This is a slap in the face of ALL gamers who are fans of the Aliens series. Even if you aren’t a fan of the Aliens movie series, a move by the developers like this should spark some sort of anger in you as a gamer.

(Screenshot from A:CM)

The Beginning

I’ll bring you along on the trip that I’ve taken with this game. I didn’t pay this game too much attention when it was first announced because I knew that the previous titles weren’t anything that raised eyebrows, at least not in a positive way that is. That all changed when I was browsing Angry Joe’s website one day and saw that he had posted a video entitled, “Top 10 Reasons Aliens: CM Will Kick Ass!”. Being a big AJ fan I decided to take a look at the video and see what he had to say about it.

(The video from Angry Joe)

After seeing this video, I was so excited to pop this game into my Xbox 360 that I jumped over to GameStop‘s website and checked out everything I’d get for pre-ordering A:CM. What I saw didn’t impress me too much, so I decided to pre-order the game Crysis 3 instead. I was a bit weary of this decision because I believe that Aliens would be one of this year’s best titles. The biggest reason that I didn’t side with A:CM was the fact that I had gotten my hands on the Crysis 3 Multiplayer Beta and had a blast. (Check out my hype up article of C3 HERE).

The Wait

As time passed I really started to question if I had made the right choice. I knew that Crysis 3 was a great decision due to all the pre-order bonuses, but the anticipation and good things I was hearing all the while about A:CM was really making me think I should stop by GameStop once more to throw down $10 or $15 to reserve the title.

Every time I was about to go to the store though, something stopped me from doing it. Something told me to wait and see what others were saying and to save the money for a different game. Little did I know what the future held for this game…

The Post-Release Fallout

So February 12th rolls around and I ran to my computer to see what reviews that A:CM was getting. What I read was leaving me dumbfounded. This game was TANKING. The scores were MUCH lower than I expected and I was just sitting there mind-blown. I went to Noobtoob and the discussion on the game was the same; A:CM was universally failing. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I had to see what Rev3 Game had to say about it. Usually their views mimic/mirror mine, so I was confident that anything they said, I could hold true.

To my pleasure, Adam Sessler, a long-time favorite game journalist of mine, was doing the review for them. I knew whatever Adam said could be trusted, so I clicked the play button and hoped for the best….

(Adam Sessler’s review for Rev3 Games)

After watching this video I knew I had made the right choice to side with Crysis 3. This game looked awful. The developers LIED about things that were in their game. The textures were bad (even on the PC), the lighting was horrid and completely different and the back drops weren’t as rich as shown in the E3 demo.

To see how flat this game fell on it’s face is such a disappointment in my book. As a gamer, I want to see EVERY game that’s released to be a great title. I know that is not humanly possible, but you would think that the game that was given the blessing from the makers of the film to be regarded an official part of the lore.

If you’d like to see an in-depth look at what the devs changed. I’ll post a video below that compares the two.

(Here’s a great comparison video from the folks at VideoGamerTV)

Three days later I still can’t get over how big of a flop this game was. To go from a game that was on my most-anticipated list to a game that I hardly want to rent is about the biggest turnaround I’ve experienced in my gaming years. It really hurts to see a company lie straight to our faces like Gearbox did to us with their E3 “demo”. The gaming community as a whole deserves better treatment than what they did to us.

When it’s all said and done there’s one gamer I feel the worst for, Angry Joe. I know how much he loves the Aliens franchise and how excited he was to see this game release and be good. It sucks to have to watch his review, but being the fan I am, I had to. To see the disappointment really hurt to even watch. Joe was genuinely let down by this “game” that Gearbox produced. (If you’d like to see AJ’s review click HERE)

Gearbox really has some explaining to do to the gaming community. Whether it be a statement, or a tweet, anything. We deserve to hear from them.

Well that’s about it. What are your views on A:CM and Gearbox? Let me know in the comment section, on Twitter, or Facebook! Thanks for reading!

-Richie D.

-           I clock in at 20 years of gaming (small change compared to a lot of older gamers, I know) but there are still so many old games I never got to play. The Ultima series is one I’d like to retroactively experience,  though it won’t have any nostalgic value for me.

-          I think fantasy game developers are too afraid to try a motion controlled fantasy. Don’t worry about exhausting us! One of the biggest problems with Star Wars Kinect was the disappointment of the light saber motion controls. Can you imagine how awesome that would have been if it worked more smoothly?

-          Reviewing games sounds fun but I’d never want to do it professionally. I’ll just stick with watching Angry Joe and Noah Antwiler, using their comment pages as a reminder of why I will never willingly post anything on Youtube.

-          I came up with my first original game design concept and GODDAMN I wanna play it. Expensive as hell to make, though, if I ever get that far.

-          I still think it’s bullshit that I can’t watch Netflix on the 360 without getting a Gold membership. It’s not enough that we’re paying for Netflix already? That’s got nothing to do with school, it just bites my ass.

-          PCWorld did an article on the worst consoles ever made. I noticed a pattern in ugliness that proves you don’t need to sacrifice aesthetics for good technology. Either that or gamers demand sexy consoles. Who wants to play games on a device that looks like your grandpa’s breathing machine?

Where have I heard the “level with you” claim before? We’ll just have to see if Cryptic delivers. In old school Dungeons and Dragons, I remember you really needed to take your henchman or henchwoman along on every adventure if you wanted to keep them leveled. I assume there are rules for skipping that in this day and age, and likely in Cryptic’s Neverwinter.

I’ll quote the best Neverwinter bits below, then follow with some other quotes that were extra-interesting in the previous week. For more Neverwinter dev posts, just go to the forums and click the Dev Tracker subforum.

Also, don’t forget that the February edition of PCGamer has a Neverwinter exclusive, featuring a key code for an exclusive mount. This edition is supposed to hit news stands Jan. 8th.

“Henchmen are essentially AI companions that will fight alongside you. There will be a nice variety of henchmen and pets at launch that have a wide range of abilities. Some will heal you, some will tank for you, some will do some heavy damage, others are just quirky and interesting. Your henchmen will also level with you, and you can augment their abilities with enchantments and gear as well as change their appearance.

Currently you can pick between all the announced classes as well as a few unannounced classes. Each class additionally lets you choose a paragon class when you hit the right level, complete with its own feats, powers and gear. I don’t know if a freeform class option will be available at launch.” ~ Crypticmapolis, Senior Environment Artist on the Neverwinter Foundry team

~

“SWTOR basically slammed the door on the subscription model’s dick, while introducing some new noxious ways to implement free to play.” ~ TAGN

~

BLESS is a classic MMORPG in a medieval European setting. To us, the most important elements of an MMORPG are not only immersive graphics and combat, but also a strong setting, story and even NPC dialogue, all intertwining in a complex, yet engaging manner. You will be able to step into an entirely new world that is both believable and comprehensive, made possible by BLESS’s background story, which we have taken painstaking effort to build. In BLESS, you will be able to adventure with intriguing characters against a realistic backdrop. Unlike traditional MMORPGs, players will be motivated to engage in a variety of role-play scenarios. ~ Jacob Han speaking with MMORPG.com. More on the importance of story and choices in BLESS at Massively.

~

“Dorito-gate” ~ Angry Joe, Top Ten Gaming Controversies of 2012. For more information on this, watch the video starting 17:50, or read this long article on Kotaku. There are reasons I like to read/watch game bloggers like Angry Joe and the ones listed my blogroll, and not news sources that are paid journalism. I really like honesty, both in criticism and in honest enthusiasm for a good game title.

Apples and oranges, fans and geeks

First, I think the author compares apples and oranges, that is, fans and geeks. He writes about what he considers to be people who are so fanatic about a franchise that they can’t or won’t exercise judgement over it.

Some people may be like that. Geeks call them fans, fanboys and fangirls, specifically because of their lack of criticism. They are described as blindly loving anything related to the franchise they love. These people exist, but they do not represent geek culture dans son ensemble, and most geeks certainly don’t fit this description.

In fact, as I have stated before (here and here) categories barely ever correctly describe anyone and they are best used for their operative function. Totalizing descriptions of geeks culture should be avoided.

Geeks will criticize until they get a critical hit

Now I simply hope the author of the post won’t argue that my comment is due to my absolute ineptitude to self-criticize or criticize geek culture. Because I happen to think geeks are some the most critical people you will ever meet. They know more about the movies, books, comics or TV series they adore than their creators do. Watch these Star Trek mistakes videos on Youtube as an example. As a geek, I can spit on episode 3. Actually, I don’t have to, since it is dead to me. It never existed, even. Fanboys and fangirls? They might adore it. They might adore anything Star Wars. Not me.

Hard-core gamers are the first to criticize games for their bugs, bad graphics, dialogue errors or overall awfulness  Ever read a WOW forum when servers crash? Have a look. Go ahead and Google it.  Angry Joe published a video called Top 5 Reasons Mass Effect 3 Kicks Ass. Then he published another call Top 5 Reasons Mass Effect 3 Sucks. And he creates a yearly review of the worse games of the years, too.

Grassroots vs Mainstream

Another mistake the author makes, I feel, is that he confuses the mainstream money-making media and entertainment industry with geek culture.

They know what you like. They know exactly what shapes to make the faces, what colors to make the logos, and they’ve focus tested their game and designed it to death and you’re going to eat that spoonful of shit because you’re their “target demographic”. The crisis of originality comes from the only group of people who ever gave it legitimacy – you.

Geeks know people (not just men) in suits are trying to suck us dry out of our money. That makes us angry. What makes us even more angry is when they cancel a TV show we adore because they have this notion that it’s not popular enough, meaning, of course, that they are not making enough money out of it. When that happens, geeks feel angry that the people in charge of TV networks simply don’t get it. They don’t get the passion we feel for science-fiction. They just want our money, and that’s makes them horrible. Check out the Facebook page for Save Stargate Universe. 77 000+ people don’t try to save a TV show just so they can spend more money. And don’t even get me started on Community airing later this year.

Of course money makes companies want to try to sell their products to a broader audience than hard-core gamers and geeks. So they make products more marketable, they dumb them down, as Angry Joe says, or mess them up. This PISSES OFF hard-core gamers and geeks. That’s one of many reasons why more and more geeks are choosing to produce their own contents independently, mostly online.

Finally, nobody denounces the merchandization of their culture more than hard-core geeks or gamers. You think it’s fun for geeks who have been passionate about D&D or Star Trek or obscure video games all their lives to see the entertainment industry purchase their interests in bulk, make them more marketable and change their nature? Even worse, now every body seems to want to be geeky enough to dress up “Geek Chic”, but still not enough to look socially inapt. People are taking our title without deserving any geek cred.

The crisis of originality or authenticity in geek culture does not come from the geeks: it comes from the money-makers.

Geek culture is a thing, and like Star Trek, it lives on

Still, geek culture is still a thing. And I couldn’t agree less with this statement:

Blame the geek, because “geek culture” isn’t a thing that grows organically – it’s prepackaged, digested, repackaged and resold to people as something resembling an identity.

It think it’s the exact opposite. Geek culture started out as something completely marginal and underground. It is constantly transformed by the people who shape it. Geek identity is being manipulated by the money-makers. I agree. But it’s no identity is simply something you buy or tag yourself with. People might be dressing up “Geek Chic”, that still doesn’t mean they’re geeks.

Heavy-metal and Punk cultures continued to live on, on smaller scales, after they grew out of fashion, when only the true of heart and spirit remained. Popular cultures that are currently in fashion, like Hip-Hop and geek cultures, still have as strong core despite the fact that mainstream pop culture is creating a blur over them. I strongly advocate from anyone’s right to take part in and explore geekdom, but that said, I feel some are there temporarily and others will stick to it. Don’t confuse what mainstream pop culture poses as geek to be the real deal.

Geek culture is a thing. People who are inside of it say so. When they don’t, they might call it a subculture, a group, a thing, whatever. But as an anthropologist, I consider geekdom to be a culture. People gather around more than a trend, more than a category they fit into, more than their interests. They have specific ways of communicating and judging each other. They have ways of ranking each other on a hierarchy of geek cred. They have their own events and ways of dressing and expressing their ideas. Their culture is ever-changing, and yet stays true to itself. Transformation does not mean extinction.

Conclusion(s)

Before I conclude, I’d like to propose two considerations:

1. Why does geek culture keep getting attacked while shows like Jersey Shore or The Bachelor air on TV? If this is what is considered to be a normal kind of content to be into, then I say no thanks. So, no, I won’t lay low on the memes and the companion cubes jokes. Because I don’t care what you think of me being a geek if you don’t care to know what it means to me.

2. Why mention Twilight in a post about geek culture? Tween girls might adore those silly books and movies, but it’s really not a geek staple and any table-top game enthusiast will tell you the story and characters were pretty much copied from games.  Yes, Twilight is a great example of a lack of creativity. Just don’t associate it with geek culture, I beg of you.

Finally, the author of the post states that it’s difficult for geeks to communicate with outsiders. I should give this some thought, I never knew I had that problem…;) Maybe readers of this post can give me their opinion on that? In any case, congratulations to David Reynolds for being Freshly Pressed! I don’t agree with you, but I respect that you express your ideas.

As some of you might know, I play Guildwars 2. Guildwars 2 is everything I wanted from a Guildwars 1 sequel. Its casual, has fun classes, let’s me jump and move over most terrain (GW1 vets will know what I mean), and continues to have NO monthly fee! Wooo!

Let’s be honest… most of us don’t really want to fork over $15/mo if we don’t gotta.

I’ve been server jumping somewhat, because I don’t have all my pals located on the same server. I also wanted to move into a big guild so I had a crew to roll with whenever I finally hit 80. Yeah, I’ve been playing since a pre-release and am still level 45 on my main. The main point is I am finally nested onto Northern Shiverpeaks in the guild called Angry Army [AA]. Its a guild that was formerly on the Henge of Denravi and fronted by internet personality Angry Joe. I’ve watched some of Angry Joe’s stuff before on Thatguywiththeglasses.com and found he was a pretty interesting and energetic guy. Given his love of Guildwars 2 in the review of the same name, the Angry Army seemed like the best guild to join. The member count is anywhere from 500-700, but its hard for me, a mere member, to count exactly how many are in [AA]. [AA] spawns over 2 guilds currently, so its hard to pinpoint an exact number count.

They moved over from Henge of Denravi to Nothern Shiverpeaks for two reasons, from what I read on their forums:

1. They hated how long the queues were. They had to wait hours before they could play.

2. They felt like Henge of Denravi was stomping the compet. without their help. They wanted more of a challenge.

Ultimately the AA joined Northern Shiverpeaks. Just my assumption, but, I believe that Nothern Shiverpeaks was losing WvWvW mostly and that one or two major guilds had server transferred some time before AA even showed up. I won’t say that AA is singlehandedly responsible for making NS into a winning server, but supposedly it coincides around the same time.

I server hopped from Sorrow’s Furnace to Northern Shiverpeaks. I did try to WvWvW, but my computer hates more than 10 PCs on the screen, so it quickly led to me being banished to PvE until I finally upgrade my PC. For a short time after I failed at WvWvW, I hadn’t really heard anything about WvWvW. I knew we were getting our butts handed to us by… some servers. I can’t remember now, but then we moved into the rotation of NS vs Anvil Rock vs Ferguson’s Crossing. For those two weeks, all I knew was that NS was apparently steamrolling the other two servers. I thought that was pretty great, because when I rolled on the server just a few days prior the server was listed as ‘medium’ pop and Anvil Rock was listed as ‘full pop’ in the server list. I was really certain we would be the ones getting steamrolled. There wasn’t too much banter in guildchat about it or boasting. AA is pretty chill and pretty much plays for fun, at least I do.

I’m pretty sure this is what my character looks like in game.

At my job, however, one of my co-workers also plays Guildwars 2. She happens to be rolling on the Anvil Rock server too. From what she told me, there has been massive cheating from my server with regards to Northern Shiverpeaks. Further investigation online shows that a lot of people from Anvil Rock seem to have reached the same conclusion. There are also rumors or statements that NS was a full server and the other two were low/medium pop, which could be the case now, but without solid data its hard to say. The server population given on the list is just how many people happen to be playing at that one time. The clear thing was Anvil Rock had some people that thought we were cheating and some other people (from all 3 servers) claimed it was bugs going on.

Here is what I could discern:

1. Someone, possibly on NS, is hacking the Orb(s) so that its being used for NS and not for Anvil Rock.

2. Someone, possibly on NS, is using speed and flying hacks to do weird things, probably has to do with the orb.

3. Some exploit or hack that NS players used once? twice? to enter a CLOSED keep.

While I have heard of number 1 being talked about on the forums (Guildwars 2 official forums), the other 2 and 3 don’t seem to ever get mentioned specifically about NS. The search feature on the forum is pretty terrible though, so maybe if they fix it anytime soon I will edit this post to reflect anything new.

We believe the culprits look something like this, except with mustaches.

So far this is all I can report on in terms of the supposed hacks and exploits being done by my server. I’ve heard accusation being tossed around that its the guild [TBH], but I haven’t seen anything substantial. I will report more about this when I learn more about what is going on exactly. Are there really people on my server doing orb hacks? I have heard there are screenshots around of some of these perps committing the bannable offenses, but I haven’t seen them yet. Hopefully we will learn more about what is going on and see hackers and exploiters come to justice.

In short, Guild Wars 2 is fantastic. Best of all there is no monthly subscription fee like in most big time MMO games. You just install, create your account and play to your hearts content. Angry Joe gives an great in-depth review, that covers more about the game then I ever could.

*WARNING* Spoilers and strong NSFW language are in the review.

Make sure to check out more Angry Joe reviews at 
http://angryjoeshow.com
 and 
http://www.youtube.com/AngryJoeShow

Below is a gallery of random screenshots I’ve taken in game.  Enjoy.

If you’ve been checking my blog for while than you probably saw my earlier post on mmo’s. Basically, it states that our current experience with mmo’s has gotten stale because of some key game-play elements. However, recently Guild Wars 2 has launched and everyone around me has dropped off the face of the planet. Curse my current computer issues! Has this game changed the genre forever? Is this the Fabled World of Warcraft killer? I would say yes and yes.

When World of Warcraft first hit the scene it changed the way that we looked at mmo’s. In fact, it was the reason many of us started looking! They were games that computer nerds played up until then, they didn’t connect with the casual gamer. W.o.w. changed all of that. It helped streamline combat, they made the game more accessible, it had tons of content, and it had plenty of lore. It was a game that popularized the genre and it became it’s own phenomenon.

Now if you’d take all of those elements that World of Warcraft started and reinvent them. Make the game be far more accessible to the players, create extreme depth in combat, give your players a storyline that doesn’t just exist in the background, and reward them for exploring your content. That’s Guild Wars 2. This is now the game that defines the genre. Massively multiplayer online game developers truly need to play this game.

And so do you! If you’ve been sitting on the fence wondering if this game’s hype could be believed, here is your answer! Go out and experience the new online sensation! Now if you’ll excuse me I gotta go fix my computer so I can save a princess from a dragon!

Ps – I love Angry Joe

Act 1 – Friday, July 27th, 2012

For this year, they added a third day, although it was more so evening, as it started at 5pm EST. Con Bravo previously just had Saturday, and Sunday, with the addition of Friday, it allowed for more panels to be showcased. This convention has grown considerably, last year, they had only 60 people pre-register, but over 1200 show up, as it was the first time they showcased people from Channel Awesome. This time around, they added more, last year was just 3 – Doug Walker “The Nostalgia Critic”, Joe Vargas – Angry Joe, Mike “Birdman” Dodd, Tom White, and Noah Antwiler “The Spoony One”.

This year, most were representing Channel Awesome, except for Noah, who recently left Channel Awesome. So returning this year were Doug Walker, Tom White, Mike Dodd, and Noah Antwiler. New additions for the panels this year on the guest list included the following from the Channel Awesome team: James Rolfe aka The Angry Video Game Nerd (Formerly Angry Nintendo Nerd), Lewis Lovhaug aka Linkara, Lindsey Ellis aka The Nostalgia Chick, Joey “Roo” Desena, Todd Nathanson of ”Todd In The Shadows”, Paul Schuler aka Paw, and making her first ever Con, Elisa Hansen aka Maven.

Brent and I showed up for the opening ceremony on Friday, and half of the VIPs did show up for the ceremony, but some had some issues with transportation. Linkara, Spoony, Doug and Tom White showed for opening ceremonies, Mike Dodd was wandering somewhere, and some of the others were passed out. Lindsey, Todd, Maven and Paw were travelling by Todd’s car, which would’ve been there earlier, had the car’s radiator not catastrophically failed on the bridge at the border of Canada and the US. AVGN also had some issues when his flight got cancelled, so he decided to also drive all the way as well. Here are some photos of the opening ceremonies as taken from Brent’s DSLR, as mine turned out terrible.

If you have a Facebook account, you can view more of Brent’s ConBravo 2012 photos Here

Onto the first of many panels, Game Of Thrones Discussion Panel-

It was basically a spoiler-thon, granted I’ve only just scratched the surface of Game Of Thrones, it does pique my interest. Thanks to Brent for a photo.

Afterward, while Brent and I wandered for a bit before having dinner, here is a photo of some random cosplay at the front of the hotel.

Photo is from my android, sorry about the quality

Afterward, we wandered some more, through the music show, tons of photos on that from Brent on Facebook. I stood in line for the 4Chan panel, and saw both it and the My Little Panel: Fandom is Magic panel lines were starting to get long, so I managed to get a good spot while I did. When I saw that there would be a 4Chan panel, I knew I had to get in line, as comedy memes would ensue. While there, I met more and more people, as one does at a convention, you socialize with your fellow geek. The panel of course had hilarity from the site of memories of past memes and people representing different boards on 4Chan, running the panel were 2 regulars and a moderator from the site.

Ah the memories of random crap on the site. For those who don’t know, 4Chan was created to serve as an english version of 2Chan, a japanese forum for everything Geek, essentially. These days you will have every walk of humanity on there, so remember to bring your metaphorical umbrellas, rubber boots, and probably a gas mask if you value your sanity. Those whom can survive, live on and enjoy the hilarity that is 4Chan.

Photo credit to Brent, as I forgot to take some photos on my phone.

Later, after the hilarity that was the 4Chan panel, Brent got in line for the Audition for the Worst Movie Ever panel, I went down to wait for the Late Night 404s 18+ panel. The 404s, for those of you who don’t know, are a geek comedy troop that perform their variation on the Whose Line Is It Anyway? show, and damn they do it well. Members of the 404s include: Big Mike, Medium Mike, Little Mike, Jon, Dany and Christine. As it was the 18+ panel, no whips were spared, no jokes pulled, and things we should not see at Con Bravo, we did. Note for next time, Dany, for the love of god, no Green Lantern boxers that enhance the package dude!

404′s from left to right- little Mike, Medium Mike, Jon Lee, Christine, Big Mike and Dany.

They even saved a seat, just for Mark Tjan- Chairman. Rock on Princess Celestia, haha.

Mark not enjoying his spot- photo credit to Brent.

After the side-splitting comedy of the 404s with the Pants-less O’clock antics, and Dany’s green lantern boxers, we called it a night for Friday, as the end of their show, marked the end of the first day of Con Bravo. We retired to the motel we were staying in, and after a bit of Civilization 5, I went to sleep, to have a fresh start for Saturday.

With that, marks the end of the first act of my 3 blog entry for Con Bravo, as it is very early in the morning, and I could use some sleep, look for the second half within the next day or so.

#1 – The Angry Joe Show

If you’re looking for honest and funny video game reviews, you don’t need to look any further than The Angry Joe Show. I stumbled upon Joe a while ago, and I’ve never looked back. Check out the review below for Max Payne 3 to see what I mean.

#2 – Beebop20

This young lady is not only drop dead gorgeous, but she has an amazing voice as well. I was trawling Youtube for Disney songs and found one her covers. Check out her cover of “Somewhere out there” from An American Tail.

#3 – FreddieW

Freddie Wong is a visual effects artist who does short action movies with a few of his friends who also work in the industry. They have various game and movie influences, and are generally a ton of fun. Check out Medal of Honor Cat below.

#4 – GirlWritesWhat

I’m a big fan of GWW mostly because she takes a common sense point of view into various issues (particularly in regards to issues between men and women). The following video points out that women objectify men as much as men objectify women (WARNING: this video has some naughty words and pretty straight forward views on how men and women deal with each other when it comes to sex).

Expect the rest of my favourite Youtube channels soon!

Chirp bleep bloop, bloop. Bloop? Blop? Chirp? Blloooooo…….. Sorry about that, was speaking R2D2 there. Forgot to switch my circu..I mean brain back to English. So how was your weekend? Good? Good. I hope it was good, otherwise I feel bummed for you. . Anywho, back to my weekend. I went and visited my cousin’s HS graduation party and got to chat with him and my other cousin for a while. Also visited my aunt before we went to that party. After that, I returned home to my parent’s house and watched Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. What. An. Awful. Movie. It is just awful. I really need to see a better movie to improve my mood (towards movies) right now, that movie…ugh. It makes the first one much more enjoyable to watch by comparison. I mean, ok, my expectations for the sequel to the original Ghost Rider wasn’t exactly high, but I couldn’t believe just how bad this movie was. And its not that it suffers from sequelitis, its just bad. Idk, anyway. Besides that, it was mostly chilling with parents and brothers, watching Netflix and enjoying the new update to Flipboard. Flipboard getting Google+ and YouTube really made it a solid app for me. So I’ve been messing around, reading and enjoying the content it provides. Might even replace “Reeder” which used to handle my RSS feeds, but after an update which removed a lot of functionality…I’m less than happy with said app. We’ll see.

So I’m back in my apartment. One of my rommates moved out for the summer and I’m next this week. So I’ve already started by boxing stuff up and deciding what stays, goes and gets thrown in the trash. The next year or so should be interesting to say the least. I’m not doing any news type stuff tonight, if you want to see what I found interesting, check out my Google+ or Twitter feeds as I talked about that stuff already. I didn’t save much for the blog and I’m feeling lazy tonight . Other than that, it’s time to get back into the flow of things this week. My main things I’m hoping to work on this week is better exercise, moving out and finishing up some decisions on my schooling. That…”story” is a little longer than I really want to talk about heh.

Instagram Feature:

We have a lot today so I hope you enjoy this photos. I’ve also started following a few more ppl on Instagram to expand the photo selections. I’m planning on doing more of this in the future. Also, Twitter picture features is still being debated right now. So I hope you enjoy these selections.

First up is my buddy Rick’s shot of the sky one day, it looks quite pretty indeed.

I was watching Ghost Rider 2 and our cat Molly was on my lap sleeping and twitching. Its always amusing when she does that.

This picture of all these Star Trek DVDs has a nice sense of…something, can’t describe it. (spaltor pic)

I think this is a sunset…nathan isn’t specific in this post and I can’t remember if he said anything on FB about it and I’m too lazy to check .

This is an awesome and colorful photo from talespodcast of a small little waterfall. I’m curious where he took it from.

This shot of a gothic-style church (yay for that art class teaching me something) looked pretty neat, I have no idea which one it is though…

And we end out the features with this shot of the rain I did earlier today. This turned out way better than I thought it would.

Video Feature:

So I watch Angry Joe reviews once in a while, and this review of Lollipop Chainsaw was surprisingly positive towards the game. I figured he would rip this game a new one because let’s face it, it looks like a bad game if you base it off of its cover. Granted, we shouldn’t do that, but with games, sometimes you just can’t help it. But it seems its not quite that bad. I won’t ever pick it up though, score attack games are not my genre. Still, always interesting to get a perspective on a game like this. So here’s the review:

Next up, I found this extremely cute video of a kitty, I hope you enjoy

I hope you enjoyed this post, more to come this week and I hope you all have an awesome week.

-KingIsaacLinksr

I’ve been thinking a lot about the ending to Mass Effect 3. In fact, I’ve been able to think of little else. For the next week after completing it I was unable to sleep properly. Granted, about three of those days were because I’m a design student and had a lot of projects due, but part of it was definitely that ending.

That bleak, seemingly universe shattering ending.

Spoilers, obviously, but I’ll try to keep them minor.

There have been a LOT of very insightful posts on the BSN about why the ending is frustrating – posts about violating the reader/writer contract, posts about the definition of tragedy and why Mass Effect isn’t one until it abruptly ends like one in the last ten minutes, posts about the emotional connection we have with the characters and the universe…

I have a gut feeling about why the ending might be the way it is, and I’d like to share it here. But before I do, just a reminder: this blog is protected by trained owlbears, and they eat rude comments and produce sarcasm.

Do they really? I don't know, I'm not a cryptozoologist.

Anyway, on to my thoughts.

Essentially, my thought is that the problems with the ending feel very strongly of a phrase that I have come to loath as a comic book fan (and a regular viewer of Atop the Fourth Wall).

That phrase is: Editorial Mandate.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with that phrase and all its loathsome implications, editorial mandate is what happens when editors take it upon themselves to dictate the course of a story instead of, you know, doing their own job and letting the writers write.

Often it results in extraordinary levels of character derailment, world breaking changes, and large amounts of handwaving or A Wizard Did It. Or, in the case of the most loathsome Marvel offender, “it’s magic; we don’t have to explain it.”

Yes, I’m still upset about that DON’TYOUDAREJUDGEME. Ahem.

One of the problems with editorial mandate is that it often forces writers to write against their own storytelling instincts and more often than not, they really, really, REALLY don’t want to. “We need you to kill off X,” and so on. Or, in this case, maybe, just maybe (I have no proof of any of this mind you), “We want you to blow up the Mass Relays.”

It also often results in stories that are poorly written, because the writer has no real investment or ownership of the forced course of the story; he just phones it in. This happens in comics, and when it does it becomes pretty easy to pick it out from the contrast with the rest of the writers work.

See: the Ending.

Now, can I prove this? No, of course not. Heck, I’m still trying to decide if I think the ending was a giant hallucination that was intended by the writers to show Shepard fighting indoctrination (and indoctrinate US, the players, in real time). But assume for a moment that the endings were meant to be taken at face value (doubtful).

In all endings, the Mass Relays are destroyed*. The Normandy runs away from the fight*, crash lands on a garden planet*, and (improbably), characters who couldn’t possibly have been on the Normandy get out*. And in somewhere between 2 and 3 endings, Shepard dies*.

*Well, maybe.

Assuming any of that actually happens, it must have been mandated to happen. Which is INCREDIBLY annoying in an RPG that centers on player choice, because honestly, we didn’t realize we were being railroaded.

Now, the problem with all this is one little spoilery fact.

If you take the Destroy All Synthetics ending and have enough preparation, Shepard lives. Probably.

There’s a little problem with this, though.

If the weird little godling was to be believed, the Destroy ending would have killed Shepard, because, and I quote, “even you are part synthetic.” Ugh, now I have to wash out my mouth with bleach because I quoted that horrible plot contrivance. Give me a moment.

Blegh.

This is worse than Lost. And we were promised it wouldn’t be like Lost.

So if the god child lied about that… what else did he lie about?

And this is the part I find most annoying. Because we don’t know. And if the ending were left as is, we’d have no way of knowing. And since for most of us, the goal wasn’t so much “destroy the reapers,” as it was, “save the galaxy we’re emotionally invested in,” having an ending that refuses to answer the important questions AND fails to provide emotional resolution… well, for lack of a better word, sucks.

I was promised answers and resolution. Not a giant mind screw.

I want to believe it was all a lie… but at the same time, I don’t, because if it is, that is an incredibly mean thing to do to your players.

Now, I asked the question in the title: what does this mean for gaming?

Well.

A movement has been going on to get the ending changed. This movement, Retake Mass Effect, raised over $80000 for Child’s Play, and now supports a new charity drive, Full Paragon. There has been an amazing level of love for Mass Effect shown, and Retake Mass Effect has done a great job of keeping it (mostly) positive.

The basic thrust of the argument is this: we were not given the endings we were promised. We want BioWare to make them and provide the series with an ending it actually deserves.

Over 60000 players have voted in at least one poll, with something like 97% of them wanting the ending changed in some fashion. If this is a ‘vocal minority,’ it’s a statistically significant one.

There have been some arguing that if Retake gets the ending changed, it will “set a bad precedent.” Actually, it wouldn’t set any precedent – games have changed their endings before. What would set a bad precedent is if the fans just rolled over and took whatever a game company makes without complaint, even if it’s not what we wanted or were promised. That sets a bad precedent for capitalism.

There have also been a lot of smear pieces written by review sites like IGN, Gamasutra, and Kotaku (who apparently has writers on both sides of the issue and is chasing page views). None of these sites included the ending in their review of the game. None of them bothered doing any research on what the disgruntled gamers disliked about the ending. None of them are worth the server space they’re taking up, apparently – too busy publishing fluff opinion pieces instead of communicating the facts. Just my opinion, but hey, this is my blog. If you didn’t want my opinion, you’re in the wrong place.

Yes, I see the irony of that statement. Remember the owlbears, smartypants.

Forbes, meanwhile, has been overwhelmingly supportive of the movement (as well as well researched and insightful), and GameFront wrote an article that proved they’d done their research. Guess which one looks more important?

We have learned that we cannot trust the majority of paid reviewers, and we must instead look to our peers – our fellow gamers – and to ourselves for honest reviews.

(And yes, Angry Joe counts. The man speaks the truth. Angrily.)

And we have seen that BioWare takes us seriously. If not, there would have been no statement – even if that statement was worded oddly and could be taken as marginalizing the movement.

We were promised an announcement in April. What form that announcement will take, we have yet to see. But there is hope. Hope for awesomeness. Hope for Mass Effect.

I should go.

Make sure to check out more Angry Joe reviews at
http://angryjoeshow.com
and
http://www.youtube.com/AngryJoeShow

*WARNING* Spoilers and strong NSFW language are in the review.

Even when my brain began telling me something was wrong, that the jokes had grown stale and the personalities had grown nasty, I managed to block it out. After all, Linkara just told me that this Frank Miller comic sucked and that Frank Miller has lost his damned mind! “Such quality content, I could not find this anywhere else on the Internet!” I’d lie to myself as I fell asleep to the sounds of “Break Me” by the Irresponsibles.

So here I was, it was late 2010 and I was jammed so far up the anus of Web 2.0 after kissing so much Internet celebrity ass that I barely had time to shout memes at my friends from across the quad.  I would constantly gush about how these YouTube celebrities and the folks at That Guy with the Glasses were on the cutting edge of new media and really shaking things up. I wouldn’t dare think to criticize them; the TGTWG guys were changing the way we thought of and received entertainment. Who cares if the method was demonstrably flawed in ways that could be easily remedied?! Alas, such bliss could not last forever though, I think too much and even if it takes a while for me to feel and act on those thoughts, it’ll still happen. I was dropped suddenly into the boiling waters of enlightenment by Angry Joe.

This video is such a fiercely stupid blow to the head for most people that I’m not even sure if it’s been fully dissected in any significant manner, but like any scabrous wound fester much is laid bare for the world to see once you start to pick at it.

Here we’ve got Joe trying to spin a personal shortcoming as bad PR for the VGAs and judging by the comments, succeeding to some degree, in part due to the insular fanboy circle jerk that TGWTG has built up around itself by tyrannically pruning dissenters from their great fandom tree and in part due to the general ill will that the internet harbors toward the VGAs. Prior to this Joe had spoken out several times against the VGAs and on December 3, 2010 Joe had announced to his audience that he had been in talks to do an interview with the executive producer of the VGAs, Geoff Keighley (pronounced here “GEE-OFF KAY-LEE”, GAMING JOURNALISM folks!) and asked his fans, the “Angry Joe Army”, to submit questions for him to ask Geoff during the interview.

Now one would think that Angry Joe, with all of his hardcore gamer posturing about how poorly the VGAs represent his demographic to the general public, would be able to come up with a handful of questions to ask Geoff on his own, but whatever. Maybe he’s going with the user submitted questions because he wants to be a representative of his base to Geoff, the man in charge of the VGAs, I suppose those are noble intentions, even if my cynical side tells me it smacks of laziness. Joe’s real failing here is not that he went with user submitted question but that he put virtually no research into his questions. Many of Joe’s concerns had been already been addressed (the removal of the corporate sponsorship on the best independent game category) were wrongheaded (arguing for an MMO category despite not being able to name enough MMOs worthy of praise to fill the category out) or were addressed with easily found information that was available publically (who nominates the games). It was clear that the extent of Joe’s research involved having watched the VGA’s in the years prior and having his near-illiterate fans submit ill-informed knee-jerk questions for him to ask.

I love how Joe seems to be pissed that Geoff came prepared for him. This isn’t Geoff’s first rodeo, he’s been knocked around and humiliated by journalists in the past when he went on Fox News to defend Mass Effect back in 2008. Of course he came prepared, Joe is coming on to his turf, asking him to defend the show that he’s put a lot of time and money into producing, Joe arranged the interview in advance and I’m taking it that he familiarized himself with Joe’s work (he seems to know that Joe would “post a video about it” and that he’s going to “rip the VGAs this year”, which implies that he knows who Joe is and how he operates, but this is pure inference) He came prepared in exactly the same way Joe didn’t and as a prize Geoff got to walk all over him and make him look like a fool.  Of course Geoff is going to treat Joe like shit, it was his big night and Joe was wasting his fucking time with his stupid bullshit. The interview went south because Joe dropped the ball; childishly losing his temper towards the end and constantly hounding Geoff about the same stupid bullshit in the press room afterwards only served to solidify this.

The first time I watched this video I was stunned, it’s still hard for me to watch because it’s so damn embarrassing for the guy that I’d feel sorry for him if he wasn’t being such an astonishing jackass. Joe displays a spectacular amount of near sighted arrogance; he just can’t seem to realize he dropped the ball aside from not going in there at his angriest. He props himself up like some everyman hero who got dicked around by the man, but in reality Joe was just a chump incapable of seeing when he had bitten off more than he could chew. The fact that Joe later goes on to comment that he felt like the interview was “like two juggernauts going at it” only goes to show that the interview was just another attempt to stroke his ego, that he can’t possibly accept failure, and that the video was put together so that Joe could get congratulatory dick sucking from his fan base for another job poorly done.

Pic only loosely related, but hilarious nonetheless.

Before I start wrapping this up, yes, I know Joe asks his fans to tell him what they thought, but have you seen his reactions to Imagesfromapoet’s video? All of the early comments were deleted when she initially closed the comments section but have been archived here. In them you’ll see Joe illustrate exactly how much he appreciates a negative opinion of his work by twisting what she said and putting words in her mouth, which only further soured the experience of watching the original video. (It must be added that the current comments section on the video is golden too with fans of Joe claiming he is misunderstood because of the “mudslinging” coming from Imagesfromapoet and others of like mind.)

So I was at a crossroads, having had a nice long look at Emperor Joe’s naked ass I realized exactly what his clothes were made of and just how many of these other Internet celebrities had been following the same fashion trends. I was forced to realize exactly how small these people really were and how their near sighted egotism, self-congratulatory circle jerks, and Internet celebrity posturing could only be detrimental to the progress of new media, which I personally find to be an interesting innovation with a lot of potential. I had decided that it was time to think critically about this stuff and begin challenging the norm.  We live in such an A-for-effort society, no one seems to want ask “how could this be better” but only say “That was good enough, job well done”. I wasn’t going to stand for it anymore; bad content is bad content and the only way to fix it is to have its faults identified.

I don’t aim to please anyone with this site. If you enjoy what you read here and agree with me that’s great but I’m not writing with intentions of preaching to the choir, I want to spark discussion and debate on the quality of this stuff, I want to piss people off and hopefully get them thinking a little more critically about the stupid bullshit they take in on the Internet the same way Angry Joe did to me.

Author’s Notes:

1.)    Yes, I know this video happened a long time ago, the point of the article isn’t to make a statement on Joe’s character in the here and now (I’ve not watched an Angry Joe video in ages), but rather to explain how and why this single instance of Joe’s behavior influenced me in the creation of this site. Besides, people are still arguing about this in the comments sections of roughly 20 different YouTube videos, so it’s still open for discussion here as far as I’m concerned .

2.)    A bit of trivia, the site name “Man-Child Messiah” was a reference to Joe that came from a conversation about this video I had with a friend shortly before launching the site. We were originally going to be called “The Kitchen Heat” in reference to the old adage “if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen”, but I think Man-Child Messiah fits the tone of the site better.

3.)    My next article will be a lot shorter and not focused on TGWTG.

The internet is filled with video game sites. IGN,  Gamespot, 1UP, Joystiq, GameTrailers, GamesRadar, and many more are on the ‘net for the consumer to choose to get their information from. Personally, I use matrix sites like Metacritic & Gamerankings to get multiple reviews and other gamers feedback regarding video game titles.

One of the more entertaining video game sites I found recently is Angryjoeshow.com

Angry Joe (aka Joe Vargas) is a gamer. He has a passion for video games and it shines through during his self produced video review show, called “The Angry Joe Show”.

Angry Joe’s Top 10 WORST Games 2011! (Warning: Strong Language)

If you are a fan of video games or are just looking to be entertained for a few minutes online, I recommend checking out Angry Joe and “The Angry Joe Show” at the links below:

Website: Angryjoeshow.com
Youtube: Youtube.com/Angryjoeshow
Twitter: Twitter.com/Angryjoeshow

But you know what I love more? Fanwhores.

Really, really, really dumb fanwhores.

I can’t help but laugh at them. For those of you who never read Dueling Analogs–be thankful. If you’re the author of Dueling Analogs, no, I did not just give you more traffic, because there probably isn’t anyone reading this blog, you failtroll.

Wow, I get off topic easily when retards are involved.

So, for those of you who haven’t read Dueling Analogs, the author once made a video and the description of this post was ranting. Ranting and raving. About what, you might ask? Allow me to summarize.

Ahem.

“Baaaaaaw! Waaaaah! Mega Man 10 has an easy mode! Waaaah! Waaah! Leave Mega Man alone! Waaaah! Only the purists should play it! For the Waaahmprah!“

Yep. He was whining and complaining about the fact that Mega Man 10 has an easy mode. D’aaaw, ain’t he cute? He’s like a retarded elitist puppy. Well, intellectually he’s on par with a puppy, anyway.

So. Lemme get this straight, failtroll, ol’ buddy ol’ pal, you want Mega Man to be left to a borderline masochistic niche audience. You want you and only you to play Mega Man 10. You don’t want the game to have an easy mode so people who are new to the series don’t feel alienated that they suck at it, making sure they never buy another Mega Man game again, ensuring that Mega Man makes less and less money until the franchise dies.

Gotcha. Sounds like an awesome plan. Capcom can go crash and have tons of people lose their jobs because they put an easy difficulty in an attempt to make more money! How dare they do such a thing in a capitalistic society!

And in case you’re still having trouble telling, that was sarcastic.

Y’know, another thing I’ve always loved is watching people rage about Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. “Waaah, it doesn’t have classic Mega Man,” “Waaah, it doesn’t have good multiplayer,” and my favorite of all of these is Angry Joe ranting about Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3.

He had about a ten minute long rant. I watched three minutes before I had to stop and burst out laughing. I never did finish the whole video but I’ll sum up as much as I remember from it.

Wah wah wah, characters no one has ever heard of, wah wah wah, bad multiplayer wah.

What is it with people and multiplayer? It’s something I’ll never understand. Playing with random people is annoying because than you can’t be right next to the twat monkey to smash his skull against the TV when he starts screeching about homosexuals, your mother, and a deer because you beat him by sniping like a smart person or whatever. Second of all who gives a fuck about spectator mode? Really. Who cares. Just… Explain to me the point. Please. The only one that might be valid is tournament mode. I mean if, unlike me, you have friends, and a lot of them, I can see the point in tournament mode.

But y’know what? What got me about his rant was bitching about the fact that a lot of the new characters are ones no one ever heard of. Joe, I’m sure you’re not reading this. But I’m going to say it anyway.

CAP-IT-AL-ISM.

It’s an obvious marketing ploy to try and interest people in the characters so they’ll go buy the comics. Obviously. Do you not get it? Is it hard to understand? Well, I guess it is for someone who used the words “Need for Speed” and “good” in the same sentence without the slightest hint of irony.

In conclusion, “hardcore gamers,” and most Capcom fanwhores in particular, are retarded to the point where I’m laughing, but you’re debating about calling the waaaaaahmbulance.

~Geek out.

You can see that commercial in “the best viral videos of 2008″, as well as in this video titled “Rove Live – Baby Pee Pee (12/10/08)“.

Whichever toy manufacturer thought that THAT toy was ok for kids of ANY age is seriously fucked in the head. I really hope that the toy isn’t on any toy shelves. Well, I’m sure if it was in 2008, maybe 2009 too for a tiny bit, it most likely won’t be on shelves anymore. If it is, I’m going to be very disturbed. I’ll be disturbed even more if anyone actually bought one for their kids to play with.

Yesterday, after watching The Angry Joe Show, I heard about an XBox Live Arcade game called Comic Jumper. It’s a little sad to me that it’s only available on Arcade because it looks like a very funny and interesting game to play. However, I will most likely never be able to play it as the hard-drive on my XBox 360 is small, and I wouldn’t be able to download it to play. I also don’t have any Microsoft Points to be able to buy it. It’s a shame because it’s a game I would really love to play. I did find a playthrough of it though, which I’ve fully watched, and am actually watching again because the jokes are really funny, especially if you get what they’re referring to with each joke.

I won’t spoil any of the jokes, just incase anyone wants to buy the game. If for any reason you can’t, like me, then check out the playthrough of it here. It’s a playlist consisting of 33 videos that takes you all the way through the game. Also, Angry Joe’s review of the game can be seen at here at YouTube, or here at Angry Joe’s official website.

• theAmazingAtheist (Pretty much you’re average over opinionated jackass)
• iJustine (the worst)
• Shane Dawson (wants needs to be like everyone else)
• Ray William Johnson (makes his own videos out of other people’s videos)

Well this is just a few out of the many out there(Phillip deFranco is actually pretty cool though, this guy is worthy of a lot of talent). There’s just so much about it that feels like they don’t offer anything to society, especially since they all pretty much do the exact same thing.

I think it just baffles my mind, because I see Youtube culture as something I’d want to put some work into as opposed to just talking to a webcam everyday and making a living off just that. Which I guess would be nice expect for the fact, that I like having a lot more to my existence than my ability to talk. I wouldn’t call it jealousy… just maybe, as a performer, I feel really offended.

The point of this post isn’t about these people, they are their own lost cause (again, except deFranco) But there was someone particular recently that caught my eye, and I can’t help but feel completely irritated by him.

This guy calls himself Angry Joe...

I understand the plight of the online critic (Spoony is a good example to me for some reason). critics are doing their job of letting someone know about something and if it’s good or bad. A lot of online critics adopt the mentality that they all have to review shitty things because everybody loves watching someone bitch and complain over the internet. Some reasons why I can’t watch the Angry Video Game Nerd is because his anger always felt like it was coming out in the form of Mad-libs. The guy is alright, but that kind of humor gets old really fast for me.

The reason why I want to pick on Angry Joe right now though, is because this kid is a douche. twat. Fuckchop. What ever you want to call him, he’s still pretty much an idiot. Dresses in the same, Superman t-shirt, Superman belt buckle and tacky jacket he’s had since his first year of high school. He goes to the VGAs to interview Geoff Keighley  about said Award Show. For some reason thinking he was going to be awesome and rip into the guy.

Let’s get something straight though. Geoff is a busy guy, He’s executive producer for the thing and should honestly pay a little more attention to that while it’s going on. Joe even showed a serious lack of professionalism throughout. (I’m not really going to link to any video evidence, I don’t feel like giving this guy the clicks.) This video of the ‘interview’ is around 8 minutes long. He only asked Keighley questions for about 2, and had not done any research or prepared for anything. then spends the remaining 6 or so, bitching and complaining about Geoff ripping into him for being a dipshit. Entertainment should not factor into stroking your own ego, I don’t care how many fans you have. I’m surprised people have those kind of balls to be dramatic and post it online for all the world to see. Like when Perez Hilton called Will.i.am a faggot and got punched in the face for it.

Quick, immediately look for sympathy over the internet?

Perhaps this is why vlogging is so ridiculous to me. It’s like an institution for attention seeking cosmonauts. Never having to face the fact that they only choose to keep talking to the internet because they can’t offer anything in life other than their demented opinions and over examined empty rooms. Perhaps I’m being harsh… I’m always being harsh, but like I said… As a performer, I am offended.

Right there at 4:00, is she saying that a game that relies on co-op was waiting for online multiplayer after release? In a world where systems come standard with wireless and everyone has a connection? That’s unacceptable. How do you fuck that up unless you purposely release a game before it’s finished in order to grab a larger slice of the market?

I was originally interested in entering the field of videogame design, until I heard of the horrors leveled against employees by big-box developers. 40 hour work days, sleeping in the cubicle, low light conditions, bad nutrition, and no overtime pay. The game comes out and the staff is fired. Why not? A whole new stampede of meat is coming out of technical colleges that wrung these poor bastards dry promising them employment opportunity. So is it any wonder that with “crap in” we get “crap out?” Thank sanity I woke up and changed my major to English. It won’t get me anywhere in the job market, but at least it’s something I love that won’t fuck me.

Satyricon talked about resale and how it should be factored into the original price, and everyone is talking about the recent Harvey Awards hullabaloo and what exactly copyright means. I can tell you this, boiling everything down, the game companies will not change. To allow resale would mean demanding a higher price at inception, to ask a higher price would require better quality games, to require better quality would require better beta, better beta would require attention to detail, attention to detail would necessitate an end to employee mistreatment, to end employee mistreatment would necessitate paying the workers their fair wage, to pay a fair wage would harm the bottom line leading us right back to the original concern of the company which is getting as much substandard crap out as quickly as possible to pander to the average consumer’s need for gore and excitement, flinging gimmicks every which way and never deviating from the script, because that makes money.

I does seem inevitable that the only place good games will come from in the near future is small time modders. The mod community for Bethesda games is surprisingly robust. Go to TESNexus and take a look around the Oblivion mods; never before has so much effort been concentrated by so many on one task. Making a better game. Once games go full immersive, I can honestly see a bare few games cornering the market, much like D&D does for tabletop. You’ll have a few basic genres with games centered around them that rely on individual participation to create new content, much again like tabletop. Honestly, I think coding will be so ubiquitous at this point that writing the code for a new dungeon or monster will be as hard as writing about a new magic weapon on a piece of paper, because experienced coders will make it that easy. This will make effort all the more apparent and highly sought after by the community. Good content will attract more content and so on around and around.

In the end, I have to agree with Williarium, the console wars have yet to begin. A bare minimum of games have come out these past years and none of them have reached the level of advancement that previous console wars have engendered. Simply look at the difference between Dark Cloud and Dark Cloud 2, both on the PS2 and as different as night and day. Compare the original’s basic graphics with the mind melting visuals that Final Fantasy X gave us. Compare its sparse gameplay to the number-crunching RTS/TBS Final Fantasy XII. The sheer amount of advancement on the exact same system with the exact same specs over the course of five years was phenomenal. Developers took what they had and made more of it. Lemons to lemonade. Developers today are just making us swallow the lemons.

It seems the only console to make any real improvement is the one that isn’t really a console. The PC. As I mentioned, Bethesda and indeed Bioshock have redefined what it means to be a game, though perhaps what they did was re-redefine it back to what it had originally been, an interactive story. Their willingness to make their games modifiable from the get-go is what is moving them to the favorites list, and setting the scene for the eventual take-over by the small-potato developer.

The console wars will begin in earnest now, now that the systems actually have their bugs ironed out and are affordable. It is unnecessary to come out with new consoles, we haven’t done anything with these ones! I can only imagine what is going through the heads of vg fans everywhere…

Welcome to 8th Generation Ultimate Console. What a strange one we have this time. Usually participants from previous tournaments are barred from entry, but this year everyone seems to be back.

A strange sight indeed. Same shorts, same shoes, new gloves. It seems this generation is just going to be ironing out old grudges and making new ones.

What a run it’s been. Here we have the Wii, a console that certainly seemed like it was going to lose all of it’s battles, yet somehow it won the war. Quite a campaign, that.

Everyone’s fighting on his terms now, Larry. What do you think of the Microsoft boy?

XBox 360 was certainly a damn good fighter. He started off slow but he’s won as many matches through knockout as he has through technical calls; of course, as many rounds as he’s fought above and beyond the others definitely makes a difference.

Indeed it does Larry. Though I have to worry whether or not he can keep up that hectic pace; a system needs its rest. I’ve heard that he’s had meltdowns behind the scenes multiple times, I don’t know if he can handle it.

He’s an achiever, that’s for sure. And we can’t forget PS3, can we Tim? He’s had some problems finding sponsors, but he’s done his best to fight the good fight.

That he has. He’s never won a fight when it’s come to decision, but the fights he has won he pulled through knockout, every time. This is an infighter with a cult following in his future. And now for the Bantamweights.

Yes indeed. Here we have older brother to Wii, GDS, a man with so much experience on him he makes 360 look like a turtle taking his time. This champion is the undefeated master, to be sure.

True to a fault, Larry. He has so many matches under his belt he’ll have to let it out a notch. He’s no spring chicken, no lie, but with his new style I think he’s going to keep himself king of the roost. Younger brother Wii has a lot to live up to.

Here comes PSP, he’s had some trouble these last few years, seems it runs in the family. Like his brother, he’s a plodder, but I don’t think his swings live up to his sibling’s weight.

A sad tale, but true. Oh, here comes Cellphone! A new face to Ultimate Console, he’s gathered quite a following.

He’s no fighter for the distinguishing fan, but his dedication to the basics gives the public what they ask for. And here’s the final fighter entering the stadium!

PC. You know Larry, I’m not sure what to make of him.

No one is Tim. He’s a heavy weight, but you’ll see him pulling outboxing tactics that belies that huge frame. He’s also been called on multiple matches for dirty tactics.

But he can hit heavy when he wants to.

Woah nellie, you know that! And that’s the line-up for this Ultimate Console tournament. We’ve got some good fighters this year, promises to be one crazy brawl!

I went to the Wal-Mart I frequented with my mom a lot as a child (before it moved to a Super Wal-Mart location). Inside was a big display full of various nerdy shirts. I looked at a few Green Arrow shirts for Eddie (oddly, they didn’t have Ollie on them, but what looked like either Connor or possibly even Roy). They also had Angry Joe shirts for some reason (I’m not really a fan of the guy, and I’m not even sure if he has merchandise).

I saw the upcoming Jonah Hex movie, but oddly Jonah was the villain in his own movie. Even in the dream I realized how weird that seemed (I think Jonah might have noticed it as well).

Somehow, I was back in high school, because I went on a “class trip” to a movie. Our teacher was an Asian woman who seemed pretty drunk. My cousin Jessica was there, and simply commented “We’re gonna like this one” (in regards to the teacher). There was a guy behind me who kept grabbing the back of my shirt and lifting it up. It took me awhile to get annoyed enough to look back. When I did, however, I realized that he looked a lot like someone I crushed on in high school (but was definitely a different person…odd that I would actually create a cute guy in my dream that I’ve never seen before). He said in a really flirty way “I’m just trying to get a better view.”

The previews started and showed some people in a submarine. Bad shit was happening to them (can’t remember what), so they tried to surface. The second they did, they noticed a giant hand coming down out of the sky, pointing right at them. “DIVE! DIVE!” someone yelled, while they plunged back under water. The hand and arm stretched out beyond earth out of a black hole. What looked like gray angels were pouring out of it (In the dream I figured out this was supposed to be God attempting to destroy the earth). There was a neat effect that looked like there were a few of the angels flying around the theater. It made me really excited for this (admittedly stupid sounding) movie. The whole time, I was looking back at the guy, who had moved down a few seats. I tried mustering up the courage to ask him out, but I never did.

Joe is angry and it’s not entirely my fault.  You see, the Call of Duty: World at War NAZI ZOMBIES game only allows four players to be in a game at the same time.  That sucks.

I just want to make one thing perfectly clear:  My ideal team is Kevin, Jake, Jeremy and Joe.  Ray is obviously next on the list, but a big part of the enjoyment for me is connecting with my guys back home.  Ray is a very good friend of mine.  He is Latin and have long hair.  I see Ray every day, so that explains why his doesn’t make the Dream Team. 

So two nights ago I get a text from Joe suggesting we play at 9:30pm (Minnesota time).  I happily agree and log on right on the button.  As it turns out, two OTHER players that Joe is friends with but I have never met are in an XBOX party with him.  I join the party and the game begins.  The interesting thing about the XBOX parties is that you can have a large number of people in the “party” while you are all playing in different games.  This is important to remember for later.

It’s ALSO important to know that since Jake, Jeremy, Joe, Ray and I are now spectacularly good at this game and as a result a single game can last for an hour and a half to two hours.  Of course, just a minute or two into my game with Joe and two strangers Jeremy and Jake log on.

So here’s my dilemma: 

* stay in the game with Joe and his two friends who I don’t know and who HARDLY TALK ANYWAY (communication is VITAL in this game – we’re fighting zombie hordes for crying out loud!)

or

* quit this game early on, join Jake and Jeremy in a game and call Ray in.

Well, I chose the latter.  I told the everybody I was leaving their game, too, but they didn’t respond!  Two minutes into the NEW game where I had THREE friends (as opposed to just one) I hear “Hey, did somebody leave?”  Sorry, buddy, but I don’t know you.

Now, this wasn’t a COMPLETELY shitty move on my part to leave Joe in a game with two players.  Heck, Jake, Ray and I made it to round 26 without a fourth!  Within ten minutes Joe and his partners had logged off.  They just gave up.  The rest of us had a blast!

Yesterday Jake, Jeremy and I got the above picture of Joe sent to us along with the following text message:

“No more playing with that Antonio Banderras knockoff, you bastards!  Whores!  Spaniard lovers!  Vlad and Mauve [Joe's two friends that I don't know] are impossible to play with”

I need to point out that being left out of a game with reliable friends has happened to me also!  I agree, it is very frustrating.  I had logged on just a couple of minutes late and they plugged one of Joe’s friends into my spot.  I decided to have a little fun with it, though.  I joined the party so I could talk with all of them and I listened carefully.  I really wanted the game to end so that maybe somebody would drop out and I could join.  Whenever somebody needed cover to go out into the danger zone I told them that I would cover them.  It’s just another voice, you know?  They didn’t realize that I wasn’t in the game so they would run out thinking they were safe.  I would hear “HEY!  WHOSE COVERING ERIC?!?!”  Well, nobody was covering Eric.  Or, “Somebody cover the staircase, I’ve got to reload” and I would reply, “Got it!”

I didn’t have the staircase.  It’s important that somebody cover the staircase.

Sadly my attempt at sabotage didn’t work.  That game went on for EVER and I think I logged off.

Anyway, the bottom line here Joe, is that if you want in the game you’ve got to ignore those guys that I don’t give a shit about.  If we have my ideal team of four then I won’t have any need to holler over to Ray to join us.

The Great Communicator,

Kev