This is Hilarious and Adorable

I would do a big post tonight but searching for news has proved poor, my gaming habits have not changed and it is storming, so I do not have a whole lot of time on the computer since the power could go out at any point.  (In fact it did, I'm posting this from a draft.)  So I was recently shown this and I really enjoyed it and felt like sharing.

Something bigger tomorrow for sure!

okay, I don't even play Smash Bros. anymore, but I still got the joke and it made me fucking laugh

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 Can Dig It

I had always worried that my purchase of Terraria on Vita would never see the update to the 1.2 content that was released for PC around the same time which basically turned the game into something far larger than the already expansive confines the game offered.  There was multitudes of new -everything-, and indeed, it was one of those things that threatened to turn the game into an entirely different one.  A game that I would never get to play (until I got myself a proper PC, which is still on the agenda because shit is expensive) and one that I really -did- want to play.

Thankfully, the 1.2 content was always promised to us on non-PC platforms, it was all just a matter of time.  And not too long ago, we did see that patch finally.

As expected, Terraria feels almost entirely different.  The trappings are the same thus far - you still want to establish shelter and dig down, you still want to summon the Eye of Cthulhu as soon as possible, and you still want to work towards finding the Corruption (or the Crimson) and destroying Shadow Orbs to spawn the Eater of Worlds. (or their equivalents)  You'll go through new biomes (The Ice biome is especially nice) and improved ones (the Jungle biomes are -incredibly- different) as you do it, but that's still priority one, since that is how you get the Nightmare/Deathbringer (again, dependent on Corruption or Crimson) Pickaxe, which you need to mine Ebonstone, Hellstone and Obsidian, which will naturally impede your progress.

Unfortunately, this is sort of where I'm stuck.  My world has the Corruption, which means the Eater of Worlds, and it has only two spawn conditions.  The first is by breaking three Shadow Orbs (which is repeatable) which will force it unto the world for you to fight and conquer.  I attempted this, and came to discover that the Eater of World has been buffed (I swear it has been) and thus my first attempt met with nothing even approaching success.  Humbled, I sought out better armor, more health and a lot of healing potions, thinking I could certainly best it a second time. 

I could not, and this presented something of a problem.

You see, there are only so many Shadow Orbs in a given world.  They do not respawn.  Thus, once you have broken them all....well, that's it.  Fini.  I am not sure if I have reached this point, as I have to mine with bombs to continue further (or buy purification powder, but bombs are so much more bomby) and actively search for other ones.  Though, there is meant to be that second method of summoning, and it is one that I looked into quite heavily.

All it requires is an item called Worm Food.  Worm Food is made of Vile Powder and Rotten Chunks, the latter of which are dropped quite easily from the Eater of Souls monsters that fly about the Corruption constantly.  Vile Powder, on the other hand, requires Vile Mushrooms that you refine into the powder at an Alchemy Station.  Nothing could be more innocent, as the Vile Mushrooms grow naturally in the Corruption and plentiful, though you can even make a quick and easy farm for them.  I did this, as I wanted Vile Mushrooms, and I wanted them yesterday.  It was with this that I discovered there was something very, very wrong.

All patches have a tendency to wreck things moreso than fix them, we know this, and it's especially prevalent in games that are so open like Terraria or Minecraft or the like.  This is the case with Terraria, as the 1.2 Content update for Consoles included a multitude of bugs which are currently being sussed out.  One of these bugs?  "Vile Mushrooms cannot be harvested."

This is the impasse that I'm more or less at if I cannot find more Shadow Orbs.  In truth, it makes me worry about the validity of my world post-patch, even, as I wonder just how much of it -can- be fixed (since there are tons of other issues that I hadn't even gotten to yet due to my single focus of getting past the EoW) and the fix for these types of scenarios tend to be "Make a new world".  I...am loathe to do this, as my current world houses a "Heaven/Hell Tower" (unfortunately, it is not made of Rock) that extends from the top of the world (as seen at the top of this image) and goes as far down as I can get so far, as Obsidian stands in my way.  It took a lot of effort that I am not particularly invested in reinvesting should that become necessary.  Though I suppose I -will- always have it.  In a...half-functioning world, should it come to the worst scenario.

There are worse things, I guess.

but no, if I didn't make it clear, Terraria with the 1.2 content is so fun you guys

Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire Remakes Announced, Water is Wet

Well, nobody saw this coming.

It was inevitable; Pokémon remakes are the kind of things you can just expect now, except that they've kind of ran on it a little fast because unless they release a 3DS successor in the next couple years (they better not) we'll see a Diamond/Pearl remake on 3DS or they'll just wait until the next handheld iteration.  Which will probably be a while away still.  Hopefully.  And then they'll have to wait a couple years later for an Black/White redo, which is really weird to think about right now, with Black/White (and their sequels) so fresh in the mind.

My point on this is more or less exactly where it was: This is not a bad thing, but Ruby/Sapphire was a bad Gen.

Instead of retreating that, I suppose I should talk about -other stuff- involved in it.  Everything is speculation, since Nintendo only saw fit to announce it with nothing accompanying it because that's great.  The idea is obvious that it'll be done in X/Y's visual style which will be nice, especially if they really trick out the perspectives again.  It'd definitely help give Hoenn a bit of a new feel and edge which it could do well with.  Not that the Hoenn region was bad, but a visual overhaul could -only- end well for it, is what I'm saying.  Which I guess is a backhanded compliment in a sense but oh well.

What's unfortunate about the speculation is that Nintendo unintentionally (I would imagine) added a lot of fuel to the fire with the scant couple sentences they decided to add to the reveal.  If there's anything I think of when a remake is announced, the phrases "An Epic New Adventure is Coming!" and "Explore a Dramatic New World!" are, you know, not....among them.  It seems unnecessary, but there are three potential reasons for it.

1. Mistranslation.  This one seems the least likely.  Nintendo is pretty good about localizing things, so imagining that the phrases should've been something that excludes "New" and instead goes for "Reimagined" and "Dramatically Altered World" or something of that nature seems like something that wouldn't have happened.
2. Misdirection.  "Well, it's a new adventure to someone!  And with the new camera angles, it's like a whole new world!"  Yeah, no.
3. New Content.  This one is probably it, honestly.  Fire Red and Leaf Green offered quite a lot of new content for the post-game, and they might be going that route with Ruby/Sapphire.  If they offer a new arc post-game of that sort (which would then alter the Elite Four as it did in FR/LG) then that would definitely be an Epic 'New' Adventure in a "Dramatic New" World.

Seeing some new post-game content to Ruby/Sapphire's remakes would be very nice, as Pokémon games in general have been lacking in Post-game for some time now.  Why that is, it's hard to tell, since that seems like the easiest thing to think about, but offering three or four towns of absolutely no consequence with nothing to do in them but serve as stopping points between catching new pokémon that are only held back for 'reasons' (as was the case with Black/White) does not a post-game make.  Of course, that's all poison in the well thanks to Gold/Silver which had the most robust area of post-game content by far, which has been the exception and not the standard.  That said, the wording means that it still won't be as rich as a full return to a former region, as the former regions are not 'New' for the same reasons that an improved Hoenn is not 'New'.  Hoping for something of bulk and substance, however, is about all I have.

I don't like myself for it, but I will be getting one of these games.  I -generally- get the first one of the pair, thus Omega Ruby, but....well, I just really like blue, so I might be grabbing Alpha Sapphire.  Either way, I'll be getting my Pokémon on again this November provided I don't have any other gaming to do.  Because I just might.  Okay, I definitely will and it'll be on my Vita.  But I can make Pokémon time.

hopefully the extra content entails tracking down Team Magma and Team Aqua and murdering them...in a Pokémon battle

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

Once More, With Feeling

So, my last attempt to kick the blog back into shape was an impressive failure for some very obvious reasons.  The first was that I was still pretty much depressed (though to be fair, I still am, but I've found a new way to manage it) and the second, biggest and glaring reason was that I thought a setup wherein I try to cover, what, two months-worth of posts in about two weeks? was a good idea.

It was not a good idea.  It was a very bad idea.  I do not recommend it.

I very quickly became paralyzed with the enormity of the task, as I literally invited onto myself the sensation of drowning in work, responsibility and obligation and it just killed all my ability to actually just sit down and write anything as a post.  My lack of attention span and focus didn't help either, but that's more of a secondary thing than anything.  As a result, as you can tell, my ability to write anything shot right to hell, scuttled my confidence and set me back another month, which, when you already have those feelings described before, it just starts to feel cumulative.

There has to be a point where it ends, though, and that's tonight.  And if you would believe it, Octodad: Dadliest Catch had a hand tentacle hand in helping me with that.

So we're going to go with a far more sensible plan.  I'm going to get back into things, trying to post every night, and dealing with the big gap in content when I can.  Some posts are going to be written as if on that date, since I have a lot of posts -started-, but other posts are going to be written explicitly 'from the fuuuuutuuuuuureeeee' and just post-dated to an appropriate date.  It feels like 'cheating' and I suppose that's because it is, but oh well.  I just want to write, and that's what I'm going to do.  These posts will all be funneled through the Comeback Tour Hub as before, which I'm going to make a widget for in the upper right corner of the blog.  Probably just titled what it is and then listing the latest update date so you know when there's new stuff to pick up and look at.  It's going to be purely when I can manage it, though.

Things will start up tomorrow with a piece on Octodad of some sort.  Not quite sure -what-, but it's going to happen.  Nobody will suspect it.

okay seriously this time, it's all good dudes