Still Active

Hey folks, in case you are wondering, I haven't updated this blog in like a couple months, various other things had taken my attention, including certain political events of which I don't wish to talk about right now.

So in the meantime, I'll find whatever topic that is fitting for me to do a post on as well as updating my other blog, so stay tuned.

An Honest Idea? SNK Moneymore Wants to Revive Other IPs and a certain Metal Slug

Fitting image if you ask me

 

Well, well, well it seems SNK really is getting more and more honest about reviving other IPs it wrongly neglected (and to a certain few abused). In addition they also want to "make new IPs" as well, meaning that they won't just be merely revisiting the older ones.

 

While this sounds good and all, I'm still quite skeptical of how SNK does things. I mean this is the same company that thought it was a great idea to rape the Metal Slug franchise with those garbage-ass tower defense games starting with Defense (or as I like to call it Derpfense), wasted their development effort with KOF XIII (what with that sprite overhaul) and went into pachislot-induced near irrelevancy, and recently making KOF XIV that is no doubt a full fledged game and at the same time giving the Slug squat except for... you guessed it ANOTHER RETARDED tower defense game (and having the nerve to make it it's "20th anniversary game")! I get it, I get it that KOF is the most well known SNK franchise known to the gaming community, but as far as I'm concerned that's no excuse given that from my understanding that SNK wrongly put a lot of resources into that one franchise at the expense of others. Not that I'm saying KOF should die or anything, I really don't care about the franchise normally, but I do if SNK keeps favoring KOF over anything else, almost like a kind of Apartheid inflicted upon video games. Yeah, if you think about it, it's almost the same way the Nationalist Party of South Africa did regarding the whites and the non-whites and if anyone is barely familiar with Apartheid you know which group the party favored but I digress here.

 

Anyway, while we all know that KOF XIV will do well given that as I said it's the most well known franchise (for shame) and that it will have a lot more content that Street Fighter 5 has, I'm obviously a lot more worried about what would SNK do in the future. As I said, SNK seem to be sending mixed messages lately with not giving the MS series a badly needed game while putting all it's effort on just KOF XIV. It quite tells me that SNK seems to not care about the Metal Slug franchise at all and just seems content to rape it to the ground with those mind-numbingly boring and low effort tower defense s--t. I'm not bothering to talk about why I think they're a disgrace for the series even though they aren't exactly the worst games ever made, no I'll save that for another time for the sake of my sanity. Instead I would add before all of that, SNK made pachislot games and non-tower defense games all of which do little to nothing for the series (except for maybe adding a few new characters and vehicles and such that deserve to be represented in more full fledged games), all of which made me lose interest in the series but after SNK made the news again regarding it's purchase by Leyou I can't help but keep a close eye on things regarding the company regarding it's intentions to make a revival of the mistreated franchise and give it the "Marvel" treatment.

 

And knowing of their track record, I'm very concerned since other franchises had suffered worse fates than being made into lame-ass tower defense games and I don't want to see Metal Slug get worse than that (Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 anyone?). It doesn't even help that most of the Nazca team and the others that made the post-Nazca games have left the company and I won't be surprised if there's none of them around. I bring up the Nazca team for a reason since the KOF team (or at least Ishizawa) want to make a Metal Slug game of sorts and I honestly am not sure how on earth would they do it. I can see them making another non-KOF fighting game given that the team are specialists in the fighting game genre (a genre that I despise a lot but I digress). but Metal Slug obviously is a mostly run-n-gun franchise and I just can't imagine them doing it without a team that are well-versed in run-n-guns and platformers. The question to me regarding a revival of the series is not when will it come but how can it be done? It's no secret that MS7 and XX didn't do very well in terms of sales despite being decent games and may have been an indicator of SNK's mostly neglectful treatment of the franchise (until the after mentioned tower defense raping of course) and that SNK would have to put a lot of effort into a revival of that franchise since after all it is SNK's most well known non-fighting game series of all time.

 

However, from my experience playing all the games (including XX on my birthday this year) it seems the franchise had gotten stagnant and the best it could do is have a weapon switching system which is quite convenient if you ask me; I mean yeah it was forgivable on an arcade platform but these days you need to make the next game (if it's going to be a sequel) a lot of umph, given that COD Infinite Warfare is rightly getting disliked a lot for a good reason; keep a gaming franchise fresh. Not that a franchise needs to have a wildly new innovative mechanic but at least a couple mechanics and features that differentiate one installment from the next (and preferably have the successor installments keep those features, mostly), you get the idea. For Metal Slug's case, not only would there be some new mechanics to add but a serious overhaul in general given that the way it is in it's current state is limiting it's appeal. You see, after contacting someone who was more knowledgeable with how KOF and MS were received over by a PM system in a forum I won't disclose he told me that the reason why KOF is more publicly received was that it appealed to hardcore gamers (or at least those above casuals) and MS while less known is more appealing to casuals despite having some amounts of high difficulty and I find this to be a problem given that MS control-wise are more accessible than KOF does given the way they play. That and having a universe that doesn't seem to care about itself (and by AH enthusiast standards ASB, meaning implausible as hell) despite the potential it holds from its interesting yet barebones backstory which IMO is not a good thing given that fictional universes with at least a lot of depth in terms of mythos can keep a franchise going in the minds of the people for a long time (even with the likes of Mario and Zelda). Not that I'm saying the series needs to be heavily story based or anything just give a damn about the world because there's so much to the world that is vividly rendered in those gorgeous aesthetics (at least in the Neo-Geo games and the portable non-arcadedy ones).That's the key to making a successful revival of the franchise but of course that would mean that it would have to take itself a lot more seriously and that would be a very controversial thing to do given that the fanbase in general is accustomed to the old Nazca-verse, wacky and goofy ways and honestly those ways just can't cut it anymore. Not that the series needs to be sooo grimdark and gritty but again give a damn because that's what the franchise needs. And of course that might mean to give it a reboot of sorts given that I feel there's not much to do with the Nazca-verse series; I mean by the end of 7/XX, Morden, the lead bad guy of the games, is still on the loose and will cause trouble again and the Metal Slug team (the protagonists) will be there to stop him and at this point in hindsight that's enough. It's obviously the story just stops and if there will be another sequel it would still be the same regardless of how good the game might be gameplay-wise but that's another discussion for another time.

 

In the meantime, I'll continue to keep an eye on SNK's developments, wading through the inevitable news of KOFXIV of which I will not care for since afterall, I never cared for KOF in the past and will not today and neither will I in the future.

Counter-Scammers Win!: The Busting of the CS Lotto Scandal

Before continuing let me say that I highly despise gambling in just about all forms; I mean in my opinion it's a waste of time and money, quite literally. Sure you might get lucky but that's about it, just sheer luck in a game that's about doing random s--t that might make you lose. If you like gambling, fine, I don't and I have better things to do than do stuff like casino gambling and scratching lottery tickets.

 

With that said, I'm going to get down to the recent scandal that's taking the gaming community by storm and no it's not Gamergate (given that it's still ongoing as of this post it might as well be the internet equivalent of the Soviet Afghan war but I digress). Rather it deals with Counter-Strike, a game that I once played for a while but lost interest (on the original Xbox no less) and how some d-----bags did a dirty scheme to promote gambling relating to the game in particular.

 

Long story short, two guys called Tmartin and ProSyndicate, made a bunch of promotions on their youtube channels to a gambling site that deals with betting on a bunch of stuff for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It might not sound concerning given that youtubers often shill out stuff for things that people may or may not care (I wish they didn't if you ask me) however what made the news was when it was discovered that both of those guys own the site and haven't even disclosed that at all on their videos. Oh and they promoted it to people under 18, even though they were aware that the site is for those 18 and older, broke a state law forbidding gambling of some kind, and even rigging gambling sessions on their videos, really nice of those losers to do so in the process of...(Lickboot-style) money. You can have a good of the whole affair in a few articles I'll link here. And if you ask me, I really think it's very scummy of them to do such a thing and should be ashamed of themselves, promoting underage gambling or not (it's just that the under aged aspect just added to the s--t antics like a cherry on top of a s--t sundae).

 

Frankly with all the backlash those guys rightly deserve (and after watching EventStatus's take on it), it makes me wonder why we tolerate folks who similarly push stuff they shill on their channels? I think we might need to have a purge of some kinds (not a violent one mind you) in order to cleanup the image of the gaming community; perhaps the CSGO Lotto affair might be that spark or not.

 

At least in the meantime, PBS Gameshow's youtube channel is ending it's run; good riddance, given that hipster didn't provide anything meaningful to gaming culture for as far as I'm concered. But at least I'm wrapping up with good news on this post.

He's Wreck-n-It Again! Wreck-It Ralph 2 announced!

Once in a while, there's good news coming and the news in particular is that Wreck-It Ralph 2 is announced and will be coming to theaters in 2018. And being a fan of the first one, I'm quite excited and happily looking forward to it, given that it's the most I want from Disney these days (though Moana looks pretty good so far...minus the garbage compliants about the supposed fat shaming it's displaying but I digress).

Now while we have mostly no idea what's the film going to be like, we have a promotional image being shown in the article linked here, so I'm going to analyze the hell out of it.

Now as we can see, he appears to be in a cityscape of some kind with little ol' Von Sweetchz on top of his shoulder and well it's awesome. Though we can notice that the little names being displayed on top of the "buildings" are obviously internet services just with the names changed for possibly copyright reasons (though I wonder if Youtube will get mentioned but I'll get there later). As we have noted, in this sequel, Ralph will be going to the internet which will be represented as a city of sorts and that the buildings themselves might represent the websites. I'm quite mixed here, since on one hand it will be interesting for a film like this, especially from Disney, to deal with the internet directly and possibly tackle the ups and downs the internet faces but on the other I'm quite skeptical of this given that since the first film had numerous video game references and had the affair take place in old arcade machines which as of this post are pretty much a niche thing if not dead for as far as I'm concerned. However there's plenty of games that have online functions, such as World of Warcraft and Overwatch, so I wonder if Wreck-it Ralph 2 will feature them or at least have expies of them, we'll have to see. Speaking of which, it's no secret that roms and the emulators to play them are a part of internet society (though that's another topic for another time) and it would be interesting if they get featured in the film as well, though again expies might be abound for both legal and creative purposes. Then again, maybe what the first missed out in terms of opportunities the second might make up for it.

Right now I'm tired and I have to get to bed but all I have to say is that I'm very glad this films is being made and will be out by 2018; afterall I rather have good news to end the day than bad news.

Death Stranding Announced!: My Thoughts on the Trailer

So of course, Kojima Hideo, the man behind Metal Gear and Zone of the Enders, put out a trailer for his new upcoming game for the PS4 during this year's E3 (via Yongyea):

 

 

While I'm quite impressed with the way the trailer looks, looking like it might set up the protagonist's possibly trippy adventure, I've got to say it's a pretty bizarre trailer. What with the baby being held just disappearing and having the protagonist's hands being covered with oil (or tar or somethin'), the invisible hands pressing against the black sand and being filled with that same black substance no doubt, him being naked for no reason (though if the protagonist was a woman, I'd imagine a lot of SJWs would go nuts and be hatin' on the trailer, ironically racking up a lot of traffic for it but I digress), and of course the bunch of sea animals being dead all around him. There's a reason why I think the game might be a lot trippy, because well it's weird and I'm quite fine with that given that the game will be dealing with connections in life and death; it's a Kojima game after all. That and I like the music being played, adding into the trailer's mysterious tone (after all it's not usual to end up on a beach with dead sea animals with a baby that disappears in your hands while buck naked). Oh and I should mention that the protagonist is obviously played by Norman Reedus, the guy involved in the sadly cancelled Silent Hills/PT game. I guess nothing can stop the Reedus-Kojima bond, huh? That and it's all photorealistic again, something that I feel Kojima didn't learn from given that the development of the FOX engine was expensive for a reason and I feel might have cut into Metal Gear 7: The Phantom Pain's awesomeness. Not that the trailer shouldn't be impressive mind you but I feel like photorealism is quite overused and dare I say it undesirable given that IMO cuts into the artistic aspects of many games (and being expensive as hell and party why the gaming industry is having trouble these days). But of course my distaste for photorealism is another story for another time.

 

And speaking of aesthetics there hasn't been any ingame footage but at least it's complete rendered ingame meaning that the game will be a lot like that graphics wise. And of course sadly the weird astronaut esque Ludens guy won't be appearing in the game (talk about Sir-Not-Appearing-in-this-Game), you know the guy whose side of his face forms the symbol for the recently resurrected Kojima Productions logo. But given that this is made by Kojima and that the game might play like an action but maybe offer a lot of unique elements (trippy ones I bet), I'm pretty sure this might be one of the biggest killer apps for the troublesome PS4 console (along with Gravity Rush 2 and the Crash Bandicoot Remasters).

 

And as a fan of his work (most of them), I'm quite happy he's still in the gaming business and intends to stay there, unlike a certain gaming company Kojima worked for.

A Day of Infamy: The Shootings in Orlando and How Some React

*Sigh* Another day, another a--hole decides to go shoot up some place with innocents for some distorted reason, in this case some dude who shoot up a gay bar in Orlando, Florida. It's almost routine for someone like me living in America in the 2010's where it seems to be a tradition to witness news reports of someone shooting up innocents for no good reason, and it's almost like I should just not care because it happens all the time but of course what good would that do? The least I can do is give my condolences to the people whose lives have been drastically effected by this disaster.

 

And of course, cover some people getting all politicized over this for no reason. If there's anything "political" to get nuts over it's the motive of the scumbag who have clearly shown to be sympathizing with ISIS and may have been committing a hate crime (too bad he died in a gunfight with cops during the shooting, I would have liked to see him get hanged but I digress). And by getting politicized I mean blame white cishet males and link video games to the tragedy. It always grinds my gears to see video games getting blamed for anything, including supposed misogyny. And what's bad about this is that it's the games media doing this not some dumb lawyers like Jack Thompson and all of this just before E3 begins. I mean no offense to the staff of the upcoming E3 showing solidarity with the victims with them having that pin with the rainbow flag, I'm fine with that, but how in the hell would those games be "insensitive" to the recent tragedies? If they are then what about the other tragedies that happened like the one in Belgium or Sandy Hook or that one in California? Jeez, talk about being over sensitive, unreal. Just stop acting like video games were somehow responsible for the reprehensible act of terrorism, the guy could have been a video game hater for as far as I care.

 

While I'm usually hesitant to do this given that this relates to a certain possibly never-ending controversy that should not be named but this dude sums up the crazy hypocrisy the games media is displaying: http://kukuruyo.com/comic/gamergate-life-81/

Who're you gonna call? Crapbuster! AVGN vs. the Media

About a week ago, James Rolfe, the guy who played the Angry Video Game Nerd on a web series of the same name, made a video saying that he will not be seeing the new Ghostbusters...movie and just that.

Sounds alright to me, I mean I don't blame him, the movie looks retarded and with trying to bank on having an all female lead cast to justify its existence. Not that I hold the original one as something like a sacred cow, far from it; in fact I find it quite silly and ridiculous and probably not to be taken seriously (not in a good way). Though I oddly find it more fitting to watch on Halloween than a bunch of horror films (barring silly s--t like Leprechaun and It) given that it deals with the dead indirectly through the featuring of spirits from deceased people but I digress. Anyway, the reason I find the Ghostbusters franchise to be too stupid for my tastes is that I just find the whole ghost "bustin'" business to be stupid altogether given that the lead guys look like they have better things to do than do that s--t (that or maybe I'm just not into supernatural stuff, usually). Granted I haven't seen the original film nor its sequel but that'll be something I might keep in mind but I'm not really worried about that.

No, the thing that concerns me or rather annoys me is how the media (and other people) responded to him. I mean there's countless articles and tweets making him look like he's an evil sexist pig, an MRA, or whatever. Hell the Cinema Snob guy went out of his way to attack him or rather strawman his ass; seeing a member of Channel Awesome go after the AVGN makes me wonder if the Nostalgia Critic will get involved. I hope not or else the whole Nerd vs. Critic thing might become real and not in a good way but I rather not speculate here. Anyway, those articles are trash and do nothing to address the perhaps rightly low expectations of the new Ghostbusters. Apparently from what they say, I'm supposed to believe Rolfe this whole time is making me hate women in games because he plays into the stereotypical "gamer nerd" look in his AVGN videos? Odd, I thought I was supposed to hate the mostly bad games he plays and the only things I flat out disagree with him on is on Lester the Unlikely and definitely Rockman Legends 1.

 

The reason I say the big large scale reactions to his refusal to see the new Ghostbusters don't help at all is how stupid the existence of them are. I mean all of that garbage because he doesn't want to see something that might suck in his eyes (and maybe objectively to ours as well)? Talk about a serious overreaction, these articles that spew that crap remind me of why I tend to take such articles with a grain of salt given that they tend to be nonsensical (and making dumb statements like Trump is some sort of fascist but that's another story for another time). That and the whole reaction to people not wanting the new Ghostbusters movie as some sort of MRA, sexist backlash is idiotic beyond belief. I have never seen such a big defense for something that well shouldn't be in the first place given that there are countless pointless remakes out there (Red Dawn 2012 anyone?). But I will tell you one thing, I'm not seeing it because I know for a fact that it looks stupid, and that I don't care if the leads are women, I just don't. That and just don't twist my words to make me something I'm not; it's one thing to disagree with me and Rolfe and say that the film might be at least decent but it's another to strawman the hell of us, it's just intellectually dishonest and harmful.