Today, let’s continue the Recaps tradition of talking about that most wonderful of newly revealed consoles, the Xbox One.

So, my response then. Ahum.



I just laughed through the entire thing. I couldn’t help it. I should probably be more disheartened and upset that one of the major powers that keep gaming going had so many terrible ideas for a console, but I’m not. I just thought it was hilarious. I’m looking back on my comment history right now, and it doesn’t look like a made a single serious comment the entire day. There were just way too many things to make fun of. Hell, the comment sections on most of Tuesday’s articles have been amazingly fun.

I mean, come on! The thing is called the One for fucks sake, you couldn’t think of a more ill-informed name if you tried. A presentation for a game console where TV and sports take center stage and the system’s most notable feature is “it’s also a voice-controlled remote”. The inclusion of a dog being the major selling point for the new Call of Duty. The direct quote calling backwards compatibility “backwards”. Presenting the fact that Xbox One can run games immediately after you insert the disc as a futuristic feature. The creepy 1984-like quality of a Kinect that is always watching you and just waits for you to turn it on. By the way, did you know that Microsoft filed a patent for a system that lets the Kinect monitor how many people are in the room, so that it can cut off access to your movies and games if more people are present than the license allows? Yeah, better with Kinect indeed. And finally off course there is the fact that the entire damn thing is so amazingly America-centric that they couldn’t confirm they’ll even release it in Japan. ‘Murica bitches, the rest of the world be damned!

It was all a big joke to me. It is so amazingly over-the-top cartoonishly evil that it’s impossible to take seriously. It’s like they read my digital property blog (pardon the plug) from a while back and did everything in their power to try and prove me wrong. Ultimately, to me it just looks like they’re aimlessly and ineffectually flailing against the future. If they keep this up I guarantee you right now that they’ll have consumer rights organizations breathing in their neck, especially in Europe. Just wait until the Germans and the Scandinavians get wind of this. They don’t take kindly to this shit. It's going to be hilarious.



I have to admit, Microsoft was never going to win me over. I’m just not in the Xbox audience: I don’t own a 360, nor do I feel the need to get one. My passion lies with Nintendo and the indies, which basically means WiiU/3DS and Steam. Unless Microsoft had announced that it bought out Nintendo and Valve, it never had a chance for me. But while I can fully admit that we have been facing a drought in games on the WiiU, I will stand by my claim that it’s a great little system with lots of potential. The system itself is good, even if the games aren’t there to show it. Compare that to the One, and it’s amazing to me how fundamentally flawed the system itself can be. As a result, for me the announcement went way beyond “indifference”, straight past “well, that’s kind of stupid” and “I’m going to cry for a bit” into pure unadultered hilarity.

In short, it was like watching a brilliant parody of everything wrong with Microsoft performed in live action.

Wrenchfarm had mixed feelings, Strider cared more about Animal Crossing and Injustice, and I just laughed. Not a good score so far, guys. To be fair, Microsoft, look at it this way. At least you managed to amuse one person with the One, and that’s gotta count for something.  

But that’s enough laughing for today. It’s time for the caps, so let’s get serious!  








A - A pretty decent first blog here. Midgeamoo thinks video game content shouldn't be treated as a business, but more like an art.

A - Levelseeker is going to try to be productive this summer. Best of luck to ya!


A - One little piggie not happy with Xbox One. Bionix fears his ownership rights.

A - Two little piggies not happy with Xbox One. The focus on TV, and issues with used games and pricing bugs robotnist.

A - Three little piggies not happy with Xbox One. TV, Sports and Call of Duty.

A - Four little piggies not happy with Xbox One. Nightv worries for the industry when despite the One's stumbling out the door, Nintendo's stocks are down.

A - Five little piggies not happy with Xbox One. Nor with the PS4 or the WiiU, for that matter.

A - Six little piggies not happy with Xbox One. The name, EA and DRM.

A - And the seventh little piggie liked it fine. Luchador just likes tech, and thinks Microsoft has got us right where they want us.













M - Amxwolf shares more music, this time a surprisingly good song from Mario Party 3.

L - A rewrite of "Every day is exactly the same" as applied to video games.

V - Couch Crabs tackle Mister Bones. No, I'm not going to explain that, it's way funnier out of context.

C - PopetheRev lists some things he is looking forward to, to balance out...well, you know what.

C - Well, if you don't have a lot of time on your hands, finishing a full RPG can be tough.






...What? So I have a bunch of gifs of pretty girls laughing. What do you have on your computer?



- ShadeOfLight
May you always find water and shade


FPotD

Yesterday, something new was revealed unto us common gaming folk. Something strange to comprehend and frightening. Something that sent the Internet blogosphere tumbling into the abyss as women wailed and men gnashed their teeth.

Batgirl was released onto Injustice: Gods Among Us.



Oh. And that Xbox One reveal. But I was too busy playing vidya gaems to invest any energy into that hooplah.

So Batgirl. She's way better than Lobo by a country mile. She's pure rushdown distilled for Injustice. That means she is built to get in an just push buttons and zoning be damned. Easily her best choice is the smoke bomb, which teleports her to her enemy's position to hang them up and throw'em away.But the meter burn version leaves them hanging for a free combo. Easily the best thing against lasers Superman or Sinestro rocks. But it's super unsafe, so you're only going to start combos with it when you know they want to throw shit at you.

For a rushdown character, a lot of her normals are actually slow. Plus, being a close relation to Batman means her normals have some dinky range. Luckily, she can afford to press some buttons because nearly all her strings are safe, plus her rush punch (Redemption) is +1 on block, leading to some mixup possibilities. She has great high/low mixup ala Flash, so she can go low with b1 or high with b2 and start combos from there. Plus, she does have one good fast punisher string: f2 starts in 7 frames, which is just shy of most 6 frame jabs.



It's not all super good times though for Batgirl. I mean, ignoring the fact that they've already discovered an infinite for her. Her damage is justifiably low. For the number of reps and hits she can dole out, she has trouble getting over 30% damage, the magical number for good damage in Injustice. But like I said, her high/low mixup and good footspeed means you have a good chance at staying in and paying up damage in small but frequent chunks.

As for some parting words on the whole Xbox One debacle: a lot can change in between a really crappy reveal event and the moment the damn thing actually releases. As for me, I've never bought a system day one. A console is a huge financial purchase. I didn't own a 360 until 3 years after its initial launch. If I'm getting anything, it'll be a few years after the proving period. Besides, I can still play games now on my 360. Really, I was too busy playing vidya gaems to talk about terribad stupid vidya gaems. I pretty much fit into the 99% the Xbox One is catering too. It has a disc slot, so I know a game is going in there. That's good enough for me to not-hate it. Is it going to transform into a Decepticon and shoot a ray that irradiates the sperm from right under my ball sack?

No? Cool. Anti-consumer? Probably. But I'm the 99%, so does it play games?

It could be up for debate from snarkier comments but srslyguise. It's called an Xbox.

2.5 weeks until Animal Crossing!

By the way, as long as it's relevant from the Nintendo LP issue, one of the first and only let's play I've ever done and completed was on Catherine. Check out my playlist on it.



Another thing. You're probably reading this the day after Wednesday because I'm working grad nights at Disney's California Adventure. All you need to know is that most shifts for that are 11pm to 5am average, I drink tons of energy drinks or coffee, and it cements my hatred for teenagers even more.

* - Grethiwha follows the path of the long defunct Love-de-lic and where its developers went afterwards

* - Are you confused? That cat from Animal Crossing has an Xbox One FAQ. Cold, emotionless, FAQs

* - Genki has a point. Don't just exodus to PC blindly. First they need to shape up the policy of PC ports

* - The blank slate: one of time's oldest and most derided storytelling gimmick

* - #justplaypc initiate with a guide to building your own PC

* - ccesarano isn't surprised at the Xbox One reveal. Clearly gamers are up in arms but someone must be satisfied. Right?

A - But what about all those games I downloaded? Will they collect digi-dust?

A - It's indefensible. Like the 30th wave of a tower defense game. Tower Indefense!

A - Redeem cap for one internet, while supplies last

A - Xbox One reveal #justplaypc

A - The Kinect is watching you. Waiting. Advertising.

A - You should buy a SNES instead of a One. Xbox One? Xbox? The One

A - Sharing is caring button engaged

A - Xeo is excited about games and not the Xbox One





I - Some Bro ham on the web reveals himself on the Xbox reveal bandwagon

T - Sinn 100%'ed Saints Row the Third? IMPOSSIBRU

V - Retrophile returns! Cyborg Justice and Mystery Quest!

P - 80s motorcycle space helmet of the future! On the moon.





C - A commentary I guess. Video commentary. On the Xbox One.

C - Good luck on reading a ginourmous semi-legal walkthrough on starting a let's play

V - Matt tries to launch a highly successful video about bad stuff in the vidja gaems industry

F - Beep boop son


~ StriderHoang

This part is coming after grad night, after getting home at 5am and inexplicably waking up at 11am.

Just checking in. I still don't care about your grievances on the Xbox One.

FPotD

[ltr]


Microsoft set up the big tent and finally unveiled the next generation of the Xbox yesterday.

To say reactions were mixed would be an understatement.

I knew going in that their press event wasn't for "us". It was a quick hour-long reveal being broadcast on live television, with all that implies. Microsoft wasn't speaking to the core (ugh I hate that term), they were speaking to a boarder more general audience. I knew that meant we might not see as much detail as we might like. I knew that meant multimedia functions were going to be a bigger part of the event than I really cared about. I figured we might not see a whole ton of games.

I had no idea I'd be so overwhelmingly terribly right.

An hour of sports and trends and internet snark later, the real meat of the Xbox One started to be laid out. But was it already too late?

Good things from the event -

Kinect in the box – Lord knows not everything about the Kinect is great, but I like that it will come with the system this time. Peripherals sold on the side always die. Developers have no reason to develop or innovate for a toy that only a percentage of the install base has. But something that comes packed in with every console is another story. Maybe this time we'll actually see some cool stuff out of the Kinect camp. I'm not a huge fan of jumping around in every game, but I think there has to be untapped potential for cool utilities there.



Mostly, I like what it says about Microsoft learning from past mistakes. If they want to make something essential or vital to the system, they need to bundle it in with every skew. The 360 always felt the sting of that budget launch version that didn't include a hard drive. A lot of games were held back since they could never count on an HD in every console.

Snap mode – When you think about it, Snap mode is actually pretty cool – it was just buried under TV shit during the conference. I'd never use it for the kind of spastic switching between a game, a TV show, a movie, and a Skype call like they demonstrated, but I can see how it might be handy to be able to quickly check something online while playing. Take a quick peak at a guide, check for an important email without dropping out of the game or digging up another device. Handy.

Booting from a rest state – a quick starting silent Xbox? Sign me up. The jet engine I currently own takes almost a minute to churn up. It's a little detail, but it makes the Xbox One seem like some kind of crazy future tech.

Quantum Break – Whaaaaa? I have no idea what Quantum Break is, but my love for Remedy, the studio that brought us Max Payne and Alan Wake, is bone deep. Whatever they're up to, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Puppies! - Call of Duty finally found a way to hook me. If you can customize your dog breed and get a Navy SEAL Eskie pup, Ghosts will be first-day buy for me.

Crappy stuff from the event - [/ltr]

[ltr]
Spoooooorts – Just gotta keep reminding myself that this event wasn't for us. I couldn't possibly give less of a shit about exclusive deals with the NFL or fantasy league garbage. I know intellectually that this is the kind of feature that will sell the Xbox One to the great unwashed football loving masses, that the games I'm interested in will be at E3, but the huge emphasis on sweaty dudes kicking around balls was still a let down for me.

TV, Movies, Trends – It's a topic that has already been beaten to death so I won't labour it, but I'm just not all that interested in the multimedia aspects of the system. The ideas and features aren't terrible and I can see how they would appeal to some people, but it's just not what I'm looking for. The whole "trending" tab thing especially stuck out to me. Have you ever paid attention to what trends on Twitter? I don't really need to know that the latest comedy about a guy in a old-lady fatsuit is making great box office recipes. [/ltr]
[ltr]
Detail light – So when it was all over but the shouting, what did we really learn about the Xbox One? Some much appreciated system specs (although I'd love to hear more), a look at the well ventilated box, a lot of stuff about how much TV we can watch on it, CoD puppies, Remedy being Remedy, and sports. For an hour of content, it was pretty damn light and left a lot to be desired.


- Nice to see the box and some specs, but I would have liked a bit more depth. Some info about Live would have been great.

All the crazy shit after the event -

By far the most interesting info about the Xbox One has been gleamed from interviews and demos that have since taken place after the actual press conference. While the one-hour sportravaganza was a disappointing bore for a lot of gamers, the stuff that we've heard since has been crazy bananas.

I feel like a lot of the hostility and backlash we've seen since the reveal could have been prevented if Microsoft got out in front of it and showed off some of the tech and details that appeal more to gamers. I have to really wonder if a one-hour TV press spot designed to appeal to a largely non-gamer audience was really the best way to present their new game console.

Why didn't they talk about this during the event!? -

Magic Moments and Streaming – The whole time during the event I was like "where is the streaming?" PS4's sharing feature got a mixed response, but it impressed the hell out of me. It seemed obvious that Microsoft would have their own equivalent gun, and the fact that Sony had to go with Ustream instead of the much more popular Twitch had me and a lot of other people assuming Microsoft already had Twitch in their pocket.

Well you know the old saying, when you assume...

While Twitch might still be up in the air, Microsoft has since unveiled their own capture and sharing technology – and it looks great! Very similar to Sony's Share feature, gamers can at any time capture recent game footage from the memory buffer (by shouting "Xbox, capture that" rather than pressing some boring old button) and share it on... Youtube and Xbox Live? Still waiting for that Twitch announcement.

Even more impressive however is the Xbox One's "Magic Moment" feature which will automatically record footage when certain conditions are met. It could record the final hit against an end boss, the moment a particularly impressive achievement pops, or when you go on a particularly good tear in a mulitplayer game.

This is the kind of feature I was hoping to hear about! To me this is way more interesting than being able to Skype and watch a movie at the same time. [/ltr]


- "Xbox! Record all magic moments of cute puppies doing cute things!"

[ltr]Cross-game achievements and challenges – We already heard about the new possible new achievement system a few weeks ago, but now it's confirmed. Microsoft is reworking the entire structure of the achievement system to be more flexible, expansive, and capable of issuing dynamic goals and challenges. Developers will be able to add new achievements after a game's launch and issue random challenges, keeping things fresh and interesting.

Personally, I really enjoyed the weekly challenges in Mass Effect 3's multiplayer or the daily random goals of Injustice. If the Xbox One wants to expand on that concept and even issue gamer points based on it, I'm all for it.

Along with the details on this system, there was confirmation that your current Gamertag and achievement score will migrate to the new system. I didn't think that would be something Microsoft would mess up, but it's nice to hear for sure that they didn't.
 
Not so great stuff -

Fees on used (and possibly lent) games – I get it. I don't like the glorified pawn shop business that chains like EB and Gamestop run. They get gamers to trade in used titles by the bucket load for a silver of credit then they shave $5-$10 bucks off the price of a new game and sell it again and again, cutting the publishers out of any of the profit. It's a racket that, in my opinion, screws over a lot of gamers who are giving up more then they are getting back and is toxic to the industry. I'm not some toady for EA or any other big publisher, but I'd rather see the money made from games get back to the people actually making them, not some retail chain that leeches off everyone involved. I'm not fundamentally opposed to seeing a new system that moves the money around a bit more equitably.

Strangling the entire idea of the used game market, rentals, and lending games between friends with a steep licensing fee is not my idea of fixing the problem though.[/ltr]


- Go ahead and fuck Gamestop, but don't fuck us in the process.

[ltr]It's early and reports are conflicting all over the place so it's hard to pin down exactly a big an issue this is, but I have to say it put a sour taste in my mouth. With some outlets claiming as much as a $40 fee to activate a used game on an account, Microsoft will have all but killed not only the used market, but any idea of rentals and sharing between friends. Some of this doesn't even affect me personally – I don't buy used games very often and the last time I rented something was years ago – but I know it's a big issue for others.

As far as lending and swapping games, one of the greatest joys I derive from gaming is the ability to share what I love with others. Trucking my copy of Rock Band all over the neighbourhood like some kind of garage band apostle, taking You Don't Know Jack over to the girlfriend's place to introduce her to the sarcastic love of Cookie Masterson, playing Army of 2 the way God intended, drunk as hell with my most fratboy-ish pal. If Xbox One is going to apply some kind of fee that makes those experiences impossible, that is a big blow against the new console.

There are possible solutions. Maybe Microsoft will have their own digital rental system, a sort of temporary download. As long as young gamers can get their fix I'd be alright with that. Some quick damage control has assured us that we can take a game over to a friends and sign in with our own profile to play it there, similar to bringing XBL games to a friends house. That's a start, but what if I wanted to leave the game there? What if I was done with it and wanted to do my brother a solid and save him a few bucks? Will there be anyway to transfer a licence?

Basically there are a lot of unanswered questions that need to be addressed before I feel comfortable with any of this stuff. Hopefully by the time E3 is done we'll have a better idea if this DRM fee scheme is a reasonable way to insure that games remain profitable for publishers without screwing over the consumer, or the herald of a new Orwellian age of digital oppression. Given that Microsoft is already back-peddling on some of these ideas as "potential scenarios" I think it behoves us not to lose our heads just yet, but to make sure they know it would be a bad idea.

No backward comparability (for anything?) - I was shocked to hear that the Xbox One won't support back-compat. I thought this was an area where they would get a real leg up on Sony. The PS4 has to live with the legacy of the goofy and difficult to work with cell-processor of the PS3, but the 360 has always had a much more open and easy to work with PC-like architecture. I would have thought getting 360 games to play nicely with the new box would be a given, but I was wrong.

Even worse though, apparently even downloaded XBLA games might not even work on the new system. That's a big problem to me.

I can live without disk-based back-compat. If I'm being honest I'd have to admit that when I jump to a new console generation, it's pretty rare for me to dip back. My PS2 rapidly collected dust when the 360 hit my home. As a stereotypical gamer, I'm overly fixated on the new and shinny.

But new and shinny wasn't the point of all those digital titles I bought for the 360. Those were timeless. Retro platformers and action games I picked up out of nostalgia. Technologically simplistic but stylish games like Bastion, Castle Crashers, Geometry Wars, and Braid. Classic fighters like SFIII and MvC2 that require an internet connection to be worth playing. I  hate the notion that I have to keep my old (and increasingly dodgy) 360 around and plugged into an internet connection, or watch those games plunge into the abyss of progress. It's a huge bungle that I never would have thought Microsoft would make. Hopefully they can find some kind of solution or workaround that doesn't erase the value of my 360's digital library. I know if they don't I'll be more hesitant to make similar XBL purchases in the future.

No mention of Oculus Rift support – Alright, can't blame them for this one. But wouldn't it have been cool?



Overall -

That press conference eh?

Woof.

It wasn't what we wanted. A detail-light, mass-market slick, sports filled hour didn't do anything to turn my crank. And some of the news items afterwards – the hostility to the used game (and lending) market, the spectre of an always-online requirement still haunting the Xbox One, the no-go on back-compat – it got easy to be negative fast.

But there were some gems. A slew of new IPs, magic moments, Remedy still treated like a star by Microsoft, puppies. There is promise there. It just got burred under a lot of other features I couldn't care about, or issues that give me pause.

Maybe I didn't give the Xbox One a fair shake. Maybe my expectations were too high. Call it naive, but I expected Microsoft to wow me. After the genuinely impressive showing by Sony and their PS4, I expected my boy Xbox to get in there and trade them punch for punch, to match every feature and then some, to name games that would make Infamous and Killzone blush. We didn't get that. What we got was a press event designed for an entirely different market. A good solid day of actually impressive info couldn't compete with that initial disappointment, even if some of what is getting out there sounds great.

In the end, we'll just have to wait till E3 before passing judgement. I'd like to think the Xbox One is still a contender. I'd love to stick with that eco-system and keep my Gamertag and friends list (and hopefully my XBLA games) but they are going to have to do more to sell me on it.

* - Straight from GlowBear's mind and into your feels. Emotionally despondent Sonic isn't the only one who has trouble getting out of bed some days.

* - Call of Duty Ghosts WILL be a work of art. I mean, it's got puppies right? How could it go wrong?

* - I've actually made a point of sending people on Injustice some "GG" messages lately just to balance out the crazy negativity and rage in that community. Baimhas blog hits home with me. Why do people got to be such enormous douche nozzles online?

A - Digital distribution is the future right? So why are so many otherwise awesome studios so bad at it?

A - Kenneth Cummings has no love for the Xbox One reveal, a big underwhelming wetfart.

A - The menacing floating head of Nicolas Cage does not approve of this Xbox One chicanery.

A - Whoops! Wish I hadn't used that wetfart line before looking at Pedrovay's response to the Xbox One. I don't want to spoil anything, but his opinion isn't very high.

A - AndyLonn takes a good lonn look at the Xbox reveal and finds it doesn't measure up.

A - Everyday Legend asks some tough questions about this new console and comes up with some tough answers.

A - TitusGroan makes some great points – if Xbox One is pushing some tight used-game DRM, you can bet an equivalent system will exist on the PS4, even if they're a little looser on the surface. Then his blog takes a weird turn into a pulp detective novel. I think it's been a long day for the poor guy.

A - I though console reveals were supposed to ignite the passion in a gamers heart, not burn em out. Bummer.

A - EA will be developing for the Wii U after all, that's some good news!



N - It's so sad to see Xbox turn to the Dark Side. If it wasn't for used games a good chunk of us wouldn't even be gamers. I hope they don't totally forget that and provide some kind of lower-cost option for older games.

M - Check out ColtonPhilips indy album! Never before has making a sandwich involved so much aggression.

V - Sadly it's out of audio sync, but Mikki Saturn dives into the recent dust up between Nintendo and the Let's Play makers of the internet. God knows Nintendo of all people should realize the power and potential of dedicated fans that share their passion, I have no idea how they're mucking up so bad.

V - JordanLloyd's video response to the Xbox One. Dudes got the crazy eye – I can dig it.

L - If that lovable puppy dies, nothing will stop me from  following a scripted path of high-adrenalin action set-pieces and awkward story exposition until I get my vengeance (unless I get distracted by the multiplayer half-way through).

C - TheKodu gives us a great tour of all the jokes we've already heard done to death yesterday afternoon. Hope that new Xbox doesn't take an arrow to the knee hur hur.

C - Yeesh, more flat tire humour.

C - Hur hur hur.

F - Um, goodbye? It's a shame to see AlexiusY leave, his violence blog was pretty well made and I would have liked to see more. Still, posts where someone declares how they're leaving the community in a huff just irk me.

F - Two 30 second meme clips does not a blog make



- Wrenchfarm

FPotD[/ltr]

Due to a slight change late in the day, I'm cappin Sunday's CAPS as well as Monday's.
Hey what up, community?!? YEAH! That's what I like to hear! Are you guys ready for tomorrow's Xbox reveal? If comments and social media are to be believed, y'all are SUPER EXCITED mildly interested. Sounds about right.

With these console reveals you can be sure of a few things:
-Bingo cards/drinking games
-Complaining
-Stupid stuff/people
Boom.

I guess I have a couple of predictions of my own for this:
1) They won't show any Playstation games.
2) Nice fingernails.
3) A horrible lack of Daft Punk.
4) Batman
5) Sandwiches (not for us, obviously)
6) Someone will slip on something
7) Buzzwords
8) Nice fingernails
9) A controller without a D-pad.
10) They won't show any Nintendo games.
11) Anti-grav skateboards
12) Bad shirt/tie combos
13) Sexism
14) Need For Speed
15) Fifa 14
16) Pretty much EA
17) Nyarlathotep
18) Gifs
19) Repeated news posts
20) A fist bump

Okay I love you buh-bye

Hey I recognize that guy!

Capsizing lol
* - StriderHoang has 5 very good reasons why Animal Crossing is way better than real life. Escapism at its finest!

* - UsurpMyProse tells us what we already know...#XboxReveal #XboxInfinity #PizzaHut #SeeYouInHell

* - Panzadolphin56 has a great retrospective on the Resident Evil REmake.

* -Zovfreullia introduces themselves with a lovely haiku.

* - Lance Icarus thinks Nintendo is making a mistake by claiming Content ID on Let's Play videos.

* - Marcunio also thinks Nintendo is going down the wrong road with their stance on Let's Plays. He then asks, "Why?"

A - Ronin4life thinks there is a double standard when it comes to judging Nintendo consoles versus judging companies' machines

A - TheDustinThomas owns a couple of games...a couple of times. Why do we sometimes buy things we already own?

A - CaimDark asks why we all care what's going on in this industry, especially in the case of Nintendo.

A - The Salty Hippo was disappointed with Max Payne 3, and wishes they would have actually explored Max.

P - LowerTierPodcast episode 10: It's Squirting Out. They're giving away Orion: Dino Horde and Cart Life, and talking about 7th Heaven. Does it get better than that?

A - TheKodu says by placing arbitrary rules on how people can be portrayed in videogames, we're making things worse.


C - LowerTier Podcast is giving away some good stuff as usual. Win Orion: Dino Horde or Cart Life.

C - PK493 is going to MCM Expo London and wants to know if anyone would like their avatar adopted for the trip!

S - Retrofaction stopped playing competitive games so much in favor of no-pressure single-player games.

C - shaxam1029 contemplates life & death, and the idea of permadeath in videogames. We don't know either, shaxam1029. We don't know.

D - POstudios gives us an update on episode 3 of Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller. It's detective time.

N - Apparently, there are a lot of Brazillians that play online and are total dickbags. It's a shame they give Brazillians with manners a bad name.

T - ZombieGadget tells us about a couple of his treasures found at Goodwill.

T - Asterion doesn't like that buzzword, "Mature." Can't blame him. I do, however, think he's wrong about MGSV.

T - "So is it that female gamers don't care one way or the other, or is it that we're so rarely given a choice in the matter that we've learned not to care?" Tankfox on playing as your own gender.

T - DiceeciD thinks Nintendo is well within their rights to claim content on Youtube, and thinks fellow LP-ers are whiny jerks who need to 'get a real job.'

R - TroyFullbuster reviews Super Mario 3D Land.

D - Jared Ramone Burks takes us through the process of making a side-scrolling hack & slash for class.



R - randombullseye lays out a couple of definitions he's going to be working with for some upcoming blogs.

R - Jared Ramone Burks played some D&D mods for class.






--smurfee mcgee
FPotD

Sometimes, I'm reminded just how shit life can be. This week was a hell of a week for that. I don't understand people sometimes. Don't have much to say, emotionally drained from personal matters on top of some of this internet drama and some realizations. But I will leave with this link to a lovely roundtable discussion, between Chloe and Allistair. I wish them both the best.

*- Damn right you should watch Saturday Morning Hangover. Damn effin right.
*- Nihil is back, back again. Nihil is back, tell some men. Tell some men, tell some men.

A- A fantastic write up on life changes and Mass Effect 3. Which I just started playing again for the third... maybe fourth time? Then 7th run of ME2. Thank you Amazon.




I- Say hello to Vexingaura. She seems pretty darn cool and has some good points to make.
C- Bob summerwill wins a shitty award.
C- MrPlow8 has another blog on sexism for us.
E- That ignoring, hateful blue bastard is hosting another Rearend Warriors. Classy Smurf.
S- TriplZer0 shares a -wait for it...... wait for it.....
C- Coffeewithgames ponders NSMB Wii U's online status.

R- TheKodu reviews The Blitz.
T- Cody has a reason why RE6 didn't suck TOTAL ass. I still maintain, that's a decent horror/action/b-movie style game for $20. Just not a good RE. Mercs is awesome though.
R- DarthSnider has a re-review of Dust 514 for dat azz.










These caps have been brought to you, by the letter 'K'.

K


-PhilK

FPotD

Way back in January, when everyone was doing their Top Games of 2012 lists, Grethiwha chose Way of the Samurai 4 as his favorite game of the year, which intrigued me as I hadn't really heard much about the series until then. Well, it took me a while, but I'm finally getting into the series. I decided to start with Way of the Samurai 3, since it was cheaper, and then possibly get 4 depending on how much I liked 3. So far, I'm really enjoying 3 a lot! It seems to be slightly less wacky than the way Grethiwha described 4, but it's still a pretty silly game. If you look past the silliness, it's still a fairly solid samurai game. But the humor is where the game shines. 



The very first thing I did in the game was pick up a green onion off the ground, which turned out to be a weapon you could use. So obviously I equipped that deadly veggie immediately, and then proceeded to beat a thug to death with it. And with that, within a few minutes of playing the game, I was already in love with it. 

I continued into the village, where I helped a housewife chop vegetables with my vegetable, retrieved an old lady's lost underwear, and spoke to a beestung man who wished he'd been stung on his junk, so that maybe it would look bigger for the ladies. 

Silliness aside, the gameplay is kind of strange but actually pretty unique. If you die in the game, you'll have to start over from the beginning of the story again, but any items, points or unlockable content you obtained in that playthrough will carry over into the next one. Permadeath gives the game sort of an arcade-y feel, but since the game can be beaten in only a few hours, and most progress you make carries over, it doesn't really feel unfair. It might become tedious for some people to have to replay parts of the story over and over again if they die, but you can keep things interesting by choosing different actions, dialogue options or story paths each playthrough. It might take a while to get used to, but it can be very rewarding when you finally get it. 



So now I'm really looking forward to finding out what Way of the Samurai 4 holds. But in the meantime, I've still got plenty of thugs to kill with my trusty sideonion, while running around in my underwear, with a falcon on my shoulder.

* - So much truth in this blog regarding the Sagal/Pinsof fiasco. Thanks, GlowBear!

A - TitusGroan shares their love for Nintendo, and hopes you will too!

A - ClashOfPenguins finds EA's decision to forgo online passes suspicious.

P - This is the first I've heard of the Go For Rainbow podcast, but apparently it's their 7th episode.

E - TroyFullbuster's entry for the Next Top Streamer contest. That's not at all what I imagined Troy would look like.

E - PlayBoyMan's entry for the Next Top Streamer contest.

E - And with the final paragraph, this blog about God of War suddenly turned into a Next Top Streamer entry, I think? Or: How I learned to fuck off with this Dr. Strangelove shit already.

E - ScottyG's entry for the Next Top Streamer contest. Do it for the black Yoshi!

E - Morty's entry (?) for the Next Top Streamer contest. He wants to win because cats!

E - Redfish00's entry for the Next Top Streamer contest.

F - Friday Night Fights on the PS3 + Daft Punk!

F - Friday Night Fights on Nintendo + Nintendo Direct!

F - Friday Night Fights on the 360 + Yakko!

R - willza reviews Game Dev Tycoon, a game about making games and getting reviews. How meta.

T - Shuuda gives us an overview of Inquisitor.

$ - May 17th UK releases and bargains!





L - The results of acidtechnologic's drunken Nintendo Direct predictions/hopes.

C - scizzle64 is reviewing Mega Drive games, this time it's Batman Forever. I've never been a fan of straight reviews of very old games, there's so much more you could do with a series on Mega Drive games.

C - I'm very confused about what the point of this blog actually was. Maybe the point was that Jimmi likes looking at girls? Cool, dude. Rock on.

C - I'd have to agree with Alphadeus here, this list sort of felt like a cop out.

F - CaimDark refers us to a Gamasutra article... while it might be an enlightening article, I'd rather hear your thoughts on the topic, CaimDark.



- bbain

FPotD