This isn't game related, but I wanted to share it, as I specifically made it for Dtoiders. I have made a Mogulus channel for the specific love of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and want to share it with others. I have named it Bigby's Power Hour, why I am not sure, except its catchy. Please feel free to drop by any time and partake, as I will upload as many episodes as I am able to, and my collection is rather large. So come on by and chat with others if you catch them on there. Won't you?

http://www.mogulus.com/bigbyspowerhour

There is no way in hell that PC gaming is dying out and you have lost your damn mind if you think that. PC is where games are born and flourish outside of their release dates. They are real community things where you can mod to your hearts content til every single thing about the game you played is totally different and a brand new experience. Let's see a console pull that off. You think you can play COD4 on the console and expect to see guns from Halo in there? Hell and no. Or maybe a reskin of Alyx to be Samus to play through some Half Life 2 on your 360? Didn't think so. Also, with your TF2 on 360 or PS3, can you go and get hundreds of different maps or make your own for your locked in consoles? How about some updates on occasion? And let's go to RTS's too, are you gonna be playing Starcraft for hours online on your 360 or Wii? No? What a shame. What's that Timmy? Want to play some Counterstrike on your 360? Oh, you can't? Cause they don't support that? What's that? They still don on the PC? But why, Timmy? It isn't new and shiny and making lots of money for developers, why would they still have maps and skins and servers for it? It's fun you say? Lots of people still enjoy it and support it you say? Well let's go teabag some of them right now Timmy.

Games are pretty old. Well, older than most gamers anyway. Way back in the 80's was the heyday of the first renaissance of games. And even with the crash at the time, a new generation cropped up even more powerful than the last. And as time went on, nostalgia factored into many gamers perspective. Rose tinting the times we had marathon sessions of Super Mario Bros, or Metroid, or Contra, or Frogger....well you get the idea.

And as time went on, sequels cropped up, usually worse than the originals as it lacked the overall simplicity and innovation the original brought to the table, see Sonic series. Time and again the messed up the formula, leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of those that remember the originals and still hold them in high esteem, though now tarnished by the lackluster efforts to wring cash from the corpses of their beloved series and characters.

Lately, however, has been something interesting cropping up. Not sequels but rather returns, or remixes they seem to be dubbed, of older games. Bionic Commando comes to mind, with a new 3d yet 2d refreshing of the old stable favorite. And of course there is the category poster child, Street Fighter II HD Remix, which is what brings this blog to life. In this case, rather than remake the game from scratch, it was refined, polished, and given online capability. Old gamers could relive their childhoods from days of yore standing wide eyed in front of the arcade booth as they pummeled their friends character into submission. New gamers could experience what was so great bout this series in the first place, and have taste of that competition now in an online setting. Yes indeed, it was a welcome change. And soon Ghosts and Goblins is getting a touch up and released into the wild to frustrate a whole new generation of gamers with inexplicably fragile armor.

This brings the question to mind, what else can be rehashed and given a pretty new coat of HD paint for old and new gamers alike? Online Co Op HD Contra? Mowing through enemies using that wonderful spread gun at 1080p? Hell, even include stealing your buddies lives when he runs out, just to get that authentic feel. How about a visit to Metroid with a nice high res rendering? Spy Hunter in hi def? Battletoads to enrage gamers for a new year? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-op ala Castle Crashers? Double Dragon with nice new look and online feel? You can see the possibilities are intriguing and seem to be welcome. With DLC at an all time high, why not take a stroll down nostalgia avenue and revisit these old games with a spanking new look?

Now, I know some will say they should focus on new games and innovations, but we all know they won't. They will keep making Sonic sequels that are less than fantastic to be kind, more Tomb Raiders, more Devil May Cry, more Grand Theft Auto, we know it, no matter how much we complain, sequels will come. So why not devote some time to making the HD versions of our beloved classics so we can share them with our new friends and introduce them to a younger group of players that just might find some time to stop teabagging in Halo 3 or Gears of War 2 to try out some vintage stuff, but with, like, you know, awesome graphics, brah.

We have all been there. A certain portion of a game we recently got, that is so damn tough it feels as if you will never ever ever pass it and it will continue to mock your inadequacy. I'm looking at you Ninja Gaiden. But anyway, when the time came that we WERE able to pass that area and move on, we felt great satsifaction, relief, and triumphant. This, apparently, was not the way to do things according to Nintendo and their new system they are putting into the works. They are putting major effort into a new type of game where you mostly watch what is happening and participate when you feel you want to or want to try and, yknow, play the game or something. So its more like a DVD that has those little commentary things that pop up and you select it to get some info or a funny scene or what have you, then you continue watching. This is not a game, a game needs interaction, participation by the player to be considered a game. What Nintendo is doing has gone beyond casual, to coddling.

I know some games have hard portions in them but that is what we expect. Its a challenge to us as gamers to overcome said obstacles through skill and perseverance and a bit of luck. Why would you take that away from gamers? I mean, even casual gamers must need a bit of challenge in their Cooking Mama right? And if you don't challenge them, how can they learn and grow and perhaps even move onto more mainstream and challenging type games? You deny them the very learning blocks they would use to try out new genres and expand their horizons. And yet they are producing what is in essence very long cutscenes that you can choose to jump in and play at whatever time, and back out again if you feel you got in over your head. You blur the line of what is a game even further to the point that your shouting at the stupid guy on Blue's Clues to where the hell the objects are he is searching for on the TV.

Perhaps its unfair to judge such a huge step back in gaming experience and see it as something positive, and even gentler step into the world of gaming, though at this point I am not sure how much easier it can be made, except to have them get the disc and insert it and the ending comes up automatically saying you won.

A challenging game is not a bad thing, nor should it be seen as a roadblock to getting into games. If people really gave up after only one or two tries at a game, then maybe games just aren't for them. There isn't really a need to dumb it down to a level of interactive videos. And what of multiplayer games? Will we all just be playing against avatars we made and let loose in a map? Where is the bragging rights in that? Or the community for that matter? I mean, can an AI trash talk or make you feel inadequate if you miss a shot and they hit you instead? I think not.

This is a step in the wrong direction for games. There is easy and gentle learning curves, then there is making you sit down and watch how it's done and drink your juice box.

I recently bought some shoes, the same kind I have bought for the past year. They are a cheap kind I pick up, but the entire sole is a super comfortable foam thing, no rubber at all. It's like walking on pillows. However they only come in pure white. Nothing else. So this time around I decided to snazz them up a bit. Using some permanent markers and some doodling. I drew some game refrences, and some random stuff too. I am not really that good at drawing, and I had limited colors to work with, so bear with me. The blue guy on one shoe is supposed to be mega man, but I lacked a flesh tone marker and a dif shade of blue so thats what came out. If you want to, give me some ideas as to what else I can add, maybe these shoes will be literally covered soon enough.

There are few things in any multiplayer game that I search for more than this, humor. Not for me is the over Moutain Dew addled smack talkathon's that come from frats that are more comfortable in their native environment of Xbox live and trying to get chicks drunk to date rape them. Nor is it the overly competitive tweak addicts that glorify in your bad luck or low latency or simple lack of skill at the time and delight in teabagging your hapless corpse to make their e-penis seem big. No, gentle readers, this is not for me.

Instead, I search for matches and players that can try to break the 4th wall of what is going on. Realize they are in a game, and treat it as such, but still have sufficienct ability not to suck, nor to be angered at dying to the point of rage quit. Players that delight in doing voice overs for NPC's or enemies in the game, giving them back stories that make you laugh as you end their short digital lives and leave behind their grieving virtual loved ones. Or players that do amusing voices for themselves that entertain the others to no end, though there are the occasional "serious" players that are not amused by this and constantly tell them to STFU and concentrate on winning, as the fate of the world lies in that objective.

I have encountered many such souls on my travels through the digital planescape. I have tried hard to find them again and continue along with them. Usually, this turns out to be fruitless, as they seem to disappear before you can exchange contact info. Humor can make a good game even better, or a terrible game tolerable, as long as you have the right people with you at the time all can be right with the world. This is something you can't get in a single player campaign game, yet at the same time, finding it in a multiplayer setting can be difficult too. There is a fine line as well, between funny and abusive. Abusive players will attack others constantly, citing lack of skill, sexual preferences, or intercourse with one's own mother as their weapons of choice. These are not funny players, they are merely bullies in a digital age. A funny player knows how and when to use such humor sparingly, and in such exaggerated ways as to soften the blow or make it seem ridiculous to the point of self parody.

So, to all the players out there, try to find the funny players, and, for TFSM's sake, do it for the lulz.