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tag:,2006:blogCommunity Blogshttp://www.destructoid.com/http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/2014-11-22T07:02:14Ztag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284161Nintendo,November, Hoffmann, Fan Art and deviantART? - Reinhold HoffmannReinhold Hoffmann2014-11-22T07:02:14Z2014-11-22T07:02:14Z<!DOCTYPE html>
A couple of weeks ago I started a new art project on the deviantART group of my website Game-Art-HQ.

The recent collaboratiion with Dwelling of Duels where they have something like monthy contests with different themes like Puzzle Games Month, Capcom Month etc. since years inspired me to try out something similar there on dA ..with the intention to give artists both a motivation to draw game related fan art as well as giving them a challenge if they want.

That meant that in the first Month of the Project which I simply called "The Game Art HQ Project" because creative names are aaawesome it was all about Nintendo.

Nintendo because its popular and offers a ton of possibilities..but little did I know about HOW interesting some of the claims for spots in this project would be.

Among very popular characters like Rozalina and Kid Icarus and..of course Link the most of the characters and games chosen for November are not really popular and in some cases even I did not know about them before.

The Lord of the Flesh as example is a powerful enemy type in Turok 2: Seeds of Evil..but I never played that game. I remember Juno from the great Jet Set Gemini but I bet the majority of the gamers today don't.

That were some super nice surprises for me since I really hoped our new group activity there would motivate some of the over 6000 artists which are there now to draw rarely drawn characters. Seems like this project which stays in general on dA and not GA-HQ the website will be something interesting in the future as well. The next month theme was chosen by the artist who drew that Lord of the Flesh illustration which was also the first one created for this project and he had a damn nice idea.

Something which will happen for sure next year are an RPG Month, one about Robot Masters from the MegaMan games and while I never played Dark Souls 1 or 2 yet, the artworks for these games and characters like that Knight Artorias are very interesting looking and will get a month as well fo shure.

If you have any ideas for monthly themes for this project too, out with them!

And now, enjoy the weekend and the first handful of fan art made for the Game-Art-HQ Project!

You can view the growing galery folder of the project on dA as well here

The Lord of the Flkesh from Turok 2, drawn by Franco Ferrari

Pitt from Kid Icarus Uprising by Chibi-Pit

Juno from Jet Force Gemini drawn by Scowlingelf

Rosalina from Mario Kart 8 by Ed Moffatt

Little Mac from Punch Out!! by Applfruit

Lucina from the Fire Emblem games by Mike Williams

The Poliwag Pokemon drawn by ImmortalTanuki, I gave her this character as part of a challenge, she had the choice between thee characters.

 Bonus Artwork by Michael P. :

  tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284160Cblogs of 11/21/14 + Theisms: A.C. Slater Edition - CblogRecapsCblogRecaps2014-11-22T06:10:51Z2014-11-22T06:10:51Z<!DOCTYPE html>

I don't know if you guys have ever had to take care of a loved one while they're home sick, but it's a pretty terrible thing for all parties involved. My wife managed to come down with strep throat this week, and while I've never had it personally, I've heard it's approximately zero fun. I actually wound up taking a couple days off of work myself just so I could take care of her, because she was so out of it that she could literally do nothing for herself. The worst part for me is that, obviously, I wish I could do something to help her, but there really isn't much I could do outside of heeding to her every beck and call.

I even tried yelling at her, but that didn't make her feel better either.

I'm pretty lucky that I don't get sick very often, but I make up for it by being very powerfully sick when I am. For instance, around this time last year I caught a stomach bug and spent the majority of the day with black water coming out of a certain orifice in my body. Because of this, I had become severely dehydrated and very weak. I wound up having to go to the kitchen in the middle of the night because I was so thirsty, but I was so weak that I couldn't even make it back to the bedroom and wound up sleeping on the couch. My wife came downstairs and helped me back to bed, but before I did I had to go to the restroom. Everything for the next 30 second is still blank to me. The next thing I remember is waking up, bent over backwards over a hamper in our bathroom, with my wife over me screaming at me to wake up. Then the next thing I remember is sitting on the bathroom floor with no idea how I got there or how I got to a sitting up position. You know how sometimes you stand up too fast and the blood rushes to your head, causing you to become lightheaded and your vision become blurry for a moment (hopefully I'm not the only person this happens to, otherwise I should probably get that checked out), that happened to me for over a minute, to the point that my vision was completely gone.

In my haze, I started talking to God. "God, am I dying? Because if I am, I'm ready to go, but I really hope I'm not." Let this be a lesson to you guys, if you ever have diarrhea, drink a lot of water. That was the only time in my life I've been really dehydrated, and it was probably the scariest moment of my life outside of the first time I watched The Exorcist as a 9 year old because my dad said it would be fun and because he apparently hates me.

Anyway, my wife spent the last two days out of commission (she's fine now, by the way), which kind of turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me, because I got to do a lot of gaming during this time.

One of the reasons I've always chosen to wait to buy new systems is because there's always that lull after launch where there's not a whole lot to play. I picked up my PS4 a little over a month ago, which means I have a years worth of PS4 games to catch up on. First on the chopping block was Diablo III. This was actually my first time ever playing a Diablo game, and man did I love it. When the original Borderlands was released, I remember a lot of people comparing it to Diablo in a lot of ways, and I had no idea what they meant. Then I wound up playing Torchlight when it was ported to XBLA and basically playing it nonstop until I finished it. I've never been a PC gamer, so I got really excited when they announced a console port of Diablo III. With the recent release of the Ultimate Evil Edition, I was hoping there would be a good sale on it, but then I remembered "Oh yeah, I work at a game store, I should just take it home for a few days." So I did, and after two days I was a level 35 crusader who basically just told every demon in Hell to suck it whilst hitting them with a giant hammer.

Ever since Borderlands I've become a huge fan of the western RPG genre, if that's what we're calling it. I love leveling up, I love collecting new and better gear, and I love filling in every bit of that map, leaving no stone unturned. And why didn't anyone tell me there was an area in the game that looked like the Care Bears world and you mutilate ponies and sentient flowers? If I had known that I would have bought it day one. The only downside for me is that I love to play those games co-op, but I have no friends that have both a PS4 and Diablo III, nor do I have a second PS4 controller so my wife could play. But Diablo III is definitely something I want to return to.

The other thing I played this week while my lovely was passed out on the couch was Infamous: Second Son. In the two days I stayed home with her, I beat the game 100%. But that brings me to a question for you guys, and something I think I may write a future blog about. In the days of trophies and achievements, do you consider a game to be 100% complete when there are no missions left to do or when you've collected every achievement/trophy? I will concede that I only played Infamous on the good path, but I did every side mission, collected every blast shard, and upgraded every ability before moving on to the final confrontation with Augustine. Is that 100%? Just wanted some opinions from the community.

I've never been what I would call a "fan" of the Infamous series, but I don't dislike them. I played the original enough to unlock the second area of the game before calling it a day, and didn't play Infamous 2 or Festival of Blood (which I've heard is great). But Second Son, however, I loved. I would have liked a little more variety in the side missions, because there were only four or five different types of missions to do, but I still had a great time liberating Seattle. Whenever I play a game that give me a big area to play with plenty of missions to do, I always find up doing every side mission before doing anything with the story. It's a good thing in Infamous though, because if I didn't the game would have been about five hours long, it seemed as though there were only about 8 story missions. But I would say give Second Son a chance if you haven't already. It probably won't win any game of the year awards, but it's a solid open-world action game.

Also, what's the verdict on First Light? Worth playing?

My wife spent her two days of sickness doing nothing except moaning in pain and watching Saved by the Bell. Saved by the Bell was such a huge show for me as a kid, but as I've gotten older I've realized something: Kelly totally should have gone for Slater. He's dreamy, he's in good shape, and he comes from a military family, so you know he's loyal. Not to mention he's mysterious in a Jonathan Holmes sort of way, meaning you have no idea what race he is, but it's kind of sexy.

Lastly, I beat my pastor in a game of Super Tecmo Bowl on the last play of the game. You can't stop Joe Montana.

This time next week you'll probably hear some horror stories about me having to work Black Friday. Now let's recap your Friday.

* - Note to future Friday blog posters: posting something awesome about Resident Evil 2 (as AsHouse has done) will always get you a Topsauce nod from me.

* - Luna Sy wants to do a Secret Santa event with the DToid community. Sounds pretty adorable, I'm up for it.

S - Cosmonstropolis got scammed on Steam, but then gives us a cliffhanger ending where they didn't get scammed? Tune in next time for this continuing saga!

$ - Your weekly reminder from Simon that you folks in the UK don't have to pay full price for stuff.

R - Lexingtongue did a review of Hatsune Miku Project Diva F 2nd, which is a mouthful, but is something I wouldn't have been interested in at all until I read about it.

T - First impressions of Far Cry 4 from BetterCallSaul, which is a game that I want SO HARD right now.

V - TroyFullbuster gives us a Smash Bros. combo video. He refers to it as "Smash Spam" but I'm going to call it "Shmam" because I like to combine words unnecessarily.

There was no #GamerGate postings and no random people complaining that sometimes companies make both good and bad games, which means no fails this week. Good job!

FPotD

 tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284153A Pit In My Tummy - CosmonstropolisCosmonstropolis2014-11-21T21:36:20Z2014-11-21T21:36:20Z<!DOCTYPE html>
I was scammed today on Steam.

I know, I KNOW. Before you throw me to the "should've been more careful" crowd, my mind has been adversely affected by health issues, and sometimes (not always, thankfully) it creates a problem wherein my ability to reason properly is hampered. Today just happened to be one of those days.

I was basically tricked into thinking that a poor guy couldn't buy Farming Simulator 2015 in his country, because of region locking - this isn't an immediate sign of scamming mind you, this happens all the time. So I thought I could help him out, in the meantime I'd get Dragon Age: Inquisition in return. Yes, I know it seems ridiculous in retrospect, but at the time he told me how much cheaper games are in Germany (which I doubt this guy was from).

Ok, so we talk for a bit, hash out the details of how it'll go down, and then start doing the trade. It didn't seem fishy at all, because his profile showed he'd performed over 500 trades, and he had page after page of positive trading rep comments.

The other thing is, after taking my game he was still "trying" to get me the code. At first the code just didn't work, then he made a claim that it was the wrong code, even saying, "You didn't use it, right? Because I think that was my CoD code!" So then he starts trying to send other codes, but they're appearing as weird text...and then he says, I think we just need to restart Steam or something, because the code isn't appearing properly.

Of course, as soon as I restart Steam, he's gone; I'm blocked; and his trade forum post now says something about trading cards.

I guess it wouldn't be a huge deal if I wasn't saving that money for the Steam Christmas sale, but I was - and money is very tight because of my disability.

Anyway, just be careful, everyone. No matter what things look like, someone will try and scam you.

*EDIT*

So something amazing happened, which cancels this out, at least to me. I'll follow-up with it soon!
  tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284131Cblogs of 11/20/14 + Scare Force One-isms - CblogRecapsCblogRecaps2014-11-21T17:13:25Z2014-11-21T17:13:25Z<!DOCTYPE html>

It's that time of year again. The time when exams are starting to get close, but you haven't really dedicated yourself to them yet. Actually scratch that, it's that time of year when by all account I should definitely be preparing for my exams, but procrastination is making it difficult. Beyond that, it's insane to think that my semester in the US is almost coming to a close. My last classes are next week, after that is exam time, and that will be it! Four months, gone by before you know it.

It's kind of sad, really. After exams I'll have another month or so to hang out in DC, maybe visit New York for Christmas, but after that it's off home to the land of hookers and blow. What with all the wonderful friends I've made around here in Your Nation's Capital, that's gonna be rough.
Then again, there's no reason to get sad before I actually leave, so let's not.
Instead, let's talk music!

Normally, that statement would be followed up with me showering everybody with links to video game soundtracks. Today, I have something else: there's a new Lordi album out!

As I've said before, Lordi is pretty much the only thing I listen to besides soundtracks. I'm not sure what that says about my tastes, and frankly I don't care. I think people dressing up like monsters and rocking out about demons, ghosts, killer clowns and zombies is just good fun. And so should you.

That said, their new album "Scare Force One" (Lordi love themselves some puns) is a little dissappointing. Compared to the previous album "To Beast or not to Beast" (told ya) with which they caused lightning to strike twice, the new one is decidedly average. Most songs are good but not great, there's one on here that's actually bad, and only a few stand out among the vast library I amassed over the years. Even the stand-out ones wouldn't be top 5 material to me.

So let's try to break some of this down. I'd have to say that the best song on this album is either the titular Scare Force One, How to Slice a Whore (<- I'll get back to this one, because it's...something), or Sir, Mr. Presideath, Sir!. If I had to choose, I'd say probably the latter. It's the one that sounds the most like the Lordi I have grown to love, is hella catchy at points and actually has a deeper message than any song they have put out so far. Which to be fair isn't saying much. It's basically about not blindly following leaders and thinking for yourself every once in a while. It's actually pretty effective for a bunch of dudes in monster suits.

Like I said Scare Force One is pretty fun as well. It's about a giant killer airplane. No, really. Check the cover art above, that's pretty much it. It makes for a pretty cool song, although I swear they're saying "ERROR" instead of "AIR ROARS".

And then there's "How to Slice a Whore". Wow. This is by miles the darkest thing they've ever done. For a band that's all about monsters and death, Lordi tends to have a pretty good sense of humor in their songs. Usually, it's pretty easy not to take it too seriously. I mean, they made a song called "The Devil is a Loser". You kind of get where they're coming from here. But this one? Not so much. They're just straight-up talking about horribly mutilating women for cheating on their boyfriends. There is some colorful language in here, but they still stay just close enough to reality to make the lyrics have a very uneasy quality to them. In a sense it's much like the controversial Cop Killer by Body Count, and I wouldn't be surprised if this one gets banned all over the place.

Which makes it all the weirder that it's one of the better songs on here.
I don't normally do this, but: listener discretion advised for violence against women.

And then there's everything else. It's unremarkable, really. The rest of the songs are just Lordi being Lordi, for better or worse. She's a Demon is noticably worse than most anything else they've done, Nailed by the Hammer of Frankenstein has clever lyrics going for it but not much else, Monster is my Name takes a while to grow on you, Hell Sent in the Clowns goes pure silly and The United Rocking Dead is so bland I have no comment on it. I'm probably being too harsh on them, but I hate because I care. I know they can do better than this, so it's disappointing to see them fail to reach their potential.

I still had fun listening to this album, and if nothing else it got me back into my habit of rocking out to monsters. So you know what, let me stop being a big ol' sourpuss. Today's caps are hereby dedicated to my favorite Lordi songs. Let's go!

* - Despite the lack of pics, Terry makes some pretty true points; that gamers are split into these groups that hate each other's guts.

* - Riobux come out of an especially dark place to find a renewed love for video games in Zero Escape.

* - Drop what you're doing, this is the most awesome thing you're going to see all week. Gunblades are a thing. As are gun-katar and motherfucking GUN WARHAMMER.

A - Hoffman lists his favorite video game hotties. No Tharja, no sale.

A - sonic429 doesn't like racing games, except when he does. To be fair, if you could have just one racing game, wouldn't YOU go for Mario Kart or F-Zero too? Course you would.

A - One of TheKodu's old blogs took on a life of its own until it reached Anita herself. Now he responds.

C - FlanxLycanth has been doing things, both virtually and IRL.

M - I have never played Metal Gear Solid, but these vocal OST songs are pretty great.

L - Phoenix Wright gets topical as he defends Bill Cosby from...well, you know. Also see the comments for Elsa dropping a bucket of truth on us.

- ShadeOfLight
May you always find water and shade

FPotD

  tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284139November 21st UK Releases and Bargains - SimonSimon2014-11-21T12:33:00Z2014-11-21T12:33:00Z<!DOCTYPE html>
As November rolls on we have quite a few releases Dragon Age: Inquisition hits the PC, Xbox One and PS4, Far Cry 4 hits basically everything and LittleBigPlanet 3 releases on the PS3 and PS4, while on the deals side of things from Square-Enix you can get the Deus Ex Collection for £5.75 and Tomb Raider GOTY Edition for £4.99 while at Amazon you can get a steam key for South Park: The Stick of Truth for £8.74.

Elsewhere this week from PSN you can get Persona 3 Portable for the PSP and Vita for £7.99 or £7.19 with PS+ and finally on Steam you can get Chivalry: Medieval Warfare for £4.74/$6.24/€5.74 which is also having a free weekend BattleBlock Theater for £3.74/$5.10/€5.10 and depending on your region, Till Next Time:

PC
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Far Cry 4

Xbox One
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Far Cry 4

PS4
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Far Cry 4
LittleBigPlanet 3

360
Far Cry 4
LittleBigPlanet 3

360
Far Cry 4

Square-enix
Deus Ex Collection | PC | £5.75
Tomb Raider GOTY Edition | PC | £4.99

Amazon
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag | PC | £8.74 - Uplay
South Park: The Stick of Truth | PC | £8.74 - Steam

Gamersgate
Far Cry 3 | PC | £3.75 - Uplay
LEGO MARVEL Super Heroes | PC | £3.75 - Steam

PSN
Persona 3 Portable | PSP / Vita | £7.99 / £7.19 with PS+

Steam
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare | PC | £4.74/$6.24/€5.74 - Free Weekend
BattleBlock Theater | PC | £3.74/$5.10/€5.10

If I've missed either a new release or a great cheap deal, please comment and make that information known.
  tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284134Super Smash Bros. Combo (3DS) Video - TroyFullbusterTroyFullbuster2014-11-21T11:24:10Z2014-11-21T11:24:10Z<!DOCTYPE html>
Hey guys and Dtoid! I hope you enjoy this compliation combo video I've spent hte last week making with my friend/Youtube partner/brother. Enjoy! And don't forget to sub and like!

I hope you all enjoy and share your favorites!

You know you want to front page this Destructoid....please

I'll be back with more Smash spam later in the week

Also wish me luck at KTAR XI on Clash Tournaments on Saturday <3

  tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284129Resident Evil 2 and the Little Corridor of Horrors - AsHousesAsHouses2014-11-21T08:24:28Z2014-11-21T08:24:28Z<!DOCTYPE html>

There's a little corridor in Resident Evil 2 which has stuck in my mind for what must be going on for fifteen years. The last time I saw it was probably a decade ago but I can still (and will) list off its most minute features. It is somewhere under the police station and makes up part of - I'm assuming but can't remember any details - the needlessly sinuous route from Raccoon City's claustrophobic streets to its even more claustrophobic subterranean realm. It's a bit out of the way really, located as it is at the foot of a ladder down the end of a recessed, open-air space which snakes around the back of the municipal building's basement. Upon first approaching it you're set upon by dogs; enemies so fierce that I can still remember their throaty, digitally processed barks and the relentlessness of their enthusiastically murderous, seemingly nonsensical galloping. Perhaps running this gauntlet is one of the reasons I so vividly remember what comes after it.

The corridor in question is bedecked in thick polythene cascading from its concrete ceiling, which ripples down the walls and gives the place the same unsettling atmosphere of recently cleaned up violence that I associate with crime scene tents. Leaning up against these undulating surfaces (I'm sure they weren't actually animated, but there's a lot to be said for the human imagination) is a collection of tools, cones and other construction doodads. It's lit dimly at one end by cold fluorescent bulbs, the light from which plays off the scaffold beams that support everything - the police station, the streets, the chaos - that I've already trudged through. At the far end is a solid looking wall about seven foot tall (we insist on saying foot not feet in Yorkshire) which falls a little short of properly reaching the ceiling. Flush with this barrier, though spanning the full height of the passage, is a chain link fence with a little tear in its upper right-hand corner. Peeking through this, just above the top of the wall, is the moon, sitting peacefully in the black, starless skies above the city.
That is my memory of the place, anyway. Below is the actuality:

Not a bad effort, I reckon, though maybe I've romanticised and embellished upon the place a little in the intervening years, what did I say about that ol' imagination, ey? What is important though, is how I felt and continue to feel about this place. The unnecessarily strong affinity I have for a pretty inconsequential corner of a sprawling game comprised of its fair share of corridors. (As an aside: I always thought it strange that, from a silly grounded in reality vs. game design standpoint, each of the major areas of the police station all had wildly different aesthetic and even architectural styles. Of course bits need to be memorable enough to the player, but the formal differences throughout the building are garishly abrasive.) I digress. The whole crux of that corridor's power lies in the foot or so gap between the top of the wall and where the ceiling begins. Therein lies the video game embodiment of melancholy; the closest I've ever come to feeling desperately, but not conventionally, sad whilst partaking in play.

Raccoon City is an oppressive place. Its streets are narrow, always flanked by two, three and four storey buildings with warren-like alleys running around and in between. This discomfort is made all the worse by the detritus left to clog the already constricted byways. Crashed vehicles, impotent barriers and lots of stuff on fire all conspire to make the traversal from one street to the next a war of slaloming, uncertain attrition. Once these have been negotiated there's the police station, then the rest of the game is pretty much set underground. Welcoming is not a word easily associated with Resident Evil 2 or its locales. What feeds this confinement is the way many of these already tight spaces are shown to the player. Rather than looking at the world from the more modern third-person perspective, where the player views the game from behind the shoulder of the protagonist, we're forced to survey each area from a fixed, second-person viewpoint. For a lovely examination of the perspective please look to this by Stephen Beirne.

In an attempt to not repeat those who have gone before me, I'll simply say that by dictating exactly how the player views each of its areas, the game fundamentally shapes our understanding of them. For instance, out on the city streets - which are, as I've said, among the roomier of the game's locations - we're regularly shown things from quite narrow medium and high-angle shots. This not only acts as a disorientating force - they are often uncomfortably skewed, tight or move disconcertingly to follow the protagonist - but it further condenses our sense of space, channeling our eye into, rather than across, a particular scene. What were already oppressively cramped tracts of land are constricted even further, effectively to choking point: compelling the player, through sheer discomfort, to rush through the game's precious few open environments and into the mirage of safety lying behind the police station's door. In this way we're coerced into running up the stairs instead of out the front door, provoked, through fear, into immediate action which ensures that we bowl headlong into our own oblivion, not away from it.

Which brings us back to the corridor. It's one of the few places in the game where we can see any meaningful distance without our view being interrupted by a wall. It's also one of the rare occasions where we can see the sky, with the exception, to my memory, of the approach to the police station (used to show the building's vast size) and another lovely 'shot' of the moon as one exits the factory late in the story. Finally, it's also an area entirely devoid of enemy encounters, which, combined with the heavily artificial light and the plastic on the walls, makes the corridor's safety feel inviting in an eerily loaded way. In the world of Resident Evil 2 this small subterranean passageway represents the safest and calmest place it is possible for us to find our way into. It also provides us with a tantalising glimpse at an unattainable escape: the thought that if our character was lithe enough we could have them through the gap in the fence and out into the shimmering moonlight, running full-pelt through the fields and the hell away from Raccoon City. My corridor is a false promise: safety -but to no end. It is the stinging reminder that inaction is often more dangerous than its alternatives. That we're already in far too deep to simply walk away, or even stay put, despite all the reasonable-to-assume dire consequences we'll bring upon ourselves. That realisation of inescapable finality, as a metaphor for pretty much all aspects of life, upset my still-optimistic child self. It kind of still does.

There's just one slight problem.

There appears, you see, to have been a wee misunderstanding between myself and Resident Evil 2, one which has coloured my opinions and memories of my corridor for years, which has made me completely wrong about everything. There is no moon hanging watchful in the sky. There is no melancholic promise of an unachievable absconsion. There's not even anything remotely interesting beyond that two foot gap between ceiling and wall. There's just another corridor.

You are, I suppose, meant to play the game twice to really get the whole story. Much like its progenitor it has two heroes running around inside it, in this case a rookie cop called Leon "Rookie Cop" S. Kennedy and Claire "Sister of Chris from the First One" Redfield. Their stories are very much their own, largely self-contained things, where they each run around the same locations conveniently missing one another in largely the same way as Shrek 2 used to justify its abysmally lazy existence. So while these two adventures do present somewhat different experiences, they weren't offering little me enough diversity back in the year two thousand, so I ended up just playing the Leon campaign. Which is kind of where I went wrong, I reckon.

If I had been bothered to play as both characters I'd've seen the corridor for what it is: just a corridor. And not even a good one really, seeing as how its end wall - what up until writing this I thought of as a harbinger of my emotional awakening - acts as an annoying and very video gamey barrier, arbitrarily dividing two adjacent spaces for seemingly no logical reason and necessitating lots of dicking about in order to circumvent. If I had played all the game I wouldn't have seen a beautifully evocative vista embodying sorrow, hope, longing and learned resignation, I'd've seen this:

a wall at the end of a corridor which separates it from another corridor, both of which are lit by a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling - of a corridor. A pointless corridor that never had anything near as interesting to say as the things I ascribed to it. A place that doesn't actually embody anything more meaningful than the deliberately awkward design philosophies of a load of people working almost twenty years ago, people who thought making a player traipse back and forth picking stuff up and putting stuff down and walking for twenty minutes to get around a wall that in the real world wouldn't even exist because it doing so doesn't make sense was a fair enough deal. I used to think my corridor meant something - but it doesn't; it never did. However, finding out that it doesn't mean anything actually makes me feel the same emotions about it as I did when I thought that it did, indeed, mean something. So in the end I'm not sure if it ever really matters if the things we see in, and in turn feel about, games actually exist or not. It's more our articulation of them, our ability to talk others through our experiences and, ultimately, make a convincing enough tale out of it. If people - ourselves included - listen and believe, it doesn't really matter if any of it happened in the first place. So while my corridor probably isn't, as I once assumed, a metaphor for any sort of childhood self-realisation, it - and by extension my long relationship with it - maybe is convincingly a metaphor for something: criticism.

I'm going to make it my life's work to tear down all the walls (man) that we don't need in video games. It's going to be a costly endeavor, so maybe consider supporting me via the Patreon. It's probably only a little bit less worthy a cause than whatever you usually spend your money on and it resides here: patreon.com/ashouses. Chrz.

 tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284123Wanna have a C-Blogs "Secret Santa"? - Luna SyLuna Sy2014-11-21T06:00:08Z2014-11-21T06:00:08Z<!DOCTYPE html>
It's almost that time of the year again! That's right, an excuse to post this video:

I watch this every Christmas.

Serendipity is a word that I never get to use ever in a sentence. It is a term that means a "pleasant surprise" or as I like to call it, a "happy accident". When it comes to games, I too had my fair share of happy accidents, enjoying games I got in some giveaway or coerced by a friend to try it, games I would never have decided to check out for myself.

This happy accident, the joy of trying new things, this is something I want to share this Christmas season. And I wish for you all to experience and share this feeling too.

This is inspired from a dumb thing we used to do in school as to assure that everyone in class gets a Christmas present. Yes, even that weird kid that no one likes who eats lunch alone.

What if I was that weird kid???

[Insecurity Intensifies]

...

So our "Secret Santa" was a little bit different. What we would do is buy our gifts prior to knowing who we'll give it to. That's because you'll pass your gift to a random person. It lead to scenarios where a guy gets an NBA jigsaw puzzle when they don't even like Basketball, or getting girls cologne but you're a guy. While it sounds awful on paper, I think if we do this for videogames it can be quite interesting, discovering games you've never heard of or ever thought of playing. And through blogs, you can share your experience with this newfound game.

We will follow a similar format:

1. Buy a game you want other people to suffer through experience. You're free to pick any game, but I would suggest something relatively obscure and not a lot of people have tried yet. Since this is just for a fun little blog thing, I would advise not to spend too much on it. I myself am planning to spend no more than $10-20 for my gift.

Digital games, by the way. Like Steam or whatever.

2. Everyone will be assigned a random person to give their gift to. You'll find out later how we'll go about this random draw.

3. I (or to not spoil the surprise for myself, some third party, who will also handle the random draw) will PM each participant with:

a. Who to give their gift to; and
b. Who to expect a gift from (just to make sure you don't end up adding some random stranger on Steam)*

You're then free to send your gift anytime once you recieve the PM.

*We can also do what we decided in the forums (which follows the more traditional format) where there would be a "deliverer" of the gifts as to keep things more "secret". Everyone sends their gifts to that person and they'll then send it to your target recipient.

4. Once you recieve your gift, you'll have to play it no matter what it is. And because we're a blogging community, you then have to write about your experience with said game.

We'll start on December 1. Next week, I'll make a last call for anyone else who wants to sign up.
___________________________________________________________________________________

- Intermission -

As an update to my previous post, two days ago,

WE PASSED OUR FINAL THESIS DEFENSE!!!

Well conditional pass. Still a ton of revisions to the document (as expected, really), but the hard part is over. It's as good as done. This means I'll finally graduate from college early next year! Just 3 more leftover classes to finish.

While I'm not quite fond of using internet memes and image macros, this one in particular I believe is a close approximation of how I feel right now. That burden you had to carry these past four (almost five) years, (almost) off your shoulders. Those groupmates of mine and our adviser are trully unbelievable in every sense of the word and I literally wouldn't have made it without them.
___________________________________________________________________________________

Current list of participants:

Agent9
El Dango
FlanxLycanth
GajKnight
GoofierBrute
Hyper Lemon Buster Cannon
Luckrequired
Luna Sy
Occams Electric Toothbrush
Script
ShadeOfLight
Sir Davies
Solar Pony Django
TheAngriestCarp (Tentative)
  tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284122Hatsune Miku Project Diva F 2nd Review - A Great Vita Sequel - LexingtongueLexingtongue2014-11-21T04:12:23Z2014-11-21T04:12:23Z<!DOCTYPE html>
I'll never forget the day I bought the original Project Diva f for my Vita. A lone foreigner wandering into a Japanese movie rental place, picking up a vocaloid game and taking it sheepishly to the counter. One of the most embarrassing video game purchase moments of my lifetime - there's a certain stigma attached to these games in Japan, namely that they are only played by friendless nerds (or so my ex-girlfriend told me!). I guess I have to hold my hands up on that one...

Anyway, after getting it back to my apartment and taking a moment to overcome the shame of what I'd just purchased, I popped the game into my Vita and fired it up. My embarrassment was quickly forgotten as I became engulfed in the simple but addictive world of my first Hatsune Miku rhythm game. I spent hours on that version, despite it being in Japanese and my not being fluent in that tongue, and as soon as I heard of a sequel I grew excited and knew I'd have to have it. Luckily I was able to order this one from the safety of my own home - and in English too!

This game is a rhythm title. It involves you pressing the Vita's face buttons in time with the music. The appropriate button prompts can appear anywhere on the Vita screen and the timing prompts (which must be pressed when the two fully overlap) can float in from off-screen at unusual angles in order to increase difficulty. Further curve balls are thrown at the player including prompts that require the button to be held and released precisely and double button presses (for example, O and the right d-pad button). Also returning from the first Vita release are the much maligned touch-screen scratches only this time a few new additions have been included to expand this dubious design choice including double finger swipes and chained swipes. Luckily in this version you are offered the chance to use the analogue sticks as an alternative input method.

All the songs in-game are performed by a number of computer programmed singers called vocaloids. There are a total of six characters each with their own unique vocal effects. They sing to a variety of genres including rock and roll, ballads, J-Pop and electronic dance. For the most part, the quality of the songs is high, but there are one or two stinkers included. There are a number of really catchy songs that will implant themselves in your head and have you humming the tune long after you quit playing.

The mechanics of the game, just like the original, are extremely tight. making this one of the most polished rhythm titles out there. Buttons presses are registered instantly and I have encountered no evidence of lag affecting performance on the Vita. Sound quality is good from the Vita speakers and much better when a decent set of headphones are used (the game recommends you use earphones for the best possible experience). Graphically the game looks very good although you will be so focused on catching the button prompts that you will barely notice what is going on in the background! You do have the option of watching the videos in a theatre mode and they are produced to a very high standard, each with its own theme, set of characters and dance routines. You even have an AR option which allows you to watch Hatsune Miku perform in your very own front room/bedroom/kitchen!

Difficulty is balanced but much more intense than the first Vita version. Some rhythm games can be brutally punishing, but Project Diva f has a rather more forgiving learning curve. As usual with this type of game, practice makes perfect and with dedication and effort you should be banging out PERFECT stage ratings in no time - if your fingers can keep up with your brain that is!

As you play through the game you will begin to unlock a myriad of hidden items. Gaining high ranks will unlock new tracks that can be played as well as rewarding the player with Diva points which can be used to unlock new costumes for the characters, living pods that can be personalised for each character and specialised tags that can be applied to your online profile. There is a sizeable and challenging trophy list, too, that won't isolate less able players (some rhythm games require players to PERFECT all songs across all difficulties, but thankfully this is not so in this title). These two factors ensure that you will get a massive amount of play time from the game, something that should fall under your consideration if you are considering the RRP in your purchase decision. DLC already released in Japan will also make its way to these shores, adding more songs and outfits to the game should you buy them.

There is also an option for you to create your own patterns for any of the songs in the game and upload them for others to download and play online. This is a great feature, but the edit mode (which is available as a separate 900mb download from the Playstation Store) can be quite complex to navigate around and will take some getting used to. Luckily there is an in-depth guide on how to use it included in the digital manual of the game (this can be accessed on the screen that pops up when you tap the game icon bubble from the Vita home screen). This version also allows the user to import their own MP3 tracks which should allow for extreme creative types to knock out some amazing custom tracks to their favourite songs. Downloading these user made tracks should also add quite a bit of longevity to the game.

I'm really enjoying this game but there are one or two things I must talk about in a less positive light. One of the things that the developers have done to increase the difficulty of this title is to programme in much more complex button patterns and this can cause problems. The prompts that appear sometimes pop up rapidly and in unusual shapes making it difficult (without memorising a song) to figure out which prompt follows another. Another decision I'm not fond of is that occasionally the prompts will appear in the exact same spot, right on top of each other, which never fails to catch me out (it is difficult to decipher how many prompts are hidden beneath each other) and can feel a little cheap and frustrating.

My major gripe is with the touch-screen prompts. They can be very bothersome, forcing you to move your hand from the face buttons at inopportune times to enable you to reach a scratch prompt. Often the Vita touch-screen, which is usually pretty responsive, infuriatingly won't register your finger. This is especially frustrating when you are on your way to a perfect and you miss a beat through no fault of your own. While this was also a noticeable problem in the first game it is much more prominent now due to a heavier reliance on touch-screen interaction. The double swipe that has been added will catch you out at first as you forget to swipe with both fingers but eventually you'll get the hang of it. The chained swipes, however, are terribly annoying. Often they commit the rhythm game sin of changing speed in song. They will approach the prompt location and then speed up or slow down without notice, catching you off guard and completely destroying the rhythm/beat you've been keeping throughout the rest of the tune. Additionally, sometimes when you think you've reached the end of a chain the prompt will shoot back on itself to the previous prompt and you'll miss it, which again feels quite cheap and will anger you at times. I can understand why they were added, to enable bigger and more varied high scores, but their varying speed can be frustrating and they take a lot of memorisation to master. You can switch over to the analogue sticks but I found this didn't really improve things as some of my flicks went unregistered too. Perhaps, just like the game, more practice with this control method will pay dividends.

Despite the aforementioned quibbles this remains an absolutely fantastic title. The Vita is becoming a hotbed for music/rhythm titles and this, coupled with the original Vita Hatsune Miku, DJMAX Technika Tune and digital download Cytus Lambda, should be enough to convince any rhythm game aficionado to take the plunge and get the handheld console. Project Diva F 2nd will keep you busy for weeks and is definitely worth a purchase.

Rating: 5/5
  tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284121Far Cry 4: First Impressions - BetterCallSaulBetterCallSaul2014-11-21T03:57:30Z2014-11-21T03:57:30Z<!DOCTYPE html>
Hello Dtoiders, so I went out on Tuesday and got Far Cry 4 for PS4. I've played 10-12 hours so far and I just wanted to share a few thoughts on the game with you.

I'm not gonna bore you with story details, but let me just say it's miles ahead of Far Cry 3 in that department. While many people loved Vaas, he was not really the main villain pulling the strings, but merely a puppet. A couple minutes into FC4 we meet Pagan Min, the dictator of Kyrat, and I became hooked instantly. This is solely due to the great Troy Baker. He does a brilliant job (doesn't he always!?) of portraying this psychopath. Unfortunately, so far he hasn't shown up again aside from some radio chatter, but as I progress in the story there surely will be more of him.

For anyone familiar with FC3, they will feel right at home gameplay-wise. This is essentialy the same gameplay maelstrom of freeing outposts, liberating towers, hunting animals in order to craft better equipment, driving, doing main missions and so on. So, if you're tired of Ubisoft's open-world formula, this won't change your mind. But, Ubisoft Montreal did a great job of diversifying what's there. Now you have many random events taking place in the world, so called Karma Events, like animals attacking helpless people, enemy couriers driving around, soldiers taking hostages or outposts you previously freed being under attack. Complete enough of these Karma Events and you will earn tokens which let you summon mercenaries who fight by your side. Pretty neat.

Thankfully you can also shoot while driving now, or you can press L3 and activate auto-pilot, sit back and take in the sights. And sights there are. The game looks beautiful on PS4, with long draw distances, smooth framerate and a colourful, diverse world. The only thing missing so far is weather effects, but that might come as I make my way higher into the mountains.

The real star of the show is co-op though. I've played roughly four hours with a good buddy, and the fun is only amplified. You can do everything together there's to do except for the main story missions. Attacking outposts is so much more fun when you have a friend and work out your plan of attack to perfection! On a side note, the player joining the host is there to support the latter, which means any outposts or towers you liberated or missions you completed won't carry over to that person's single player progress, which means you have to do the stuff again if you're on your own. Little bit of a bummer, but we just take turns "assisting" the other.

I would say so far Chris Carter's and all the other positive reviews are spot on, this game is a blast to play! For anyone who even remotely enjoyed it's predecessor, Far Cry 4 is a must-play. Great mission variety, fun co-op, gorgeous graphics, riding elephants into battle, helicopters(!), interesting story, Troy Baker (!!)... What's not to like?!

Also, I haven't encountered any bugs or frequent glitches as in Ubi's other big franchise iteration this year, Assassin's Creed Unity. Online co-op works like a charm as well. Thank God!

Cheers, Saul.
  tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284114Appreciation for Metal Gear Solid's Vocal Soundtracks - BardleyBardley2014-11-20T19:03:04Z2014-11-20T19:03:04Z<!DOCTYPE html>
Ah, Metal Gear, one of gaming's longest running and most celebrated franchises. What began as a simple 8 bit game on the MSX has evolved into an expansive and flagship series under the direction of Hideo Kojima, with millions of copies sold and one of the longest and arguably most convoluted stories in gaming. The stealth action is second to none, with solid mechanics and inventive gameplay. One of the key reasons why I think Metal Gear is as great a series as it is has to do with the fantastic soundtracks that accompany every game. The series theme is one of the most recognizable in all of gaming and the series utilizes top talent to head its sound direction. But, today I want to go into detail about one of my favorite aspects of Metal Gear's soundtracks: the vocal tracks that accompany most games.

The vocal tracks in Metal Gear that either start off the game or scroll with the credits are much like the games themselves: they can be bombastic and fast-paced, emotional and meditative, and downright cheesy and tongue in cheek. As a heads up, I haven't played Portable Ops, Ground Zeroes, or Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, so I can't really comment on the role of music in those games and thus won't be including them. As another heads up, there will be spoilers for the plots of some of the games and how they tie into the vocal tracks, so if you want to go into these games will a blank-slate, I would suggest putting off reading this until later.

Metal Gear Solid: The Best is Yet to Come

Starting off is the first vocal track in the entire series and probably my favorite on this list. So much about this song is fantastic. The song starts off simply enough, with a solo female vocalist singing in Irish. This song is actually the first you hear in the entire game, but only the first few seconds before shifting into an instrumental track. When I finished this game for the first time and heard this play over the credits, I couldn't help but smile. The ending just made me happy. After going through a roller coaster ride of a game, everything ended upbeat and the plot threads were satisfactorily tied up. As long as you saved Meryl, I think this is one of the only games in the series that has a genuinely happy ending. Good prevailed and won in the end. After battling with his genetics the entire game and learning his fate is already predetermined, Snake decides to live his life to the fullest, making the most of the time he has left. For Snake, you truly believe that the best is yet to come.

The song is upbeat and, after an initial slow start, breaks into a melody that is primarily carried by the fantastic vocal arrangement. I didn't understand any of the words when I heard this song the first time, but it carried so much energy that you couldn't help but be excited for whatever came next in the series.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty: Can't Say Goodbye to Yesterday

Ah, smooth jazz. This song is chilled and relaxing. What starts off with solo piano transitions into a big band style; everything sounds just right. In contrast to the first vocal track in Metal Gear Solid, which has so much hope for the future, this song is meditative and introspective, filled with questions of the past in the face of a confusing and undetermined future. As to how this song relates to the game, I'm going to give a few ideas, but nothing concrete. Sons of Liberty was the most confusing game in the series for me and the last hour or so was a bit of a weird blur to me. I remember being a naked Raiden somersaulting around, then everything got intense. However, I think this song is a study of sorts of Raiden. He can't let go of the past and can't forget the things that have happened to him. At the end of the game, he is at a crossroads in his life and doesn't know where to turn next. After acting the puppet for the Patriots and growing up as a child soldier, his life is his to live now, a scary and unique proposition.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater: Snake Eater

Man, what a way to start off a game. I went into the game not knowing what to expect and was immediately met with one of the coolest openings in video game history. Snake Eater sounds perfectly at home in the opening to a James Bond film and the opening certainly reflects this style, showing Naked Snake defeating enemies and looking wicked cool doing it. The vocals are perfect, the backing orchestra is fantastic and sounds appropriate to the era from the game, and the rhythm guitar sounds soooo nice.

My face when hearing this song.

With this kind of opening, you feel ready to take on the challenges of the game, ready to embark on a grand adventure. Yet, the opening is not the only time you hear this song in the game. While climbing what must be the tallest ladder in history, you are treated to a scaled-down version of the song, with only the vocals present. Either accompanied by a full orchestra or with vocals alone, this song sounds so good. It is loud, bombastic, and cheesy, much like the game itself.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater: Way to Fall

Playing over the final credits, this song is a tonal opposite to the energy and soul of Snake Eater. While Naked Snake, now Big Boss, has emerged victorious from his battle, it has come at a great price to himself. Not only did he lose his eye and endure physical torture, he lost his mentor, the woman who essentially raised him, by his own hand. The wailing vocals of this song's chorus are a perfect reflection of the storm inside Big Boss, as he has lost so much. For the only time in the game, Big Boss sheds a single tear at The Boss' grave. Considering this game is a prequel and chronologically the first in the series, we already know what will happen to Big Boss and the road he will take, transforming into the series villain. As the song laments, he has a way to fall and this is only the beginning.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots: Love Theme

This is a depressing game. The world has fallen into chaos and Snake has prematurely aged, soon to die. You can hear the pain and quiet intensity in the vocals, even if you are not familiar with Hebrew (I'm not). Much of the song just feels empty, like there's some element lacking that you can't quite name. When looking up the lyrics, it just expounds on the sadness you can already feel in the song. The vocalist sings of despair, loss, and longing for the past, singing that she is "missing so much it hurts." This song is littered in parts throughout the game, with pieces of it heard at the opening to each act. With the soulful wailing, you get the feeling that things will not end well in game's end, that the world is too far gone to affect in a meaningful way.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots: Here's to You

Playing over the credits is a fantastic Ennio Morricone composition retooled to a slower, more meditative arrangement. Though it marks the end of Solid Snake, it is a worthy tribute. Though bittersweet, there is hope for the future, for a world freed from control of the Patriots. Though the world doesn't need any more snakes, this song gives our favorite one last, thoughtful tribute.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker: Heavens Divide

I haven't actually beaten this game yet. I'm only a few hours into it and have just gotten things up to speed. Yet, I have already heard this song and think it is great. Like the ending song to Snake Eater, this track is somewhat sad, despite its upbeat tune. In the lyrics, you can hear of Big Boss' struggle to still do the right thing, to make his mark on the world. However, you can still taste the pain and bitterness of previous losses in the lyrics, threatening to overcome all his best efforts.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain: Sins of the Father

I realize that this game is not yet out, but I couldn't pass up this great song, which serves as the theme to the game. Half of the song is soft and meditative, with a soft piano and light strings playing and subdued vocals pining away. Big Boss has lost so much and his dream has been destroyed before his very eyes. His right-hand man and good friend has been captured and MSF has been betrayed. Nine years of his life were stolen from him along with his left hand.

Halfway through, the song shifts after building up tension. The singer wails and mourns the man Big Boss has become as he spirals down into hatred and revenge. There is nothing that can be done for him; his course is set. "In my heart I just know that there's no way to light up the dark in his eyes." Big Boss has been too wounded by the world to turn away from his descent into revenge. The phantom pain not only refers to the physical parts of the body that have been lost, but perhaps more importantly to the mental anguish of loss. Big Boss' band of mercenaries, the men who trusted him and looked up to him, have been completely wiped out. In what started it all, he killed his mentor himself to stop global war. There's only so much a man can lose before becoming a demon.

 tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284110[NVGR] The Sarkeesian, the Dice, the mirror and this follow up - TheKoduTheKodu2014-11-20T16:55:14Z2014-11-20T16:55:14Z<!DOCTYPE html>

I rarely do this here at destructoid, I dislike turning a blog into some personal soapbox piece with little to nothing to do with video games or anything in geek / nerd culture. This is unfortunately going to be one of those exceptions because I got called out in a big way recently.

Incase you didn't notice I got called out on stage at XOXO by Anita Sarkeesian.

For those who want to view the whole video

So yes thanks for that one Anita it's not like I don't have this email for public contact. Or an inbox here, or even a Twitter so Funny thing I'm pretty open to discussion. I may not go easy but then I expect the same back. But no you decided the best place to bring up this discussion was infront of an estimated 2,000 people all because of This article

Hell it was only a few weeks back I even did a blog addressing problems that users called out, users, not even the subject of the article.

So how did I react to these accusations?Well I decided to do something I don't think anyone reading this would expect . I decided as Anita hadn't bothered to reach out to me, I'd reach out to her. I identified myself as the writer of the blog called out at XOXO fest. I pointed out that while she had accused me of libel and slander that as it was clear she had an objection to my writing I wanted to hear her side. Her version of what happened at EA Sweden. No funny business I would write what she claimed happened with no editorialising done to the comments themselves. I was very polite and didn't rant or throw names or insults. I merely asked for her statement if she wanted to give one.

So here for you dear reader is an entirely unedited version of the response I received from Anita in her own words.

Hhhhhmmmm that's right for whatever reason despite this offer being open for at this point over a month I have not received any kind of statement. Anita seemingly doesn't care to "set the record straight" as she seemingly claimed to want to. It's strange a tiny little garms jurnalizt like me somehow cause her such annoyance she felt the need to call me out in front of an estimated 2,000 people, yet didn't care enough to give even a reply to when I approached her to discuss it.

So you know what, making legal threats of libel and slander means it's time I take the kid gloves off. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt and I don't go super critical on anyone unless they actually act as a colossal dick to me or people I know as one male developer saw in the past.

I feel it only right to address the XOXO fest speech itself. The article she called out was my article The Sarkeesian The Dice and the Mirror and accused it of libel and slander. Let me be clear on this, you mean libel. Libel is written slander is spoken generally. So how does the accusation against my piece as being libel hold up ?

In many legal systems, adverse public statements about legal citizens presented as fact must be proven false to be defamatory or slanderous/libellous.
Funny that isn't it. I see no proof being put forward that what I wrote was false. I hear claims by Anita but then again we know how Anita does like to change her mind a bit.

Now let's get more specific on my defence here. Libel is not applicable if a reasonable person could have believed it or they were fair reports of allegations in the public interest, which as one of the oddly most popular articles I've written it shows clear public interest. To be clear what is meant by a fair report it is a report where there is believed to have been sufficient evidence. Other people have contacted me from other locations and pointed out evidence does still exist in various places. Now as I have contacted Anita and asked for her side it therefore means as she has seemingly refused to give her side of the story the only side present are the allegations.

You know something though, Slander is the act of deliberately or maliciously misrepresenting someone via speech. I think you deserve some extracts from the piece in question here.

Strange that those exact words are contained in that article isn't it, I haven't edited it you can go back and check. The article itself was a lot more about EA seemingly hiring someone with little knowledge of games mechanics to tell people who to do their job. Anita's own area of positive character wouldn't have likely made me bat an eyelid about here pressence.

 So let me put this on the table, the reason I have been approached by only two people about this article is because some people checked it out and found Anita had cropped it and only given her version of what was said in the article or simply took her word for it. Now part of the rather insidious trick here is that Anita was seen to be speaking from a position of authority and hey "Listen and believe" right, trust her. Except in this case that trust is misplaced.

Now one of the people who did contact me asked for proof Anita had gone to EA DICE as I claimed.
Turns out this was easy to prove as it was written on her Twitter.

Infact those of you who want to look into it more and have a way to scroll back to specific periods in some-ones timeline there (if you do please tell me what it is I could do with such a thing) you can check around the time of these tweets and it will give you an idea that this wasn't a single one day excursion round trip this was a far longer time than you'd expect for just a couple of speeches.

So Anita never contacted me to object to the articles. I wonder, did she contact anyone at Destructoid at all about the articles ?
I mean you know my blog is posted here so surely if she had such a strong objection she'd have contacted Destructoid itself right ?
Who knows maybe someone will be able to confirm or deny this piece of information but it seems very odd to suddenly bring it up on stage without addressing anyone.

So consider this me declaring the kid gloves coming off and the harder criticism coming in now.
I have been Slandered in the court of public opinion and now I and here with my rebuttal in that same court of opinion.

If any DICE developer does wish to contact me to give a statement my email address is at the top (not that I'd expect any Dice developers would be reading a tiny little blog like this)

You know what's far funnier. Recently EA announced their desire to push Mirrors Edge 2 to a wider audience and to revamp the games controls because they were seen as too fiddly.

I have no objection to honest criticism but what I've been seeing is not criticism. You know why I object to Anita ?

Thank you for reading this and sorry this couldn't have been one of the nice happy blogs celebrating strange unheard of indie games or news people hadn't heard of.

 tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284106What's the deal with racing games? - sonic429sonic4292014-11-20T15:09:47Z2014-11-20T15:09:47Z<!DOCTYPE html>
I've tried tons of racing games over the years, everything from Forza to Need for Speed, and I have to say that a lot of them just fail to appeal to me as a gamer. I want to talk about my issues with them and what can be done to resolve the issue.

First on the chopping block: racing sims. My God these can be so utterly boring and sterile. I've played Forza 2 and 3 and they have the personality of a carboard box, Gran Toursimo is better in that regard, but it still has a lot of the same issues. All the menus are clean, the car models and tracks are detailed to a tee, but I can't help but be bored to tears by the actual gameplay/ Controls feel stiff and unresponsive, just a basic turn needs just the right amount of gas or break. You aren't supposed to bump into anyone of your car or you'll get a penalty, going slightly off road makes your car come to a hault or even spin out. Load times are horrendous for whatever reason, and the sense of speed just isn't there. What's worse is the the upgrading system. For instance, I was trying to win this cup in Gran Tourismo, it told me my curent car was incompatible. Fine, so I wanted to get another car that was, well they gave me a list. The problem with this list is that I basically had to remember what cars I can use, and they all have a make, model and range of years, with like 20 cars on the list that makes it hard to purchase without being able to cross reference it with the shop. So I closed the list remembering a handful of the makes and models and went to shop, there's like 30 different car manufactures that have to be brought up individually. Great. So I search and search and finally find a single car that's compatible. It's literally called the Midget. It's grossy underpowered, but I purchased it anyway. Much to my unsurprise, it has no chance in hell of keeping up with the pack. So I dump basically all my savings into it, and its just a little faster. At that point I gave up, there's $20 and 3 hours I'll never get back.

Racing sims

So how does this even happen? Do people really enjoy endlessly tweaking nuts and bolts and collecting hundreds of cars that look very similar to race the same handful of tracks over and over again? Because I for the life of me stuggle to find the appeal in this kind of game. Yes, I get RPG elements, but I need compelling gameplay to back it up.

Next we get to what I clasify as street racers. Now these games sound great in theory, you get faster paced action without all the jazz that boggs down a sim game, yet are true(er) to real life so you don't feel like your playing Daytona or Mario Kart. I can respect that, at least in premise. But these have failed to get my attention too. The worst culpurite is Need For Speed. These games tend to have a little personality, but nothing that distinctive. Now I will say I enjoyed Need For Speed Underground (GCN) and the demo to Need For Speed The Run (360), but beyond that, I feel like the NSF games never get above mediocrity. Project Gotham Racing seemed like it was a step above, but so was the difficulty, about half way though I just couldn't keep pace with the rest of the racers. I think this genre has potential, but I haven't seen one that delievers on it, at least not yet.

I suppose someone likes these games

So what kind of racers do I like? Well I got to thinking about it, and I like anything that doesn't fall under those categories. Mario Kart for instance is an absolute blast, the mechanics (post N64) are rock solid, the controls are tight, has a level of customization that's not too deep but enough to give it variety, it's easy to learn and hard to master. To top it all off the multiplayer, both local and online, is stellar. Why don't we have more racing games like this on the market? Well we do, Sonic All Stars Racing, which takes the same genre but plays completely differently. I can see where someone would like one but not the other, but I love both. My kingdom for another Diddy Kong Racing though, that game was excellent.

You know what else I enjoy, futuristic racers. F-Zero was probably the first racing game I ever fell in love with. It's not an easy game by any means, but it does have tight controls, excellet graphics, a ton of personality, and enough content to keep you busy for a good long while. They aren't so great for multiplayer, but I would still do just about anything to get a new entry for Wii U. But F-Zero isn't the only game like that, we also have the Wipeout games and the Extreme G games, plus there's some clones out there. That's the thing they all have in common though, great mechanics, fast, frantic gameplay, and have memorable gameplay. I just can't play these racing games where all the tracks look the same, and the music is just there to fill the background noise over the humming engines.

Tell me this doesn't look more fun than your boring racing sims

I also like "other" racing games. And by other I mean non traditional racing games. I still want a legit sequel to games like Jet Moto, SSX Snowboarding, 1080 Snowboarding, and Waverace. These are games that don't fit the traditional bill of what people think of when they talk about racing games. The nice thing about these games is they incorporate a trick system into the racing mechanics. With SSX its an integral part of the gameplay, no tricks, no boost. Jet Moto more or less adds it on the side, and that works, its fun to fool around with. The last two just separate them completely, it's either tricks or racing. And frankly, I'm cool with that. Whatever works.

And then there's Burnout. Burnout is or rather was, amazing. I remember my friend showing Burnout 3 to me and just being blown away. I picked it up shortly thereafter for $6 new (best $6 I even spent on a racing game). The graphics were phenominal, the controls were flawless (somthing more racing games need to address) the game was blazingly fast the soundtrack to this day is my favorite licensed soundtrack for any game. You not only can run other cars off the road or into traffic, its encouraged and you are rewarded for doing so. Burnout Revenge and Paradise are excellent too, not quite as good as 3 but still great. Why that franchise has been abandoned is beyond me. It is quite literally a racing game for those who don't like racing games.

Burnout: Bring it back

But there's so much more than can be done with the genre. I want to see more racing games incorperate elements like weather effects and track editors. Let me have more features like Crash mode in Burnout (where you compete to cause the biggest pile ups) I want anti gravity sections like Mario Kart 8 and maybe even bring back combat like Twisted Metal. Point is, I don't think we need more games like Forza, they've been done to death, it's time we made the genre a little more interesting.

 tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284105Let's Talk: WE HAVEN'T DONE THIS IN A WHILE. - FlanxLycanthFlanxLycanth2014-11-20T14:29:37Z2014-11-20T14:29:37Z<!DOCTYPE html>
Hello my tempting teacups of tenacity.
I've come back from the dark corner of my bedroom to bring you the opportunity to talk with the community about things! What have you been doing lately? What have you been playing? Did that girl next door finally send you those nudes? Don't keep it to yourself, discuss!

Because my life is very uninteresting I don't have much to share but I'll see what I can do.

On the PC I am....
Finishing Resident Evil 6! I've been playing this game for a good 20-something hours now which is suprising, I didn't think I was gonna get that much time out of it. It can be a frustrating little fur tail sometimes but overall its quite fun. I've only got Ada booty  Wong's campaign to finish now. OH AND HELENAS SISTER.

Can we take a moment to speak on how disturbingly sexy this zombie is?
I mean you get the pleasure of fapping to fighting this TWICE. Too bad the bloody game doesn't let you pause.

On the PS3...
I'm playing BlazBlue again. Not really because I want to but more because I haven't played any acfade fighter in a while and the hype for the new Guilty Gear is RISING. I cant wait for it, I think I'm gonna stick to good ol' Chipp although Sin Kiske does look rather fun, so does the odd gal in the long dress. I never stick with one character for long so I'll probably jump around until I find the main.

Here's a new video if you haven't seen it yet

In the realm of the real world...

I started going to the gym. I got a friend coming along with me. The guy lost a heapload of weight over the last year. He got really tired of being lethargic and heavy and so he decided to do something about it. Now he's real happy with his body and I thought I needed some of that in my life. So I'm going along too. Maybe I'll be as sexy as Andy Dixon in a few years time.
Related image:

That's it from me, what's everyone else been doing?

(oh and here's something funny http://www.gofundme.com/hksruc)
^ Yes that is me. This is a joke campaign im running, I am going on holiday but I don't think I look too attractive in a hat tbh.

  tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284099The Gunblade - RedHeadPeakRedHeadPeak2014-11-20T13:50:15Z2014-11-20T13:50:15Z<!DOCTYPE html>
Whilst I would never consider myself a violent man, I find weapons fascinating. Whether they are a work of fiction or non-fiction, I see them as curious inventions that say a great deal about our species. Our History is full of strange and striking creations of war. It's when Fantasy and Reality collide that things get really interesting.

The "gun sword" sounds like something a competitive child would invent – "oh yeah? Well my sword is a gun as well, and I have a force field that lets me shoot out but you can't shoot out…" – but the 'Gunblade' makes for a fitting weapon in Final Fantasy VIII (and Kingdom Hearts of course), and the concept of a Gun Sword has appeared in several video games and anime in one iteration or another. This bizarre weapon might seem entrenched in the realm of make-believe; the Pistol Sword is a very real thing.

If you haven't seen a real Pistol Sword, you might want to take a moment. Depending on your view of war, this may look like to you like the most stupid/brilliant thing you've seen this week. And you are right: it is both stupid and brilliant. The item would have been physically impressive but massively unreliable, and only a rich eccentric could afford to own and use a contraption like this. This particular fellow just happened to belong to Alexander Davison, best friend to Admiral Nelson.

Final Fantasy VIII rules dictated that the Gunblade is a melee weapon first-and-foremost; the 'gun' element can only be fired with the swing of the blade to maximise the attack. In reality, you could fire the pistol whenever you wished, but it would have been best if you got as close as Squall does to his opponents. Regular pistols were wildly inaccurate; never mind the addition of a big blade on the side of it.

Now I could list all the forms of Pistol-and-Blade combinations right here, but the teacher in me wants to give you a few examples and then let you find out more. See what you can find. You may start wondering, "why isn't this in a video game?!" or at the very least you will marvel at how many nations throughout history looked at their weapons and thought, "That looks great and everything…I'll bet it looks better with a gun on it.

So here's the next example. It's a little smaller blade, but something screaming to be uploaded into a video game.

The regular 'Katar' (or 'punching sword' if you want to be more literal) has found its way into a few fighting games, often exaggerated in size because [add penis joke here]. These items do well in video games; they look incredible and offer some simple-fun fighting mechanics. It seems so strange to think that the 'Gun Katar' hasn't been adopted into more games. This particular example demonstrates the fun a game designer could have create the visual style of this weapon.

A little research will lead you to discover that this weapon was, historically speaking, inaccurate and impractical. However, video games are the perfect place to take an incredible concept and dispense with the logical arguments. That's how we got to swords on the ends of chains, the portal gun…and that weird purple bat in Saints Row that no one will explain to me…

Here's my personal favourite Pistol-Blade combination, which is definitely not a sword.

Look at this thing. This Axe-and-Pistol is a visually striking as it is utterly bonkers. This novelty item was way more of a showpiece than an actual weapon, and is one of many stored in the Tower of London. It has six barrels on it too - five inside the axe head an one in the handle. If anything, this is more of a war hammer than an axe, but I'm not complaining. Once more we see something begging to be uploaded into a video game. In real life, it's ridiculous; in a game with a steampunk vibe, this beauty would thrive.

If video games are going to continue to have weapons in video games, then game designers only need to glance through History to find gems like this one. This is just one example of the 'Pistol Axe' (this one impresses me because it's so unnecessarily ornate) and having seen this alongside a Pistol Dagger and a Pistol Sword I'm sure you realise by now that this is but a small window into the sheer silliness of historic weaponry.

Gun-Knuckleduster? Yep, that exists.

Gun-Shield? Yep, that too.

Gun-crossbow? Well of course that exists.

Oh and 'that glove' from Inglorious Bastards…that's real too. It's called the Sedgley Fist Gun. If it doesn't appear in a future Assassin's Creeds games, I'll be very disappointed.

Final Thoughts

I'm not suggesting for a moment that we need more weapons in video games. We already have a steady stream of violent games and it's always nice to see games that succeed without the need for fighting. But if a game is going to include weapons, it could do more than just copy the games that have come before. My favourite subject is filled with inspiration. Whilst many of these items prove too risky or outlandish in real life, they'd fit right in with all the other weird and wonderful weapons currently available.

Go and have a look for yourself. See what other 'Pistol-plus-x' combos you can find. You might already know a little about this topic and want to share favourite examples below. Which games do you think might have been better if the creators had thought to take inspiration from this part of History?

Thank You For Reading

You can contact the author @RedHeadPeak, or read the full blog on Wordpress.

 tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284103Capcom Announces Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney x The Cosby Show - Its About To Get Gay In HereIts About To Get Gay In Here2014-11-20T13:40:53Z2014-11-20T13:40:53Z<!DOCTYPE html>
Armchair lawyers will step back into the courtroom this spring as they try to defend funnyman Bill Cosby against a barrage of rape allegations in the new game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney x The Cosby Show.

The game, set to release on the Nintendo 3DS, takes place in the 1980s during the height of Cosby-mania and not long after Phoenix Wright passed the bar. Like previous games in the series, players will guide Wright through five cases as he tries to defend Bill Cosby from each individual sexual assault charge.

"We wanted to show players a new side of Phoenix Wright, a darker side if you will," says series creator Shu Takumi. "Phoenix Wright wasn't always the lawyer you've seen in games. During the beginning of his career, he had to defend some pretty horrible people. Sometimes to win these cases, Phoenix Wright will have to perform some pretty horrible activities in the form of new gameplay modes."

While Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney x The Cosby Show will follow the standard franchise formula of investigation, evidence and cross-examination; players can expect new gameplay modes where Phoenix Wright will try to bribe accusers with hush money, tarnish their reputations in the national media and do whatever it takes to protect the livelihood of their client, America's most lovable black doctor, until a stand-up comedian reminds everyone he's a rapist 20 years later suddenly giving credibility to these allegations that were laughed off when first reported.

"The new modes add another dimension to the Phoenix Wright franchise that we feel players are going to love," added Takumi. "But we've also gone ahead and revamped much of what was already in the series. For instance, you'll now use the Mood Matrix (introduced in Ace Attorney Dual Destinies) to identify when a witness is faking her tears of pain as she recounts the story of the time Mr. Cosby took her to the beach and forced her to perform oral sex on him."

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney x The Cosby Show is the third Ace Attorney crossover to be released for the 3DS, following Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Ace Attorney x Madden.
  tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284096Giving Thanks: Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward Gave Me Hope - RiobuxRiobux2014-11-20T12:43:59Z2014-11-20T12:43:59Z<!DOCTYPE html>
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, wherever you are. So two weeks ago (well, a week ago for me as I'm writing this after my Positive Sexism article), I promised that I would talk about the personal impact Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (ZE:VLR) has had upon me. If you're new to this blog, you don't need to worry about reading anything prior as this exists as a stand-alone. If you're looking for more of an analytical view of ZE:VLR, check out my article called Riobux Recommends: Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward. So if you're sitting comfortably, I'll begin.

It was a pretty cold day in roughly Feburary 2013 when I brought a 3DS. As someone who grew up without Nintendo and still not drawn in by the primary Nintendo cast, this perhaps was a strange purchase. However, this purchase was due to a series of events that had occurred in my life up to that point.

Back during my childhood, I always preferred dark stories with bleak endings. The joyful and colourful expressions of Nintendo could not sway me.

Going chronologically. I grew up with videogames as my sole friend, as I existed in social isolation with some bullying between the ages of 12 and 19. I also did some reading as a past time hobby, and even did some writing of fiction. Both of these faded out by the time I was 19, as I was swept suddenly into a life where I knew people. People liked me back, which was a bizarre situation for me. This was thanks to going to university to study Sociology With Psychology in 2010, a choice that I think may have saved my life at least temporarily.

The next few years had good and bad parts. A girl I was dating at the time fell apart very hard after two years. Despite it being a combination of our faults, I ended up feeling especially guilty for the terrible things I did. I had tried to join two LGBT societies, partially hoping for a same-sex relationship but also to find those who shared my view on equality. In the end, I got kicked out of both. People who I considered friends, ones I had gained during my earlier years of university, started to drift away as we started not to see eye-to-eye on things. I had tried to keep the friendships alive in a panic, but they faded out. I had even shoved away a friend I was going to begin dating due to a series of paranoid moments of me suspecting I was being pushed out of their life.

On the bright-side though, I had my attempt at being part of running an university society. I had also gained a new hobby in the form of pen-and-paper RPGs. I even managed to worm my way through the degree with good marks mostly. In 2013, despite an interest in videogames and the internet on an academic level, I had begin to grow bored. Perhaps it was due to feeling very much alone at this point, or maybe due to my dissertation going very badly. My boredom was not only with videogames, but my life as a whole.

At this point, videogames appeared as a simplistic pleasure that I could no longer appreciate. It felt like very few, if any, videogames were fun or interesting rather than a pointless boring distraction.

This sensation was nothing new. Growing up, I struggled to find things to look forward to actively. I had a few things that I had wanted, but nothing to feel any inclination to stick around for. I had existed for the sake of existing. A state fuelled by an instinctual biological urge to live, and nothing more. The only thing that had changed was my apathy of existing was heightening. While one or two great games held my attention, anything less than that grew into a grey void of "who cares" punctuated with "videogames are pointless". My days of being interested in sociological discussions, especially on internet culture, videogames and videogame culture was dying hard, along with my love of videogames. Apathy rode on in its place.

So back to where I was. On a cold February day in 2013, I had decided to buy a 3DS. It was a Hail Mary pass. With the lack of interest in videogames in areas I'd normally explore, I thought maybe an area I hadn't yet explored would have something for me. I had researched, and found out what games would be of interest on the console; this included 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors (999), which was the prequel to Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward. I worked out what deal I should get. A black 3DS with the 3DS version of Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time. Nice and cheap, plus comes with a game that is apparently really good. I had also gotten Pokemon White which I also heard was good.

Sadly, both games weren't to my taste. Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time had left me bored and Pokemon was a lot more grindy than I had hoped. So I thought "well, I heard 999 is really good" and that I should get it. However, I found out 999 was never released in Europe, so I ended up picking up Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward. After all, a good game stands on its own without knowledge of the previous one. At least so I figured at the time.

I perhaps could have waited to play 999, and it perhaps could have made my experience better. I was so apathetic that I didn't care that I was potentially damaging my experience. I just wanted to feel a gram of interest or joy before I got back to my dull life.

So I bought ZE:VLR on a whim. The student loan and the savings I had anyway let me have this chance of perhaps finding something that'll preoccupy my time for a spell. Something to do while doing essays and my dissertation that year. After all, due to how 3DS worked, I figured I'd just do a bit and then flip down the lid after 10 minutes during a break. I didn't expect much out of it, except a middle-of-the-road plot that just connected random puzzles to each other.

What I didn't expect was a game that blew me away. Its use of choices, an intelligent story that kept me greatly interested and puzzles that existed part of the story and not independent of it just made me fall deeply in love with it. I obsessed over the details of the game, without feeling my digging would be fruitless. For the first time ever, I felt an enthusiastic strong urge to expose the game to others. I had to share this experience with others.

Possibly even more significant, for the first time in possible a decade I looked forward to something. I knew I wanted to experience a third Zero Escape game, that I did not want to rest until I saw it. That my life would not be complete, until I saw the end of the tale that is Zero Escape. Perhaps it sounds hyperbolic, maybe even insane, to want to exist just to see the final chapter of Zero Escape, but it is true. As someone who does not get any thrills out of hoarding money, advancing in a career or having a family, this was my moment to learn of a reason why I should stick around. Maybe not a good reason, but a reason none-the-less.

There are some psychological theories that suggest that motivational, self-esteem and many more hall-marks of positive psychological health are more stable when it comes from an internal reward than external reward (intrinsic vs extrinsic). Although extrinsic reward is still useful, especially where intrinsic rewards can not be done.

As I wanted to share ZE:VLR with the world, and talk about it to an obsessive degree, I grew enthusiastic about videogames again. Where I had lost my hope in videogames drawing my attention for a meaningful amount of time and as something more than a meaningless distraction, ZE:VLR turned up to prove me wrong in the best of ways. It touched me in the most important and intimate manner. This was especially with regards to its writing and ludonarrative nature; as the aspect of videogames I look forward to the most is the writing it may provide.

Without this game, it's very possible I would have turned away from videogames and never looked back. I definitely would not of had it in me to write weekly articles about videogames, especially the fortnightly article about aspects on videogames and gaming culture that I find interesting. I also would not be writing articles for Gamers Honest Truth, attempting to carve a possible career that I may find interesting out of a degree that now collects dust.

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward gave me hope. Not only the feeling of obsessiveness that comes with loving a game that previously I had not felt, but also a hope for a sequel that makes me feel a similar way. As well as the possibility that future games may capture even 1/10th of my feelings towards Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward. Thank you for existing, and I will continue to wait in hopeful anticipation for the final game of the Zero Escape trilogy.

If you wish to support the possible development of Zero Escape 3, you may click "like" on Operation Bluebird or Save Zero Escape on Facebook. You can also check out on Twitter Save Zero Escape or the English account of Kotaro Uchikoshi who was the director and writer of the series.

 tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284095Cblog Recaps of 11/19/14 and All You Need Is Striderisms! - CblogRecapsCblogRecaps2014-11-20T11:06:43Z2014-11-20T11:06:43Z<!DOCTYPE html>

This past week has seemingly been all about hidden gems. I downloaded Shovel Knight onto my 3DS because I wanted to include the Streetpass features over the Steam or Wii U version. I downloaded the demo of Pikmin 3 and loved it. Also, I rented Edge of Tomorrow and boy did that rock. There was also a Jollibee's restaurant near work I found at long last and that was... actually that was underwhelming. I ain't going back to that crock.

But I think it's funny Script had a little moment of paranoid fear and social anxiety due to his relative newness and filling in some big Wrench-sized boots. It's understandable but its hard to not be loved when you participate in discussion and community unless you're a very proactive troll concept account (Wasn't Stealth from 2 years ago one such member?).

Me on the other hand, I feel tenured. I could call you Assface PuddingsMcgee and barely summarize your cblog as a scroll of electronic parchment and will still sit back like a cigar chomping professor who kicks you in the face because you need to pass the class.

See, I had a reference in mind for all that!

Shovel Knight was a great nostalgic experience but you don't need me to tell you that, do you? I get a lot of ideas of what I want to play from the Game Grumps and Shovel Knight looked fun as hell. Of course, it's not necessarily feeding off nostalgia of any particular thing. It's the colors, the music, and the mechanics of it all. How Shovel Knight instantly reacts to you controller input, how narrow you attack range is, how the music is perfectly done to feel like you're back in a picture perfect period but improved! How its simultaneously difficult yet so enjoyable in its rigidity. It helps that characters, despite not being story driven, fully realized characters just exude so much personality in the way they fight and their short conversations and their design. Its in the details like how King Knight is obviously a huge blowhard. He talks big and has flashy moves but he's dead simple and not really as great as he thinks he is. Propeller Knight meanwhile is a hokey French cliche complete with rapier, rose, and falling tear upon defeat. I still can't believe Yacht Club Games is releasing additional free content thanks to meeting huge stretch goals. I mean, gender swapped campaign, local multiplayer, expanded episodes where you play as the first three members of the Order of No Quarter? Amazing. Nobody these days goes the distance like Shovel Knight does. And I still need to do New Game+!

I also still need to get back to Pokemon X. I actually left the additional post-game quest alone for the longest time and with Pokemon ORAS in just a few days, I should really get on that. Is it unreasonable to be excited for a new game of an old game that's been updated yet has had certain features stripped out in favor of parity? Well, I am going to catch a Beedrill and fucking Mega Evolve it into a terrifying beast with three stingers who will dole out the most powerful Pin Missiles ever. Not to mention the move tutors? Finally, I can teach my Pixilate Sylveon Hyper Voice and show those damn Substitute users what real damage is like for once.

Speaking of games really, my girlfriend's invited me to her house for Thanksgiving. And while I'll have to do something about some schedule conflicts (work doesn't consistently give me the days off I need for class for some reason), in the end I have enough wiggle room to call out of work in favor of class unless the schedule is winding down. Despite Thanksgiving being mostly about family (for Americans anyways. I mean, why would other countries celebrate our holiday of our landing on some Native American rock where we shared food than killed them with smallpox), our plan Thanksgiving will be mostly of gaming. I got a Wii U I haven't played together with her, and Smash Wii U is coming out this week, in time for Thanksgiving! I'm sure to be the life f the party, at least amongst the kids, with 8-player Smash and 4-player Mario. With Smash, between the gamepad and a few spare Wiimotes that my girlfriend's family has and our 3DSes, we'll be able to hit 6-players anyways. Meanwhile, who wouldn't want to player 4-player Mario 3D World?

But what I have still fresh in my mind as of these caps is Edge of Tomorrow. I didn't know anything about it before. All I knew is that it was some Tom Cruise vehicle and I'm not sure how much I should partake of the Cruise machine. The trailers were pretty bad at conveying just how the movie would work beyond Groundhog Day + guns. But months ago I heard on the Super Best Friends Cast that it is basically the most video gamey ass movie ever and it thrives off its built in respawning device. Yes, if you haven't heard that comparison, the core of the movie is less Groundhog Day and more Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare multiplayer. It's still Groundhog's Day of course, with Cruise's character predictably learning the set pattern and going through the motions as if he's already failed a CoD campaign mission dozens of times before. I won't spoil the sciency reasons why he has such a ridiculous power but know that Edge of Tomorrow (known as All You Need Is Kill in Japan) is greater than the sum of its parts.

Bill Murray of course gets sick of his time loop and tries to suicide his way out but you can get a feel he's more literally bored to death than broken emotionally. How would you feel if you died hundreds of times in a war on loop? Its funny a few times too since Cruise only loops when he dies, so he has to die somehow if he's otherwise incapacitated. But Cruise's character, who isn't a soldier, goes from fearful of his life to battle conditioned, jaded on death, and predictably Tom Cruise action hero in the span of the movie. Not only is there the classic respawn mechanic repurposed from a comedy movie, we also get all the Call of Duty gun porn and action, not to mention Edge of Tomorrow came out earlier this year. Let's not forget that the movie is adapted from a manga from 2004, and while the power suits were more armor than exoskeletons in the movie, it still beat Call of Duty to the punch.

There are so many things to really latch onto, regardless of your taste for either games or thriller action. Humorous but functional time loop, respawning, action packed weapons and exosuits, a strong female lead, a great male lead, great visual effects, great dialog and humor jumping off a time looping phenomena (we've had this conversation many times before). I heartily recommend Edge of Tomorrow to anyone who likes either action movies or video games. It even works for both sides of the video game perspective. If you love CoD and shooters, it's a great send up to their gameplay and mechanics. If you hate CoD, it's still a humorous satire of their seemingly manufactured violence and action. If you've grown tired of the classic monster closet game design in shooters, you may chuckle to see Tom Cruise non-nonchalantly aim his arm mounted machine gun in the direction of hostile aliens like its nothing since he's done it dozens of times before.

Oh, and you were wondering about Jollibee's? I think it's a "Filipino" chain that's made its way here. There isn't any real Filipino food though. It's mostly fried chicken, rice dishes, and pasta. The only problem is that that's pretty much all there is. There's no meaningful variety. I was excited because before when I had seen it, the fried chicken looked good. Then I actually set foot in one and that's all that really looks good.

Shit

* - Dusty likes being a collector but that doesn't mean he doesn't run into shit

M - Hoffy Bike remembers the Dreamcast fondly like all Americans

A - Kooram liked DmC and spits on Sephzilla

P - Radio Destructoid is looking for guests to make fun of!

A - [jackthompsongifaboutvideogameviolence.gif]

A - Spykes is thankful for a lot of things but they're all games and none of them are spikes

V - A lot of it is more hype moments than combos for Smash but good on you Troy

F - Really lacking in the thuganomics department bruh

F - #HASHTAGihavefailedyou

~Striderhoang

FPotD

 tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284090Rambles: Gaming communities are split apart... - Terry 309Terry 3092014-11-20T08:46:14Z2014-11-20T08:46:14Z<!DOCTYPE html>
Back in the good old days of the 90's gaming was just starting to become popular amongst kids, i was one of them. Back then, nothing ever mattered. People either got absorbed into their games by themselves or just played together. Back then computers were expencive not all of us kids were fortunate enough to have them (i got my first computer when i was 12, i think). So as a result, people used to stuck close to the people they knew. Nowadays we have access to places like Destructoid where we can discuss stuff with each other and share our interests. Personally i believe that playing games in only half the fun... as fun as it already is, i also enjoy discussing them with people. So places like this give me a way to do so in such a way that will be taken seriously and not looked at as a wall of text like on forums.

However since around 2006, gaming in general has become toxic. Not only did the direction of videogames change but also the fact that online gameplay had become more accessible in the console market, gaming has become an absolute abomination. Sometimes i just find myself to be ashamed to be a gamer and there are times where i'm glad i played videogames but sometimes, gaming can produce so much negativity that i question why i'm here and why i keep playing videogames, i always find my answer in the end but still it gets on my nerves a lot of the time.

So what are the issues? There is a split in gaming society... not just one, many splits. I have tried to catagorize them but it's difficult for me to do so. As someone who will readily play all types of games without hesitation, i've seen some really fucked up shit that really shouldn't happen. It's a shame really and it kinda changed not only my perception of gaming but it also changed my tastes in videogames. Gaming has become little more than a simulation with no substance for many people. What do i mean by that you say? I mean that there is a demographic of people who don't appreciate many aspects of a videogame and make demands depending on their respective demographic, should those demands fail, they will be in uproar.

So what are these "demographics" then? "Casual" gamers is a stupid term. Really there shouldn't be casual or hardcore gamers, they should be just... gamers. In fact a lot of people fail to understand these two terms because they are complete nonsense. To some, casual means easy. To others, casual means gamers that play every now and again but gaming only take up like 5% of their lives, some also judge games themselves as casualized simply because they're easier and more accessible, or they have a ui that could be seen as familiar to games like Call Of Duty or any other mainstream title. In any case, these terms are just silly and ultimately make no sense. Casualized is a stupid word. Yes gaming has changed dramatically but modernized and mainstreamed are more fitting words. Casualized is a perception that most veteran gamers have yet they fail to realize that they have many years of gaming experience.

Sure of course games have gotten easier and for both good and bad reasons. Firstly, gaming has transitioned from insanely hard to comfortable for a long time, some games still continue to stick to their roots like Dark Souls. But developers are noticing that comfortable difficulty has allowed games to become more accessible and trust me, that is a good thing. Even if you played games back in the NES days, you have to admit, back then gaming was targeted to only young children but now there is a generation gap. Most gamers these days have jobs and families to feed, those are the very gamers that were playing Battletoads when they were 6. Such gamers want a comfortable gaming experience and lets be honest here, gaming still isn't "too easy", videogames are still challenging, they're just more comfortable. So when people say that X game is casualized because of regenerating health, they don't realize that many people can still lose to this, especially on harder difficulties. So long as developers gove us difficulty levels to give us a challenge then it is fine which most games tend to do.

The other side of the coin however is sort of understandable. Games like Call Of Duty have inspired other games to follow it's format but that's not casualizing, that's the developers perception of mordernizing. This is something that developers have become confused about in recent years. So many games have done this. For example, Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Returns' battle system is a modernized version of Valkyrie Profile 2's battle system and due to the perception's of developers these days, the game is vastly differrent but when you look at the mechanics, they are pretty much the same. That's not to say that Lightning returns is easier or harder than Valkyrie Profile 2 and this is where people have gotten the whole "casualized" statement wrong. Yes both battle systems are the same but the differrence comes from the developers perception of new. For example, the battles in Lightning Returns are in real time as opposed to Valkyrie Profile 2's synchronized movement. This is because developers percieve real time to have more modern appeal and that is what they tried to do with Lightning Returns, to make a "modernized" game to appeal to it's demographic of fans (which still exist somehow). Now the point that many devs fail to understan is that modern doesn't equal better and some devs realize this such as Croteam but Croteam stick a little too close to their roots, so does Game Freak with Pokemon though they are also trying to modernize the pokemon games but are failing to do so due to false perception. They don't know where the series needs to go because they percieve the wrong idea entirely.

So modernizing has brought both good and bad things but most see only the bad due to the fact that there are way too many developers out there who don't understand what needs to be done. However there are some who do. The Tales series for example. Just look at how much that series has evolved since 1995. Now battles are a lot more fluid and fun as a result. Not knocking Graces' system here but i honestly see why they did what they did with Xillia. Not only was Xillia more accessible but it was also felt a lot more fun to play simply due to the fact that it was modernized. The combat's fluidity is amazing and the pacing of the combat is faster than Graces plus the freedom of artes was expanded dramatically. Zesteria is going to change things even more dramatically with an open world. I believe the modernization of Xillia was a well needed change. I think the takes series kinda got old after Abyss, the charm had wore off and the developers were keeping everything too similar. Vesperia comes to mind here. It got really tired but they believed that Vesperia would appeal to it's own audience which it did but still, the tales formula was really starting to get old at that point. I believe Abyss was the turning point. Sure sometimes having more of the same is sometimes better but sometimes you need to change your style a little to keep things fresh. Xillia was new and fresh and that is why i liked it better as opposed to Graces. Sure the cel-shaded art style was cool in Symphonia but sometimes you need a change. Perhaps soon the tales series art design will change again.

In reality, none of this matters. personally i believe both old school and modern style games need to thrive and thankfully they do. The problem mostly lies with the community it'self. In reality, it's not gaming that has changed for the worst, it's... us. Maybe it's because of the internet but my god has my perception of gaming changed so much. Mainly with the Smash Bros games. Back in the day, Smash Bros was the coolest thing ever because it's a showdown of Nintendo characters. That's cool. Nowadays when i look at Smash Bros i look at it in shame. The franchise was butchered by it's community. Now to change the subject a little, if you live in the UK, remember when the Nintendo Official Magazin was all bright and colourful? Then as soon as the Wii launched, everything was sharp, white and sleek, almost if everything was trying to look so serious. That is exactly what happedned to Brawl. It's difficult to describe but just look at the menu screen for Brawl. Melee's menu screen was cool as you could see purple wireframes in the background. Brawl's background is just white. There's something about how Melee was presented that made it look better.

What pisses me off though are people who say "Melee is better because Brawl is for casualfags, plus it has wavedashing". Ok sorry what did you just tell me? How does any of that make any sense? And here we come to the main split right here. The super serious competitive player and the players who play games for the pure pleasure of being able to smack yoshi with a hammer. That is what Killed the Smash Bros series for me. Like i said, i am unable to have a conversation about Smash Bros without any mention of tier lists, wavedashing, character moves and other complex MLG jargon. The charm is dead. I cannot even look at the series in the same light anymore. Perhaps the concept has gotten old, yeah that may be why but still i think the community for those games is just absolutely terrible and the competitive players are top of the heirachy in the smash community which is a true fact. You wanna know why Sakurai added tripping? He was trying to pull the community together. All he got was verbal bullshit from the competitive community. Now most of these competitive players piss me off for the simple fact that they judge a game based only on it's functionality. It's no secret that MLG players got where they are today because of exploits and when those exploits aren't in the game anymore, they revolt. This is exactly what happened to Smash. As a result, smash bros has become a really difficult series to review, heck all multiplayer focused games have because there are two differrent demographics with two differrent set of demands. One demographic who wants more of the same, the other who wants more new. It's hard for developers to decide which to follow and no matter what they do, they get backlash for no logical reason.

Then there are communities such as Warcraft 3 which has a completely biased heirachy, pro's are right on the top and the rest are all scrubs who should kill themselves because they don't deserve to exist because they're so bad. Yes pro's generally do find themselves at the top of the VIP list in videogames these days. and competitive gaming has become more widely marketed as a result. This is why the industry has changed.

Because of these "competitive" gamers, some games cater specifically to them and the bad thing is that they forget what makes them the games people loved. Games like Titanfall for example, all focus is on the multiplayer, "single player? single player is for scrubs who don't wanna play multiplayer because they're too scared to play against better players, multiplayer is the real game". This is the atitiude of gaming today. It's amazing how our actions as a community has shaped this industry so much. So much so that we've managed to turn away everything we love about the games. I mean not all of us are the cause of this but many are. So many people play multiplayer games these days and even if they aren't competitive, they still play multiplayer more over single player, this is where the next split comes in.

Not only are serious competitive MLG players valuing multiplayer but casuals are too. There are so many people who play nothing but multiplayer and have never explored other areas of gaming, people like this are often labled as casuals but they really aren't, they're just another part of the community. A part of the community that is completely foreign to many of us. As such, gamers in general cannot identify one another, we cannot work together. I mean look at all the Youtube gaming channels on there. There are so many of them and they all cater to differrent communities. There's channels that revolve soley around Major League gaming, then there's Lets Players, Reviewers, Unboxers, News feeders, commentators, montage makers.

Lets split them up shall we. Commentators, Montage makers and Gameplay analysis are of the Multiplayer focused demographic, then you have Lets Players, Reviewers, Unboxers and News feeders on another. It's easy to tell that there is a vast amount of differrence between these two differrenct communities and they clash... believe me.

This is the problem with gaming. Everyone is separated now. You also have your MMO communities which stick to said communities and spend all their time on MMO's (understandably), you have your MOBA communities which are all ass and your fighting game communities which tend to talk about all kinds of complex mechanics and discuss them on a regular basis,, then theres the nintendo community who only play/talk about nintendo games (same goes for sega too), then you have the otaku community who tend to play Jrpg's, rail shooters, visual novels (etc) and usually don't play or talk about multiplayer games, they tend to be seen as casuals. The PC community, people like Total Biscuit who only play PC games. The RTS community who are 100% competitive, nothing else needs to be said there. Then there's the racing games community which is split into two other communities (sims and arcade). Then there's people like myself that dabble in everything, many of us on Destructoid fall into this catagory thankfully so i don't need to have to deal with people who are stuck in one particular community and find them to be completely foreign.

The problem with dabbling in other communities and probably the reason why i play so many single player titles such as JRPG's these days is simply because i am just sick of having to deal with the other side of the community. Then when you hear people IRL who ask me about games like COD and stuff, i can't help but see them as differrent. It's like talking to a foreign person. Those aren't thye gamers i'm familiar with, those people are differrent. Sure as humans. we're all differrent but at the end of the day it's difficult to communicate with gamers simply due to the community being so disconnected from one another. Hence why i consider this site to be refeshing, by talking about the things i care about as a gamer, i find other gamers who are in the same boat. Who knows, perhaps we are, we just don't show it. I believe sparking conversations for games that aren't usually talked about is important and that is one of the main reasons why i write on here. I want to talk about games that have been and gone, not many want to talk about them these days, single player doesn't spark half as much discussion either, i always enjoy it when people write a blog about games of old and why they used to love them as they bring back memories of what gaming used to be like. That way i can forget for 1 second what gaming has become. Of course, this is just my mindset on things, i might be wrong but this is what it feels like to me.

Part of me is glad to see that there are people that are differrent in the gaming community but part of me hates the fact that people judge those who have differrent interests and then the others do it back at them. Of course even i am guilty of this with this blog, of course it's all my views which i can't say are all true. Really we're all guilty of this. The worst part is, it's usually a constant tug of war with other communities to shape the games we enjoy hence the reason why so many people get dissappointed. There is no right or wrong in this case, i just wish that each community would be more accepting of others and that this wouldn't have to affect the games we play today. Those are the biggest issues. Game reviewers have the job of identifying these demographics and i don't believe they do a good enough job of it. Then again i myself don't think i could properly review a multiplayer game as though i have played them in the past, my expeirences with them differ greatly to a competitive player.

Now if you haven't grasped it yet, the reason why i don't use images in my rambles is simply because they would confuse people. When i'm rambling i tend to talk about so many differrent topics at once and genrally it becommes difficult to take in so if you don't want to read this, you don't have to, still a spark of discussion is desired from this if you can make it through them.
  tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:2840849 of the hottest Females in Video Games - Reinhold HoffmannReinhold Hoffmann2014-11-20T03:19:02Z2014-11-20T03:19:02Z<!DOCTYPE html>
Nobody..or almost nobody plays video games because hot women in them or hmmm..okay..maybe its different in Japan a bit and well..there is of course the big Dead or Alive Fan Community of the Kasumi Appreciation Club but I am still sure those are a minority compared with the players who give a shit about how sexy or beautiful the women in the video games they play are looking.

Through my blogs here in the last around 500 days you know that I myself care a lot about game characters. write about them and at least in the Tuesday Blogs I used to add a cosplay image showing a sexy cosplayer as Cammy in her M.Bison Costume or that.....Amazon this week with her mighty Axe.

I never had a crush on a video game character but damn...I can not deny that the following 9 female game characters are hot as hell and the designers did an awesome job in creating a character you can not forget so easily. Enjoy the following list. And don't hesitate to fap if you have to!

Blue Mary from the Fatal Fury and King of Fighters Games. This badass girl fights with Sambo moves and grapples, has a cute pet dog and likes Terry Bogard. Loving that hairstyle and her outfits. She was actually designed as a tribute to one of those Android character in DragonBall,but I think she is a ton sexier.

This makes me biting on my lips goddamn...

The main antagonist of the old Battletoads beat'em ups, this is the Dark Queen ..an evil woman who has no problem to always wear revealing outfits which look like they were made by someone for the BDSM Scene. She looked sexy in sprite form already but this cosplay is just completely on spot.

Black is my favourite color choice for clothes and Paine from Final Fantasy X-2 seems to share that interest. Always thought her design is strong enough for an completely own game. She was an interesting character in the game and her design seen in the image above really stood out to me as something not just sexy but also very good looking.

Anna Williams is one of the Tekken characters since the first part where she was the mid boss for her sister Nina..she uses Aikido techniques among other fighting moves I can't really sort to a style but more interesting to me is her super duper hotness in every game. Just loving the mix of her being a bit slutty and playful while she wears that very elegant looking dress.

Speaking about slutty....Mileena from the Mortal Kombat games debuted back in MKII in 1993 as the evil clone sister of Kitana and looked just like a female Ninja but her design got sexier with almost every new game in the series. In MK9 she asks her opponents if they want to dance with her while she can't wait to bite off their heads with her Tarkatan Fangs. And still..I would HIT IT!

And while we are at MK. Nothing needs to be said about Jade in MK9. This images shows you why she is in this list. Added the link to the bigger version of the image on dA for your umm..investitgations about Jade.

Poison..she was once just a common enemy in the first Final Fight back in 1988 but became more and more popular with the time thanks to her being in the bad Final Fight fighting game for Saturn and of course her being a partner of Hugo in SFIII. She might be a trap..a transexual but does she look super hot and sexy? YES! YES! YES! Its great there are so many good cosplayers of her <3

Tira from the SoulCalibur games is sexy but more interesting..she is evil and crazy as well and has some of the funniest lines in SCIII-V. Personally I liked her SCIII design the most...because...obvious reasons.

Excuse me now....ummm..yeah.

  tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284079Giving Thanks: The Other Games - SpykesSpykes2014-11-20T00:11:34Z2014-11-20T00:11:34Z<!DOCTYPE html>

There are some games out there that just don't have the same mass appeal as your Call of Halos or your Madden's Creeds. These aren't your classic games, these aren't the favorites, these are the other games.these are the games nobody bet on. But, I'll tell you what I think, I think it's time they were seen.

These are the games I'm thankful for.

1. Madworld

This is the game that got me wanting to do this blog in the first place. Admittedly, I am somewhat miffed that, whenever people talk about Platinum Games' many successes, this game almost never comes up. Sure, everyone remembers Bayonetta, Vanquish, and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, but not so much this game, and I'm out to change that. In critical discourse, there's a term you'll hear alot, "This (game, movie, book, etc.) knows exactly what it wants to be." That term fits Madworld to a tee. Everything about this game, from its distinctly "Frank Miller-esque" art style (Good, classic Frank Miller, mind you, not modern, "I think Batman should force Robin to eat rats and somehow forgot how to draw" Frank Miller), to its energetic hip hop soundtrack, oozes a sense of style that makes this beat 'em up for the Wii an excellent example of artistic vision triumphing over technological restriction. Hell, even the waggle controls, gimmicky as they are, add a visceral sense of thrill to executing enemies in increasingly ludicrous ways, such as shoving them against a speeding train, tossing them into a giant skillet so they can be tempura fried, or just cutting an entire group of enemies in half with your robotic chainsaw arm. Oh, I forgot to mention, the player character has a chainsaw arm.

Also, I feel any description of Madworld is incomplete without mentioning the darkly hilarious commentary that accompanies gameplay courtesy of voice actors John Dimaggio and Greg Proops. Throughout the game these two's running commentary is a real treat for anyone who has fond memories of Celebrity Deathmatch.

2. No More Heroes

Now here's a game that doesn't just have personality, it has attitude. Another beat 'em up for the Wii, this game has alot on the surface that made it a guaranteed cult hit, such as its irreverent sense of humor, its simple but engaging gameplay, and its intentionally crude punk rock attitude. However, under the surface that punk rock "fuck you" attitude extends to a thematic message that really tears into its audience. At its core, No More Heroes is a game about gamers. The game's hero, Travis Touchdown, is your stereotypical nerd. Over the course of the game he uses game logic, specifically, beat the bosses (here, the world top ranked assassins) and get the girl (See also Super Mario Bros., Double Dragon, etc.) in an effort to have sex with the gourgeous Sylvia, a woman who never explicitly agreed to such a deal. In this way, No More Heroes has a very interesting pop-culture counterpart.

Both No More Heroes and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World are stories about people trying to live out a sort of "game narrative" in their real life, and how that fails them. *SPOILER WARNING* However, No More Heroes has a far more cynical outlook than Scott Pilgrim, and that's part of why I love it. Where as Scott Pilgrim is eventually able to overcome his issues and win the girl, No More Heroes leaves protagonist Travis Touchdown locked in an eternal cycle of sisyphean violence. Because it ends like this, its hard for me to take any message away from No More Heroes than, "Look at you, you violence addicted gamer, you suck." Now, I may not necessarily agree with that sentiment, but it is so interesting that there is a game out there with the sheer cajones to make that statement, and for that I give thanks.

3. Condemned: Criminal Origins

It's kind of hard to believe that despite the MANY problems the survival horror genre started running into last generation, The XBox 360 launched with a very strong Survival horror game. However, that's exactly what the original Condemned was. With its limited ammo, dimly lit and tense exploration sequences, and just enough of a supernatural element to its story to keep the player intrigued without breaking the game's overall feel of gritty realism, Condemned is, I feel, an entry in the survival-horror genre that holds up even now.

4. Prey

I honestly still don't know why more people didn't fall in love with this game. It did alot of things right, having a cool Native American protagonist, weapon designs that mix organics and technology for awesome results, and just... that abduction scene with "Don't fear the Reaper" in all its cowbell ridden glory. Great as all that is, where this game really shines is in its level design. Over the course of the game, you'd find yourself in shoot outs on anti gravity walkways with portals that could warp you all over the battlefield, it was great mind bending fun. In a generation that really saw well designed single player shooters fall to the wayside, I am very thankful to have this gem of a game.

5. Darksiders (1&2)

Rounding out my list, I have a game that, in a way, is the opposite of Madworld. You remember how I said Madworld knows exactly what kind of game it wants to be? Well, the Darksiders games have no idea what kind of game they want to be. The try to be a Legend of Zelda style adventure game, and a Devil May Cry-esque action game, but also try and have some of the portal puzzles from Portal, and then the second game made things even more complicated by trying to throw in elements of a big Skyrim-esque RPG, and at no point did either of these games make these elements really coalesce into a single cohesive whole. Instead, these two games always felt like they were running over to those other, bigger games' toyboxes and gleefully playing with their toys, and I always felt like I was right their playing with them. Admittedly this was helped in no small part by the art style of comics legend Joe Madureira, who is as glouriously audacious with his work in this game as he's ever been. While they may not be the pinnacle of design, these games are a great example pure passion driving a project to victory.

Well Dtoiders, I hope you enjoyed reading this list as much as I enjoyed writing it. Just know that in the coming holiday reveries as you play your newest AAA extavaganzas I'll be... right there with you playing Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U. But eventually I'll need to take a break from Smash Bros., and when I do, I'll be thankful again for underappreciated gems like the ones on this list that I can always go back to

 tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284074Terrible Internet Connection is the Bane of Daily Blogging - The Emolga EditorialThe Emolga Editorial2014-11-19T21:55:13Z2014-11-19T21:55:13Z<!DOCTYPE html>
My daily blog countdown is ruined thanks to the fact I can't get anything to work. Gotta love connecting to a coffee shop to get internet. Sorry for the letdown, I'll come up with something once I fix this issue of mine. Enjoy Smash everyone!
  tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284072I gotta be FRESH - BTM20XXBTM20XX2014-11-19T21:29:34Z2014-11-19T21:29:34Z<!DOCTYPE html>
Top gamer at whatever game I choose. I dig art and hot chicks. My ambotion is to soon create the most epic games for all to play. But until then, its games, art and girls.
  tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284066Do you want to be a future guest on Radio Destructoid? - Mr Andy DixonMr Andy Dixon2014-11-19T17:17:42Z2014-11-19T17:17:42Z<!DOCTYPE html>

Radio Destructoid records its 50th episode this Saturday -- 50! -- and we've been blessed with some truly amazing guest hosts from the community over the course of the last two years. Well, we want to continue that trend as we head into season 3, which is where you come in!

If you're interested in being a guest host and hanging out for a few hours with Mxy, Conor, Kyle, Beccy, and me, just send us an email at community[at]destructoid[dot]com and we'll add you to the schedule! It's almost always a not-awful time; I promise.

Also, if you've got a community podcast you'd like to promote (or anything else community-related, really), we're always accepting short audio clips to play during the show (think "sponsored by" commercials during an NPR broadcast), so send 'em in!

As always, you can stay tuned to the latest Radio Destructoid happenings by joining our Facebook group, following us on Twitter, and subscribing to us on iTunes. Thanks for listening!

[Image credit: Roberto Plankton]

 tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284057Guns, Violence, the ESRB and Ben Kuchera - TheKoduTheKodu2014-11-19T14:44:53Z2014-11-19T14:44:53Z<!DOCTYPE html>

So I was planning on writing this one at some point and bringing together points from my article about violence in games and military indoctrination. So when Polygon's lead editor Ben Kuchera decided to release this article I decided it was time to move this one up the queue of articles I've been planning.

Let me first preface this by saying I am no expert on some of the concepts I'm going to be bringing up. I'm going to do what very few people in other science fields will do and attempt to talk psychology. My limited experience of psychology is a book, two flatmates at university and a basic overview of educational and developmental psychology during teacher training. As such much of this work may have been expanded upon or be void, however I'm working with what is meant to be the building blocks of educational theory in the form of Piaget's educational theories.

In-case you need it here's a quick run down of Piaget's educational theories state that there are 4 stages development.

These are less important, the more important part is about Schema.
 Sensorimotor during which we learn about the world primarily through out sense this lasts approximately through ages 0-2 years and consists of touching and chewing things to learn about them. This is why babies do dumb things like stick fingers in plug sockets or try to touch fire. They're trying to learn. During Sensorimotor children develop Object permanence, which in simple terms is the understanding that things exist and happen outside of their sensory perception. Or in easier terms if you place a toy under a blanket the child will know the toy is under the blanket and hasn't disappeared and playing peek a bo no longer has such an impact as the child now knows you're no longer vanishing into thin air.
Next between the ages of 2 and 7 is the pre-operational stage where children begin create mental representations of events and objects. This is when much of playing pretend comes in. Be it sword fighting, army men, playing doctor, playing shop etc etc. At this stage however children's world view is still very egocentric (they have trouble seeing anyone else's point of view) e.g. I like the Tweenies so everyone else likes it too. Also during this stage Animism is displayed where they'll attribute human feelings and intentions to inanimate objects such as Teddy Bears.During this stage children also begin to ask a lot of question to acquire knowledge.

Next between the ages of 7 and 11 is concrete operational stage. This is when logic and reasoning first develops and the start of abstract thinking. The best test to show this development is posing the question "If A is greater than B and B is greater than C is A greater than C ?" At this stage children begin to: recognise their thoughts are different to the thoughts of others; be able to classify objects on more parameters beyond their colour and shape (e.g. Number of objects, the weight or mass of the object etc)); think logically about events; become more proficient at mathematical problems such as addition and subtraction. It's also during this stage Children learn about being able to manipulate or change objects such as a deflated ball still being that ball.

The last stage in development is the formal operational which lasts roughly from the age 11 and can go till 15 -20 years old. This is when skills in prediction, creative thinking and systematic approaches to problems develop. It's during this time abstract ideas and concepts can be introduced to children more as they begin to develop the ability to think in the abstract. It's also during this stage children are able to analyse their own thought processes and try to analyse other peoples.
This is probably very simplified and not representative of all development that occurs as I'm sure we're all fairly different people to when we were 18 and I don't simply mean drinking far more.

The final bit you need to know about Piaget's theories is the idea of schema. Essentially mental grouping rules which are used and applied while thinking and develop throughout the developmental stages becoming more complex and sophisticated sets of rules. When a Schema (set of mentally constructed rules) are challenged and seen not to be correct then they are adapted and if required create a new schema. This sounds very complicated (to me at least) but the simple way to explain it in an easily understandable way is if you've ever seen a kid in town pointing at a man and going "Dadda" only for the mother to go "No that's not Dadda". This is a apparently a very common occurrence in children and this is due to the development of schema and the complexity of those schema. A child doesn't think that every man is their Dad but in reality that's what you call people with said attributes. Children can't tell the difference hugely between nuisances so if their dad has a beard every bearded man to them should be called Dad. Now children grow out of this fairly quick because their parents correct them by telling them no that's not Daddy and in time their Schema assimilates new information as is able to recognise that the features of being male and having a beard alone doesn't make them Dad.

So why the hell did I have to give you that short (and trust me this is the short version) run down of Piaget's theories and how is any of that relevant or important ?

On to the article

Well it oddly it has absolutely everything to do with the issues at hand and oddly even relates to things Jack Thompson has recently said in an interview.
The core concept of the claims is that people could unintentionally internalise harmful messages and ideas from the media they consume. In the most technical sense this is absolutely TRUE.

Ok put down the flaming torches I said in the most technical sense it's true, In theory. In Theory plenty of things are true. Now where this idea comes from is the concept that people won't have a pre-existing schema and as such will use what's being told to them in games as the basis for creating a schema, initially placing misconceptions a problems in. Now misconceptions often require challenging otherwise they will continue and it can often require slightly more work to challenge a misconception than to initially create one and allow said misconception to become part of a person's though processes (Schema). To give you a very easy example I know of that is a huge misconception often taught in science in early years let me put a question to you. Answer in the comments if you want but I want you to do this without using google if you answer in the comments.

What causes the seasons to occur ?

I'll put the actual answer in my next blog as an end piece but for those of you who have googled it I wonder how many of you might have had your ideas challenged. I know this misconception because it's one I had going into highschool and it's one of the most poorly taught things in science in early years.

The idea of the ESRB has two functions, the first is to inform and protect consumers by preventing people getting hold of games before they have developed enough to be able to complexly analyse them and they will have already created schema for the situations and events shown. The second and more important function is to protect the industry itself from claims of trying to corrupt people and harmful messages. Yes you know that age rating ? It means something. Now the reason for the ratings is at each level it's suggested children will have schema's already and be able to handle the content. The rating is often closer to the top end of the developmental stages rather than the lower end. Hence an M is 17+ or 18 in the PEGI system near the top end of psychological development .

So could someone internalise the idea of violence being seen as acceptable ? Well only if they were introduced to these ideas early in development probably in the concrete operational stage AND at the same time these ideas weren't challenged by parents or society and or were reinforced by society or parents for a long time. This idea forms the basis of the concept of the cycle of abuse, where an abused child goes on to become a parent who abuses, if they do not get help to come to terms with the violent acts done to them. The key part is challenging the ideas and causing a person's schema to have to adapt to new information.

It is entirely possible to introduce children to media "beyond their level" and there will be no effect because parent's and society challenge the beliefs (schema) if they do form and cause them to adapt. What the ESRB ratings do is prevent children being exposed to ideas that could be seen as positive due to the use of skinner box style reward techniques which could give the wrong idea. The ESRB is making sure children don't get exposed to the ideas in adult entertainment as the first exposure to said ideas. It's why for example I was praised for teaching a group of 13-14 year olds at one point about chlorine gas being used in World War I and why it was harmful (don't worry there was a greater context to this involving teaching about group 7 elements and their uses and it as culturally relevant). It sounds very bizarre but me teaching them about a small part of the horrors of war, combined with the media talking about it, their History teachers telling them about the events and of course English teachers studying the war poems with them. All this helps create the schema that real war is hell and a terrible thing. Jonathan Holmes himself wrote about the ESRB previously and his article it contains a brilliant example of a schema being challenged and then adapted, in the form of him pulling a chair out from under someone and seeing a result different to the expected one. This show just how easy a misconception can be corrected and this happens all the time chances are you barely notice it most of the time.

Kids shows and teaching of kids is designed to create positive / societal beneficial schema be it from the messages in kids show to the more blatant GI Joe PSAs or be it many books aimed at children.

The bizarre issues that seems to be brought up as the reason for changing games etc is the idea of people not being able to tell between fantasy and reality.

  There's actually a psychological principal called Illusory superiority where people tend to over-estimate their own abilities and understanding or under-estimate everyone else's. The idea that they alone can see and are shining a light on the truth to protect you from some great evil. That they alone are able to do this and see the truth. The idea that they must do something to protect people and society as a whole from harm.

Now you might think that the above quote is pretty accurate and I'd have to say to an extent it can be. However another psychologist called Vygotsky proposed the theory of the zone of proximal development. this is based on Socrates demonstrating that with guidance an uneducated slave was capable of learning and working on a complicated geometry puzzle and taught said slave the concept of area changing depending on the size of a shape. People aren't dumb they just need people to help them understand and to get them initially to stop and listen before they do something dumb. Also before anyone makes an assumption here I'm "dumb" as hell and I'll admit it just to be clear. People as a collective don't need protecting they need teaching and to be allowed to develop understandings with assistance themselves. It's part of the reason why modern teaching is steering away from lecture / teacher led activities and more towards self directed learning for the children and peer based learning where pupils learn from one another. If one person doesn't get an idea but their friend does then allowing the friend to explain the idea can allow a different approach to be tried and an explanation by someone with a greater understanding of the other persons thought process. As much as teachers might try to understand others they are no longer children / teenagers and while most can remember back, things do change and as such their teenage friend might well be able to explain a concept they understand to a friend in a better easier way than a the teacher trying to think of new ways to explain it.

The idea that video games can implant harmful idea is a misconception at least when discussing adult humans as most of us already have a Schema developed and no matter how realistic can tell the difference between fantasy and reality. You can see the distinction as LARPing events don't turn into huge bloodbaths and most injuries probably occur by accident rather than intentionally inflicted.

So how does any of this relate to Ben Kuchera ballsack ? Well it's pretty evident in his more recent piece that he's talking bollocks or more correctly leaving bollcoks out there for all to see. Hence this article. The comparison made in the title to They Live doesn't relate to entertainment media so much as it does to adverts. While inadverted use of Skinner box techniques might influence thinking over time they're by no means effective when compared to advertising techniques which rely on the creation of a new schema. In many cases using primarily fear in some form to cloud logical judgement and thinking.This allows implanting suggestions and ideas using human survival instincts, be it as an individual or as a species to allow the idea in. While it's good to examine the underlying ideas and themes in a piece of media it's a misconception to feel the need to do it for fear for the public or society or dare I say

 because someone already is and it's called the ESRB. I'll go more into advertising theory another day I hope you don't mind as this article is getting long.

I may not think the ESRB is perfect and I do think it is still a little over protective compared to other ratings boards but I can understand what it's function is. As without it the alternative would be going the route of the Hays code or the Comics Code Authority. As public perception of games evolves and people start to question the line asking if adults really can't tell fantasy from reality (note most sane people can do this even with films with real life actors) then chances are the restrictions will ease up to be more in line with other industries.

I think the best way I can end this is by saying this. Debate and exposure to differing ideas is important and if you try to deny them a place they can be expressed they will find alternative platforms. Remember that in future Ben Kuchera.

Supporting the ESRB doing their job is why I'm adding in this final part to congratulate a few companies for their actions at Gadget show live 2014 and 2013. You see it's a public technology show and on multiple stands as you'd expect were games aimed at older audiences. At almost all the stands I went to, and booths I went to, with an adult game on show they asked to see ID before I was allowed inside to play the game. So well done EA, 2K interactive, Trion Worlds and Nintendo you guys were actually doing something good and what should be done. Shame you didn't manage that Capcom as I played Dragon age unchallenged as did the 8 year old who went to play it after me.

 tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284047Weekly Top 5: Worst Things About Being a Videogame Collector - TheDustinThomasTheDustinThomas2014-11-19T11:15:08Z2014-11-19T11:15:08Z<!DOCTYPE html>

I first began collecting videogames back in 2008. I had just gotten my Nintendo Wii, and the Virtual Console was one of the coolest things in the world at the time. Playing all of these games from my childhood caused so many memories to come rushing back to me, and it made me miss my old consoles. That's when I decided to begin collecting retro games. At the time, I had a ton of disposable income by working two jobs and having minimal bills, and prices for retro games were nowhere near what they are now. There were times I would find a seller who was starting auctions on eBay at $0.01 and would include free shipping on any additional auctions you won after the first one. I would go through their entire catalog and bid $0.01 on everything, and on more than one occasion I wound up winning 10 NES games for $4.

Those days are long gone, unfortunately. You can still find some really great deals, but not on eBay or Amazon unless you find them the moment they're listed. Because of this, I've spent the last several years growing my collection by other means. I frequent the local flea markets, scour Craigslist, make friends with local retro stores (who often give me a nice discount), and other things.

I collect with my friend Chris. We go to the flea markets together and scope out all the tables and sellers, it's better to have two sets of eyes than one. We have only a few rules: 1) If one of us doesn't already have a game that we find, it goes to that person if they want it. 2) If we both have the game (or neither one of us does), whoever spots it gets first crack at it. 3) If we come across a wholesale lot of games, we split the cost and figure out who gets what at the end of the day.

However, being a videogame collector isn't always sunshine and rainbows, it has its downsides as well.
 Honorable Mention: Finding the room

My wife and I live in a moderately sized, one-floor house. It has 4 bedrooms, and my wife was cool enough to let me use two of those as game rooms, one as a retro room, and one as our current game room, where the newest systems and my nice HDTV are located. At one point in time, I was a huge collector of NECA's videogame toy lines. I pretty much bought every one I could get my hands on, even overpaying for some from online retailers. Then a certain fact became very apparent: I didn't have enough room for all of these toys. I wrestled with the idea of selling them for a long time. Then I looked and saw how much some of them were worth and it became a little easier to part with them.

I don't consider myself a hoarder by any means, but it's really hard for me to get rid of something I paid for. Then I had both a realization and a question for myself. The realization was that they were just sitting in boxes every since I got married, and the question was "Will I miss them when they're gone?" The answer was no.

But now my game shelves are starting to become very cramped, and I don't have room to put up another one, so what is a collector to do? Thanks to the years of Tetris, I find ways to fit things into certain areas and crevices, but eventually it'll be filled beyond capacity. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
 5. Some sellers are chums with certain collectors

Flea markets have their own little communities. Chris and I see the same people every week and like to give them nicknames. There's one guy who wears the same camo outfit from head-to-toe every week, his name is "Combat Carl". There's also a collector we call "E-Cig" for his propensity for smoking electronic cigarettes all day. Then there's "Voice Box" who...has a voice box--I never said our nicknames were clever.

Because we see the same buyers every week, that means the sellers also see the same buyers every week, and some of them are in cahoots with one another. Countless times this past summer we would find someone unpacking their items and ask if they had any games, or we would start looking through their stuff, only to have them say things like "Come back in about a half hour when I have everything sorted out." Not wanting to be rude, we move along and keep a mental note to come back. Then we make our way back around only to find that all of their games have been sold.

Normally we just chalk this up to bad timing, but then we came across one gentlemen who had a box full of games under his table, but then told us they weren't for sale. We felt like something was up, so we stayed in the area and watched him sell to someone else. Sure, they may have already had a pre-existing deal, but if that's the case, why even bring them out? Very shady.
 4. The guy who swoops in and buys everything

There's a guy who runs a booth at the flea market who sells DVDs and games. He's pretty cool to us, and is willing to haggle a little bit. The guy is always hustling, buying up huge collections from people. He prices everything according to VGCharts, but will knock off a couple of bucks for us.

I don't usually bring a ton of money to the flea market with me, most times I'll bring around $100. It keeps me in check and prevents me from overspending. This seller, however, apparently brings thousands of dollars with him, and is willing to pay tons of money to buy another seller out. In this particular instance, I was looking over a table full of games, grabbing any that I didn't have. They didn't have prices on any of them, which usually means that the seller either doesn't know what they're worth, or they want you to make them an offer. I found a few games worth buying and was about to ask how much they wanted before this guy walked up and offered this woman $500 for everything.

The woman had over $500 worth of stuff between the games and systems, so he still made out pretty well. I had to give up the games I was trying to buy (one of which was the original Donkey Kong Country, which I don't have for some reason) because he decided to buy everything. When I asked if we would sell the games I picked out for the same price as the nice old lady, he said he wanted to take everything in and price it up first, which is a roundabout way of saying "No." I'm sorry, as much as I love it, I'm not paying more than $5 for Donkey Kong Country.
 3. The sellers who think every game is made of solid gold

Every seller does one of 3 things when it comes to prices:

1) They looked up prices online and price their games the same.

2) They choose a universal price for every game.

3) They have no idea what anything is worth and ask for a ridiculously high or low price.

Then there are several different sub-categories that fit inside of the three main ones I just listed. The one I want to talk about is the third category. There are a ton of people who have no idea how much certain games are worth, which is why I was able to snag things like Super Smash Bros. Melee and Contra Force for $5 each. I know some people may be thinking "Dustin, you ripped them off." You're darn right I did, they should have done their research, because I've done mine. If someone has a copy of Earthbound and says they only want $5 for it, I'm not going to bat an eyelash about the deal.

But then we have sellers who are the exact opposite. For these people, I imagine what happened is they saw a news story about an incredibly rare game selling for thousands of dollars and assuming that the copies of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt they have in their attic are on the same level. The most outrageous example from this past summer is someone trying to sell us a disgusting Super Nintendo with a copy of The Lion King and a couple of sports titles for around $100. They also tried to sell us just a Sega Genesis (again, one that was filthy) for $65.

Even if you manage to talk these people down, you're still going to wind up on the losing end of the transaction, so avoid them altogether.
 2. The moment you realize you just missed a big score

The thrill of victory is so much greater than the agony of defeat. Unfortunately, the agony occurs more often than the ecstasy. So many times over the years I'll show up right behind another collector, only to find that the giant plastic bag they have is full of games, and I realize then that I was just a minute too late. "If I hadn't taken the time to stop by that other table I would have had those". It's very disheartening, because finding that great score can make or break the day for me.

The flea markets I go to are an hour drive away from my home, and I have to wake up at 4:30am to get there before everyone else does. I'm a morning person anyway, so that's not a problem, but taking the time to drive all the way down there only to come away empty-handed is a tough pill to swallow, and it's even tougher when you realize you were just a little too late.
 1. The internal debate

Every collector will undoubtedly have that moment where they contemplate getting out of the collecting game and sell it all. I made that mistake once and regretted it terribly. I didn't get out of it completely, instead I decided to focus solely on the NES, so I sold off the rest of my collection to stock up on new NES titles. At the time I wasn't as smart about things as I am now, and wound up just taking great (and expensive) games like Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, and Secret of Mana to a local retro game shop, where I surely wound up getting screwed out of some major bank.

I'm glad it happened, actually. Now that I'm back into collecting for all systems, I know to ignore that little voice telling me to sell or trade them all away again. I know the pain of losing it all. But I'm not so attached to my collection that if some sort of emergency were to arise that I wouldn't sell it all in a heartbeat. I'm sure my collection cumulatively is more than enough to pay off my student loans, which would help me out a lot financially, but for now there's no need to panic about my bank account.

Several times I've sat there in my game room, staring at my shelves and just thinking "There's so much money in there", but there's so many memories attached to those games, as well as so many classics I've never played, that I can't just let them go just yet.

Anybody else a collector? Have any good stories? I'd love to hear them.

Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter and listen to my podcast.

-Dustin
  tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284046If It's On Sale: DMC: Devil May Cry - KooramKooram2014-11-19T11:06:18Z2014-11-19T11:06:18Z<!DOCTYPE html>
I bought this game when it was on sale and here's why you should do the same.

I sat on this one for a looooooong time before I got round to playing it, and this week I finally woke it up and dragged it out of my cavernous Steam library and into the harsh light of my scorn for not being faithful to the originals damn it! Vergil's all wrong! Who the fuck is this Mundus guy!?

Nah I really liked this game but you might want to take that with a pinch of salt because I was trying very hard to. I was always willing to give this one a try, and see some of the extreme reboot detractors proved wrong, but I never got round to playing it when it came out. Now that I have I'm pretty happy it exists. I'm way into this version Dante because he works so well as a precursor to the guy we know and love. So let's face it. Dante has always been a huge dick, a loveable huge dick to be sure, but still a huge dick. DMC's Dante feels to me exactly like what would happen if you turned back the clock on classic Dante all the way to adolescence and early adulthood. There's no way Dante didn't have an angsty, edgy teenage phase and I feel like Ninja Theory really ran with that idea when developing DMC.

I know a lot of fans can't ever forgive messing with ole' whitehair and I'm not going to be the one to tell them they're wrong but if you're even a little interested in what Ninja Theory did with the reboot I'd recommend you give this one a chance. This Dante isn't just obnoxious and arrogant, in fact he's kind of a genuine asshole, but through the game he grows and matures into something better than just an angsty teen thug. He becomes Dante. He's got a proper arc, and before the end credits roll he's well on his way to becoming the wisecracking, prancing tit we all love so much.

Speaking of prancing, you do a lot of it in this game. Like older Devil's you get Dante's workhorse sword Rebellion, and the ever faithful pistols Ebony and Ivory in addition to a whole host of angelic and demonic murdering sticks which you can use to slice your broody way through hordes of demon scum. At first combat feels very shallow, and I would say it probably is far shallower in comparison to older titles, but once you get a few new weapons things heat up a little, because it's in switching weapons mid combo and chaining together moves from your arsenal that the true depth lurks. While the moveset may not be as extensive as say, Devil May Cry 3, juggling dozens of mooks in the air almost indefinitely and then slamming them all down for a gibbety finish is just as satisfying as ever it was.

Let's talk about level design because holy christ did Ninja Theory go fucking nuts on this one. The world shapes and shatters around you, reforming and repairing beneath your feet, melting out of the air and into the ether. It feels like the very ground you're walking on wants you dead and it's awesome. Levels are very linear with a few rare exceptions, and the ever shifting environments rigidly scripted, but it's so stylishly presented that it doesn't matter. I found myself exhilarated level by level and particularly enjoyed the nightmarish fizzy drinks factory that feels like playing the infamous tunnel sequence from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Stylish presentation feels like a great summation of this game overall really. It embodies the 'spectacle' part of spectacle fighter fully, and feels like a gaudy but undeniably beautiful sports car in presentation. Gaudy is another word to keep in mind; this game is obnoxious as hell but I loved the big stupid dubstep baselines that accompany most bossfights, and the angsty metal that would play every time you get a new weapon. I suppose it's to be expected from a game that boasts almost two full Combichrist albums as it's soundtrack, and I howled with laughter at it throughout.

Bossfights follow a similar pattern to the level design; all flashy effects and flawless presentation without much actual substance but I'll be damned if I didn't get really taken in by them. My favourite, pictured above, being a fight taking place in a CNN style news report tripscape against what amounts to Bill O'Reilly crossed with Hexadecimal from Reboot. I particularly enjoyed the little third wall breaks when he shouts if you'd like him to shit down your neck for 'style points,' and another where he screams that not only will he kick your ass... he'll do it live. Cute.

This review kind of feels like a glowing endorsement so far but I do have gripes. Levels are very linear, enemies get repetitive quickly and it's just too easy. Herein lies a lot of older fans real issue with this installment and I honestly can't defend it with a straight face. I am absolutely terrible at these sorts of games and I was getting consistent A-SSS rankings whilst playing on hard mode. This is as someone who rarely scraped C's in older Devil titles.

There's a bit of very shitty voice acting too but I think that problem lies with whoever was in charge of the actors myself. Dante's voiceover in particular gets very bad at times but at others sounds great and I think it's a case of bad takes being used rather than a lack of ability on Tim Phillips' part.

So if you see this one on sale I'd say definitely pick it up cause it's way cool if you give it a chance. It's a big dumb spectacle fighter that puts on quite spectacle. That being said, fans of the older titles looking for a similar challenge should probably skip it cause goddamn it is really easy and piling on the reboot aspects will alienate a lot of people.

Bottom line: There's room enough for two Dante's in my games library.

 tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284041[Giving Thanks] To one of the best game consoles ever... - Reinhold HoffmannReinhold Hoffmann2014-11-19T08:26:56Z2014-11-19T08:26:56Z<!DOCTYPE html>

I don't know the exact number but bet that more than 50..or even 100 different video game consoles were developed and released since the early eighties. From those old Atari Platforms to Nintendo and the different home computers like the Commodore and Amiga ones to the PC-Engine and later the many 16 biit consoles and all the big and smaller platforms released till today.

From all these different platforms, three totally stood out for me. The Super Nintendo, the Playstation, the Sega Dreamcast and the Playstation 2.

While I liked the SNES, the Playstation and the Playstation 2 mostly for having so large libraries of damn good games, the Sega Dreamcast was special from the first day for me because it was pretty unique..it tried new things and had online games already since around 2 years when both Sony and Nintendo were more or less struggling with concepts how to add "online" to their systems. Oh and I remember how it was possible to unlock or download additional content like items to some of the Dreamcast games or to participate in a contest online in Metropolis Street Racer.

At this point it should finally be clear for you what this blog is all about...yup..that GD Spinning unique console..ze Dreamcast!...the Ultimate Gaming System!

Well..it was not that ultimate in every regard but the VMU (Virtual Memory Unit) really was aaaaaaaawesome. A Memory Card you could also play Mini Games with without having to buy extra games for it and which was small enough for really every kind of pocket. I remember taking it with me to school and playing that game which came with Sonic Adventure..

And how it showed you infos during a game like the energy in Resident Evil : Code Veronica or how it was implented as a tool to let you know there is a hidden chest nearby in Skies of Arkadia was genius. And so were the games for this system either. Like that Nintendo WiiU today it did not get a lot (if any) support from big publishers like Electronic Arts (fuck them anyway, they smell like a dead asshole) and sadly there was nothing by Square(soft) for them either while that company was tons more creative during that time and a Final Fantasy for Dreamcast could have been awesome but it still got not only a great line up by Sega itself but also by Capcom and last but not least SNK as well which made it a MUST HAVE console for every serious fighting game fan.

I mean..Virtua Fighter 3TB was 2 years old (I think?) when the Dreamcast was released in 1998 and it was not really that big burner of a game with it not having a story mode...and just nothing beside the arcade mode more or less.

But than there was SoulCalibur...back when SoulCalibur was not all about tits and asses and costumes for the females like today. It was a really big game..had new very strong character designs like Ivy, Maxi and Asttaroth and looked miles better than any other fighting game at its time..and there was this giant Edge Master like mode to unlock a ton of artworks, 3D animations, additonal characters, costumes, stages and even stage sizes.

Maybe its pure nostalgia from me but yes..I believe fighting games really were better at that time...online is not everything and at least Mortal Kombat still cares about a story at least which is told with more than dialogue windows.

But lets get back to the Dreamcast and fighting games on it. SoulCalibur was like the big start but there was more right at the launch with Power Stone by Capcom ..a fighting game for up to 4 players at the same time and their Street Fighter III: New Generation was released together with its upgrade 2nd Impact only some months after the DC was released in the USA and Europe.

Did you get ChuChu Rocket for free too for going online with your Dreamcast? I did and played this game almost as often as other gems on the system like JetSetRadio. This was one of the best puzzle games I ever played since Tetris, Bust A Move and Kwirk. Challenging..fast..crazy..and fun.

And till today I was not able to play it through completely. Is there a sequel for this game?

Lets talk about another cool feature of the system...the controller...

The Dreamcast controller looked quite different from any other controllers before and there was a big focus on the L and R buttons which can't be seen in that image but were superb for racing games..games like Metropolis Street Racer made a superb use of them. The other buttons were pretty standard, the analogue stick worked perfect for most of the games as well..I just thought the controller could use a select button somewhere maybe.

I played mostly fighting games on the Dreamcast but also liked its online functions and while it was the horrible 28/56K Modem time, browsing and even online gaming for Phantasy Star Online, Quake and Unreal worked really good, especially if you had the Dreamcast Mouse and Keyboard.

There were a few games for almost every game genre on the DC but the probably most epic game for it was Shenmue...of course.

It was..really something new at the time. From the bombastic graphics..the realistic looking facial expressions of the characters, the well written story to be a guy in a city where you can talk with almost everyone and..see them all living their lifes..going shopping..working, talking with each other and you can ask all of them about where you can find some sailors. I mean..where they hang out.

That all and you have to fight the criminals with your growing martial art knowledge while you are never showing any supernatural abilities. + you can go to an arcade and play Hang Out and Space Harrier there...how cool is that?

Today, 15 years after Shenmue was released people still hope a wonder would happen somehow and Shenmue 3 would be a thing. People also hope Sega would finally announce Skies of Arkadia 2 and Metropolis Street Racer was the start for the very successful Gotham Street Racing series by Bizarre Creations (R.I.P)

I still have two Dreamcast consoles here, both bought in new condition around 5 years ago at Ebay ...one was never used by me and is there to be a replacement for the case the first one dies. Still have around 40 Dreamcast games and play a few of them almost every year.

  tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284034Cblogs of 11/18/2014 + Everybody hates Tuesdays - CblogRecapsCblogRecaps2014-11-19T04:52:26Z2014-11-19T04:52:26Z<!DOCTYPE html>

Two blogs.

Two blogs.

One is a Podcast and the other is Hoffmann's Tuesday blog.

I don't think I've ever seen such an uneventful day on the Cblogs like this Tuesday. What happened?

Look, I try not to be paranoid, but I can't help but wonder if the lack of blogs this Tuesday has something to do with me or if it is just an unhappy coincidence. I'm inclined to believe the latter, but you never know.

Like I said on my very first Scriptisms, I'm not averse to criticism and I actually enjoy getting feedback. Since I started writing these I've been trying multiple things to see what people like, but I never got any form of feedback besides number of faps and comments (which I don't think is a good way to measure things, because I can only compare it to other people's).

If this has nothing to do with me then just ignore my blabbing and go play some games, I'm not looking for sympathy. But if it has something to do with me, or if you just want to give me some feedback, then please, send an anonymous email to scriptbr (at) gmail (dot) com. That, or you could simply make a petition to get me out of the recappers or something. That works too. You monster.

Anyway, moving on!

So, I beat Bayonetta 1 this weekend. Wow, what a fun ending! Not only it is full of big-scale action, but it is also super cheesy in a good way. The jazzy credits music and that little dance after the credits made me so happy you wouldn't believe. I had a smile on my face the entire time!

I have to say though that overall the story and characters were weak, like in most Platinum games. I'm not a big fan of Bayonetta as a character; I think she fails to be anything more than a sex symbol. I'm not averse to sexualized female characters, but I found myself rolling my eyes during a few cutscenes. She doesn't get any real development and the way she acts at the end is not coherent with how she acts in the rest of the game. But even though she's not even as charismatic or cool as Dante, she does have her moments.

Now I've already begun replaying the game because I want to unlock all the extra content and improve my fighting skills. Though I also find myself wanting to move on to Bayonetta 2 and replay Metal Gear Rising… Decisions, decisions!

Hope you guys enjoy your Dragon Ages and your Pokemons and your Smash Brothers, my poor ass can't really afford much right now. MAYBE WRITE SOME BLOGS ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH THESE GAMES OR SOMETHING.

 Bring on the sex! I mean, sax.

S - For me, this was the worst day of my Recapper life, but for Reinhold, it was Tue- ah, you know the joke! It's getting old by now.

P - TheDustinThomas has a treat for your ears with episode 33 of his Podcast.

YOU BETTER RUN

Now for some Metal. Gear Rising.

MAKING WHOLE THE FABRIC OF SOCIETY

YET STARING ACROSS THIS BARREN WASTED LAND

I FEEL NEW LIFE WILL BE BORN

BENEATH THE BLOOD STAINED SAND

-Script

FPotD

 tag:http://www.destructoid.com/,2008:284006Cblogs of 11/16/2014 + Pixie-isms! - CblogRecapsCblogRecaps2014-11-18T14:33:22Z2014-11-18T14:33:22Z<!DOCTYPE html>

My summer exams are done and I'm pretty sure I aced them. Now I'm at the beach with my fellow S.E.E.S members and the Kirijo Group is footing the bill. It's pretty nice! I got this lovely ribbon bikini and hoped Mitsuru-senpai would notice me, but I got grabbed by this blonde girl in a blue sundress who said she needed to be by my side and protect me.

Turns out she's a robot named Aigis. I prefer someone more human, commanding, smart, drop-dead gorgeous and rich.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong here. I'm level 43, I got everyone Battle Panties for our new group uniform, upgraded all their weapons to do amazing damage, I study a lot and summon awesome personas like Lenan Sidhe, Succubus, HIgh Pixie, Lamia, Oberon, Nata Tashi, Sati and King Frost. I'm even taking lessons in modeling and business from a guy named Tanaka! I'm the star of the volleyball team, help out at the library, waitress at a cafe and even find missing persons in my spare time.

I think I'm a pretty upstanding, oustanding gal. Mitsuru even thinks I'm a pretty valuable asset, but she's not noticed-noticed me yet. Not even after that time I left twenty-four dozen red roses in her room and polished all her boots while I was in there.

Must study more, I guess. Word is she likes smarter people. Fine, I will become the brainiest girl in all of Gekkokan High if that's what it takes! Prepare to be studied, books! I will slay you like Shadows!

I'm getting to date Elizabeth in the meantime, though. She's cute and enthusiastic, but weird. That time she dumped all millions of yen in a fountain and forgot to make a wish or thought all those warning signs were a dare to jump into that hole in street... yeah. She's just not all there, plus she comes from the realm of the subconscious. I'm 2/2 on non-human girls, still zero on Mitsuru Kirijos.

Even Akihiko-senpai has noticed me. I have that Queen Bee level of Charm, you know. I can steal all the boys even if I don't want them. Maybe I should have lured Kenji away and stuffed him in a locker so Rio would have forgetten about him and focused on me. Dude is such a creep anyway, oogling at all the teachers out of his reach.

Not that Rio can compare to Mitsuru. She just would have been fun to flirt with. Saori, too, but sadly she moved away. I stole a kiss before she did.

Fuuka's nice, but a little boring. Yukari... ugh, I just want her to shut up the moment she starts talking. She complains about wearing the Battle Panties more than Junpei and Akihiko did. They and Mitsuru got used to it, they even enjoy wearing them now, but Yukari only talks about how they chaffe and make her ass look big. Even Fuuka wears them. I might try to find some for Aigis, too.

Mitsuru-senpai looks glorious in them. So do I, if I may say so.

Someday Mitsuru-senpai will notice me, then she will be mine. Or maybe I'll be hers since she owns my dorm, school, the mall, most of Tatsumi Port Island and Japan. Wait, if she owns the mall and I work there... damn. Is there any corner of my life she doesn't own or control anyway? She must see us all as her pets or something.

I can live with that!

Can I be your kitten, Mitsuru-senpai?

Yes, I think we were meant for each other - so I will study harder, become a Genius and then maybe she will notice me and fall for me. In the meantime, I'll pair up with her in Tartarus more exclusively and wear that ribbon bikini all the time if I have to. I'll even wear a collar, a tail and kitty ears for her when I fight Shadows or study.

Please notice me, Mitsuru-senpai. Pretty please?

I-I love you, senpai! I long to rub my head on your leg and be told I'm the best kitty waifu. Or I can be your maid! I know you have plenty of those back home, but you can fire them. I'd be the only maid you'd need! I'd do anything to be near you! That's why I cleaned your room again today and shined your rapier to a mirror sheen!

I won't tell anyone about your strappy catsuits and gaudy mink coats. I promise!

* - Good advice for dealing with online trolls, at least until PSN, XBL and other networks invest in real moderation.

* - Troy meets Reggie, plays 8-Player Smash before you, pokes an Amiibo.

* - Always bet on the gorilla in a power suit - especially if he wears glasses.

* - Cat Peach wants Gay Oreos to notice her butt.

M - Django gives thanks for Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire

T - Mr. Fairenhieght makes snail people in Tomodachi Life. He makes them at the speed of liiiiiiiight. Don't. Stop. Him. Now. (cuz he's havin' a good time).

R - n0signal reviews Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

T - Top Ten Assassin's Creed: Unity things because Ubisoft is a pillar of originality.

? - Phosis goes on a journey to get Pro Evolution Soccer 2015, then another to get FIFA 2015. I think he's also having some kind of existential crisis here.

F - Forum post? Prepare to be executed!

F - Misleading headlines are basically clickbait. You know that, right?

FPotD