Finally!

Mojang has finally confirmed the Release Date Month for Minecraft on the Vita, which will be August, the same month that the XBone and PS4 editions will be released on their respective platforms.  It's actually kind of a big deal because of the way that it all works out.  The details of it are as such:

• Minecraft: Playstation 3 + Vita Edition will be available on the PSN in August.
• It will include all the features from the most recent Playstation 3 version, including online play on Vita.
• This means everyone who has bought Minecraft: Playstation 3 Edition from PSN will get it on Vita for free. Those fluent in Sony-speak might refer to the deal as “Cross-buy.”
• We are working closely with Sony Computer Entertainment to look into ways to enable upgrade from the Blu-ray disc version of Minecraft: Playstation 3 Edition to Minecraft: Playstation 3 and Vita. We’ll have more info on this closer to release.
• Minecraft: Playstation 3 + Vita Edition will cost $19.99.
• It doesn’t matter if you buy for PS3 or Vita first, you own the game for both platforms.
• Saves are transferrable between the Playstation 3 and Vita versions of Minecraft. You will be able to craft at home on your Playstation 3, then continue on the bus/toilet with your Playstation Vita.
• All of the DLC you’ve purchased for Minecraft: Playstation 3 Edition will work on Playstation 3 + Vita Edition.

So, basically, the Vita version of Minecraft is the PS3 version, except on the Vita.  I personally think they could have based the game on the PS4 version as, yes, I know it's a very technical game technically, but I don't think it's so much that the Vita could not handle the PS4 version.  However, I suppose the PS3+Vita deal is the sweeter end of it, because of the way the PS4 version is set up.

• Minecraft: Playstation 4 Edition will be released on the PSN in August. It brings significantly bigger worlds and a greater draw distance than Playstation 3 + Vita Edition.
• It will include all the features from the most recent Playstation 3 version.
• Minecraft: Playstation 4 Edition will cost $19.99.
• If you’ve bought Playstation 3 Edition from the Playstation Network you will be able to upgrade for $4.99.
• You will be able to upgrade for a minimum of a year after the release date.
• We are working closely with Sony Computer Entertainment to look into ways to enable upgrade from the Blu-ray disc version of Minecraft: Playstation 3 Edition to Minecraft: Playstation 4 Edition. We’ll have more info on this closer to release.
• Players with Playstation 3 Edition or Playstation 3 + Vita Edition saves will be able to import their worlds to Playstation 4. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to transfer your saves from Playstation 4 to Playstation 3/Vita. There are technical reasons for this; we can make worlds bigger without too much stress, but shrinking them causes all kinds of problems.
• Cross-platform play will not be possible between Playstation 3 + Vita Edition and Playstation 4 Edition.
• Many, but not all, of the DLC skins and texture packs you’ve purchased for Playstation 3 Edition will be available for use in Playstation 4 Edition. We’d like to say all your DLC would transfer but some of the items are trapped in licensing deals that are too boring to get into here. We’ll have more on this soon.

So if you buy the PS4 version as an upgrade, you can pull your files over to it, but then they are locked to your PS4 copy of the game since you can't send them back.  Again, I think the Vita version could have been the PS4 version, but then you miss out on the cross-play/Cross-buy with the millions of people (yeah, millions) who have already bought it on PS3.  I'm personally trying to remember if Minecraft has ever been on sale, because if it has and I didn't buy it because I was waiting for the Vita version, I will be momentarily upset with myself, but then recall that "who the hell thought it would be Cross-Buy" was my thinking, and justifiably so.  It's a pretty great move regardless.

In any case, it's goddamn Minecraft on my Vita.  I have literally been waiting for this for years, and it's finally becoming a reality in a scant few months.  I'll finally be able to build shit whenever I want to and enjoy the Lego Box that is the game, when I have completely and totally lacked the ability to do so until now.

Now, here's just hoping that the PS3 version of the game isn't stuck on, like....the Adventure Update.

good lord, that update was a while ago and there's so much more stuff in it and hnnng this is why I'll never be satisfied

Back Home

We all have those games that we just find ourselves coming back to one way or another, whether it be playing it long after you're -done- with it, or whether you just find yourself mentally comparing it to other games when you start playing it, or however it's done.  For Chance, it's Dragon's Crown.  For plenty of others out there, I'm sure it's Persona 4: The Golden.  Or perhaps it's Sorcery Saga: The Curse of the Great Curry God, Ys: Memories of Celceta, Ragnarok Odyssey (perhaps the Ace version), Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention, Conception 2: Children of the Seven Stars, Demon Gaze, Atelier Meruru or Totori Plus, Toukiden: The Age of Demons or any other number of games that offer long, engrossing experiences on the Vita.

For me, it's always been Soul Sacrifice.

With the introduction of Soul Sacrifice Delta to the Playstation Store (it's digital-only, it seems) and the stars aligning to deliver unto me my 64 gig memory card for my Vita far before the May 30th - June 20th window I was offered (likely because who knows with Customs), it was time.  Time to go back to the game I've said a hundred times that I'd rather be playing, or that I just -want- to be playing it.  So as I've been filling up my 64 Gig stick with games, I've turned to it and have been playing it again.

I'm not sure just what it is about the game that I love, but I'm inexorably drawn to it.  I want to conquer all that it has to offer (except the Forgotten Pacts, fuuuuuck thaaaaaaat) and then do it all over again in Delta, which, from what I've heard, greatly expands the universe and the setting of the game, which is exactly what I wanted.  It's not quite a world I can explore just yet, but it's bigger thematically and that counts for something.  I'm not going to know just by how much until I start it, and I've still got a grip of content to wrangle with on the vanilla game, but it's definitely something to look forward to.

In all honesty, though, I wish I could have people enjoy the game as I do.  I wish I could quantify just what about it makes me grin, what gets me pumped up and excited, what makes me feel like I'm bending the game over my knee without cheesing or breaking it.  I say it's dodge-rolling out of the way of a charge attack, turning around and unloading three volleys of arrows into my foe before he gets up.  I say it's sitting back and launching an egg bomb right in the cursed part of an archfiend and breaking it to expose it to some massive damage for the next five or so seconds.  I say it's throwing on armor and not even getting hit while I mercilessly slaughter a tier of monster that, at one point, was nigh-impossible for me to kill.  I say all of these things and I just get blank stares or "Well, it's good that you liked it" or something of that sort.

I wish everyone else played the same game that I did, I guess, because the lack of love for the series really, really bums me out.  Not that it's reviled, but rather that I think it's -big-, that it's a big deal game, a fantastic experience and it's something that I would suggest to anyone with a Vita.  This is not universally agreed upon like Gravity Rush or Uncharted: Golden Abyss (for the most part) or Persona 4 Golden are.  To me, it should be, because I've gotten so much fun out of this goddamn game, it's incredible.

But, well, that's just how it goes, I suppose.

also bastardizing Metal Gear Solid "You live on....THROUGH THIS ARM!" makes me giggle and okay, I'm sorry

Sharing is Caring - inFamous: Second Son

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One of the core tenants of the PS4 when it was shown off in-depth was the Share button, to be utilized by we the players to, well, share screenshots and videos from our game playing.  Not only was this a godsend to people like me who -want- to use our own screenshots for things like a blog or what have you (at least in theory), but it's just plain -cool- for the opportunities that it opens up.  I can't tell you how many times I've been playing a PS3 game and went "Goddamnit, I wish I could screenshot that" because there's just so much cool shit that happens to everyone while they play a game, and it's usually only when you're playing with buddies present that you can point and go "Holy shit, look at that" when something awesome is happening.  Now, with the Share button, you're closer to being able to replicate that to your friends who might not actually be sitting right there on your couch or whatever with you.

inFamous: Second Son takes this a step further, in that they added a Photo Mode to the game in the latest patch that released sometime last month.  This allows you to pause the game, adjust the screen for your perfect screenshot by controlling the camera (to a degree), adding color filters and adjusting the focus of it before hitting that Share button to actually do the deed.

It works.  It works pretty nicely.  Being that I didn't really have a lot to talk about today, I figured I could show off some of the screenshots I took of the game.  Of course, then I realized that I hadn't taken too many because I'm just not used to it yet, so then I went and -made- some, and I gotta say, I think they turned out well.

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It's not perfect - I would prefer a Flickr app like what's on Vita, even over USB transfer (because I can't find my goddamn flash drive and I spent about an hour looking for the damn thing) but you take what you can get, I suppose.  For now, it's plenty serviceable and the pictures still look damn nice even though the quality isn't -exactly- on par with how they are on the PS4 itself.

It's still much, -much- better than not having the option at all.

Evil Delsin just seems so much more photogenic than Good Delsin, because the red is much more striking, also red is awesome

Two Days in a Row!

Were the picture better, you could see that this actually houses my old 16 gig stick.  You have served me well, friend.

So, yesterday Drakengard 3 CE ships.  Today, I receive my 64 GB Vita Memory Stick.  I am convinced that tomorrow will bring something equally amazing, or I will have something absolutely terrible befall me, because this shit just isn't average.  Good fortune avoids me like the plague, so two days of it in a row is especially suspicious and makes me worry about just what the universe has in store for me.

But for now, I'll suspend my concerns because I have a fucking lot of space to work with.

I have noticed that, despite the constant concerns I've had with my old 16 gig stick and the space therein, on upgrading I discover that I don't have a veritable bevy of goodies with which to fill my new expanse.  This is likely due to my insistence on buying physical and having space to work with is -always- a good thing, but it's sort of made me want to just buy up a bunch of stuff -just- to fill it out, which is admittedly kind of a bad idea.  But my list of things to add to my Vita looks something like this so far:

• Soul Sacrifice (Free Digital version)
• Soul Sacrifice Delta
• Velocity Ultra
• PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate HD (I might not even bother)
• Stealth Inc. A Clone in the Dark
• Atelier Meruru Plus: The Apprentice of Arland
• Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
• Vagrant Story
• Unit 13
• Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut
• Street Fighter X Tekken (Might not bother)
• Modnation Racers: Road Trip (Won't bother)
• Smart As... (Don't know about this one)
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
• Limbo
• Urban Trial Freestyle (Probably won't)
• Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (Had it once, probably won't get it back)
• Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD
• Sine Mora (Might Not)
• Gods Eater Burst
• BlazBlue Continuum Shift EXTEND
• Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention (Deleted it for space a while ago)
• Wipeout 2048
• New Little King's Story (Deleted for space)
• Atelier Totori Plus: The Adventurer of Arland
• Mortal Kombat
• Corpse Party
• Corpse Party: Book of Shadows
• A few more PSP games including the earlier Personas
• Final Fantasies VII-IX and X-2

....okay, so it looks like a lot and actually if I try to fit all of that on my stick, it probably won't fit. Aaaaand I skimmed over a few things like all of the Atlus RPGs I've bought on sale.

But if you compare that to the list of physical games I have (which I won't bore you with), then it -really- doesn't compare.  And those are the games I kind of want to have digital versions of now...just to have them.  Persona 4 Golden, for example or Dynasty Warriors 8 Complete, just so I can play them whenever.  It's....a slippery slope now, because yes, I already have these games and I already own them, but owning a digital version -too- would be nice.  I feel like I finally understand why Chance buys up multiple versions of games he likes, because that compulsion is welling up inside of me now.  I must resist.

I'm going to be a little more expectant of Playstation Plus, however, as I'll actually be able to download the games I get like...right away.  I won't know what to do with myself!  Aside from have games.

Like, fucking all of them.

but the Vita has no games, right

Microsoft with Another Power Play

In probably one of the more pandering ways they could have announced it, Microsoft has finally pulled the Kinect as a pack-in starting in June, meaning the XBone will start being sold as a stand-alone console in June for $399.  It's surprising in all the same ways that it's not - I really thought Microsoft was going to be stubborn on this one, but I guess the allure of phantom sales was too strong for them.  The XBox One is now, officially and literally, nothing unique at its base, and that is honestly more than a little disappointing, even for someone who just straight-up has never been interested in an XBone.

The whole of this little experiment as I'm charitably calling it has been rather interesting to witness.  From its inception, the XBone has been this malleable box of variable evil in the eyes of many and that's solely because of the poor messaging and the poor attitude from Microsoft with regards to everything about the system.  Once they fell flat on their face, the following could best be described as "Flailing wildly, grasping at any and all articles of your clothing to drag themselves back to you, prostrate and begging for your time and affection" which is...well, not everybody cares for it, we'll say.

Objectively, nothing is wrong with any of this.  The XBone has now (or will, in June) become a system that is truly about what a console should be: something you can pull out of a box, attach cables to, do the set-up on and then just get to playing your damn games.  There's no Kinect to calibrate (or even think about unpacking) and no -direct- need to plug an ethernet cable into it (or set up Wi-Fi) because of some nebulous DRM scheme.  (Okay, you still need to do that to make the console more or less -functional- but, you know, baby steps)  It is just a system reminiscent of the one we've had for the last decade but shinier and with some extra bells and whistles of some immeasurable value because of their inherently subjective nature.

Is that a bad thing?  No.  Not in so many words.

I have never been a fan of the XBox in any of its incarnations, and I had no love for the XBone when it was announced because, as it was announced, it was a product incapable of being loved.  It was a standing monolith of spite personified, primed and ready to exclaim "Fuck you!" and punch you in your reproductive parts upon being unboxed.  I can't even say, as most are willing to do, that they were trying something new on the Digital side of things because they weren't - they were attempting to push some sort of Frankenstein's Monster version of Games for Windows Live on the system and telling you to sit down and enjoy it for all the 'benefits' that being tied unceremoniously to a server structure an inordinate amount of miles away will provide to you, because shit is futuristic, yo.  It was never going to work out.  It was never going to be a thing heralded from on high by all or even some.  It was destined to be as it was - loathed and mocked for treading on the grass with the "No Trespassing" sign on it.

The Kinect, though?  It had potential.  Perhaps insomuch as MSPaint has potential in being a program in which you can create photorealistic images of shit, where it is only barely on this side of impossible to actually make that happen, but potential nonetheless.  I have a hard time believing anyone who says they -don't- want what Kinect is technically promising, but can't dream of delivering, on top of what it can actually do with some reliability.

Much like Tablet computers, there's something innately futuristic about motion controls and voice commands that is ingrained as awesome future shit to me.  Maybe it's just the Star Trek stuff I watched growing up, but it does tickle parts of my brain that come right to attention when that premise shifts up.  The jumping around, waving your arms about to protect an imaginary goal from soccer balls with dodgy (at best) detection when not instantly calibrated before hand?  Yeah.  I can see people not caring about that.  But walking into a room and saying "XBox, on" and having that shit turn on, waiting for your next command?  Yeah.  That's the shit I can get behind.  Were it only as natural as it could be (rather than having to put on your super authoritative voice most of the time) it would be -really- cool, if just for the novelty.

But I am convinced that with some combination of -something- like the Kinect (maybe even the Playstation Eye 3.0 or whatever) and a controller of some sort (Maybe a Move Wand(s) ) that there could be something immensely cool or enjoyable about motion technology where it concerns gaming.  It might be a couple generations off, but there has to be something out there for it.  I was personally banking on Microsoft stubbornly keeping the Kinect around (even as a toss-away thing because they weren't requiring it) to have it as an option for developers to use.  For someone to finally get -that- idea and implement it and it gets big because, fuck, everyone has one.  That's unfortunately just probably not going to happen anymore.  With the Kinect stuck as it was last generation, it's going to get much the same support as that did (read: almost none) and we'll all just sort of point and laugh derisively at it and what is attempted.

Now, is this move going to make a difference?  Not...much of one, I don't think.

The damage has been done.  In some ways, the Kinect was holding the device back.  In some ways, the extra $100 was holding it back as well.  Some pretend that these were the only two albatrosses about the neck of the XBone and now it's free to soar the sales charts and reign King Supreme and that's just not going to happen.  The time for the XBone to soar was back when it released, and if there's another time, it's a solid year, perhaps two away. The initial rush of consoles purchased has happened and the PS4 reigns on top of that pile.  The stragglers are the ones reluctant to pay $400 for a Next Gen system for whatever reason, so bringing the XBone down to that price parity....doesn't really do a whole lot.  Were there people that were just -really- waiting for Microsoft to do just this?  Sure.  Not the 'masses', however, since it honestly wasn't something you -should- have expected.

Even still, a stigma is just a -hard- thing to shake.  The PS3 had the "no games" thing for a while as well as the "stupid price" thing, and it all just cast the machine in a negative light long after those issues had been rectified.  It's going to be the same way with the XBone, especially because all they've done is put themselves directly next to the PS4 for comparison....where it will only be seen as lacking.  The XBone without the Kinect is just a less good PS4 without the benefit of PS+ and all the fun stuff that Sony has been working on.  Microsoft's exclusive lineup isn't going to draw in any -new- customers, either.  Halo 5 isn't going to make a Playstation diehard eschew grabbing a PS4 in favor of an XBone.  Gears of War anything isn't.  Forza didn't. 

No matter how you see it, this move with the Kinect just seems born of desperation and short-sightedness.  I will be heartily surprised if it makes the thing sell like a PS4 for any amount of time, and who knows if it's going to help in the long run if Sony continues to do their best with services and Exclusives that you -can't- just expect?  The Order is new and exciting because it's -new-, and if Microsoft wants to grab a few new people, they're going to have to put new things on the plate.  That's what'll sell an XBone over a PS4 way down the line when both have seen a price cut and parents are finally starting to relent, deciding to grab one of these things for the system.  But who knows if -that- is the next move Microsoft is going to rattle over towards?

seriously, I just don't see the point and I really wanted to see them take a stance on the goddamn Kinect

I Still Don't Know What The Hell - Watch_Dogs

I was really, really excited about Watch_Dogs (underscore for life) when it was announced and shown off at E3.  It seemed like this really great, really new and fresh-feeling thing that was going to ratchet up new IPs again and kick some ass.  It also seemed like it was going to look damn pretty while it did it, too.

It's, uh....it's not looking like it's any of these things anymore.  In truth, I just don't know what the hell Watch_Dogs is going to be like anymore.  I'm not exactly convinced the developers do either.

Watch_Dogs doesn't know if it wants to be a badass hacker simulator, a Grand Theft Auto-wannabe with electronic shenannigans, a rudimentary third-person shooter with driving elements, or even if it wants to be a super serious spy romp, or a wacky "Jerks with powerful tools" simulator.  The game gives off the impression that it wants to be all of these things specifically to try and cater and sell to everyone, and that little experiment has been tried and tried again, always with less-than-impressive results.  And yet everyone still tries it anyway.

The above video is where the cracks in my belief -really- started to show.  To that point, Watch_Dogs had seemed to want to go down the humorless (aside from the badass Asian dude rockin' the Kazuma Kiryu look) "I WILL HAVE REVENGE" route, which can be fine if done right.  The tension, the bitterness, the internal anguish and hatred festering in the main character, they're all very gripping and driving with the right writing applied to them.  However, that's a folly to start, since an open-world game is prone to mischief the likes of which that makes grown men giggle - something that inherently destroys that mood, and one of the big problems people had with GTA IV.  (Rather, thematic disconnect all around, not just the revenge plot)

However, adding a side mission where you almost comically pass out only to awaken piloting a giant fuck-off spider-tank (with only six legs) bent on destroying everything in sight?

Nah.  Not feeling it.

At least, not from the mood that Watch_Dogs had fostered before that point.  The Not-So-Spider-Tank is silly and dumb as hell and I love it because of that, but it just doesn't make sense and I'm almost disappointed in it.  I don't want to be disappointed in a giant fuck-off tanks in a somewhat destructible environment with plenty of people and cars to stomp.  That is the direct opposite of what I want!  Yet, this is what Ubisoft has reduced me to and I'm not too happy about it.

The other main bone of contention (Literally the only other thing, really, since the "lack of coherent direction" is fairly all-encompassing) revolves around the fact that the graphics and presentation has slid around quite a lot in the time from the initial reveal (Which everyone knew was bullshit anyway) to now which has seen some -dastardly- looking screenshots and gifs (that is a comparison, btw) in the meanwhile, all of which indicating that the game is going to look...well, not -bad- (except that screenshot), but not Next Gen, which at least Assassin's Creed 4 managed to do, and quite capably.  Part of that has to do with splitting to last-gen as well, which is ultimately the wrong way about it, but part of the blame has to fall on the clear mismanagement that the game has seen in the time it's been developed.

So what do I even want from Watch_Dogs anymore?  I don't....don't really know.  I'll have to do what I do best in these situations: assemble a list.

• Game has to look at least -pretty- good.  (It's looking like it will, even though it was thought to be 1080p/60 FPS on PS4 and apparently is not)
• If this is another Third-Person Cover Shooter, I'm going to be pissed.  Thus, I don't want gunplay to be a -major- portion of the game.  It's going to be moreso than, say, Sleeping Dogs' gunplay, but I don't want GTA-levels.
• The Spider-Tank?  I don't even know....I guess I hope the other "Cyber Trips" aren't as silly and inconsistent?  Or maybe I want them to be moreso.
• I want Jordi Chin to be a major part of the story.  I do not want to go five missions without seeing that dude because he is awesome.
• A little depth to Aiden would be nice.  "REVENGE" is good and all, but....yeah.
• Cars don't control like ass.
• -Locked- Framerate.  It'll probably be 30 FPS, and if it dips below 30, that is downright embarrassing.
• I want the Electronics/Hacking stuff to be -useful- and -integral-, not a neat thing you can use -or- completely ignore in favor of BOOLETTS

Are we going to get any of those?  I don't know.  I have absolutely no clue.  I just know that I want them and if they're not present, I'm just....really going to be disappointed with the game.  Don't do this to me, Ubisoft.

I feel like asking this game to not just be a cover-based shooter at this point is moot, but goddamnit, I can hope

Wow, That Got Big

Tomodachi Life is a game that Nintendo announced not too long ago that is...well, more than a little hard to explain.  It gets even harder if you actually watch the video included above, but it also elucidates that difficulty that I bear.

Put simply, Tomodachi Life is a Life Sim that uses your Miis (well, you have to make them in the game, it doesn't just pull them, I don't think) to create the living, breathing element that "Life Sim" implies.  It's like The Sims with full Automation, because your Miis will live out their own life without needing you to tell them to brush their teeth or go to sleep.  Instead, important things (or, you know, less so) will be asked to you for your input every now and again.  Along the way, a ton of zany shit happens.  If that wasn't obvious already.  Basically, it is in every way a light-hearted, whimsical game that means only to entertain.

Which is why it's a little odd that it was found dead-center of a rather extreme and heated debate about really important issues.

A rather large part of Tomodachi Life, being a Life Sim, is the ability for your Miis to marry one another.  Like The Sims, this will usually lead to having a child, and in Tomodachi Life, this child can hop around from your version of the game to others over Street or Spotpass, I believe.  However, it quickly surfaced that this was only possible with heterosexual couples and, indeed, such a coupling was the only one possible in the game itself.  Fans took to Twitter to ask Nintendo of America to add Homosexual coupling to the game for the Western Release and the whole thing could have just ended there.  It really did not have to snowball to just where it ended up, but, well...

"Nintendo never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of Tomodachi Life," a Nintendo of America representative said in a statement to the Associated Press. "The relationship options in the game represent a playful alternate world rather than a real-life simulation. We hope that all of our fans will see that Tomodachi Life was intended to be a whimsical and quirky game, and that we were absolutely not trying to provide social commentary."

-Nintendo of America's 1st Response to the Situation

I want to know just what part of that they thought was a good idea.  Like, on a basic, simple level, how does "Can you add homosexual orientations to the game?" elicit a response that is basically, "Woah, hey wait, we're just trying to localize a fun game here, we don't need to muddy it up with shit" and someone went "Yeah, that works."?  That's just poor decision making, pure and simple.  It is clearly not the right way to handle the situation, and it's a little disappointing that it went down that way.

I would like to sidebar here for a moment and say that, on the whole, I'm not really a fan of Internet Activism.  The goals are generally, inherently noble, yes, but the methods and the execution of being heard is usually not.  Nor is it usually pleasant.  More often than not, the common person walks away from the entire experience with a -negative- opinion on the whole of it because it all devolves into a shouting match between people on their respective high horses.  Harken back to the Dragon's Crown debacle, where a simple argument over some admittedly eyebrow-raising sections turned into "THE GAME PROMOTES RAPE CULTURE" versus "IT'S FUCKING ART" and neither side was willing to budge because the sides were simply too extreme from one another, destroying any and all middle ground that could've been discovered.  It became a cesspool, to be frank.

The sad thing is that the argument resumed by Tomodachi Life is far bigger than the game and honestly didn't need to be as laser-focused on it as it was.  I blame the majority of that on NoA's original, stupid response.  A lot of the things that the Internet Activists get bent out of shape about are fairly malleable, adhering to a certain set of standards that, while not 'mandatory' to have, many people do have anyway.  Things are in a grey area, I should say, whether it be a real one or an argumentative one.  The issue of homosexual relationships in games where -you- as a person are supposed to be represented by your avatar?  That's easy.  That's binary.  If you are gay, your character should be able to be gay.  Full stop.  Just like if you're a particular race, your character should be able to be that particular race.  It is meant to be -you-, so allow the tools and the options for that to be possible.  It's not a matter of "every game has to have 'the gay character'" or silly bullshit like that (which is actually counterproductive), but just a matter of ensuring you can play you when the developer wants you to play you.

That said, it was never Nintendo of America's battle to be fought, and had their second statement been their first, it would've been that much more obvious and simple.

"Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to change this game's design, and such a significant development change can't be accomplished with a post-ship patch," the statement continues. "We are committed to advancing our longtime company values of fun and entertainment for everyone. We pledge that if we create a next installment in the Tomodachi series, we will strive to design a game-play experience from the ground up that is more inclusive, and better represents all players."

-Nintendo of America's 2nd Response to the Situation

NoA is simply localizing the game.  They're the ones translating the text and making sure the game plays nice with the different versions of the hardware that are in our region.  They don't have authority or the ability to change entire swaths of the actual game itself and that was obvious from the start.  Tomodachi Life was going to release as-is, and that's not some sort of crime against humanity.  It was never really about Tomodachi Life itself, but rather the larger issue present.  If they would have just said it was out of their hands from the start, people (the sane ones, anyway) would have shrugged and either said "That's reasonable, we'll just see next time, I guess" or went "That's reasonable, let's ask Nintendo of Japan about it instead, since they made the game." and it would have just went from there.  Cooler heads would have (likely) prevailed and we would all be the better for it.  Instead, we have the things being said in the comments section of those posts linked in this one and -yes- you should always ignore the comments section as a rule, but good god there is some extraordinary bullshit in there.

Some seem to think that the last part of that second statement, the "if we create a next installment in the Tomodachi series" line is a thinly-veiled threat to the tune of no more Tomodachi games being localized.  That is then being levied at anyone who dare say anything about the gay issue as ammunition for a take on the "This is why we can't have nice things" guilt trip.  If that's the case, then, well, so be it.  We have evolved beyond the point where a glaring oversight over something as binary as orientation is 'alright', and it's hard to say whether or not the next game will see a change in that, given that Nintendo is not exactly widely celebrated for flexibility.  Not to mention Japan's views and policies regarding same-sex marriage, which aren't nearly as open as America's are becoming.

None of this is an actual condemnation of the game or Nintendo, really.  A lot of it is just issues regarding circumstance and of an issue that isn't actually directly related to Tomodachi Life beyond the solitary obvious reason that was likely not done out of malice or pettiness.  As such, with it more or less 'resolved', you should certainly pick up the game if it looks to be something that you would enjoy.  I myself am on the fence about it because, while I love quirky, weird shit (as we have established) I'm not too sure on Tomodachi's staying power beyond the initial "oh wow this is sooooo crazy" parts.  When everything is random and silly, it just becomes routine and when that charm is gone, it has to stand on its own mechanics and I'm just not sure -what- mechanics are really present.  Perhaps I'll grab it at some point, however, to find out!

okay, this post was entirely too serious for a game where you can RPG battle a fucking hamburger

Aaand Driveclub Looks Palatable Again

The information contained in the above video is no longer completely true, and that is a very good thing.

In the original Playstation Blog post which shared details of the game, the plan for the Playstation Plus version of the game was finally fleshed out 'fully', which was something that had been...well, not nebulous, but unconfirmed, I should say.  And what we saw was not exactly what we had been lead to believe and, worse, was just not good.

One of the recurring questions we keep seeing is about the scale of the PlayStation Plus Edition. The simple answer is that with an active PlayStation Plus subscription, you can download DRIVECLUB PlayStation Plus Edition, which comes with one location (India), 11 tracks, 10 cars and access to all game modes.

[...]

We think you’ll have a lot of fun playing DRIVECLUB once it launches on October 7th, digitally via the PlayStation store and on Blu-ray at your local retailer. If you’re an active PlayStation Plus subscriber and have been playing the PlayStation Plus Edition, but decide you want the full DRIVECLUB experience, you can purchase a one-time upgrade for $49.99. This will give you access to all five locations, 55 tracks, 50 cars and all 50 tour events, as long as your PlayStation Plus subscription remains active.

Emphasis mine.  What it basically boils down to is that you're offered a slice of the game for free if you have Playstation Plus, which has always been the case.  As with other free things attached to Playstation Plus, it is only free if you keep your Playstation Plus subscription active and that is understandable.  All of that is very basic and there is no problem.  However, the rub lies within the portion that says you can upgrade your Playstation Plus version into the full game for a purchase that is only $10 less than the game retails for, but it retains that pesky "Only available while you have Plus" qualifier which is where we all (understandably) freaked out.

I imagine it was there to prevent a de facto $10 discount for Playstation Plus Members (since if it wasn't there, there's literally no reason to buy the base Digital version of it) but that shit just will not fly.  Short term < Long Term, sers, and that is something that everybody has been making clear in the past year or so.  As with those scenarios, the internet went vocal and, again as with the scenarios of late, the internet (and common sense) have won out.  An Update (within the post I already linked) spells it out clearly:

UPDATE: Our priority for DRIVECLUB is to enable you to play and enjoy everything it has to offer and PlayStation recognises that the prior plan for DRIVECLUB entitlement for the upgrade to the PS Plus edition was not appropriate. As a result, we have adjusted the PlayStation Plus terms for DRIVECLUB.
Now, If you intend on downloading DRIVECLUB PlayStation Plus Edition, and upgrading to the full game experience, you will have access to the full game even if your PlayStation Plus subscription runs out.

Emphasis mine again.  This places the Plus version firmly within "Get" territory once again.  It's not hard to convince me to get a Free Game through Plus (the "Free" part generally does it), but I was more or less considering skipping it completely.  Not because I was totally outraged (though I was very annoyed with the decision) but because I just don't like Racing Games, so it does not take much to dissuade me away from one.  Telling me that I can get a game and then -buy- it, but not have access to it for a set of reasons that is very easily undergone is a very nice way to do that, however.  Thankfully, that is not the case.  That means I'll give it a shot provided it's not like a ridiculous size that will require me to spend like four days downloading it.  Who knows, maybe I'll even like Driveclub!

probably not, it's a racing game after all

I Too Did Not Suspect a Thing

I don't make a lot of Blind Faith purchases.  That's usually reserved for XSEED titles and the odd Vita game that I -don't- look extensively into by virtue of being a Vita game.  I had no interest in Octodad: Dadliest Catch in the weeks prior to its release, even despite hearing all sorts of praise and excitement for it in that time.  I admit to a little curiosity, but I never really looked into it at all - it was just a thing that existed right beyond my periphery, and I made no real effort to change that.  Then the day came and it released.  There was a Week-One Digital Discount on it for Plus Members, and that, of all things was what made me stop and think about it for a moment.

"Mogs, you -love- weird and quirky shit.  Octodad is literally the weirdest, quirkiest thing you've seen in a while.  And it's on saaaaaaaaaaale."  It didn't take much convincing.

I'll say it now - Octodad: Dadliest Catch is one of my favorite Blind Faith purchases I've made in recent memory.

It doesn't just look like the weirdest, quirkiest thing I've seen in a while, it -is- and it's -glorious- for that fact.  The premise is that you're an Octopus who, one day, just decided that it wanted to be a human being, so it took measures towards that and eventually found a nice woman, settled down, married her and had two kids.  So now he has normal, everyday things to do, except he is an octopus, so doing them is, er, rather difficult.  Therein lies the gameplay element of it.

Now, you would think that basing the gameplay around something awkward is an aggressively bad idea and with a lot of developers, you would be correct.  However, Young Horses (the developer) struck a perfect balance between difficult and hilarious for this.  During my introduction to the game, I meandered through the 'arm' tutorial with a grin on my face - it's awkward, at least a little bit, but it works and the silliness of the intro was still working on me.  However, the walking tutorial is where I lost it.  Few games have ever made me go, "Oh you are fucking kidding me!" in a voice that was full of glee and incredulity and mirth.  Usually it's done so with pure, unadulterated rage.  Not Octodad, however.

Two steps.  It took two steps before I began laughing and felt something akin to love for the game.  It was swift but not fleeting and it was decisive.  It was something that manifested over the course of the (disappointingly short) length of the game, and it's specifically why I would recommend it.

Describing the game is difficult, because it's a difficult game to wrap your mind around.  It's different.  Actually getting where you want to go is about 80% of the gameplay because of the way you maneuver, but saying that calls to mind a vision of frustration that I do not intend to draw, because it's deceptively amusing.  It is, quite simply, fun.

Were I hard-pressed to find fault with it, it would simply be that there's not enough Octodad to satisfy.  I needed another section or two to play to enjoy, as I found myself wanting when it was over.  Were there any game that would benefit from a Level Editor, it would be this game.  Yes, the community would by and large go to the inevitable place it always goes by making 'Super serious' skill challenge levels, but there would be the gems aside from those that introduce new and fun ways of thinking about the already enjoyable game, and it would have just added more.  Would have given you reason to play it longer than the 3-5 hours you'll invest in the game, likely including the time spent collecting all the ties should you desire that.  As it is, you'll want to beat the story, perhaps redo it for trophies if you are so inclined (As I am) and only come back to it everytime you want a little giggle.

It's not a bad thing, and indeed, wishing there were more of a game is more or less an indicator of its quality.  Perhaps some day we'll see more Octodad and on that day I will be there waiting with money in my outstretched hand tentacle hand.

oh, I mean Octodad is a totally normal human being, disregard most of this post

The Kupowered Come-Back Tour!

So, I've been gone and that sucks and I've been working on coming back.  Easiest way to prove that, however, is...by coming back.  So that's what I'm doing!  I'm going to use this post as a sort of Mega-Post (since all my posts that are going to fill in the gap will come before this one, meaning it'll be at the top of the list) to keep an update log of what posts go up and when until I'm fully caught up.  As such, just check back every other day or so to see if there's been another Wave posted and read at your leisure!  I think it's a good idea, at least, and it'll help you, the faithful reader, keep up as I work through this silly process.

Remember that I'm going to be posting these updates in waves so I can -actually- catch up, but I will be spacing them out a day or so in an attempt to keep from triggering spam flags or anything of the sort.  Because that wouldn't do, to come back and have to deal with that sort of nonsense.

Anyway, thank you for your patience and for sticking around - hopefully when I get back on track for real, you'll still be around as well.

Game of the Year Stuff - Wave 1 - March 4th

January 27th - My Games of 2013, Not the Top 10
January 28th - My Games of 2013, Not the Top 5
January 29th - My Games of 2013, Not the Top 2
January 30th - My Games of 2013, The Runner-Up and the Winner
January 31st - My Games of 2013, The Games That Weren't My Games

never thought this would be how I did a hub post, but oh well, whatever works

Watch Dogs Probably Still Coming to the Wii U

Back when Watch Dogs was announced, few people were really proclaiming that "the writing is on the wall" or anything of the sort for the Wii U, and the fact that the game was announced to be on the Wii U was less a surprise and more expected.  Especially being an Ubisoft game, which has been one of the few staunch supporters of the system (even if that support is waning a bit), it just seemed an inevitability.  As the Wii U has begun to flounder, support has tapered off, but at least users more or less always had Watch Dogs to look forward to.  A proper new IP with a spin that promised to make the Gamepad invaluable if used correctly with a hardcore draw that, had it released when it was supposed to, might've drawn in quite a bit of business.  As such, it's not going to do that, and its existence was even in question for but the briefest of moments.

What has now been blamed on a 'glitch' was a strange occurrence that disallowed GameStops in Italy (and other regions, including America) to pre-order the Wii U version of Watch Dogs.  That's a problem!  Generally such a thing is a precursor to an unspecified delay (another one would kill the game anyway, and it would've hit the other platforms at least) or an outright cancellation, with pre-order cancellations going out shortly thereafter.  It didn't get to that point, but given the Wii U's standing and Ubisoft's now-shaky faith in the system, many were almost assured that it was a foregone conclusion.  Especially when Ubisoft went the weird route (considering how this all resolved) and dropped the classic "We have nothing to report at this time" instead of just going "Nah, it's still coming out, I don't know what's up."  I suppose it's called the company line because it's the line the company wants you to use all the time, but still, there has to be -some- exceptions.

As of now, it's more or less gone back to the situation as it was before - the Wii U version is still expected, but we're still at a lack of general information for the game itself.  It still doesn't have a release date after the delay it was subjected to, meaning we have no idea just what's going on with it.  And more criminally, we're still not sure just how much of the focus will be on the cool hacking stuff it was premised on, and how much will be bang bang, shoot mans like a good portion of sandbox games out there.  Watch Dogs is at a critical phase where enough time has passed that the initial hype is well and truly gone, and the follow-up pieces have been....lack-luster so far.  It needs -something-, some kind of showing or boon that'll place it front and center again with positive public image, but it's hard to tell if that'll happen.  Or rather, I doubt it will because Ubisoft gonna Ubisoft.

seriously, I just want it to be good, but I have no idea if it even will be anymore

On the Radar - Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor

As much as it pains me to admit this, since I'm sure some circles would call for my head and/or my nerd card, I'm just not really a fan of Lord of the Rings.  I've tried several times over with the movies and the games and perhaps that's the problem, in that I've never tried the books, but it has just never worked out.  I tried watching Fellowship three times and fell asleep all three times, twice for Two Towers and I saw Return of the King in the theater, so I didn't fall asleep then.  The film, however, did stop about 2/3rds of the way through for about 10-15 minutes, though, so maybe it's a sign.  Perhaps it's just not for me, as they say.  It's a thing that happens sometimes.  So when I heard tell of a new Lord of the Rings game coming out, I didn't pay it much mind, even when there was a bit of controversy over some of the animations used in the alpha footage.

All that said, however, it wasn't until I saw a post by Chance on the subject that I decided to give it a look-see and boy am I glad I did.  While I can definitely see where the concerns lay insofar as the Assassin's Creed comparisons, I don't care.  That is because what I see looks astoundingly good, especially for a franchise that I have no particular affection towards.  Of course, it's hard to -not- look good when it cribs from the Darksiders school of thought, by being a Locke's Socks amalgamation of Lord of the Rings and these fantastic games.  Intentional or not, you can pick out the Assassin's Creed, the Arkham Asylum/City, the Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and the Hitman bits and inspect them on their own merits, and you can possibly try to determine whether or not it's cool that they are so clearly those bits placed into the stew that is Shadows of Mordor, but it's an easy decision.

When it looks like that?  Yes.  Yes it's cool.

Of course, Shadows of Mordor does bring something incredibly interesting and new to the table in the Nemesis system, which I for one am wary to believe is as fantastic as it's made out to be.  Simply because I cannot comprehend a world in which is does work as flawlessly as indicated just yet.  The Nemesis system claims to be able to randomly create a Nemesis for you that will serve as a major figure in your world that you ultimately want to kill as well as henchmen for that figure.  Not only that, but the Nemesis system promises, much like so many other games do, that all your actions and decisions matter and change the course of your story, causing your Nemesis (Nemeses?) to act accordingly.  The example used is that the player encountered two of the figures in the game early on, left the major figure to burn to death in a fire, but he survived, leaving him with a rather nasty burn, and a mean grudge.  It promises a wealth of opportunities and scenarios unique to every player and it sounds, in a word, amazing.

The cynic in me just cannot believe this is possible.  The cynic in me understands that, if you're using voiced lines, there can only really be so many instances of situations possible, since the lines have to be recorded for them all.  And the cynic in me believes that it's something that will offer less 'endless possibilities' and more 'scenarios created by creative gating' which is merely a series of binary yes/no options that are little more than littered along a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style path.  On the path in the trailer, there was a choice where the player apparently did -something- that left his Nemesis with a massive burn on his face.  That choice is a gate that takes you to a certain path in which X and Y happens.  While it gets a bit more impressive when X and Y are influenced by A, B and C or what have you, it's all something that you can see the workings of.  Depending on how many 'paths' and 'gates' they actually include in the game...it's quite possible that this 'unique experience' will not be that at all for most, which would be unfortunate and the exact thing I -don't- hope for.

I don't really like the cynic in me.  While I can see all that logic and such, I don't want to, because 'player choice affecting world-building' is something that I'm always a fan of, though few games pull it off as well as some shining examples which is an absolute shame.  It's a hard thing to pull off, I'm aware, because it's stacking variable upon variable, but it's so worth it if it actually works.  It's for that reason alone (well, the genre-blending helps) that I'm looking forward to Shadows of Mordor now, and I eagerly await some more trailers that show off the Nemesis system more - hopefully showing different ways entire scenarios can carry out or something along those lines.  Mostly just because I want to believe they can pull this off.

really, I'm just drooling at the potential to do a fictionalization of my playthrough of the game because it would be so good

Toukiden Demo Impressions

Toukiden is pretty much Monster Hunter.

That's the brunt of it, really.  It's not surprising - all the media beforehand suggested as much - but it also manages to not be disappointing through some magic of tweaking the basics of the Monster Hunter gameplay mechanics.  Still, the skeleton, most of the muscle and indeed, some flesh that resembles Monster Hunter is present, even though it's got a convincing costume of something else on top of it.

That costume is good, however - Toukiden's aesthetic is fairly interesting despite carrying a lot of the browns one would expect from a Demon War-torn country, as that simply makes the more striking bits shine all the more.  The cutscenes are standard KOEI fare as well, which means they're incredibly nice to watch and easy to enjoy with how deceptively good they look.  And really, just the game itself looks pretty good from the character designs and outfits, to the weapon designs and the Oni themselves.  Even the canned faces and such that you get through Create-a-Warrior (which is your only way to have a character, rather than my initial thought of having a cast of characters to select from like most Warriors games) are fairly good-looking, though I use that from an aesthetic point of view, and not one from personal tastes.  More to do with the model, the look than my appreciation of them.

I suppose I should clarify that I'm no Monster Hunter expert - far from it - as my only real experience was playing the demo for one of the PSP games for three non-consecutive hours and not 'getting it', and then watching a friend stream hours of Monster Hunter 3 footage while also similarly not understanding it.  So I appreciate that there might be a difference in 'feel' and an overall difference in the experience because of that.  However, I also know what I see, and what I see in Toukiden is something that is very, very close to the same -thing- that Monster Hunter is.  The maps are the same segmented affairs in which there are monsters (and I assume they can eventually move between them).  Missions are handed out in the same way, with even the same weights of Important -> Not Important (but you need to do some to unlock the next) -> Important -> Chapter Close.  There's still a little town that you can meet up with others in, you can still gamble with getting buffs before missions, you can still upgrade and create weapons and armor and while that all seems generic, it all has the same approach to it that the comparisons between both games are inevitable.

The weapons are different, at least in most cases, and they offer a suitable amount of variety for the combat to keep you switching up at the very start until one just clicks.  I myself really really wanted to enjoy the Gauntlets as I love punching people, but they're the strongest base weapons in the game which means they have to have a disadvantage.  Of course, that disadvantage (quite bogglingly so, really) is that they're the slowest weapons in the game as well.  So then I went to the other extreme with the Twin Knives which I believe (though I'm not sure) are the fastest, but weakest base weapons of the group, and I'm enjoying that much more.  I find that I quite like really fast combat as opposed to slow, but strong.  I imagine maybe the Katana and the Sickle/Chain will offer that as well, but I haven't really tried them out.  There's a lot of ground to cover in the demo yet, which is a good thing as it really lets you sink your teeth into what the game will have to offer.

All in all, the game seems competent enough, perhaps even -good-, though that remains to be seen as I am giving this my maximum amount of skepticism because KOEI and Monster Hunter are both involved.  I've yet to see whether or not the 'purification' mechanic is a game-changer - essentially holding R next to a fallen foe or severed boss part to rid it from the world and sometimes give you an item - but I can't really imagine it being so which is really why I didn't bring it up in any big capacity.  I pre-ordered it, as I'm wont to do with just about everything that has the KOEI name on it, and I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy it, but how much is what remains to be seen.  I'm hoping for "a lot" personally.

why would you fight with giant weights on your hands, that just seems silly

Late to the Party - Red Dead Redemption

I understand that it's been a while since this game was released, but, well you know how it goes sometimes.  A game comes out and you decide to wait on it for a while and then a Game of the Year Edition is announced and you decide to wait for that and decide to wait for it to drop in price and sometimes you then wait for it to be gifted to you and basically there's a lot of waiting.  It happens.  And then sometimes you get it for Christmas and don't play it til almost the end of January because you suddenly have an urge to play a game that doesn't feature Winter in the slightest because you're in Winter and it's fucking cold, but it's nice because you like Winter, but it's still cold and cold is kind of bad and you try and warm up but playing games with Winter in them kind of doesn't help.  Even though you're not expecting something good, you pop in a game about being a cowboy in the desert because at least it's in a hot environment.

Then you discover, hey, this game actually -is- fun!

That has been my experience with Red Dead Redemption over the past couple days in which I've plugged in quite a few hours.  The bulk of it probably spent running around and hunting animals because oh man, hunting.  It's only when I run across it with a deeper mechanic than Tomb Raider offered - something closer to Far Cry 3 - that I realize how much I actually enjoy it despite the inherent 'issue' with it in that I'm not hunting for absolute necessity and/or survival, but for skins and such to sell.  But it's digital animals, so I don't -really- have to care too much about it.  No more than the people that I shoot, lasso, hogtie and drag around whilst on horseback are only digital people, thus I don't have to really care about them either.  It's just silliness in the desert.

As such, since I've spent the majority of the game dicking around, there's not a whole lot I can say about the game itself.  The story is something that's there, Marston is not the greatest character, but he's alright, and the mechanics are definitely from a Rockstar game, for better or worse.  I mostly just wanted to say that it's actually fun since I heavily doubted it beforehand - it was released close enough to IV that I worried it would be a bit stiff like IV was, not to mention the bad ideas from TLaD - and that I'm quite enjoying it.  And it is doing -something- for the perception of maintaining heat and such.  I mean, a space heater is probably doing the most of the heating task, but still.  Every little bit helps when your daily high temperature just barely breaks double digits Fahrenheit.

I kinda wish that the 'main encounter' would just happen already, I'm tired of doing side jobs for these ungrateful bastards

New Toy Get!

I kind of stopped doing Pick-Up Posts a while back, but with Chance's recent awesome purchases and my coincidental splurging, it was just too hard to pass up.  Apologies as always for the lackluster picture quality as my Vita is my best camera since I don't care much for pictures until I get into situations where I need to take pictures.  One of these days, I'll fix that.  Maybe.  Probably.  Anyway, as you can see above, I have bought myself two things that promise to offer hours upon hours of entertainment between the two of them.  I'll start with the more obvious one first, however.

Riddick:  The Complete Collection packs all four movies starring Richard B. Riddick into one nice little package (spanning three disks) and was only recently released alongside the standalone release of Riddick.  As in Riddick, the movie that just came out last year that was a return-to-form of Pitch Black, rather than the over-the-top action of Chronicles of Riddick.  Or at least, that's what it was billed as - I don't know for sure since I haven't watched it just yet.  However it's the single movie that I bought the collection for, as I already own the other three movies.  Is that a bit overboard?  Yes.  Did I mostly buy it because they just didn't have Riddick for stand-alone purchase?  Mostly!  But more than that, they deserve my money for Pitch Black and Chronicles (maybe not Dark Fury) and thus, I'm throwing good money at Riddick and betting on a winner, while still having the other two movies to fall back on regardless.

The other thing is my brand new Kindle Fire HD (7" display, I didn't splurge for the HDX or the bigger HD) to assist in my goal of "actually starting to read books again".  I had realized sometime last year that most of my reading was done on websites and such, none of it actual novels or publications and that was kind of bad.  Though not in a snobby way or anything, just, you know, we all need to read books sometimes.  A friend of mine has been bugging me about a particular book, Blood Song by Anthony Ryan, and with the recent purchase of a Kindle Fire HD for my father for Christmas (with which I had to fight tooth and nail to get it to work correctly) I decided two aim for two birds.  Having harnessed Amazon's black magic and mentality from my wrestling with my dad's Kindle, I went into my own experience knowing exactly what to do, and as such, set-up was a breeze for myself.

The main thing about Kindles and Amazon is that they pretty much stand ever-vigilant with hands outstretched for a Credit Card if they do not have one from you currently.  Sure, you can use a Kindle without one attached to your account, but nothing, not even attaching Gift Cards to it, will allow you to buy anything.  You can get free apps without one because otherwise that would be silly as hell, but that's about it.  So if you're someone like my dad who just wants it to look at the internet every now and then and to play some free games?  It's perfect.  Otherwise, you're more or less over a barrel.  However, there is an option for paranoid loonies such as myself, in the form of pre-paid credit cards, and I'm happy to report that Amazon accepts that just as easily as anything else, even though mine only has a cushion balance of $50.  Combined with a $50 Amazon Card for -actual- purchases, and yes, I did spend a little bit this day, but it's going to be quite worth it.

While my Vita has been -more- than serviceable as a media hub with Netflix and Youtube (which I'll still have to use it for that, imagine that one) the lack of a dedicated Hulu Plus app has been particularly damning, especially with my interest in Kill la Kill that lead to actually watching it through one of the very few Anime Streaming sites that actually supports MP4.  Yes, I understand that Hulu Plus is the devil with its insane amount of ads (meaning any when it's a goddamn paid service) and such, but it also just -has- the episodes (plus the entirety of South Park, I believe, or at least a bulk of it) and I want to just be able to sit down and watch shit sometimes without going on a scavenger hunt through the entirety of the internet for it.  A larger screen doesn't hurt matters any either, especially not the Kindle Fire HD's crisp LCD (no, not OLED, which means the Vita still has a leg-up) 1280x800 screen.  So, while not perfect, I do think I'll be able to comfortably split my non-game media time with my Vita and my new Kindle.

Speaking of games, while I'm not a fan of Mobile Games, there are a select few out there that are apparently things to experience, and luckily my purchase will allow me to do just that now.  I've had my eye on Star Wars:  Tiny Death Star since I heard about it, and I'm sure there are a few other games that I'll enjoy.  (I'm actually downloading EA's Theme Park as we speak I type now because I have fond memories of that game from the Genesis, and goddamnit, I need some management games in my life)  Scouring the free games, at least, should prove entertaining, and should I decide to browse the actual paid games (doubtful, my money is more than likely going to books first...aside from the ~$20 I spent on a case that will be shipped here Tuesday, apparently), well, there has to be -something- good there, yeah?  Should there be something, well, at least I have an outlet to inform others of as much.

Perhaps a little retail therapy, a little something that'll let me do a little more than I'm doing now, is just what the doctor ordered for my mood lately.  It's a bit early to tell, of course, but the old saying goes "Hope springs eternal" and it's definitely true.  Though "Hope and two quarters'll get you fifty cents" jumps to mind as well.  At least, I think that's how Sully says it.  I know leaning back in my chair and reading Blood Song filled me with a sense of "this is awesome" and "this is the fucking future" (because Star Trek, yes, that is me, I am that person) which is pleasant, and even now as it plays K-Pop through Pandora Radio next to me while I type this, I still steal glances at it in wonder and amusement.  I quite like it, I suppose is my point, and I can't wait to start getting a little more mileage out of it by binging on Netflix.  I've been meaning to watch Breaking Bad, after all...

seriously, the thing is Star Trek thin and I'm just like "yes yes yes, this is what I wanted when I watched the show as a kid"

Pokemon X Is Actually Good So Far

At this point, I don't even need to point out that I have been vocal about my dislike for many aspects of Pokemon games past and present, and those definitely lowered the bar for Pokemon X going in.  However, while it's a bit of a stretch to say I have been suitably impressed by X, I -have- been pleasantly surprised at the very least.  Granted, I haven't really bitten into any of the actual meat of the game - I haven't met the Professor yet, even - but I've spent some time in the first areas, got my first badge and have generally started up a preliminary team with the few pokemon I've come across that I like.  It is by no means something permanent, but merely something that exists until I can switch out the stragglers.

My starter was Fennekin the fire fox, whom I scummed for an hour for to get a Female that I could name Cierra.  Because she's a fire-starter.  (Read the Riviera: The Promised Land LP for the reference and to realize that it's quite brilliant and I'm proud of it)  The fire starters are more or less always the best with some exceptions - if you didn't take a Piplup in Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, it's because you're awful since Piplup is a penguin and thus wins.  And Snivy Smugleaf was clearly the correct choice for Black/White.  I've supplemented Cierra with mostly first-gen pokemon out of happenstance I swear, I'm not being a snob or anything.  I caught a Pidgey since they're just a solid Pokemon to have around, and I got a Weedle for a Beedrill since having a fully evolved Pokemon at Level 10 is a pretty neat feeling.  Finally, I've already gotten my standard Pikachu that will eventually be a Raichu, as I have to have a Raichu in every game.  However, this Pikachu is merely a prototype for my eventual Boss Raichu, and I really wish I would've named it Mercer.  Even though it's a girl.

I can't speak much for story so far, but the set-up is refreshing in that it feels a little more...organic, more believable than most games in the past.  The 'traditional Pokemon journey' has previously been set up as something of a 'rite of passage' which makes less and less sense as you go on in the series.  While you can't deny that aspect of it in X, it's not as prevalent, and with the addition of four other characters that form a little group with you (no, you guys don't stick together) to make it feel like something of an adventure it just works -far- better than ever before.  Sure, you still have a mother who is perfectly fine with her tween child heading off out into the world all on their lonesome for some reason, and you still find yourself responsible for completing a Pokedex, but it all just -feels- better somehow.

Presentation is better than it's ever been as well.  This is probably the first Pokemon game with camera angles which shouldn't be exciting, but it is.  Not only that, but the graphics definitely take advantage of the 3DS hardware, and everything just seems far less stiff than previous games.  Animations are nice and smooth and enhance the combat greatly (though they take enough time that I've honestly considered turning them off unfortunately), while everything just seems much better defined.  Character designs are rather nice and fit in well with the rather lovely locales that I've seen so far.  It's at least the most visually pleasant and interesting Pokemon world to date, though I'm not quite sure how much of an honor that is to have held aloft.

Even if I end up disliking Pokemon X because of the story, because of Team Flair and such, I can say without a doubt that X/Y is a -definite- step forward for the franchise.  Mechanics haven't seen many tweaks that I've found just yet which is a big problem, but they've broken out of their comfort zone greatly.  At the very least, we have beautifully detailed Pokemon models and animations that they can lift directly into the next iteration, which means they can focus more on...well, other aspects of the game.  Like the gameplay.  Like the things that they've needed to fix for entire generations of the series in general.  For once, I can say that without laughing like a madman since it....well, it -could- happen!

she's a twisted fire-starter

Tomb Raider on PS4 is Still Very Tempting...

Back when Tomb Raider:  Definitive Edition was announced, I mentioned that I made a quick mental decision that while I was going to get the game eventually because -shiny-, I wasn't going to get it right away.  That has not changed, but after seeing the comparison video above, it has become infinitely more troublesome.  On the one hand - I know the quality of the product already and it's high (spoiler: it broke my top 5 in my GotY list - posts for that are coming, btw) and presented in such a lovely fashion on a brand-new console (that I don't have yet, granted) is very, very tempting.  On the other hand, it's a game I've spent $60 on already, and to do so again only gets me the shinies since I don't give one ounce of shit about the Multi-player to this day, so more maps does nothing to tickle my fancies.

I can't deny that if they would've just introduced it at $40, it would be a much, much more difficult decision, one that I probably would make in their favor.  I understand their position for the price-point and I don't really even begrudge them for it - they obviously crafted the new graphics and such with care and effort, and unless the game stutters to sub-30 FPS, well, they probably earned the higher price point, if only because of the quality of the game itself.  I just can't do it to myself, though.  My lined-up PS4 games are Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (since I'll be able to buy it physically) and inFamous:  Second Son, though I'll definitely have a PS4 before those games come out.  What I play on it in the meanwhile is...something I will have to figure out.  But after Tomb Raider: DE's first big price cut, I think I'll be there with bells on.  If only so I can get my Ropebow on again.

also because Lara was a pretty damn awesome character

Because I Don't Talk About KOEI Enough...

I'm gonna be honest and say that I don't -know- how I manage to come up with so many occasions to talk about KOEI games in general, in that I don't actively look for them.  I guess news just...sort of crops up and me being a whore mass consumer of KOEI things in general, I can just extrapolate enough words from what is very simple announcements and turn it into a post or two.  It happens, and I haven't heard any complaining directly, so I assume you folks don't mind all that much.  Which is good!  Because I'm just gonna...keep doing it, I assume, until KOEI milks out every last bit of goodwill that I have towards them which will likely take a while despite my constant bitching criticisms.  Anyway, this post will be chock-full of new and less-new KOEI goodies that I decided to talk on tonight because I can't think otherwise since my back hurts again.

The above is a trailer for Nobunaga's Ambition:  Creation for PS4, which in itself is just a port of the game of the same name for PS3 and PC that was released last year.  I'm sure I could get some information about the game from the internet, but the fact is, it's probably not going to get localized, so I'm not looking too much into it, even though it would be fucking perfect for Remote Play (if not an outright Vita version, but no, that makes too much sense) and that fact alone makes me all the more sad that I'll never play it.  Of course, I -have- reached out to TecmoKOEI USA's official Twitter about it, but I really doubt that I'm going to hear back from them because, well, you know.  KOEI.  The fact that the account went inactive for months and only resurfaced -yesterday- says more than enough for the prospects of it being used as more than a means to congratulate themselves for whatever small accomplishes they make and no, I'm not bitter at all.

I'm not sure why they chose to go with what appears to be the Honnō-ji Incident for the intro cinematic to a Nobunaga's Ambition game either, but....well, that's at least -one- way to show off your pretty graphics, and especially so on an updated piece of hardware.  Reports indicate that Creation will run at 1080p and 60fps on the PS4 which is hardly surprising (unless you don't trust KOEI's technical acuity) but impressive nonetheless.  You'll also be able to command up to 1,000 men at a time (I assume they're not using the traditional 'units' anymore) rather than only 300 which is certainly something that will add quite a bit to the gameplay.  Regardless of anything, it's going to be a smooth entry (re-entry?) into the Nobunaga's Ambition series and I -do- hold out a little hope of seeing it come out in the West, but that's just it - a little hope.  Still enough to speak on, however, as I did.

There's some good news about Samurai Warriors 4, beyond the (old) news that it might (probably will) come here in the Summer.  The news, specifically, is that Create-a-Samurai is making a return in the base game, and not waiting for one of the expansions to introduce it.  Create-a-Samurai (or Create-a-Warrior for a general application in the Warriors games in general) is fairly self-explanatory, but it's a mode that allows you to customize your own character in name, appearance and fighting style to take into battle.  In the original Samurai Warriors, they handled it in a rather cool way, where you went through 'courses' to train specific aspects of your character, shaping their base attributes to contribute to their overall growth.  I'm not sure if there'll be a similar sort of thing in 4, but it sounds like there's -something- beyond "make your character, okay cool, go kill stuff".

The post mentions that officers will pose questions to you, to which your answers will help mold an image of how they see your character, which I'm sure will have an affect on their build.  Unless it's a fame/infamy type deal in which it won't matter in the least and will be another one for the "waste of effort" pile.  There's also a mention of a map where you can pick missions and if that's true, then that's certainly a departure for Samurai Warriors at least, though it brings it a little more in-line with what the Dynasty Warriors games have been doing with Conquest Mode and the like.  Unless it's specifically for Create-a-Warrior mode, which would be really cool, and reminiscent of Destiny Mode from Dynasty Warriors 5: Xtreme Legends.  Also known as "one of the reasons DW5 was fucking awesome".

Destiny Mode was a mode in which your character started out as a grunt in the personal army of an officer of your choice.  When I say a grunt, that's explicitly what I mean - your moveset was a three-hit combo, you had shit for health and were more of a liability than anything else, yet were still expected to power through and destroy officers.  With each victory, you gained skill points to bring your character up to par to an -actual- warrior of the ages (buying the ability to have longer combos, musou attacks, etc.) while also bringing glory to whoever you were pledged to, which you could change at certain points if you felt like it.  However, the person you ended up with at the end of the last mission was the person whose weapon set you took after (I believe), so you needed to make sure to stay the course if you wanted someone in particular.  Still, it was empowering, playing some podunk little soldier that moved up to the big leagues (even giving you jobs such as Base Captain and the like) and I'm amazed that KOEI hasn't used it again.  I doubt that Samurai Warriors 4 will use it, but goddamn, I can hope for that too.

Aside from the (probable) release of Samurai Warriors 4 to us, we still don't really know anything about anything else.  Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends is heading this way as we already know, but there's plenty of other games that could get an announcement for Stateside travel as well.  Samurai Warriors 2 HD+XL/Empires, Warriors Orochi 3 Special or whatever the name is, Nobunaga's Ambition, Shin Dynasty Warriors Gundam and I'm sure a few other things I'm forgetting right now.  Hopefully the revival of KOEI's North American Twitter means good things, but in situations where KOEI is concerned, Hope and two quarters'll just get you fifty cents.  Still, I never expected the Vita vesion of DW8+XL to be announced for us (because KOEI would be the ones to be dicks like that) and that's happening, so who knows anymore.  It's a strange, confusing and maybe not all-together terrible world we're living in now.

yes, I know I said hope a lot, I don't care