[justify]Alright, Game Companies. It's time to get your heads OUT OF YOUR ASSES. You seeing these console announcements? You notice an upsetting trend? Yeah. No backwards compatibility. And we're not just talking about reading discs anymore either. We're talking about digital releases. All those games you've been pushing out on XBLA and PSN? Completely USELESS next gen. Wii-U manages to be an exception only because they included a Wii emulator.[/justify]

[justify]So tell me something, Game Companies. How much longer are you going to hold out on PC releases? Yes, you're slowly warming up to the subject, announcing PC versions of games like Metal Gear Revengeance and Mortal Kombat... but there's still quite a ways to go. Don't you find it upsetting that within 2 years, a game like Battleblock Theater will cease to sell while Peter Molyneux continues to profit from MAGIC CARPET??



This isn't about touting around PC's superiority. It's simply about pointing out the PC's advantage over consoles. It is a FACT that PC games will see a longer life cycle than console equivalents. Plus, the PC community mods games for additional content that stretches that life cycle even further. People STILL get Just Cause 2 just for the multiplayer hack. People go back into Sonic Generations just to play the modded daytime levels from Sonic Unleashed. And don't get me started Day Z, a game that requires $30 worth of games just to play. Also note how NONE of these things work well unless you own a full version of the game.



So please. Let's stop this stupidity. It's only going to happen AGAIN when we get to the Xbox One 2 and PS5. Just release PC versions of your games alongside the console releases. It'll benefit you in the long run.[/justify]

Did I say "I?" Sorry, I meant "we." Fellow Dtoider Wilbo (the ORIGINAL sexy male gamer) and I recently began a game streaming series of our own called Mung Bungs. The show consists of the two of us simply playing video games. Why should you watch? Well, for our wonderful, entertaining personalities of course! You come for the gameplay, but stay for the witty banter and insightful opinions.



The series began with us playing co-op games, taking turns, or occasionally watching each other play. However, things quickly evolved and birthed spin-offs such as Mung VS. Bung where, obviously, Wilbo and I go head-to-head.



Other times, we'll get our other buddies involved and have a friendly round of Mung Bungs + Friends.



The games we play often move us between console and PC, and yes, we have occasionally used Emulators. However, we don't use them to pirate and avoid payment. We use them simply because I live in the United States and Wilbo lives in Scotland and unfortunately, not every game has been re-released with online multiplayer (looking at YOU, 3 Ninjas Kick Back). Our diversity has also begun to sprout an international following! We've even gained a Japanese fan who can't even understand English (look at the comments)! That's right. We have such charisma that we even break the barriers set up by language.

Goofy jokes aren't all we do, though. Sometimes I go solo for some insightful commentary and reviews on games and gaming culture:





Or maybe I'm screaming my brains out at Kirby or having a blast with Sleeping Dogs. The difference between my solo material "Gaming with Genki" and Mung Bungs is that Mung Bungs is completely raw, unedited footage of gameplay. To get the purest experience of spontaneity and insanity (from repeated failures), I leave the footage relatively untouched.

While our show so far has been rather barebones and lacks fancy things like an "intro" or "mascots," I'm looking at changing that in future seasons. I just got tired of watching some of the other streamers like Game Grumps and Two Best Friends and decided that I would rather share my own gaming experiences with one of my best bros.

So, why do I deserve a fancy video capture kit? Well, so far, our quality has been rather poor when it comes to recording console games. The poor video quality prevents us from pushing forward a more "professional" appearance that is much easier with PC capturing. It's difficult to grow an audience and be taken more seriously as a source of entertainment when your material looks janky and bootleg.

We have been around for 6 months, but the average views for Mung Bungs material tend to be between 20-30. I'd very much like to change that and really build an audience. Why? Not for internet fame. Not for glory. It's just because I love to entertain.

Okay Video Game Companies, it’s time we had a little heart-to-heart.

DRM isn’t working. AT ALL. You keep putting DRM in your games to try and prevent people from pirating, but people can almost immediately bypass it! In the end, all you really do is hurt paying customers and give pirates more reasons to download your games. Diablo III and SimCity 5 are perfect recent examples of how ineffective DRM is.



So what can we do about this? You obviously want money from these sales, and I know you’ve been struggling with getting money off of used sales by adding Online Passes. Well, I’ll tell you what. Since I’m such a nice guy, I’m going to give you the perfect solution: DIGITAL RENTALS.

Yep! You heard me. This is an almost completely untapped area for video games and I’m absolutely baffled that it’s still this way. How is it that film has a thriving On-Demand service, but video games don’t?



So far, the only thing we have is Gamefly (and MAYBE Playstation Plus). They’ve included a PC rental service for subscribers, but the games are all old. If someone wants a new game, they have to either rent a physical copy, or buy physical or digital. And you sure do love those digital sales, don’t you, VGC? All those profits, low expenses, and no room for used sales! But then, of course, we get back to the issue of piracy…

This is why digital rentals could work. Hook up with a service like Steam and charge people around $5 to $7 for a day rental. Don’t restrict any content (like Online Passes), and allow them to buy and keep any DLC. If your game takes them longer to complete, they’ll have to pay for another day. And why don’t we sweeten the pot for them? Every rental fee counts towards payment for the full game. So let’s say someone rents a game at $7 a day for a week. You just made $49! And most PC games run around $50, so they’ve pretty much PAID for that game.



If they finish it within a day or two and have no desire to continue? Well, you still made $7-$14 more than you would have if they pirated it, bought it used, or rented elsewhere. Let’s face it, VGC. You’re struggling to make ends meet. You need every dime you can get—especially when people can so easily get these games cheaper elsewhere. The people that usually buy instead of renting will still buy; the people who rent before buying will be more inclined by the hassle-free digital service; and the people who pirate may also be willing to throw $7 your way because of the convenience. Will this kill piracy? No. But it WILL greatly weaken its allure.

The year is 2013, video game companies. It’s time you fully embraced the digital marketplace and the PC audience. Stop alienating your customers and make playing video games a convenience rather than a hassle.

Sincerely,

Genki-JAM

So originally I was going to write a big review of DmC: Devil May Cry and post it here. But it kept getting longer and longer, and at one point I figured people would get bored sitting there reading my thoughts and complaints. So instead, I made a big-ass VIDEO ANALYSIS dissecting the game and it's countless faults.

Welp, let's get the ball rolling, shall we?

Part 1:


Part 2:

Another year, another Dtoid Puppy Bowl stream!



Ready for 2 hours of CUTENESS? Hells yeah you are! Shit's gonna be BALLER, yo!

Head to the SMNTV website if the embed here is too messed up or small for you.

If the stream gets full, don't worry. I'll be showing it on loop and will also put a repeat stream after the first showing on my Twitch channel

EDIT: TWITCH IS LIVE NOW!

I’m absolutely sick of the constant bombardment of complaints I’ve been hearing about certain video games recently. Recently, we’ve had people complain about the new Lara Croft, claiming that the game is “sexist” because of Lara’s role; had people complain about gay jokes and other “sophomoric” aspects of Hitman: Absolution, and NOW there are complaints about Far Cry 3 being RACIST. Just… why? Why do people care so much?

It’s like people can’t have any freedom with what they put in their games anymore. I’m not saying everyone should think it’s okay to put messages like “fuck women/ni**ers/gays” in their games, but it seems like that’s the kind of message people see when they complain about the content in games.



Let’s start with Far Cry 3 since it was a recent Kotaku/Rock, Paper, Shotgun article that spurred this rant out of me. The complaint is that you play as a white protagonist who basically saves the natives of the area and helps them by doing tasks such as “killing endangered species, find their missing daughters, etc.” Apparently, “the locals behave as if they’re helpless without you.” Yeah, it’s not like it’s a damn VIDEO GAME or something where sidequests and menial missions exist. No, it’s because it’s some white guy that it’s suddenly racist. So racist, in fact, that people have actually been stating that the game looks good, but they’re boycotting it because of this simple fact. Really?

Seriously, who gives a fuck? This whole issue bugs me because I really don’t care about skin color--especially when it comes to stories and entertainment. Part of it may be because I’m biracial, but the fact that I see so many people trying to point out these “racist” things just seems racist itself. Who gives a damn what color the characters are? Who cares that there’s a mystical native who helps you out? These are simple story tropes that have existed for as long as stories have been told!



Of course, this isn’t the first time an issue like this has come up. Years ago, people were ranting and raving about Resident Evil 5 and how you’re a white guy shooting black people. OH NO! Don’t shoot BLACK people! They’re different from everyone else! Let’s disregard where the story is taking us and the fact that nobody cared about shooting Spaniards in Resident Evil 4. (Though, perhaps people didn’t care because of the fact that Spain has a similar aggressive history to other European cultures, or perhaps their skin just wasn’t dark enough to offend. But, I digress…)



People have also been complaining about the new Lara Croft, the fact that she’s more vulnerable, that she’s nearly raped in one of the early cutscenes, and that the developer wanted to make the player feel like they needed to protect her. This sent feminists into a FRENZY. “What!? It’s because she’s a WOMAN, ISN’T IT?!” No. It’s the fact that she’s YOUNG and INEXPERIENCED and they wanted to develop a PARENTAL feeling between Lara and the player.



And then, of course, there’s all the jokes and whatnot in Hitman: Absolution. Once again, who honestly cares? Why is it such a big deal that they make a subtle gay visual joke? Oh, and there’s the whole sexy nun assassins thing. I get why people are upset, and yes, it was ridiculous, but seriously, this is just entertainment. It’s a world where fantasies and crazy, unrealistic shit can happen. But apparently, that’s not okay anymore. Developers apparently aren’t allowed to make an escape from the real world.

No, give men and women normal and realistic proportions. Give them realistic personalities, but don’t put them in realistic situations like rape attempts to develop character. And make sure you don’t make any women or minorities look silly or weak in ANY way.



I’m just exhausted with all this drama getting attached to video games. I just want to enjoy them and not have people ranting and raving about how short some character’s skirt is or what the hero's ethnicity is. I’m not saying I support any of it, but when there are women like my girlfriend who LOVES games like Onechanabara and Bayonetta, maybe it’s not as big of a deal as people make it out to be.



Maybe this drama comes from the whole “video games need to grow up” issue, but I think video games already have grown up. Once something reaches maturity, shouldn’t it be allowed to do whatever the hell it wants? Whether it’s a good or bad decision, it has the right to make it. If video games still have to grow up, then film needs to grow up. We shouldn’t have shit like White Chicks polluting theaters (which is pretty damn racist itself with its reverse Blackface, but people don’t say shit because it stars the Wayans Bros).



I really think, though, half of these complaints have stemmed from all the shit revolving around Anita Sarkeesian. You know, the lying, manipulative person who ran a Kickstarter, got a ridiculous amount of money despite being berated for her poor and sometimes uninformed statements; and who has YET to produce ANYTHING from her kickstarter beyond a photo of her and an enormous stack of video games she could have gotten at a fraction of the cost if she bought them USED. And despite being insanely behind in her milestones, she still has the gall to do lectures and BRAG about the money she made and how successful she was. Yes, of course the amount of harassment towards her was ridiculous, but I can guarantee you that not nearly as many of the people who attacked her were actually sexist. Plenty of MEN have gotten just as much harassment on the internet, but she implies it's women who get the most of it. She disregards any other possible reasoning for why she was attacked beyond her gender, and that's the same shit going on in most of these video game complaints. People zero in on ONE aspect, disregard everything else entirely, and call anyone who disagrees a sexist/racist/homophobe/whatever.

I get why people complain. I know that racism and sexism are still rampant. The problem is that these people who are trying to make a “better” society by addressing these issues are blowing simple things way out of proportion or creating issues where there are none and preventing people from actually moving past them. Numerous comedians have addressed this. You have to be able to comfortably talk about (and sometimes LAUGH at) these things if you want to move past them. If you continue to let them upset you or offend you, you’re only HINDERING society’s development.