossover in Ultimate nor that's going to be another load of ammo for me to blast at when criticizing their incompetency but let us move on.

The fact that this Ultimate isn't a port of 4 but rather a new game that is like the kitchen sink of the entire franchise (and some) is quite suprising, though it quite makes sense. I mean we are getting that's like much more content packed than all the previous 5 games combined. Again I'm hopeful that ALL of it comes together but we do not know, it'd be damn shame not to. Still, this is a good move for Nintendo, especially since their E3 prescense is kind of meh right now but then again we have Direct and Tokyo Game Show to surprise us; though it is odd that once again Bandai-Namco is partly making this besides the Sora team, but whatever the last two games were good and that I'm already looking forward to this. That and Sakurai Masahiro is once again leading the development so that's another good sign. Though I do have a feeling that their release date is quite too soon considering that we have half a year to get by and I smell a bit of a Christmas rush, but hopefully they might delay it to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the SSB series. Now that's an anniversary special in my book.

Low Five!: Battlefield "5" Goes Beyond Historically Inaccurate

Credit goes to whoever made this image

 

Well, Battlefield V is revealed and it's set in WWII...for better and worse, and well it seems things are getting out of hand, namely with women soldiers being the focus of controversy, especially since the featured woman in question in the trailer is a disabled woman and has blue face paint on her like she's trying out for some reenactment of Braveheart. That and some dudes (some of them dark skinned)  have the same face paint and one of them is having a katana on his back, even though one nation's forces had that weapon and it was Imperial Japan, who were obviously on the side of the Axis. Already the apologists for the game's more than necessary inaccuracies from the mainstream "gaming press" are out in droves labeling anyone brining this up as "angry childish misogynist gamergate losers" (again with labeling Gamergate as an "evil" thing), missing the whole point of the controversy going on, namely that the game's featuring more women and minorities than the setting allowed.

And yes I know that the BF games set in WWII prior to this are not entirely accurate, for one both sides of the conflict aren't wielding the correct weapons for their respective forces (MP40s for Imperial Japan and the Germans having STG44s before 1944 anyone?), that and there were factual accounts of women and non-whites serving in WWII (and that there were plenty of non white combatants in BF1 and that they too were in WWI) but the liberties taken with BFV are getting ridiculous. I mean when I first saw this trailer, I thought this was some Valkyria Chronicles-esque take on WWII by Western (or rather Swedish) developers (minus the anime elements) or a more ahistorical take on the conflict like that one Furious Four "reboot" of Band of Brothers was going to be (and very much so) not a game with at least some close adherence to the setting like BF 1942 and 43 did. Even worse is that the director of this game chose to have this kind of liberty with more women soldiers than necessary is because he wanted to not only please his daughter but to be on the "right side of history"; funny, I thought trying to make nonsensical statements like "Hitler did nothing wrong" was the opposite of being on the right side. If anything, I feel like this might be a corporate mandated decision to keep SJWs pleased and anyone who's not (like yours truly) suffer; Rich of ReviewTechUSA has this theory too. I guess EA hasn't learned how the 2016 Ghostbusters "reboot" went when it tried to be on the "right side of history". That and I have noticed that this game got promoted on Memorial Day while caring less about what people learned in history class, real classy (sarcasm). Hell, the stuff like Kancolle is more historically accurate than this upcoming disappointment, so maybe perhaps EA should have made it something more akin to that BF Heroes game if it wants to be inaccurate for the sake of fun?

Frankly I'm more upset that EA and DICE chose to revisit WWII, especially on the Western European front and I honestly wish they chose something else like the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Balkan front, WWII related but are underrepresented areas for the franchise to explore. I mean the Polish, the various Balkan forces (including the Yugoslav Chetniks and Titoist partisans), the Arabs, the Chinese, the Koreans, and course the Jews deserve representation in a WWII game, you know something that should be highlighted and advocated for? not "oh let's put some MOAR blacks and some disabled wominz in the armed forces that DIDN'T have such personnel, or rather much in regards to blacks", like so many SJWs clamor for? And funny enough we still haven't had the Holocaust represented in some shape or form aside from that brief picture of the concentration camp prisoners from COD: WWII (and some other games like Valkyria Chronicles which take place in an alternate fantasy universe of sorts), again something that should be advocated for and that SJWs might agree with since it involved ACTUAL oppression not made up s--t that they like to think the USA is supposedly doing right now? I just don't get these losers, but I know for a fact that I will never please these bums, just nope. That and I'm not buying this game, ever, even when it rightly avoids having gacha-lootboxes.

I don't know about you but I'd rather put my money on something better, like SNK Heroines for the Switch or Making History: The Second World War for the PC; or Battlefield 1/0 or flippin' anything (but Metal Gear Survive and almost the whole mobage library).

A Cynical Brit No More: In Memoriam of Totalbiscuit

A real consumer advocate and a gentleman, RIP.

I'm quite late to the news given that I was on vacation in New York City, but still I must comment on this sad turn of events. On that day in history, on May 24th, 2018, John P. Bain, aka. Totalbiscuit, passed away from cancer. When I heard about this from a good friend of mine on DA, I was a hell of a lot more shocked than sad, given that not too recently on May 1st of this year he retired from reviewing games due to his health regarding the battle with cancer and stuck to playing games with his wife; at that time I theorized he would have about 1 to 2 years to live. The reason I expressed shock at the time when he died is simply because his death arrived much earlier than I thought and during the time between then and his retirement I simply prepared myself for his eventual death from cancer (though I admittedly missed the memo that he possibly can die in 2018 and he did). God, thinking about then and now makes me wonder if we of humanity wasted our time and energy getting wrapped up in dumpsterfire covfeffe politics instead of finding a cure for cancer; hell I felt more angry at our constant failure to do so (and kind of right now as of this writing). Even so when d-bags come out and think his death made them happy and say a bunch of garbage stuff that somehow justifies his death, especially that guy from Bioware, as if he was a part of ISIS or Justin Carmical. F--k them, but I'm not going to waste my time and energy ranting about them, since I feel like it wouldn't do TB service, especially after his untimely passing. I'm well aware of his recent dumb behavior involving him being exclusionary towards Trump supporters and people who voted for him, his negative overreaction to the "Are Traps Gay?" thing and suggesting the fake news media hold the current POTUS accountable when the reality is not so, but I'm not bothering to go over them either so instead I'll focus on my positive experience with him and the good he did in his life, and it's better this way.

I first came across him sometime in January 2013, when Angry Joe was doing a top 10 list of worst games made in 2012 in his experience and one of the segments had Bain doing a voice over commentary on the game featured in said segment, Gettysburg: Armored Warfare. I was quite intrigued by the work of the guy who did a pretty good summary of how bad the game is in spite of its unique concept. And admittedly did get hooked on his work, seeing his take on truly bad games like The War Z (aka Infestation), Rambo the Video Game, and Day One: Garry's Mod (of which he stood up to the wrongful takedown of that video in question after it came out at the time), hell I would encourage you to look them up (if you haven't already) to see how well he exposes the horrid quality of the games in question. Not to mention he was quite a good ally in the ongoing Gamergate controversy (or rather war) when much of the mainstream media was bashing the GG group by ripping the garbage "Gamers Are Dead" articles a new um, organ along with the trash comparisons of gamers to ISIS and responding to nonsensical statements by the ExtraCreditz schmucks. Not to mention he held many podcasts called the Co-optional Podcasts, on various videogame related topics with many guests such as AngryJoe, Nerdcubed, Jim Sterling (that chump), Superbunnyhop, and Yatzhee Croshaw; and plenty of them were enjoyable (especially the one on Metal Gear 7: Phantom Pain on the day the game came out) though I have not seen them all and frankly not in the mood to, I have other things to do you know. But I will say that he managed to be a pretty good game reviewer even in a time when many mainstream reviewing sites were becoming unreliable (and I'm pretty sure still are), and keeping up his ouput of interesting content even when he was succumbing to cancer since his unfortunate acquisition of it in 2014; it's safe to say he fought to the bitter end to keep his channel going. Though admittedly I lost interest in his work when he began to have less and less negative WTF Is...? videos but I respected his choice to do so in regards to his health and me again other things to do in life.

I haven't kept up on what's going on with him outside of his struggle with cancer until his passing but I will say that never did wish death on him, quite the opposite in fact. I mean the best thing I can wish people is to live as long as possible ideally for around 100 years at least but sadly that doesn't happen often (but hopefully I might but that's another story), especially in regards to Bain. He was one of those fellows online and offline that I can like and respect and dislike in some regards over those after mentioned issues in the first paragraph but still like to an extent. I just don't think we'll ever see someone who is as talented as him again for a long time, no matter how good whoever's the "spiritual successor" can be; it's one of those times that well make me upset when good talented people die and bad dudes don't (but then again there was Justin Carmical and the recent allegations of his sleazy Weinstein-Cosbyite antics), no matter how timely their deaths are. I will give my condolences to his wife Genna and his son who now have to live without him and so do we the gamer and internet community, he definitely will be missed, no matter how highly or lowly we think of him.

I hereby salute him in honor of his contribution to gaming culture, farewell friend.

First, They Came for the Porn: Valve Removes Eroge from Steam

What a week, just before I go off on an awesome trip to New York City, ANOTHER shooting breaks out, in a Texan high school no less just today (and no I'm not bothering to make a blog about it, no sir), with the guaranteed crazies coming out to exploit it and pee on the graves of the lives lost (hell, I could just make a music video making fun of the idiotic responses blaming everything but mental illness sometime in the future), and Trump being an ignorant chump on the issue (and I'll note that I quite dislike him now after him needlessly escalating tensions in Syria), and of course Steam, that naked-ass monopoly on PC ownership, acting up. This time concerning Eroge, or Hentai games or porno games, but for consistency's sake I'll use the first term, in that they're being lately taken down with the developers of said games getting a notice from Valve (and thanks to some friend on DA and the KiA subreddit notifying and informing me on this).

Now to be clear, I'm not into Eroge since I quite frown on degenerate stuff (and quite strict on pornography) but even I am hesitant to ban them since if they go then the non-Eroge Eastern-games go then Western ones too, i.e. all games go. I know this is a slippery slope argument but there is a truth to it (that and the free speech thing too, though that's another blog for another time), namely that people have this crappy-ass dated view that all anime is hentai (sort of like that d-bag troll Mariotehplumber rambles on about) and both terms are "synonymous". I find that view to be a-well...retarded and so is the reasoning behind the take-downs of the games in question. What surprised me is that the organization who advocates for it and claims credit for the nutty actions is none other than the NCOSE (National Center on Sexual Exploitation), an anti-sex exploitation group who is aligned with religious groups and conservatives, giving the impression it's a rightwing group of sorts (and I don't mean it in a good way), yet are actually working with the US Democrats...go figure. When I first saw their "victory" page, I could have sworn it was from the radical feminist SJW's (you know the type that go around the world and spout this nutty s--t about the "patriarchy" ruling the West and such and such), but nope it wasn't the case, yet it's eerily the same garbage the "progressive" left would espouse so talk about a horseshoe theory in practice. And of course Vice is treating this like a bad thing (of which it is) even though they had articles that advocated for this by sane non-gullible observers.

Considering all of this, I would say that this needs to be stopped for the good of gaming, and besides Eroge isn't worth the attention, like hasn't Valve ever heard of this awesome invention called...um, the AO RATING?! like....you know the rating that MANY, and I mean MANY Eroge, both Eastern and Western made, DESERVE?! Where the hell is the ESRB in all of this? Oh right they're sitting on their thumbs and probably smoking pot (or something like that) than do anything HELPFUL; afterall it is the same organization that thinks gacha-lootboxes aren't a bad thing that's LITERALLY hurting gaming. That and some games (mainly visual novels) don't come with an ESRB rating, so it's almost like it's pointless in those cases. And I bring this up is because well last I checked people under 18 AREN'T allowed AO rated games, at all, more so than people under 17 getting M rated games (though that's another story) nor are allowed on non-PC systems (again another story), so when Valve under the leadership of the supposedly "godly" Gabe Newell  addresses this, they should be reminded to REINFORCE the AO rating so that you know it can a place in gaming. That and give people Half-Life 3, I'm sick and tired of them going on about it being "confirmed" a quadrillion times.

Journos May Cry: Far Cry 5 and the Politics Nonsense

Man, a lot of crazy s--t is happening on the internet, Channel Awesome is run by corrupt asshats (though thankfully the Nostalgia Critic isn't a part of them), Youtube's HQ is shot up by some psycho b---h, and now Far Cry 5...is getting flak for not being political enough or so the gaming "journos" say. Before continuing I will say that I'm currently not in the mood on covering all of them since I'm more focused on not just my projects but also playing Rayman 2: Revolution on the PS2 (thanks to Caddicarus!), which is quite good for the most part, so I'll just focus on one, particularly the Far Cry one for a good reason.

In a previous post I made back in May of last year, a lot of people are like wanting Far Cry 5 to be about Trump for idiotic leftwing reasons instead of like letting it speak for itself and not bother with the dumpster fire of politics. It's one thing to make a statement about how trash politics are in the USA for a multitude of reasons (and the Alt Right is part of the problem) but it's another to make it a flatout propaganda...game that blatantly takes one side and nothing else to the point of harming the game's quality. It's what Extra Creditz warned about, but then again they made the Division out to be some "commentary" on the US government acting like the frickin' SS but I digress. Anyway, Far Cry 5 is out (and again I'm not bothering to get it) and now the gaming "press" is in a tizzy about it; they are extremely confused that the rightwing white Christian people aren't the baddies but rather the multi-racial cult is. Gee, it's as if the cult that took over the town in Montana are supposed to be the ones that the player is going up against and rightly so; I mean cults are wackos, remember the one led by David Koresh? He didn't care if his followers were of different skin colors and indeed the game reflects that, sometimes cults don't care about race (though granted some do) and in fact the cult in the game is more reminiscent of ISIS, I mean it's no secret that the thuggish criminal organization attracts anyone regardless of skin color to their warped cause (except for Jews though). But the gaming "journalists" don't want that, they want it to be the Trump-bashing work of "art" they make the game out to be when it got announced. But when it wasn't, one of them went of his way to give it a low score for "not taking a clear stand", classy (sarcasm).

When people say keep politics out of gaming, this is what they meant. If a game isn't about current politics and never intended to, it's best not to make it out to be otherwise; it makes you look like an ideologue and an idiot. It's a small wonder why people are annoyed when Wolfenstein II (the 2017 one) was being made and people in games "journalism" tried to make out to be about the mess in Charlottesville regarding some Alt Right clowns and Trump (again) even though the context of the game's setting is obviously not so, I mean it's set in the USA occupied by an unambiguously evil power that are the Nazis. And I also made a post on that back in October, and also that the marketing campaign is cringeworthy for the most part (except for the whole "Make America Nazi-free Again" which is probably the okay part since it sums up the goal of the game). And thinking about it makes me more reluctant to have media with Nazis in them again if (and when) they're going to be made again since likely more and more people will think they have to be about Trump and whatever goofy nonsense the Alt Right comes up with (though granted they are technically Nazis but of the hermit kind) and I find that stupendous as hell. It's almost as if we won WWII just to have ideological zealots of the Alt Left calling anyone right of them "Nazis" without context (of which is seriously a harmful thing by now) but that's another story for another time. Anyway, point is, if anyone tries to make some medium that just happens to be set in the USA and has a baddie organization who happens to be led by a white guy that doesn't follow anything on the lines of Neo-Nazis and the Alt Right to be about the Oompa-Loompa man with the funny haircut, chances are I'm not going to take them seriously ever. I mean it shouldn't be a political issue in dealing with evil organizations that aren't meant to be representative of Trump's administration in anyway but what can you do when the gaming "journalists" are desperate for views.

I'm sure there is a good article on how good Far Cry 5 avoids the dumpster politics but unfortunately it's part of a subscription only news site and you can only view 3 articles for free (and I hate that, I mean why should news viewing cost so much on the internet but I digress) and I'm hesitant on showing that. So instead I'll provide a video by Colin Moriarty (good dude he is!) on this nontroversy nonsense:

Gaming the Blame: Trump and the Press vs. Video Games

It's times like these where I whole heartedly disagree with Trump (including over Net Neutrality and climate change), and let it remind me that he is quite an idiot in spite of his good intentions. That and people are using the same ol' garbage "video games cause X" arguments, of which I've noted time and again isn't true. And yes I should I am quite supportive of Trump since IMO well he is slightly more desirable than Clinton was in 2016 and I hope for the best (and he sort is trying) but I should stop here and of course not let that stop you from hearing me out, since well I don't care if you hate Trump or not (and of course I've made a resolution to keep politics at a minimum for the sake of not just my mental health but also my safety).

So anyway, the point is, the gaming "journalists" and of course the "wonderful" Ms. Sarkeesian, who have made some truly wonderus "commentaries" on video games for like over 6 years now are speaking out against the US president by simply "defending" games, as if they did in spite of the contrary.

....

Like wow, can they sink any lower; it's bad enough that they claim that games these days make you sexist violent Neo-Nazi Alt Righter (or pehaps that should be Paleo-Nazis? heh I digress) s--tlords who want to start a Fourth Reich and make people have respect for ISIS (because reasons??) and now they simply change their tune into thinking that's no so because someone who is obviously on the rightwing spectrum says something that agrees with their prior viewpoints. I mean at least Trump is consistent in being anti-video games back in 2012 with that one tweet about games making kids "monsters" and he's saying that stupid nonsense now. And I say, just stick with building walls, draining swamps, fighting fake news, and of course giving people lots o' jobs, I don't care if people yell at you for them (though their more screwier "arguments" can go to the shredder). However, I will direct much of my anger towards the gaming "press" and their ilk and crackpots like Sarkeesian in this case. Why? because they're the ones that are in on trying to make games to be a force of evil and yet they are supposed to be for gaming and are gamers too. I shake my head at this blatant hypocrisy and I say to them: f--k off and f--k your "opposing" views on Trump blaming games for the recent shooting in that Florida high school. Sure his view is s--t and but don't expect us gamers to come to your side when you turn around and disagree with him not out of caring about the gaming hobby but as a political ploy, to push agendas; that and declaring us the gaming community to be either "dead" or "evil" when trying to cover a certain controversy that sparked what might as well be the Afghan-Soviet War of gaming culture.

Hell in fact, I'll let Kizuna-chan speak for me:

And of course the Pop Team gals:

Hmm, this is the second time I got near dropping f-bombs here (and both touched the line and had middle fingers on full display), but I have too since well nobody needs to mess with gaming, not from some politicans (regardless of how well-intentioned they are) to scummy ideologues that think games need to be "PC" to supposedly evolve.

Speaking of which Trump is to meet up with the video game developers, of which would hopefully enlighten him on how gaming isn't some malevolent factor in recent tragedies, but then again he's about 72 years as of this post and my mother told me about how old people are hard to change. Oh and things are getting pretty hairy, with students of some other school in Florida disposing some of their games they consider violent, like wow, I guess suckers are born every minute (just like the people who bought the "PS4s" and downloaded Metal Slug Attack). I mean wouldn't that reinforce the false claim that video games cause violence and s--t? Talk about gullible.

But hey at least the age limit to buy guns has been raised from 18 to 21 in Dick's and Wal-Mart, and I'm like why now after like a couple other shootings in recent years? I just don't get society sometimes, especially since people need to look into the mentally ill aspect of committing shootings, of which the guy clearly was not right in the head in doing so.

Bullet for No Valentines: Yet Another Shooting in the USA

(for today's post I will be linking to USA today of which thankfully is low on politics so I won't bother archiving them; that and I must stress that I'm a bit late but it's still relevant as of this post)

...When will this trend of some psycho dude/person/pisano going to some [insert place here] and proceeding to shoot innocent people with firearms for [insert reasons here] end? I mean good lord, you think like by now we have a bunch of systems in place to prevent such a thing after oh say the Aurora theater shooting or hell all the way back to Columbine but no it appears to be a frequent occurrence in this ever so troublesome 2010's (which is already bad enough for a variety of reasons but I won't elaborate on for the sake of my health). Well this shooting in particular just happens on Valentine's Day (which if you ask me is an alright holiday, quite indifferent to it actually but sadly that's not the main topic), in some high school in Florida and I heard about this from my grandma when she picked me up from work (though granted it was inevitable given that YouTube would let me know about this tragedy with its breaking news feed, of which I have my concerns about it but that's another topic for another time).

And right on schedule the crazies are coming out of the woodwork, starting with the typical conservative dudes who are "anti-violent vidya gaemz" because somehow an entertainment medium is responsible for such tragedies. And once again I call BS on it, given how as a fact, video games themselves do not cause violence (nor sexism)...ever. That and I also find it funny that the Mast guy is like "concerned" about the "desensitizing of violence" that movies and games push yet he himself fought in Afghanistan and lost his legs there, like as if they're responsible for the suffering he went though, go figure. Though my mom is like sort of in agreement with that Kentucky governor guy (why?), but I guess she might be referring to the kid playing games not suited to his age getting the wrong ideas, so if anything it's the mental condition and the parents who are to blame for the kid acting bad. And in this case, well the young man behind the Parkland shooting is clearly messed up in the head and he has himself to blame (and funny enough chose to run away and not commit suicide), meaning the cause is related to mental illness, of which should be a big consideration when investigating horrid behavior. I mean he blatantly stated he wanted to cause damage for the sake of it (unironically) and that alone to tell everyone something is wrong with him. And speaking of mentally ill, people are blaming guns because "guns kill people" (which is half true mainly because people kill people"), and implying that somehow the current US president and the NRA are responsible for this. I just...I just...wow, that is some serious conjecture and almost like they're scapegoating the two, as if they can control who can shoot and can't.

At this rate, it wouldn't be long before the leftwing SJWs come out to add their "informative" and "though-provoking" views on this tragedies, I can only cringe at what they have to say (not that I want them silenced mind you). And I think I might need to concentrate on something positive before I go crazy from all of this, like trying to beat Rayman 1 on the PS1.