Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Gamers: FLAWLESS VICTORY!!


Today Microsoft shocked me and most everyone else by posting the following on Xbox.com: 
"Last week at E3, the excitement, creativity and future of our industry was on display for a global audience.
For us, the future comes in the form of Xbox One, a system designed to be the best place to play games this year and for many years to come. As is our heritage with Xbox, we designed a system that could take full advantage of advances in technology in order to deliver a breakthrough in game play and entertainment. We imagined a new set of benefits such as easier roaming, family sharing, and new ways to try and buy games. We believe in the benefits of a connected, digital future.
Since unveiling our plans for Xbox One, my team and I have heard directly from many of you, read your comments and listened to your feedback. I would like to take the opportunity today to thank you for your assistance in helping us to reshape the future of Xbox One.
You told us how much you loved the flexibility you have today with games delivered on disc. The ability to lend, share, and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you. Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world. 
So, today I am announcing the following changes to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exactly as you do today on Xbox 360. Here is what that means: 
An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360. 
Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360. 
In addition to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console -- there will be no regional restrictions. 
These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray. 
We appreciate your passion, support and willingness to challenge the assumptions of digital licensing and connectivity. While we believe that the majority of people will play games online and access the cloud for both games and entertainment, we will give consumers the choice of both physical and digital content. We have listened and we have heard loud and clear from your feedback that you want the best of both worlds. 
Thank you again for your candid feedback. Our team remains committed to listening, taking feedback and delivering a great product for you later this year"
 This news is awesome for everyone! The customers have made themselves heard and forced a behemoth to bend to their will. To all those who participated in the social media campaigns #PS4NoDRM and #XboxOneNoDRM, to all those who crashed the comments sections of Xbox videos so hard that MS had to shut off the comments completely, to those who responded to MS's Facebook promotions with ASCII-art middle fingers, to those who spoke with their wallets in pre-orders for non-DRM-hell consoles and spoke with their mouseclicks in online polls that embarassed Microsoft, and to those who created the educational .jpgs warning others about the awful DRM that spread like wildfire across the internet, THANK YOU!

In the face of the industry sycophants like Cliff Bleszinski and Totalbiscuit, who downplayed and/or ridiculed the efforts to fight back with social media campaigns and harsh criticisms, so many stood their ground, refused to give way to the cynicism and mockery and actually made a change. We saw it first when Sony acknowledged the NoDRM campaign and it's creator, NeoGAF's famousmortimer, in their press conference, and now after a few weeks of intense pushback Microsoft has raised the white flag and decided not to fuck it's customers over after all!

Before I close out this celebratory post, allow me to indulge in a moment of pure gloating excess:

 To all the apologists in the industry and games journalism who called the critical voices across the internet a bunch of entitled whiners, who implied that we're backwards troglodytes, that we're spoiled and that we are a loud and unimportant minority who don't amount to anything, all I can say is suck it, suck it hard motherfuckers! While you were willing to bend over and take the loss of first-sale freedoms for whatever petty reason, be it simple fanboyism, blind faith in unproven promises or licking the asses of the industry suits that give you free shit, we became an unavoidable storm that forced the corporate regime in Redmond to adapt or die. You kiss-ass shitlords lost, but the fact that you lost means you get a better and more user-friendly Xbox One than the one you would have gotten had we heeded your terrible advice to calm down and stay quiet. You can thank us later, after you've picked your egos up off the floor, but until then, YOU'RE WELCOME.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

A Rebuttal to Brenna Hillier


Since the earliest days of home consoles there have always been system wars and debates over the merits of which gaming platform is superior to all others. Most of the time this has revolved around simple preferences for one set of exclusive games versus another, and as advances in internet technology have evolved the debate has evolved alongside it to include service platforms and multiplayer infrastructures.

But a curious thing has happened in regards to the forthcoming generation which will see Sony's Playstation 4 engage in direct competition with Microsoft's Xbox One. The battle this time around isn't as much about exclusive vs. exclusive, or Playstation Network vs. Xbox Live or even technical specs like GDDR3 RAM vs. GDDR5 RAM. No, this time around due to completely opposing philosophies in the design of the operating systems we have a war between one company saying that we get to own the discs we pay $60 for and do with them as we please once the first sale has been made, and another saying that they control our access to the games we pay money for. 

While one of the platforms will continue on with game sales and operation in the manner we have always been accustomed to, the other will enforce a new paradigm for physical copies in that their permission is needed to play the titles, that we have limited options for trading, selling and sharing games and that essentially all discs are nothing but unlock keys for digital copies, ensuring that we don't own anything. With such a vast difference in these platforms the lines have been quickly drawn for the gaming audience and many are choosing sides based not on what games were impressive at E3 or the various reveal events, but based on where they as a consumer are willing to give and where they will put their foot down in regards to their views on ownership rights. Needless to say the conversation has been quite heated with Microsoft and their Xbone console receiving a less than warm reception as details of their DRM and online connectivity requirements surface.

It's within this controversy regarding the next-generation systems that I read an article posted at VG24/7 by Brenna Hillier titled "Console Wars: you're going to buy an Xbox One" (link here) which about made me want to smash my head against a wall before I decided I'd openly rebut the article here. So without further ado, I'll begin here:
 "I’m no Xbot, kids; I was a rabid Sony fangirl before I saw the light of platform agnosticism (otherwise known as tax deductible hardware purchases). It took me years to pick up an Xbox 360 and I barely use it, since I don’t like the control pad (small hands, see) or have time for many multiplayer shooters. But I know I’m going to get an Xbox One eventually, and truly I think if you are the kind of person who invests in more than one console, you probably will too."
"Platform agnosticism"  is an odd choice of words. Agnostic is a word most associated with debates over beliefs and knowledge claims in regards to Gods and Godesses, and while some may mistakenly think agnostic is halfway between the theist and the atheist, a fence-sitter shrugging their shoulders, the truth is that gnosticism and agnosticism apply to claims of knowledge and not belief. One can be a believer but still claim to not know for certain, thus being an agnostic believer. Agnosticism doesn't mean sitting perpetually in zen-like emptiness of bias and subjective opinion, forever on a fence of perfect objectivity. Agnosticism is simply claiming a lack of knowledge of the topic at hand.

So in regards to platform preferences, the agnostic wouldn't be the undecided person or the person who wants to be extra careful to hide any appearance of subjectivity and bias, it's the person who has no knowledge of the details about the differences between PS4 and the Xbone. A person with no knowledge of the differences in $60 ownership of game discs or $60 in permanent rental ecosystems is not who Hillier is addressing here, and I maintain that for any person who takes a good and hard look at the facts in regards to these platforms there really is no actual middle ground. Maybe, just maybe, if you get your systems and games for free as part of the industry you can have a perpetual position of shrugging your shoulders and ignoring the debate, but for those of us who have to pay for these things and deal with the long-term consequences I cannot fathom anyone still being completely objectively neutral. The details of both platforms' positions is crystal clear, we know exactly where Microsoft and Sony stand.
  "Sure, the Xbox One online stuff is inconvenient but just look at these games"
I seriously hope so few people are so wowed by a couple of videogames that they're willing to tell the entire games industry, which has spent years scapegoating it's own customers for it's self-inflicted financial woes and perfecting pitiful schemes to loot it's own fanbase's wallets, that we will gladly piss away our ability to use the things we purchase in a manner of our choosing over some shiny CGI promises of yet another installment in the Halo or Forza franchises. You give this industry an inch of rope and it doesn't take a mile, it takes a lap around the fucking planet, and then blames you when the rope costs too damn much.
 "But “quite annoying” could also easily be applied to PC gaming. Many of the restrictions Microsoft is introducing have been common in PC gaming for years, where the idea of trading used games is only just cropping up as a possibility again."
Oh boy, here we go with trying to compare the closed monopolistic ecosystem of Xbox with the open and competition-filled realm of the PC gaming industry. Are you fucking kidding me?

I already addressed this pitiful argument before (link here), but just for the sake of further argument let's pretend there's a valid comparison between Xbone and Steam. Who do you trust more between Valve and Microsoft to take care of customers? Last time Microsoft ran a DRM-laden download service, called MSN Music, they decided to close it and completely fucked over all the customers who had paid for content by shutting off all downloads and offering no DRM-removal options for the things people had saved. They basically rode off into the sunset with a fatter wallet and not a single fuck given about the customers whom they had done a disservice to.

Microsoft can't be trusted at all in this regard, but let's say Valve turns just as evil to compare the situations on even ground. At least on PC I can back my games up and crack the DRM, but under Big Brother Orwellian Microsoft's check-ins I'd have no way of doing that for Xbone software at all. After all, their 24 hour parole check-in is designed to prevent exactly those types of things from ever happening.
"If you were there, if you dipped into the oily vitriol that greeted Steam’s debut, did you ever expect things to turn out like this? Maybe it shouldn’t have. Maybe we should all be die-hard anti-DRM advocates. Maybe DRM really is purely anti-consumer in all its forms. I’m in two minds on that issue, and I’m not interested in debating it here. What I am interested in is whether the same thing is going to happen to the Xbox One. Will this storm blow over, as so many have before it?"
The DRM on Steam merits higher leniency of thought because it's got workarounds and they sell games oftentimes at prices comparable to consumable items, not the premium prices seen on consoles. We already know that next-gen console games are beginning once again at the $60 price point, and given Microsoft's online pricing record on XBL it;s highly suspect we'll see anything at all resembling the massive blowout sales seen on Steam, Good Old Games, Amazon or Greenman Gaming. Perhaps Microsoft can surprise us, and I'd be the first to eat crow if they did. But until I see some evidence of them taking initiatives like this before the Xbone launches I find no reason to believe they will once their new ecosystem is up and running. Microsoft hasn't showcased a reason for people to quiet their strong opinions on the subject, and what they have said and shown to us is worthy of the backlash they're suffering through.
"Apart from a few vocal outliers, nobody inside the industry really seems to want used games to go away."
If you think the people inside the industry who want used games to die out completely or be a shell of what they are now are outliers, and not just carefully hiding their opinions to avoid the hornet's nest that Microsoft has smacked wide open, then I have a bridge to sell you.
"it’s entirely possible that Microsoft is actually ahead of the trend in chasing a digital future – as it was when it focused on online multiplayer, coming into this last generation well ahead of Sony."
Microsoft is perpetually behind in anything relating to the digital future. Sure Xbox Live got a head start on making online console gaming more streamlined, but it was merely implanting features seen in PC gaming into the console space. Beating conservative Japanese companies like Nintendo and Sony to the punch in this regard is not that impressive a feat.

If you want a glimpse of who is really setting the tends in digital futures, take a step away from consoles and look at the tech sector as a whole. Microsoft only wishes it were on the ball like Apple and Google. Microsoft's business under the reign of Steve Ballmer has displayed nothing but failure after failure in trying to compete against those two companies. Given the pitiful revenue intake and corporate status of their entertainment division which houses Xbox, I highly doubt the Xbox brand will stick around if it ends up selling at the rates the WiiU is currently selling at, or the rates the PS3 did circa spring 2007.
"No matter how strongly we rail against the Xbox One, how much we all focus on the negatives instead of embracing the positives, the Xbox One will sell and it will be successful. After all, it’s got Halo. It’s got Titanfall. It’s got all your Xbox Live friends. And it’s got your Gamerscore. Eventually, it will have you."
And here it is folks, the coup de grĂ¢ce! If you are one of the core gaming audience who Microsoft is wanting to sell a $500 gaming device to (and at $500 the core is pretty much the only audience) then you are part of a vocal minority who likes to complain and you don't matter! Don't you just love how this narrative keeps popping up in games journalism and from industry types? It's so easy to dismiss everything with the wave of a hand, claim that the views of those who are critical don't represent and important group and then go forth with proclamations that the critics are all a bunch of sheep who will piss their money away against their own self-interests because of Halo 5 or Titanfall.

Don't make any mistakes, I admit there's a good number of fools who support the absolute worst cash-grabs the AAA Gaemz Industree™ comes up with, and there will be people who buy and support this DRM-infested shitstain of a console. But to claim that those who are planning on avoiding financing the fleecing of an entire userbase will relent because of shiny mechs and Master Chief is straight out of the condescension playbook currently being used by arrogant Microsoft executives, and once employed by a Sony exec named Ken Kutaragi who found himself out of a job when the Playstation brand went from 85%+ console marketshare to sub-33% in the space of one single console transition. 

Is it possible that the Xbone will be a hit? Well yes, there's always a possibility of anything, but the probability seems to decrease day after day as each bit of news hits. As mainstream outlets like Wall Street Journal, Forbes, BBC and NBC criticize Microsoft's plans, as pre-order numbers and launch allotments skew more and more in Sony's favor and as news of Xbone needing an entire year to even hit some regions comes to light, the probability of this console succeeding like the 360 did continues to shrink. This is especially noteworthy with so much of the negativity centered in the US and UK markets, the only ones where the Xbox brand ever had any real traction to start with.

But in spite of all of that, the narrative is being built that says the gamers are just whiners; simplistic and primitive troglodytes in this new digital era who hate change. The fence-sitters who cringe at any negativity, no matter how justified, will call for people to wait and see while more and more of the entities who run the AAA Gaemz Industree™ continue to manage themselves into bankruptcy and then try to shift blame to the customers rather than shitty planning and management skills. 

Let me make this clear: If harsh criticism of Microsoft upsets you or makes you uncomfortable, place the blame on them and not the critics. It's not the critics who decided to try and ram anti-consumer initiatives down the market's throat by brute force. It's not the critics who decided that the reveal event for a games device should have almost no footage of any actual games being played, but plenty of The Price is Right. It's not the critics who decided an implied rape joke against a female player during the Killer Instinct demonstration was a funny bit of griefing. It's not the critics who are implementing systems that will screw over small businesses, smaller publishers and long-term game collectors and preservationists just to appease bloated corporate entities that can't sustain themselves through making better products at more efficient costs.

Those of us casting negativity at Microsoft right now do so because Microsoft decided that this was the device to display to the world and the means of displaying it. Now that they've played their hand the whole world is responding in the marketplace of ideas and Microsoft is deservedly getting thrashed. As Jim Sterling put it, Microsoft didn't decide to wage a war on Sony and Nintendo, they decided to wage a war on consumers. Well, the consumers are fighting back, and as far as I'm concerned the fence-sitters trying to maintain the image of perfect enlightened and detatched objectivity while criticizing the positions of those who have chosen to participate in the discussion unfiltered and uncensored have no intellectual ground to stand on. By all means defend whatever merits you think the Xbone has. Buy one come launch if you desire to. Go forth and debate with those who differ with your stance until your fingers go numb, but don't try and act like you're above the fray just because some people say something mean to a soulless profit-driven corporation. Microsoft brought all of this heat onto itself, and it's too late to call a time-out.

Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- for Next-Gen?


Last month's reveal of Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- was a moment of joy for the fighting game community, but very little info was forthcoming then and the game was nowhere to be seen at last week's E3 show.

Today Siliconera posted some info based on an interview with Arc System Works president Minoru Kidooka (link here) in which he stated that Guilty Gear Xrd will be making an appearance at E3 2014 and that they are considering designing the game for next-generation platforms.

It seems nothing is decided in stone yet, but in regards to next-generation platforms, I will gladly take Guilty Gear Xrd as a PS4 title, complete with true 1080p 60fps performance and a sweet-ass Guilty Gear themed arcade stick to accompany it's release.

I say go for it Arc System Works! Make Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- a landmark for fighting games in the next console cycle!

RUMOR: Valve Mailing List Data Revealed

Today some alleged screencaps taken after an exploit was opened in Valve's project management software called Jira spread across the internet. In these screens we see mentions of teams working on the oft-rumored games Half Life 3, Left 4 Dead 3 and a new iteration of Valve's game engine, Source.

Given all the false positives and faked leaks that came before in regards to a potential Half Life 3, I'm choosing to remain skeptical on this until concrete proof is shown. So far we've got the story breaking from the site Valvetime.net (link here) with anonymous sources and claims that Valve has now closed the exploit, leading to advice that one shouldn't even bother trying to get into it.

All of this sounds suspicious to me, but I'll go ahead and post the caps here:


Monday, June 17, 2013

History Repeats Itself?



"It’s probably too cheap…"
-Former Sony executive Ken Kutaragi in regards to the announcement of the PS3 launching at $599

"…for consumers to think to themselves ‘I will work more hours to buy one’. We want people to feel that they want it, irrespective of anything else."

– Ken Kutaragi, again, attempting to justify the $599 price tag


"We do not care."

– Kaz Hirai, then President of Sony's gaming division, on the Wii and 360



In 2005 and 2006, Sony, who was riding high on the dominance they had with the Playstation 2, displayed an incredible amount of arrogance in regards to the upcoming Playstation 3. Now that seven years have passed and we've seen Playstation go from the top of the world to circling the drain and then rise up again in an epic comeback, it's interesting to note the parallels between the statements coming from 2006 era Sony executives and those coming from Microsoft execs in 2013.

But don't take my word for it, take theirs at face value:  


"I think it's fair to say there's a segment of consumers at this show in particular who really pay attention, who are very passionate about all aspects of gaming, and that we listen to closely. In a broader set of community, people don't pay attention to a lot of the details. We've seen it in the research, we've seen it in a lot of the data points."

- Xbox Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer Yusuf Mehd, downplaying the outrage over the Xbone as irrelevant since most consumers don't pay attention anyways 


“I don’t think,… I mean we’re really not going to change anything we’ve done with Xbox One. We’re very happy,… did you see the games on stage during our briefing? Did you see the exclusives? I mean we’re really really proud of the system and the games that are coming out. When you look at games like TitanFall,… have you gone through Titanfall yet? Enough said. Conversation over"

-Xbox Live Director Larry Hryb, aka Major Nelson, regarding the disparity in recption at E3 between the Xbone and the PS4 


"Fortunately we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity, it's called Xbox 360"

-Don Mattrick, head of Microsoft's Xbox division, responding to concerns of gamers in the military who don't have access to first-world internet much of the time


Notice in both batches of quotes the assumption from the execs that we're all fucking stupid and will buy anything just because they hype it. Notice the levels of condescension in their words and the dismissal of all contrarian concerns.

Sony had to crash pretty hard before they straightened themselves out. The spring after the PS3 launch, when it was selling at or below 80K units a month in the US marketplace and getting trounced by the soon-to-be-retired Gameboy Advance monthly, it almost looked like the PS3 would go the way of the Virtual Boy, the Dreamcast and the Dodo bird.

Now, seven years later, it appears Microsoft is following the 2006 Sony strategy of thinking they can ignore criticism because they will steer us lowly customers to buy into their grand visions and dreams, no matter how often the marketplace trends show that we simply want a box that plays the latest game software, and plays it well, and that alternate functionality is a take it or leave it proposition which is nice to have, but not if it costs us an arm and a leg or our freedom to use the things we buy in the manner of our own choosing.

Take heed Microsoft, you're walking a path that may threaten the entire Xbox division. Many of your investors don't like the entertainment section of Microsoft as is, due to years of losses in the billions of dollars, the history of failed products like Zune and Windows Phone and the low revenue and profit of the division when compared to products like Office.

Next-Gen Console Comparison


Sunday, June 16, 2013

Review: Bioshock Infinite



Bioshock Infinite

Release Date: 3.26.2013
Platforms: Windows PC, OSX, Playstation 3, Xbox 360

Bioshock Infinite is the latest creation of the team at Irrational Games and the third installment in the Bioshock franchise. Leaving the underwater city of Rapture behind, Irrational has set this game in the floating city of Columbia, circa 1912. The player takes control of Booker DeWitt, a man with a bloody past who is perpetually down on his luck, having fallen victim to drinking and gambling excesses. In order to erase his debts he's been given a task: infiltrate the sky city of Columbia and rescue a captive young woman named Elizabeth. What seems like a simple task for Booker will become an adventure full of ideological clashes and urban warfare, battles against futuristic technological and biological wonders and a journey through the very fabric of space-time and the string theory multiverse.

At it's base elements the game mechanisms present in Bioshock Infinite will be familiar to anyone who's played the previous Bioshock titles. Your arsenal includes a good number of period-specific guns and a left-hand genetically altered by interchangeable chemicals to be capable of feats that can only be described as magical, whether it's the usual fire and ice elements or the spawning of flocks of ravenous crows to hunt down and assault foes. The gunplay this time around is an improvement over the original Bioshock, but not quite as satisfying as Bioshock 2, which in my mind still has the best and most dynamic combat in the franchise. The Plasmids of the first two games are now known as Vigors, and while they offer a great number of options for the player to engage in cruel and unusual punishment against the enemy hordes, in many cases they seem to be almost unnecessary to completion of the mission. This particular element of combat, the one which defines why Bioshock differs from it's peers in the FPS genre, has been downplayed by the game design to being rather optional, and that's a shame.

The greatest addition to in-game action in Bioshock Infinite is easily the sky hook that Booker wears on his left arm. This sky hook serves the dual purposes of being a fantastically violent melee attack weapon (with some excellent executions) and a means of quickly traversing the rails which flow all around the various floating buildings which make up Columbia. As a melee weapon the sky hook is mapped to it's own button for instant activation, rather than forcing the player to scroll through their arsenal to find it like in earlier Bioshock games. This allows for seamless mixups of medium to long range gunfighting that lead to in-close melee kills, a vast improvement over previous implementations of melee combat. As a means of travel around the city the hook opens up Columbia to a good deal of vertical exploration that suits a city in the clouds perfectly. The use of the rails is intuitive and even opens up strategic options in combat scenarios, including surprise drop attacks worthy of Batman.

For most of the game you will be accompanied by Elizabeth, the young woman whom Booker is tasked with smuggling out of the city, and her unique ability to open up tears in the fabric of space-time. Opening portals to alternate realities is a great asset, as she can sense stashes of weapons or cover in alternate versions of Columbia and warp them into your present reality. She also helps scavenge for money and ammo, and unlike the horrors most associate with escort mission games, she never gets in the way or becomes a liability.

All in all the game mechanics present in Bioshock Infinite are quite good, but comparisons between the previous installments can show that each of the 3 games has it's own particular strengths and weaknesses. In particular, about 3/4 of the way though Infinite there's a rather obnoxious and unnecessary boss fight that occurs 3 times, each time following a fetch quest. While this isn't nearly as obnoxious as the unnecessary hours of padding and the awful end boss fight in the original Bioshock that occurred after the infamous plot twist, this is a disappointment in what had been up to that spot the best paced Bioshock game yet made.

Of course, when one speaks about the merits of Bioshock Infinite, the things that will most often get discussed aren't related to combat and game mechanics, but the mixture of production value, writing, character and atmosphere that define each Bioshock game. In Infinite's case, what most will likely remember is the intriguing plot that starts off with exploring themes of religion, early 20th century racism, nationalism and class warfare and ends up in a place where the very state and nature of the universe and perceptions of reality come into play.

Along the way Booker DeWitt, the first voiced protagonist in the series, and his partner Elizabeth are fully realized as well-written characters with excellent voice acting performances. Unfortunately none of the antagonist characters really fully develop to the level of Andrew Ryan from the original Bioshock, but Infinite makes up for it with the Lutece twins, who may be the most entertaining and well-written side characters in any Bioshock title.

Columbia itself is a highly stylized and beautiful piece of art. It symbolizes an idealized and fictional American dream that never actually existed on one hand, complete with all the flowers, sunshine and American flags one could ever imagine viewing in their lifetime, but on the other hand displaying all the ugliness of 1912-era segregated slums and their racial inequalities. Columbia seamlessly mixes these extremes in a way that the post-collapse chaos of Rapture never could, creating one of the most unique and memorable game settings I can recall ever seeing.

At the end of the day, Bioshock Infinite is most definitely a game anyone with an interest in the medium should play. It's not perfect and it's not the "Citizen Kane of gaming" some have referred to it as, but it is an excellent FPS-adventure set in a fascinating world with a great voice cast, well-written characters and a plot that will leave you with plenty to think about and talk about with others who have played it. I give this game my highest recommendation and suggest any and all who read this go forth and spend some time in Columbia.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

When Microsoft Can't Control the Questions...

...this is what happens:


One of the most annoying aspects of modern gaming is that most of the outlets for the discussion of and spreading of information oftentimes act like they are arms of the PR departments of the platform holders and largest publishers. We the readers/watchers receive PR approved statements and fluff that don't amount to anything of use except to convince the easily swayed to spend their money foolishly.

Normally when we're discussing the realm of games journalism most would say this is truly a first-world problem, that it's not important to society at large, and that if you want to attack or call-out pseudo-journalism you should focus on things that truly matter such as a mainstream news outlet like Fox News basically acting as a propaganda machine for the Republican Party. I can't say that the people making these types of statements are wrong, because even though it's common knowledge that many of the reviews you see of major AAA game releases on Metacritic are boosted by publishers gifting ethically bankrupt promoters to write  glowing recommendations of products that may not be worth the cost of the optical disc on which they are printed, it's hardly a concern for most when compared to the verbal diarrhea that emanates from the likes of Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly every night under the guise of being a news source.

But alas, this is not a blog about politics and world news, this is a blog about videogames, the videogame industry and the culture that surrounds gaming. So when I see something rotting within this culture I feel the need to call it out and expose it because gaming is not a cheap endeavor and there's not many voices speaking on behalf of the average game purchaser. Between the costs associated with acquiring platforms at $350-$500, new games at $60, used or discounted games still sold at higher prices than any other media form out there, nickel-and-diming downloadable expansions and subscription fees for services, this is one of the most expensive forms of entertainment to keep up with.

Within this environment I find that so much of the so-called gaming journalism space is occupied by sycophants; corporate apologists who grovel at the feet of multimillion-dollar businesses out of fear that offending someone in a boardroom may damage their access to free review games, early reveals and previews and all that free swag that gets sent to reviewers to help insure that a favorable number is attached to the grades that get posted on Metacritic. Sure, there are exceptions to the rule even on well-known sites; Jim Sterling of Destructoid would be one example of someone who doesn't pander to the pitiful corporate hivemind and calls out the absurd when he sees it, but he would definitely be in a minority class for his profession.

Sometimes, in order to buck this sort of incestuous echo-chamber and get through the manufactured PR bullshit, you need an outsider to come in and disrupt the process. You need someone who hasn't been groomed in the corporate newspeak and the accepted rules of compliance who can bring some real questions to the table and press for real answers without just swallowing the load like so many want to do. In that regard, YouTube gaming personality Angry Joe officially wins this E3.

In the weeks leading up to E3 Microsoft, facing an intense level of backlash over their anti-consumer DRM in the Xbone, began to circle their wagons and cancel most of their interviews. Only certain outlets would get access to Microsoft employees, and most of those interviewers would go rather soft on pressing the PR puppets too hard. Angry Joe, an unrestrained wild card, managed to get through and snag some time with Xbox Minister of Propaganda Major Nelson.

Angry Joe may not be the smoothest or most skilled interviewer, but his blunt questioning and choices of topics rattled Major Nelson to the point where he became visibly frustrated and annoyed. For someone who has been giving carefully scripted canned PR bullshit to Xbox customers online and pseudo-journalists and podcast personalities inside the E3 halls, this must have been quite a disruption to his message building. It was clear that Nelson had lost all credibility in sustaining his bullshit at the moment he grabbed the microphone out of Joe's hand in an effort to shut him down with some barely contained alpha-male rage posturing. While most of the journalist types at E3 tried to ride on the fence and were afraid to call out Microsoft's bullshit, often attributing the controversy to "misunderstandings", "bad methods of messaging" and in the worst cases blaming gamers for being a bunch of old-fashioned troglodytes, Angry Joe, unpolished as his delivery may be, managed to get in the way of the constant spinning and do more actual fucking journalism than many of the people who claim they are journalists!

If only the professionals who do this sort of shit for a living could grow a pair and perform their jobs with the same earnest effort and honesty as this modest YouTube personality did, perhaps the amount of bullshit that gets circulated around would be drastically lower than it is now.

Kudos to you, Angry Joe.

E3 2013: Dark Souls II


E3 2013: Batman: Arkham Origins


E3 2013: Killer is Dead


E3 2013: Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2


E3 2013: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain


Friday, June 14, 2013

Nintendo Burned By EA


Nintendo stormed the world in late 2006 with the Wii, a console that sold faster than any console in history and oftentimes in it's early years sold twice the amount per month that the PS3 and Xbox 360 sold combined. But in recent times Nintendo has struggled to gain any traction, oftentimes seeming like an afterthought and scraping by on sub-40K units a month sales in the United States. Numbers that low aren't just bad, they're shockingly bad and usually only seen by aging platforms on their way to retirement. To say the WiiU is struggling is an understatement, it seems more like a case of being stillborn.

In this sad state of affairs for the Big N, who managed to get a decently positive reception at their E3 Nintendo Direct broadcast based on the exclusive titles Bayonetta 2 and X, the wrap up to their E3 week came with EA making a public statement that's certain to cause some corporate hand-wringing. In an interview with CVG, EA Labels president Frank Gibeau had the following to say:
"Gibeau told Joystiq this week that Nintendo must "sell more boxes" for EA to resume full support for the platform."
Also of mention in the article were a number of annual EA sports games, which typically release on as many devices as humanly possible, passing on WiiU this year. This is not a good sign for Nintendo, who is already facing a continual downward revision of their forecasts, has a stagnating handheld market and has a CEO who will likely be forced to live up to his promise of resigning if Nintendo doesn't make their fiscal year goals. At this stage, with third party games support rapidly drying up and industry trendsetters like EA starting the ball rolling on publishers and developers actively making it public knowledge they are abandoning the platform, I think it's only a matter of whether Iwata remains CEO for the full year or resigns his commission early.

Even though I have been a critic of Nintendo in recent years due to their localization failures, their increasingly repetitive game releases, their long droughts of software support on their platforms and their inability to adapt to modern internet fucntionality in regards to online accounts and transactions, it really is sad to see them in this shape. Nintendo was a vital part of my childhood and it's amazing that the company which brought us so many all-time classics now can't figure out how to stop their recently launched platforms from dying on the vine. With exclusives like X and Bayonetta 2, along with the inevitable high definition Legend of Zelda, it would be nice if they could get in touch with the gaming audience at large again, but it seems they are struggling to even comprehend how to begin.

I suspect EA sounding off on dropping support will be a catalyst for more companies to follow suit and begin removing WiiU from their mutliplatform strategies. Hopefully the Big N can turn the momentum around and regain the support of the third party publishers, if for no other reason than to become a worthwhile opponent to the seemingly increasing juggernaut of Sony's Playstation 4 and help insure that good competition will keep Sony from regaining the incredible arrogance they displayed prior to the PS3 launch.

Epic Battle: Xbone vs. Brick


Thursday, June 13, 2013

A Message to Cliff Blezinski: "TOO BAD MOTHERFUCKER!"

 "TOO BAD MOTHERFUCKER!" -Cliff Bleszinski, in a post on NeoGAF responding to a critic
So today on Twitter former Epic games designer Cliff Bleszinski took to defending Microsoft's anti-consumer bullshit in a series of Tweets that demonstrates just how fucked up the thinking is of the people who are part of the AAA Gaemz Industree™ culture.
"You cannot have game and marketing budgets this high while also having used and rental games existing. The numbers do NOT work people."
Bullshit Alert! Bullshit Alert!
The truth is that nearly 70% of the money Gamestop pays out in the US to people selling their disc games is used by those same customers to pay for copies of new games. The truth is that there is no causal evidence showing that used games significantly disrupt the sales of new games enough to cause the financial hemorrhaging the games industry is seeing in recent years. If there were we wouldn't see things like each Call of Duty title stay at the top of NPD's top 10 for months on end while used copies occupy space on Gamestoip's shelves at prices far less than MSRP.

Used games are not responsible for marketing budgets so large that they in many instances double or triple the cost of releasing a big-budget title. Used games are not responsible for developers and publishers deciding to take franchises with a historic sales ceiling of less than 2-3 million units per release, spending $50-$100 million in trying to capture the sales numbers seen only by the likes of Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto or Halo, and then scrambling to find any excuse they can as to why they're in the red when they don't meet sales numbers that were unrealistic to start with.
"The visual fidelity and feature sets we expect from games now come with sky high costs. Assasins Creed games are made by thousands of devs."
I'm sorry, but this is more total bullshit. Graphics are important, yes, but to say you need a team of thousands to make a nice-looking game is ridiculous. Dark Souls is a very pretty game with amazing art direction, and it costs a fraction of what comes out of the mega-publishers like EA. The Witcher 2 was allegedly made for less than $15 million, it's got far superior graphics to any console game of this current generation, and the developer made quite a bit of money selling the game DRM-free and not treating it's paying customers like potential thieves like so many in the industry want to do.

And just what is this about "feature sets we expect"? Nobody asked for multiplayer in the Uncharted games, Bioshock 2, God of War: Ascension or the Tomb Raider reboot, but the developers spent time and money putting it in anyways. Nobody asked for Resident Evil 6 to become even more scripted and "cinematic" on a scale requiring hundreds of developers to create an interactive film, thus leading to Capcom needing a base of more than 6 million unit sales just to break even. Game developers and publishers are in a self-created arms race to outdo the other mega-publishers as they overspend on things they think will get them higher Metacritic ratings and trying to ram their way to the top of the AAA heap. Instead of being smarter, they just spend harder and cast blame on the gamers for being "entitled" or "too demanding".
"Newsflash. This is why you’re seeing free to play and microtransactions everywhere. The disc based day one $60 model is crumbling."
Oh my, did he actually finally say something in his Twitter spree that makes logical sense? Could it be that he's realizing that trying to sell every game imaginable at $60 is not sustainable?
"Those of you telling me “then just lower game budgets” do understand how silly you sound, right?"
Nope, guess I was wrong!
He immediately follows that Tweet that showed hints of mental clarity with this dud. Apparently to Cliff, proud alumni of the AAA Gaemz Industree™, the very idea of spending realistic amounts on a game is unthinkable! We need moar and moar money to sell our homogenized, overpriced and uninspired products! We need moar restrictions on gamer freedoms as we ram in things they didn't ask for! We need moar and moar money to hit 9-10 scores on Metacritic!

Won't someone please think of the poor developers!? For only $60 per non-transferrable disc plus the price of DLC, you too can help keep a starving AAA Gaemz Industree™ developer from having to sell their sports cars! Please, think of the poor CEOs and staff at the mega-publishers, and donate today!

What Bleszinki seems to not grasp is that most of the problems the publishers and developers face are things they imposed on themselves instead of working smarter, analyzing the marketplace conditions better, understanding the actual value their IP holds rather than the inflated value they think it holds and budgeting according to realistic sales and production goals. The industry bigshots instead continue to over-extend themselves trying to hit 10 million in sales for franchises with a maximum ability to appeal to maybe 2-3 million customers. So given all of that, and the notorious efforts of so many industry shills and puppets doing whatever they can to blame and pass the cost off to us, all I can say about the negative reaction to DRM and the financial bleedout seen by AAA Gaemz Industree™ publishers is "TOO BAD MOTHERFUCKER!"

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

So, About That Xbone Launch

 

The good news train for Microsoft continues to roll on this E3 with the details of their limited launch popping up today. Now, to be fair, most systems launch in a staggered fashion across different regions. This is natural because of the logistical differences between the North American, European and Asian region infrastructures. So it wasn't really that much of a shock to see that day one the system would only have limited availability and only launch in the following markets:

Australia
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Russia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
United States
The real kick in the pants for Xbox fans comes via the fact that you can't import from a country where the Xbone is available and activate the console and games from an IP in a country not on the list. Now there are probably workarounds for this due to VPN services and Tor networks, but what a colossal pain in the ass to make someone jump through after they've shown they are eager to be a paying customer! Ironically, the Xbone won't be launching in Poland despite the fact that Poland's premiere games development studio is responsible for The Witcher 3, one of the highlighted games at the Microsoft press conference.

The worst news though was that it may take upwards of a year to get the Xbone into unsupported markets, and the Asian market, the third largest in the world, won't see the console arrive until late 2014. Even more shockingly, on the list of countries which Microsoft is planning 2014 launches in, Japan is nowhere to be found! Yes, you read that right; the same country which Microsoft spent so much effort on during the 360's early days to secure exclusive games and try and buy support away from Sony, is now appearing to have all but abandoned Japan altogether.

You'd almost think I was making this shit up.


At least this guy won't have to stock anymore Xbox devices.

Dead Rising 3: An Example of an Industry Killing Itself



Dead Rising 3, revealed at Monday's Microsoft conference as an Xbone exclusive title, is apparently now becoming a stereotypical case of exactly what is wrong with the modern AAA Gaemz Industree™.

The Dead Rising franchise debuted on the Xbox 360 as a mid-tier arcade-like experience that was built around the simple fun of running around a mall and slaughtering as many zombies as possible with as many objects as possible. There wasn't any real cinematic flair and they weren't trying to make an epic blockbuster, they simply stuck to the tried and true concept of making something that was easy to jump into and have alot of instant fun.

As a mid-tier title Dead Rising was a surprise breakout in the early days of the 360 and was a great game to keep players engaged during the wait before the release of Gears of War. Capcom actually seemed to have their head on straight during this period and scored some decent acclaim and sales on not-quite-AAA titles like Dead Rising and Lost Planet while they worked behind the scenes on their blockbusters like Resident Evil 5.

But as the console generation continued on Capcom seemed to slowly and publicly lose their minds, focusing on trying to turn their mid-tier franchises into massive AAA projects, even when the properties displayed no evidence of having appeal on the levels of Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty. One example is Lost Planet 2, a game they spent way more money on than they should have, a game whose features got homogenized to copy all the leading third person shooters on the market, and a game whose reception was less than stellar and which became an afterthought even though the first game had been a solid cult hit. 

Devil May Cry was another franchise Capcom damaged by focusing on all the wrong things and expecting to sell more than what was reasonable. Stating before the release of Devil May Cry 4 that they wanted to sell 5 million units (a feat in that genre only achieved by God of War II), they seemed disappointed when the game dropped well below that target in spite of the fact that it was the best-selling game in franchise history and showed an upward trend in the series' popularity over the previous installments. Their later response to try and westernize the 5th game by farming it out to Ninja Theory in order to "westernize" the IP and sell even more resulted in a crash in the popularity of the franchise.

As Capcom struggled more and more to stay in everyone's good graces as the quality of their games output steadily declined, they released the multiplatform Dead Rising 2 which debuted on the PS3 and PC as well as the Xbox 360. By all accounts it should have done much better, seeing as it was the sequel to a cult hit, it was releasing on more platforms than the first game and it boasted a more impressive production value and feature set. But the game tanked. Even in multiplatform status it couldn't outdo the sales or the mindshare of the the original Dead Rising and it ended up as another checkmark in a string of failures for Capcom.

So it is with that in mind that I was actually stunned to read this today in regards to the newly announced Dead Rising 3:

"Capcom is pointedly trying to appeal to a wider audience in this latest iteration, saying it's going after the Call of Duty player. Gone is the cartoonish visual design, replaced by a more "realistic" interpretation of a viral apocalypse. That change is part of the maturation. By shifting the art style, the combat can be "more visceral" than in previous versions, with "real gore.""
The above quote came from an article published by Gamespot and it has all the classic alarm points of how the games industry loses it's focus on making fun games and instead begins to travel the path of over-spending and over-extending their expectations into unreasonable realms, thinking that something will sell simply because they spent a great deal of money trying to force it to become the next AAA blockbuster. They think that by making the game look more like Call of Duty it will sell like Call of Duty, seeming to not notice that the more powerful EA has been pursuing Call of Duty relentlessly for years and failing to overtake them because the Call of Duty player wants to play Call of Duty and not a knockoff derivative.

This sort of thinking is a problem across the games industry and why so many of the larger publishers are struggling financially. When you hear Square-Enix complain that 3.5 million units of Tomb Raider selling wasn't enough, even though it was the best selling Tomb Raider of the last decade, you can see the sickness is running deep. Now it's apparent from Capcom's statements on Dead Rising 3 that they are falling into the trap yet again, trying to turn a middle tier B grade franchise which showed decline in popularity, into a massively bloated and expensive gamble. Instead on simply trying to recpature the Dead Rising audience, which is far more realistic for a game such as this, they're now aiming for the stars and will likely fail.


Tuesday, June 11, 2013

E3 2013: X


E3 2013: Bayonetta 2


E3 2013: Mirror's Edge 2


E3 2013: Kingdom Hearts III


E3 2013: Final Fantasy XV


Formerly Final Fantasy Versus XIII for the PS3, this game is now officially Final Fantasy XV and releasing on PS4 and Xbone.

The Defining Moment of E3 2013


When E3 2013 is all said and done, one thing will stand out in most people's minds above all others, and it happened last night at the Sony press conference.

Of course, it wasn't just at the conference that Sony rubbed the salt in Microsoft's PR wounds:


I imagine Redmond isn't a happy place right now.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Don Mattrick Interview With the BBC


"BBC: The preowned debate has really really run on and on. What assurances can you give that the publishers will allow to trade games freely?

Mattrick: Well look we have an ecosystem. There's 4 key participants in that ecosystem: consumers, content creators, retailers and Microsoft. So we have to come up with a set of policies that harmonize the interests of everyone. That allow us to work together. We've been working with our key retail partners. They're pleases with what we're doing. I think they're a great barometer for what I perceive consumers are going to take a look at so we've given a lot of detail about what people can do. We support resale. Uh, I don't know what else to tell you. Those business models exist today and they'll exist in the future."

For the full interview, with accompanying video, go here.

A set of policies that "harmonize the interests of everyone" eh? Up yours fucker, the only thing you people have done is walk all over your paying consumers and force them to bear the burden on behalf of Microsoft's interest in controlling all our access to the things we pay money for.

The Xbone DRM has NO benefit to the consumer and it has NO benefit to retailers who aren't part of your corporate oligopoly. It only benefits the sickly mega publishers who can't manage a checkbook and need as many strawmen as they can possibly conjure to avoid personal responsibility for running multimillion-dollar corporations into financial pits. It also only benefits the greedy control-obsessed executive assholes occupying the head offices of Microsoft in Redmond, who want to turn all sales into rentals and want us to check in like parolees just to use our electronic devices.

Seeing Don Mattrick's body language and his nervous behavior brought to mind an old rap song by Mobb Deep called "Shook Ones Pt. II"
" 'cause ain't no such things as halfway crooks
scared to death, scared to look, they shook
'cause ain't no such things as halfway crooks
scared to death, scared to look"

Microsoft Press Conference Recap


- Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain began the show, with Hideo Kojima taking the stage after a new trailer. The game is a next-generation title running on the Fox Engine.

- The Xbox 360 is getting a new revision, this time it's outer case resembles that of the Xbone. No word on a price drop for the now 8 year old console.

- From July until November XBL Gold subscibers will get 2 free games per month from Games on Demand, sort of like the giveaways Sony does with PS+ on the PS3 and Vita. No word on what games will be available for this offer.

- World of Tanks is coming to the 360 as a free to play title.

- Rounding out the Xbox 360 content, a new Dark Souls II trailer was shown and the September release of Grand Theft Auto V was mentioned.

- Ryse: Son of Rome, which was once a 360 Kinect-only title in past E3 shows, is now a CryEngine made Xbone game that appears to have a controller based hack and slash mechanic.

- Killer Instinct is getting rebooted as an Xbone exclusive. Madcatz is developing a companion arcade stick for the release of the game.

- New Forza 5 trailer with promises of adaptive AI that learns your playstyle and goes off and races for you while you're away.

- Quantum Break is apparently a mixture of a sci-fi TV show and decision-based game mechanics that affect how the story of the show plays out.

- Insomniac, the once Sony-exclusive developers of Resistance and Ratchet and Clank, are making a new Xbone exclusive open world FPS titled Sunset Overdrive.

- D4 is another Xbone exclusive with cel-shaded visuals. Nothing to indicate what type of game this is or how it plays was shown.

- Project Spark is a user-generated content creation game made with elements similar to Spore and Modnation Racers. It apparently incorporates a good deal of Smartglass technology.

- The Xbone exclusive Crimson Dragon was announced. It is made by the creator of the niche cult-hit Panzer Dragoon Orta and appears to be reminiscent of the prior Panzer Dragoon game mechanics.

- Smartglass can apparently be used to set up XBL multiplayer games while you play another singleplayer game on the console. It seems to have Marketplace access as well.

- Streaming functionality is now part of the Xbone via Twitch.

- Increase in the number of XBL friends and MS Points are now being converted to standard currency.

- Dead Rising 3 in-game demonstrated on-stage. Apparently an Xbone exclusive, incorporates Smartglass options into the game mechanics.

- Witcher 3 is now officially coming to consoles via Xbone.

- Battlefield 4 is coming to Xbone, with exclusive downloadable content.

- A CGI trailer announcing Halo 5 as an Xbone exclusive was shown, with a speculated release date in 2014.

- As seen in the leak from Game Informer, Respawn's first game is Titanfall, a sci-fi FPS set in a world with mechs. Titanfall is coming to Xbone, Xbox 360 and PC.

- The Xbone hardware will release this coming November at a whopping $499.99.

Pre-Microsoft Conference Rumors


A notorious leaker of games industry info popped up out of nowhere early this morning and offered the following tidbits online regarding Microsoft, Xbone and their conference which is now 4 hours away as I type this:

-Microsoft is spending alot of money to keep 3rd parties from mentioning PS4 versions of multiplatform games. Unless a 3rd party game is specifically and unequivocally mentioned as an Xbone exclusive, assume there is also a PS4 version they are hiding from the show.

-Microsoft's reveal of the official DRM policy last week was stage 1 of their plan to spin info for the public. Stage 2 will happen at Gamescon. They have no actual plan for rentals and none are being pursued, so they are going out of their way to avoid questions on the subject.

-The cloud MS advertises was designed from the start primarily for their DRM and product control programs. Unlike previous speculation elsewhere it was Microsoft, not 3rd parties, who generated the idea of the DRM and took it to publishers. EA and Ubisoft have become the biggest supporters of the DRM since MS presented it.

-According to the post by the leaker, the DRM on Xbone is actually worse than what has been revealed but he can't get solid info on specifics because his sources are afraid for their jobs.

-At the MS conference will be Mirror's Edge 2, Dead Rising 3, exclusive DLC for another Capcom game, a Phil Spencer title and a new Prince of Persia game.

-"Live paywall": Now whether this means XBL Gold is required for all services or if it means that online multiplayer is still in need of subscription is unclear to me. If it's the former then yes, the DRM on Xbone is actually getting worse and worse as time goes on.

Finally, the source of these leaks has posted a couple things about Sony as well:

-No online paywall for Sony

-Sony's E3 showing is secured so tightly that info is hard to come by.

All we can do now is wait and see if this source, who has accurately leaked info in the past such as the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas voice actor cast and Xbox 360 technical specs, has done it again. Some of the info is so awful though I think it would be better if he was wrong.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

The Calm Before the Storm

Today is the final day of relative peace and quiet before E3, and for the first time I'm not excited by the prospect of what I'm going to hear. I should be, considering that we have 2 brand new consoles debuting and we have a contender who's not doing so well right now and knows they need to knock it out of the park with killer games to stop the stagnation of their recently launched platform. This should be a grand show with the blockbuster announcements from all those hungry to get a foothold in the hearts and minds of the gaming audience as the new generation descend upon us.

But thanks to the malicious activity of the industry of late I'm filled with dread instead of hope. The WiiU is DRM-free but 3rd parties have all but abandoned the device. Microsoft is going forth with a horrible DRM platform on Xbone that virtually ensures I won't ever own one so long as that software is a "feature". It's still unclear how Sony is proceeding on the DRM front. If Sony advances a DRM scheme similar to Microsoft I may just call it quits on console gaming altogether. Even if they announce that the forever-in-development games The Last Guardian and Final Fantasy Versus XIII, the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 5 and speculated unannounced games like Kingdom Hearts 3 are now being designed for the Playstation 4, I would be hard-pressed to find justification in buying the machine to play them. And yes, if Sony has DRM similar to Xbone on the PS4 they will receive just as much hatred as Microsoft has in my future ranting blog posts.

So we now stand on the eve of E3, with both the Microsoft and Sony conferences happening tomorrow. I find myself wondering, as I did in one of the very first blog posts I wrote here, if the AAA Gaemz Industree™ which is pointing a gun at it's own head will squeeze the trigger and pre-emptively ruin the entire next console generation before it even starts. Is there is anyone coming to their senses before they ruin things? Microsoft can choose to remove the DRM if they want to, Sony can choose to not implement it at all, the question is will they? The ball is now in their court and all we can do is wait. 

The storm is coming my friends, the storm is coming.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Propoganda, For a Good Cause


The Ballad of the AAA Gaemz Industree™

gave up trying to figure it out but my head got lost along the way
worn out from giving it up my soul I pissed it all away
still stings these shattered nerves
pigs we get what pigs deserve
I'm going all the way down I'm leaving today

come come come on you've gotta fill me up
come come gotta let me inside of you
come come come on you gotta fix me up
come come gotta let me inside of you

still feel it all slipping away but it doesn't matter anymore
everybody's still chipping away but it doesn't matter anymore
look through these blackened eyes
you'll see ten thousand lies
my lips may promise but my heart is a whore

come come come on you gotta fill me up
come come gotta let me inside of you
come come come on you gotta fix me up
come come gotta let me get through to you

this isn't meant to last
this is for right now

I know it's all getting away and it comes to me as no surprise
I know what's coming to me is never going to arrive
fresh blood through tired skin
new sweat to drown me in
dress up this rotten carcass just to make it look alive

come come come on you gotta fill me up
come come gotta let me inside of you
come come come on you gotta fix me up
come come gotta let me get through to you

this isn't meant to last
this is for right now

I wish I could put the blame on you
I want you to make me
I want you to take me
I want you to break me
then I want you to throw me away


This preceding musical interlude of the song "Last", courtesy of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, is dedicated to our dearly beloved AAA Gaemz Industree™.

Today Microsoft confirmed most of the horrible anti-consumer policies that were speculated on for the Xbone on their official website. As we witness Microsoft conspire with the mega-publishers to create complicated systems to limit user freedoms and punish end consumers, all in a desperate bid to stop the financial bleeding from our dear friends at the likes of EA, Activision and Ubisoft, let us ponder the lyrics to this song and see just how much of it describes the rotting mindset of an industry that is killing itself.