Sonic the Hedgehog Trailer

So the trailer for the new Sonic movie dropped and OH BOY what an experience that was to watch for the first time.

So I think everyone in existence who saw the design of Sonic for this movie recoiled at just how awful he looks in this film.  He just looks....weird.  I think what they were trying to do was to make him look "realistic" but now we have this..thing..that makes just a little bit of sick come up in the back of your throat every time you see him.  For me personally it's the teeth, whenever he opens his mouth and I can see his teeth it just weirds me out for some reason.  Whoever designed that and whoever OK'd that design really needs a slap upside the head.

But that aside, the trailer actually sort of impressed me.  It's not going to win any awards but if you go in expecting a dumb bit of fan wank based loosely on some video game source material this looks like a good bet to me.  Jim Carrey as Eggman/Robotnik really made that trailer for me, from those small clips I already really enjoy the performance he's giving out with it.  I mean, for a Sonic movie to be "true" to its source material all it really needs is Sonic, Eggman, robots and sonic destroying those robots.  In the trailer it shows Eggman chasing Sonic and some dude in a car where Sonic then gets out of the car and spindashes Eggmans vehicle causing it to fly off the road.  Sonic quips at him and then Eggman sicks some robots on him.  Can't get much more Sonic than that without making the movie just a 90 minute lets play of the first game.

For anyone who looked at that trailer and threw their hands up angrily like "oh my god what the fuck is wrong with these people?!" my reply to you is "what the fuck is wrong with YOU!?".  Video game movies have been shit since the dawn of video game movies.  Just because you ironically like the original Mario Brothers movie doesn't change the fact that it's a steaming pile of shit that has nothing to do with Mario.  I can hear people screaming at me now like "But Silent Hill is a good video game movie", which it's not.  Even the Mario Bros movie didn't misunderstand the source material quite as hard as that movie did, Silent Hill isn't just hot garbage but it's offensive hot garbage.  On top of that, don't forget the piles of boring, forgettable, shit video game movies like fucking Hitman and Warcraft that have come out over the years.

This will either be a good bit of stupid fun and be remembered for being so bad it's good OR it'll be a boring pile of nothing that everyone will forget about in 6 months after it's release.  I for one, can't wait to see it, I'll be in that line for the theatre DAY. ONE.

RIP Wowaka

On April 5th the Japanese musician Wowaka passed away of heart failure, an extremely sad piece of news and considering his young age of 31 an extremely surprising piece of news too.

He did a lot of work with Vocaloid over the course of his career and has put out some of the most well known tracks, a lot of which have been featured in the Project Diva games.  Personally I have more plays of the song Unhappy Refrain than any other song in the entire series.

If your interested about the man himself, here's a link to his Wikipedia article

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wowaka

I will round of this post by leaving some of my favorite tunes of his for you to listen to.  The guy made a LOT of really good stuff and I recommend checking out his catalogue of work.

The PS Vita is Dead, Long Live the PS Vita

Well it's over, the dream is dead, everybody go home.  Sony have announced that as of about two days ago, the PS Vita is to be discontinued.  A sad day for gaming indeed.

The PS Vita had a hard life, it was sort of hard to justify buying one if you lived outside of Japan.  I remember seeing it when it was new and thinking that it looked cool.  I went to the store to pick one up, looked at the selection of games that were available and just INSTANTLY put it back down.  I didn't really give a fuck about that Uncharted game that was released for it and the selection of titles for the system around launch time were extremely lacking.  Eventually I moved to Japan where the selection of games was much better and even better, my wife gifted me one for my birthday.  But the Vita had another curse which was it's memory cards.  You couldn't just use a normal micro SD card or anything like that, you had to buy a special PS Vita memory card and those bastards were NOT cheap.  I got the smallest one and still had to shell out $60 or so for it.  That's a pretty high barrier to entry.

Eventually the library of games got better and I built up a pretty enjoyable library of titles, most of which are Japanese exclusive unfortunately for the Western audience but the memory cards never got any cheaper and it could just never build the same kind of hype that it's competitor, the 3DS, was creating.

If you could read Japanese then the amount of surprisingly good JRPGs and dungeon crawling titles was kind of staggering.  Due to this, the Hatsune Miku Project Diva games and the fact that it's region free, my Vita has seen WAY more use than my 3DS.  I've not played my 3DS since Bravely Default came out but I'm still using my Vita about once a week.

So let's take a moment for our fallen hero, the Vita, the little console that good.  Hopefully some kind of effort will be made to emulate it so that a bunch of fan translations can be released and people can enjoy the great library of games that never made it across the pond.

Spider Man, Puddles and Controversey

The new Spider Man game dropped recently and while I've not played it yet it does at least look pretty good.  I'm not one for comic book heroes personally but it does look like a generally pretty fun action game.  Something I'll absolutely grab once the price drops a bit. However I'm not here to talk about the game itself, but about some recent controversy that surrounds it regarding puddles.

The story goes that there's a room in the game that was shown during a trailer at E3 looking a certain way but when the game came out the room looked a bit different.  Now I'm not going to say flat out that the release version looks like shit but it does look worse.  It's hard to make a game look like shit in 2018 but there clearly is more polish on the trailer version than there is in the version players paid money for.

So this prompts a bunch of people on twitter to start asking questions to the developer, Insomniac, about what the hell happened.  Insomniac responded by shrugging their shoulders saying "we didn't do anything" which upset a number of people and then glorious internet drama happened.  Of course, when there's drama news websites flock to it to write about it (kind of like I'm doing lol) and put in their two cents.  To my surprise and horror (not really) there's a great deal of outlets calling the issue stupid and using the whole thing to take a jab at anyone who has THE NERVE to criticize the game.  For example one idiot on Forbes writes his article like gamers are nothing but a pack of hungry wolves just waiting to rip any game dev apart if they do meet their high standards.

It seems like that idiot along with every other idiot who wrote articles like that are missing the point entirely as to why people are upset.  Let's make one thing very clear straight away, the puddle isn't the reason why people are upset, it's the fact that we were lied to by promotional material, AGAIN.  If all the trailers for Spider Man were cutscenes no one would say shit but that was GAMEPLAY so I don't think it's so unreasonable to ask that the gameplay looks the same as your damn trailer.  It's also not the first time it's happened either, just off the top of my head Dark Souls 2 and Silent Hill Downpour are guilty of the same thing and it was JUST as bullshit with those games as it is with this one.  Imagine that you went to a restaurant and there was a picture of a juicy, medium rare, perfectly seasoned absolutely delicious looking steak on a menu, so you order it.  When it arrives at your table though it's well done and just not quite as appealing as it was in the picture.  So you eat it anyway because you love steak and yeah, it's still good, but it's not what you paid money for.  Do you see where I'm coming from here?

The worst part about this whole thing is that if you look up the game on metacritic, despite the controversy it still has an 87 rating.  People are still enjoying the game despite their gripe with the graphics so all these outlets are shitting on gamers for what? Being upset about promotional material lying to us about what the game looks like?  It's understandable that things change over the course of development but don't wave the game in our faces going "LOOK AT HOW GREAT THIS LOOKS" and then make it not look like that.  For some, they are paying money BECAUSE they said it looked that good. 

Sure, it doesn't ruin the game and sure, it's not really THAT much of a big deal.  For me though, seeing the response of the gaming press further cements the idea that gaming media is nothing but a massive collection of gaming shitrags not worth giving the time of day to.

Streets of Rage 4

Well it's been more than 20 years since we last had a Streets of Rage game and since then the side scrolling beat em' up has been very much a niche genre since those days but that didn't stop this trailer from sweeping in and making every old school gamer squeal like a school girl.

At time of writing there isn't much information on it.  Hell, we don't even know what platforms it's going to be on yet.  It's like this video came out to tell us nothing other than it exists but to be honest that's more than enough for me.

I do have one little problem with it which is the art style and it's not that it's bad I'm just not really digging it.  But me slightly disliking the art style of the trailer and the game isn't enough to turn me off, it still looks like not only an honest to goodness old school side scrolling beat-em-up but also a really good sequel to a classic series.

As of right now it looks like a lot of love is going into this project and let's hope that further developments will keep it that way.

RIP Totalbiscuit

I wake up this morning and check my Twitter and I see that a bunch of my friends and followers had liked a tweet.  Usually it's some kind of funny picture or a gaming meme but unfortunately today it was some deeply saddening news.  John "Totalbiscuit" Bain has passed away following a battle with cancer at age 33. 

If your not sure, Totalbiscuit was a game reviewer on YouTube before he retired in April following a cancer diagnosis.  I'm not usually one to follow YouTube personalities but his content was rather entertaining whether it was a review or his take on some kind of issue within the industry.  He was extremely pro consumer and would often call out shitty practices from some of the big publishers and champion smaller devs that put out quality games.  

For me personally, it was thanks to him and his series "WTF Is.." that introduced me to some quality indie titles such as Rock of Ages and Frozen Synapse which are games that would have been completely off my radar if not for his reviews.  Those videos are still kicking around on YouTube so I'd highly reccomend checking them out, you may discover some gems to add to your steam library.  

I can't imagine what his family is going through but he will be missed by the gaming community at large and it's such a shame that we lost him so early. 

Rest in Peace you beautiful British Lad 

That Nintendo Direct

So last night this Nintendo Direct went down that I didn't watch but I sure as fuck caught all the information about it via my Facebook and Twitter feed.  Now I don't yet own a Switch and I sure as fuck want one.  They've been restocked in a bunch of stores near me and I'm definitely not lacking the funds for the thing but I just can't bring myself to pick one up and this mini direct pretty much made it clear in my mind why.

On the surface, the Direct was pretty cool.  They announced a whole bunch of titles that were coming to the Switch including a port of Dark Souls and (another) remake of The World Ends With You with a new extra campaign bit stapled on the end which kind of made me a little excited.  But that's exactly the problem, there's nothing new on the Switch AT ALL.  It's either ports, sequels or ports of sequels getting released and that goes for the direct and the current library of games.

Think for a second about what you're getting excited for here.  Just taking the two games that I'm the most interested, Dark Souls came out originally in 2011, that makes it nearly 7 years old.  TWEWY came out in 2007, that's over 10 years ago!!!  Not that remaking or remastering these games (depending on how you view it) is a bad thing but is it really worth sucking the Switches dick for doing so?  I've been playing this game for a long as time and the system is going to have to do more than that to sell me.

Now I understand that some people haven't played these games, especially TWEWY, so for some it's a reason to be legitimately excited but I get the impression that if you've been gaming for a long time and you have eclectic tastes then the Switch right now just isn't for you.  It's a shame too because it's a really cool piece of kit that I WANT to own but I just can't quite justify the purchase yet.

All that said though, Shin Megami Tensei 5 will be dropping at some point and despite it being a sequel I'm an absolute sucker for that series so I'm going to HAVE to buy one at some point.  I just wish the system had a bit more originality going for it.  I'm sure one day it'll happen and when it does I'm going to run to the nearest shop with a fat wad of cash and buy it all.

What excited you the most about the Direct?  What games from the current library are you enjoying?  Leave a comment and let me know!

Happy New Year! An Update

Well at time of writing it's New Years Eve but I'm going to be out partying when it actually ticks over so I'm making the post now.

First I want to extend all the usual thanks for the continued support and even bigger thanks to everyone who donated over the course of 2017.  Of course, going into 2018 I hope we can raise even more money for the charity and improve the site considerably.

As for blog news going into the year we have the 2players 1controller mini marathon coming up on the 7th of January and hopefully I'll be able to find time in February for the Crash series marathon.  I'm actually hoping to do a marathon at least once a month from January, if not 24 hour some kind of 12 hour general gaming stream where maybe people can donate for what's played.

Also the Advance Wars playthrough will be continued at some point but the guy I'm recording it with got married and moved house so he's been busy as fuck.  Anyway we're hoping to jump back into the battlefield sometime early January.  I of course have a number of playthroughs planned for my solo efforts AND there will be a streamed playthrough of Haunting Grounds (Demento) which was donated for by a friend of mine during my birthday.

So watch this space and keep supporting the site and the Alzheimer's Society!

British News Reporters Reach New Levels Of Stupidity

I have never seen anything so insanely stupid in my whole goddamn life.  When something like a school shooting goes down in America I know the media like to grasp at straws but THIS SHIT takes the fucking cake.

First of all, a link to the story
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/frustrated-father-who-killed-crying-3831547

In case you don't want to rot your own mind by reading something of The Mirror then I'll give you a brief synopsis.  Mark Sandland got pissed off at his 5 week year old baby who wouldn't stop crying and shook her to death.  He also happened to be playing Assassins Creed 3.

The reason this story is so fucking stupid is because all these news sites are writing the story as if the killing of the baby and Assassins Creed 3 are linked somehow.  Like the reason he shook his baby to death was because he was playing that game, and not because he's just a bad father/got mental problems/whatever else.

Let me share with you my favourite part of the above article.

"Police who attended the flat after Aimee-Rose was admitted to hospital on November 5 2012 found a PlayStation game controller on the sofa opposite the TV."

WELL SO FUCKING WHAT?!  What does the fact that he was playing a Playstation, let alone Assassins Creed have to fucking do with anything?!  The ONLY reason that was put in there is to add some fucking spin on the article so that retards who can't think for themselves start to think "OH! THOSE VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES MAKING PEOPLE MURDER AGAIN! BETTER CONSIDER BANNING EVERYTHING!"

This is an absolutely terrible story but these fucking news sites are distracting from the ACTUAL issue by making a big deal out of a fucking video game.  What really caused this poor baby to die was a stressed father with a short temper being at wits end.  We SHOULD be discussing how this kind of thing could be prevented by maybe providing support for families who feel overly stressed with their children or something like that.

BUT NO! OF COURSE NOT!

Instead we're just giving bits and bobs of information and shoving some references to Assassins Creed 3 in there to get people riled up about the non-issue of violent video games that I THOUGHT was swept away fucking years ago.

It's not just The Mirror who are at it either, pretty much every news article I can find on this story runs with that whole Assassins Creed angle and let's be brutally honest here; there isn't a fucking link between the two events at all.

For the last time, the fact that he owned/was playing a Playstation at the time had NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.  I have a Playstation and I bought bread yesterday. I ate a sandwich today, so does that mean that playing violent video games makes people want to eat sandwiches?  No, of course not, don't be so fucking stupid.  Video games are one of the biggest industries around now, pretty much every mother fucker has some kind of video game in their possession so OF COURSE you're going to something game related if you go to some average shmucks house.

So fuck the Mirror, fuck the BBC and fuck any other so called "Journalist" that worked on this fucking story.  You should all be ashamed of yourselves for reaching Kotaku levels of total stupidity.

The BBC: Masters of the fucking Obvious

The whole video games and violence thing is the kind of issue that has been talked about since gaming was even a thing.  Doom, Postal, Grand Theft Auto and many more have come under the fire of retards who don't know what they are talking about for their graphic content.

For the longest time people have claimed that because these games show violent imagery the people who play them become violent and will eventually hurt someone or shoot up a school or whatever stupid bullshit.  Usually when they say this, they mean impressionable kids but if you let your kid go around hurting others just because he/she saw it on a video game, then you're just a shit parent and that's all there is to it.

But then, the BBC come along with this article

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-26921743

Now I'm being unfair to the BBC because it's not really them that did the research but whatever, it wouldn't be as snappy if I put "The University of Rochester" now, would it?

Anyway, some twats in the UK apparently did some "research" and discovered that aggression is linked to bad game design rather than the content itself.....

NO FUCKING SHIT

Have you ever bought a thing like a microwave, toaster or flat packed shelf unit?  You go home and take it out of the box and you THINK it's going to be easy to set up but it's not.  The piece of shit wont work properly or fit together properly or it's too big or some other bullshit and it makes you mad.  You start cursing at everything in the house and cursing the very life of the person who came up with this monstrosity you're trying to make work, the very thing that was supposed to make your life easier.

Games are the same.

The very thing that you were supposed to be able to just sit down and chill out with doesn't fucking work properly and ends up making you frustrated in the same way.  Having a character not do what their supposed to do or having the game just crap out on you because they are a badly coded buggy mess is the EXACT same thing as the above example.  You end up squeezing the controller as hard as you can and cursing the very life of the person who developed the piece of shit that is clogging up your gaming system.

So well done BBC and everyone involved in that "research", you discovered something that anyone with half a functioning brain worked out back in 197 fucking 2.

Keeping Mentally Active with Games

Usually when video games pop up on the news, it's something bad.  Either someone has been killed or horribly injured and "these horrible violent video games are to blame", but not this time!  Check this shit out!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21116544

This was a news report I came across last month, about an 80 something year old woman who enjoys the shit out of some video games.  You'll have to forgive the BBC for talking about tablet and phone games like they matter, but it's nice to hear some good news for once.

One of the reasons she enjoys playing games so damn much is because she claims they keep her mentally active so this little news video is especially relevant to this blog since I'm trying to raise money for the Alzheimer's Society.

Finally, before anyone asks, yes, that is Disgaea she is playing in the picture.  This old woman has really good taste if you ask me, we need more old people like this.  So if you're worried about losing your marbles in your old age, grab a controller because it sure as hell works for this lady.

Not Getting on the Hype Train

With Tokyo Game Show stuff filling up all the gaming websites that I usually browse through, I thought now would be a good chance to talk about game hype and why I don't bother with it 90% of the time.

First let's start with what I like to do.  I usually head over to one of the many sites that provide me with gaming news and information and check out announcements and stuff like that.  Once I learn that a upcoming game exists, that's it, I'm done.  For most games I don't ever read more into them than that. Sure, I might watch a trailer or two to see what it looks like, but I don't like to get behind these huge advertising campaigns that some games have and get super hyped for something before I've even had a chance to play it.

The reason I try to read as little as possible on upcoming titles is that a common complaint I hear is that a certain game "didn't live up to expectations" so I figure, the less you know about a game, the less expectation you have and then you don't get the pangs of disappointment when it sucks.  On top of that, if the game does end up being really really good, you feel extra happy for getting a pleasant surprise.

It's true that I don't do this for every game, but the majority of games I try to follow as little as possible until after they have been released.  I don't want a marketing campaign giving me preconceptions as to how awesome I should think it should be, I want to form my own goddamn opinion by actually playing the game.

So before I finish I just want to clarify that this doesn't mean I bury my head in the sand and ignore everything that's put out on a game after the initial announcement.  Reading news regarding a games development is not the same as following the hype but there is a very thin line.

I'm quite tired and I'm expecting to read this in the morning and getting a faceful of twaddle, but you're intelligent people, you know what I'm at least trying to say.