1. I'm an old ass man.

Not literally but I'm getting there. I turned 26 last month which means I'm closer to 30 than 20. That's cool. Growing up I acted older than most people my age because I was the always the youngest in the family. Being surrounded by older people makes you grow up fast. I realized how "old" I was when made friends that looked up to me like an older brother. People often come to me for advice. I have a friend I call my "daughter" and she calls me her "old man." Before I went away to school I already did all the drinking, drugging and experimenting people normally wait to do when they move out of their parents' house. I still like having fun, but I'm just laid back and set in my ways.

Fun fact: since I look older than my age I got away with a lot of shit growing up. I visited my first bar at 15. I bought alcohol for the first time when I was 17 without being carded. Now that I actually am getting older it's not so fun. Whenever I hang out with my mom people think I'm her boyfriend. She looks very young for her age but my mother is 60. o_0

2. A woman once asked to lick my armpit and I let her do it.

I liked it. You normally don't think of armpits as an erogenous zone, but it totally is. I don't feel like I'm missing out by not having a woman do this for me again, but I must admit I was into having that girl tongue my pits while it lasted. Even weirder is that she did this while I was driving. She also had an affinity toward the "taint" which I didn't know was a thing beforehand, but my life is much better now that I do.



3. KID+ is my Brawl name.

Back when I was thinking up a gamertag I could not come up with anything good. I looked around my room and picked something near me. I just so happened to have the kung-fu flick Kid With The Golden Arm in front of me so that became my alias. I regret it, because it's a needlessly long and obscure name.

Back when I sucked at Super Smash Bros Brawl for the Wii, a few enterprising hackers released Brawl+. This mod aimed to make the criminally slow SSBB more like the faster and more balanced Melee. The hack made playing Brawl a hell of a lot more fun. Once I started to get better at the game my friends began referring to me as KID+ (get it?) and the name stuck. It's a lot simpler and cooler than my original one so I've switched everything account I could to just kidplus.

4. My favorite song from a video game is Choir of Curse.

There are two things I miss about owning a 360: Gears of War and custom soundtracks. Thanks to both I discovered one of the best video game OSTs I've ever heard. The track is from the (shitty) PS2 game Chaos Legion. My roommate had the song on his battle playlist. While co-oping Gears 2 Horde mode, Choir kicked in and I proceeded to fuck shit up like never before. It's inspiring like Revived Power but way more badass. Since then it's been my unofficial theme music. It's great. Seriously, go check out this soundtrack.

5. I have a lot of freaky scars.

I'm not sickly, but I'm not exactly healthy either. I have a few conditions that have required a lot of surgery and will need more in the future. I have a mixture lymphangioma and hemangioma as well as scoliosis. If you don't know what those first two are they're basically benign tumors that can't be cured with chemo so they tend to grow back. Aside from the typical lumps, it can grow on the surface of the skin and causes these nasty bumps that pop and bleed. I've gotten rid of most of those with skin grafts so I don't walk around bleeding all day anymore. I'm actually pretty lucky, because a lot of people with this condition grow that shit on their faces, but mine started in my back. You wouldn't know anything is wrong with me at first sight. I actually don't mind the scars but I hate feeling abnormal. Not emotionally but physically. I'm not really self-conscious about my condition, I just don't like the discomfort. The corrective surgery I had on my back is especially annoying.

Besides those, I've earned some cool scars the old fashioned way. I have one on my forehead from when I split my head open as a toddler and another on my ear from being cut during a fight.



6. I was was close to being an Eagle Scout.

I was only one merit badge and an Eagle project away but I quit. I would've finished but my dad died and I quickly lost interest in planning my project. After hanging around in the Troop for a few months I just stopped showing up. I was a scout nearly my whole life up to that point. It's one of the things I regret the most.


7. I write more blogs than I post.

I have more blogs rotting on my PC than I've actually posted online. The reason being I'm not a very good writer. I enjoy it, but I'm just not that good at it. My favorite blogs are the ones I've never posted. I keep retooling them, I lose focus, I scrap the blog and start over, or maybe I just don't put in enough time to make it work as well as I want. Whenever there's a controversial subject (such as the sexism debates) the topic is old news by the time my blog is ready and people have moved on.

I also prefer to avoid writing a bunch of angry posts. There's a lot of hostility in the gamer community and I find it best not to react to every controversy and compound the anger. It just doesn't seem worth the time. Expressing yourself when you're upset is so easy, but spending time to write a more thought-provoking blog is a lot harder. When I write I want to have something of value to impart on you guys if you take the time to read my blog. At the very least I want to share ideas that aren't inflammatory or overdone.

8. I don't have a single discernible talent.

It's true. I'm not very creative. I'm not that funny. I'm 6'3" but I'm a poor basketball player (I prefer football anyway). I suck at music. I can't even whistle or blow bubbles with bubble gum. Remember in elementary school and everyone learned to play the recorder? Nope, I couldn't do it. I could sorta draw but nothing original. I liked drawing hands, people and recreating my favorite comic book panels. Like I said before, I love to write but I suck at it. It takes longer for me to turn in something decent than it does for the average person it seems. It's not all bad. I think I'm a fairly intelligent guy, so I believe I'm smart enough to figure out how to do something even if I lack a natural talent for it.



9. I like games, but I love movies.

Games are fun and all, but I love movies. I own hundreds of DVDs. I love going to the theater. I enjoy learning about filmmakers and how they create their work. It fascinates me. These days I try to analyze movies and appreciate them as an artform and not just entertainment. I sometimes blog about films over at Flixist.

10. I was never much of a gamer.

Once upon a time I never owned more than a few games at once. I sucked at just about everything. I hated Tetris and loathed fighting games. I always had a lot more going on than gaming anyway so it was no big deal. It was a fun distraction when I had free time. That changed in college after making friends with "hardcore" gamers who took their vidya geamz seriously. The competition drove me to play more, try different stuff and get better. I did.

Eventually I found Dtoid. Before then I'd see these debates about games as art or some other bullshit, and figured everyone was a bunch of aging fanboys trying to justify their little hobby to the world. I think some are, but it does go a bit deeper than that. Reading stuff here has opened my eyes to different ways of thinking about gaming. It's not just a time waster. It can be a social hub for players to get together and hangout. It can be moving. It can be art. It can just be a lot of fun. Now when I play a game I think more critically of the experience like I do with movies. Why do I love Demon's Souls so much? What makes a good game? How can these things improve?

The more I fell in love with games the more my habit got out of control. I've since scaled back the time and money I spend on them. Now I prefer to take my time exploring each game like I did when I when I could only afford one or two at a time. I get more out of each one this way and spend more time with the games I truly love. Games are a lot more fun (and cheaper) when don't worry about getting everything day 1 or tackling an immense backlog.

Bonus Round:

I drive a 2000 Cadillac STS.
I have this one hair on my left arm that's thicker and curlier than the others. It looks like a pube.
I came close to getting married once.
I have never bought underwear in my entire life because I always get it for Christmas.
I was VP of the anime club at my college.
I had cornrows for about 8 years. When my hair was out I looked like Sho'Nuff.

When Dante's Inferno was announced it had a couple strikes against it right off the bat: it perverted a celebrated piece of classic literature and it shamelessly aped its gameplay from God of War. But screw it, this is video games and nothing is sacred. The only true sin a game could commit is not being fun to play, right? Besides, this game was being developed by Viceral, a studio that managed to out Resident Evil the real RE5 with their modern classic Dead Space. I was willing to cut the studio that produced one of the best games this generation a little slack. Add that with a lot of positive buzz upon the game's release and Dante's Inferno seemed like a surefire hit. Unfortunately, the game was Hell to play.

To be fair, let me explain myself. I used to suck at video games. For most of my life I would rarely play anything beyond the normal difficulty level. Over the years I've gotten better, and competition with my much more experienced friends has driven me to adopt a competitive "go hard or go home" mentality with my gaming. Nowadays I usually just skip to the hardest difficulty. With Dante's Inferno being so familiar due to the knock-off God of War mechanics, I had no qualms with doing just that.



For a good while it worked out. It didn't do anything that much more exciting than GoW, but it managed to be quite fun. What ended up ruining the experience was a severe difficulty spike later in the game. You see, in Dante's Inferno you have two types of powers: unholy and holy. You unholy powers consists of melee attacks with your scythe and your holy powers are ranged attacks delivered from your Holy Cross. Both are upgradeable with the souls of the damned you collect as you rip Hell a blessed new one. Right out of the gate the cross feels cheap and easy to exploit, so I chose to put the vast majority of my upgrades into my scythe. That was a big mistake. As you progress through the game, Dante becomes more and more reliant on his divine weapon. By the time I reached a boss that was literally untouchable with physical attacks I all but gave up. In spite of having a ridiculously overpowered scythe with which to pummel my enemies, there were points when puny attacks from my cross were more effective in getting me to the next level. Even after dumping the remainder of my upgrades into the holy side of my powers, I still struggled to get past the latter stages.



This game is completely broken. Not only does it gimp you out of effectively defeating certain enemies, it essentially punishes you for not being cheap. You're probably asking yourself why I didn't just lower the difficulty and finish up (I tried it later and it's criminally easy), but to Hell with that! I issued myself a challenge and I wanted to complete it. Perhaps if I played on normal for my first playthrough I'd have known how crucial the Holy Cross is in the final levels, but shouldn't the game be balanced across all difficulties? If the thing is that necessary, why am I even given the option of focusing my upgrades elsewhere? Imagine how screwed up it would be if you spent all your red orbs improving your Blades of Chaos only to need the Blade of Artemis to finish the game.

As I kept on my quest, my patience wore thin. Every little negative detail of this game got under my skin. The level design and objectives get sloppier as you approach the end; thus, making the last moments more tedious. Since Inferno is a game all about Hell, it features some of the nastiest environments I've ever seen in a game. This is quite appropriate, but seeing wall-to-wall cock and vag all over the place wasn't helping to ease me through the experience. Seriously, someone on the dev team must be a huge Urotsukidoji and Bible Black fan. There are penises, vaginas, giant penis/vagina hybrids that act as weapons. It's all quite disturbing, which I guess is the point, but repeatedly getting murdered by the twisted phallus of some condemned transgendered whore gets to be too much after a while.



If that's not enough disturbing sexual imagery for you then wait until you see the final boss, Lucifer. Aside from being tough as hell to beat, the Devil is one ugly SOB. Since falling from grace, old Lucy has grown a bunch of horns, some goat legs and a giant dick larger than his forearm. Do you remember how time slows for a second when Kratos counters an attack? Dante has that same skill, but here it feels like a curse. Every time I countered one of Satan's blows his colossal shlong and nutsack flopped up and down in glorious slow motion, producing the most uncomfortable boss fight of all time. When I felled the beast and earned my redemption, it truly felt like a blessing my trial was finally over.

Looking back, Dante's Inferno isn't as terrible as it seemed. The game wasn't nearly as polished as the one it was imitating, but it had some solid gameplay. If I'd have done things a bit differently in the beginning I'd probably sing the game's praises right now. I'd actually recommend playing it if you have the chance, but please don't do what I did.

I read this today. It was a shitty blog. It's bad enough the thing is barely readable, but the most annoying thing is that it echoes a sentiment I constantly read online: Modern Warfare has ruined games and is the prime example of the lack of innovation that plagues the industry. It's been a popular opinion since MW2 launched two years ago, and I can't wrap my head around it. I'm sorry CoD haters but allow me the explain why that's bullshit.

Firstly, when did it become Modern Warfare's responsibility to reinvent the FPS genre with each release in the series? When MW2 was released gamers were already complaining about how uninspired the series had become. And now, on the cusp of the third game's release, even indie developers are hopping on the bandwagon. What surprises me about this is that gamers seem to forget why the franchise is so popular in the first place. Infinity Ward's shooter is constantly brought up in the debate about the lack of innovation in the gaming industry, but they fail to realize Modern Warfare is top dog because of its innovations, especially on consoles. Try to think back to pre-Modern Warfare days. What was the FPS market like? WW2 shooter X was what we had over and over again. Even though Infinity Ward's series was at the top of the heap, they decided enough was enough and went for a modern setting. They even had to fight Activision tooth and nail to get it done. What resulted was one of the best things to happen to modern shooters. Thanks to CoD 4, we were finally lifted out of the dark ages of the stale WWII setting. That wasn't all Infinity Ward brought to the table; we also got an exciting, action-packed campaign with a lot of twists and turns. Even better was an addictive online multiplayer component that offered an even deeper experience than the singleplayer. I don't know if it was the first game to feature this because I never cared for online gaming before MW, but it's RPG like progression system was a fun, rewarding experience. The more kills you got, challenges you completed, and matches you finished the more XP and customization options you obtained. It offered gamers a reason to keep playing beyond just shooting guys in the face. The game also added perks and a variety of multiplayer modes to keep things interesting. We gained all this, yet gamers were already crying about the lack of innovation by the series' second installment. What? How often is Infinity Ward supposed to revolutionize a genre? Modern Warfare 2 offered new maps, a ton of new weapons, new game modes, new perks and killstreaks, and more customization options for your weapons. Somehow this gets written off as minor tweaks and I just don't get it.



What's even worse is the hypocrisy of certain gamers. Don't we gamers regularly beg for, or even expect, sequels to our favorite games? Look at what Capcom is going through right now. The company has suffered a lot of fan backlash for trying too many new things and not giving fans sequels to old games. You know what? I wouldn't say any of them are flatout wrong to feel that way. If you like something you want more of it. There's nothing wrong with that. Sure, you don't have to be a dick about it, but screwing with the formula pisses gamers off. Infinity Ward knows this and isn't doing anything wrong by giving gamers what they obviously want.

Probably the most boneheaded criticism I've read is that the franchise's influence is ruining gaming. Every since Cal of Duty 4 became a huge hit, other studios have ditched the WWII setting in favor of a modern approach. That's a good thing. Some have taken it a step further and have decided to ape Infinity Ward's style all together. This has resulted in a lot of "me too" shooters that either want CoD's spot or just want to ride its coattails to success. The problem with blaming CoD is that it isn't the game's fault! If people are ripping off Call of Duty you blame the developers of these knock offs not the game being ripped off. So what we have her is a situation where gamers are simultaneously criticizing MW titles for a lack of innovation and blaming Infinity Ward for having its style co-opted by the rest of the industry. How can something that's just the same old crap be a trend setter? It can't.

This series' influence isn't all bad either. Games evolve over time because of inspiration from different games. It the reason combos exist in games today, action games have RPG elements and the over-the-shoulder perspective is a staple of the third person shooter genre. I like to think the industry is better for it. Also, we don't curse the games that dare to be a little different for inspiring the gameplay of others. That's ludicrous.



With that said I understand people's frustration with the series as a whole. Activision has turned Call of Duty into an annual franchise and fans are worried that won't give developers the time they need to grow. I share the same fears especially after the legal fallout last year. However, Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare series is its own thing and shouldn't be held accountable for a spinoff series its publisher ordered. Not only that, but the games are different. The Treyarch and IW games have a similar feel and run on the same engine, but any CoD player can tell the difference between the gameplay of the main series and its spawn. Even though Treyarch's games always feels a step behind the main one, the last two installments have been great shooters in their own right. World at War gave us Nazi Zombies and some of the best multiplayer maps to grace the series. Last year's Black Ops tried to make up for MW2's shortcomings and delivered the best narrative to hit any game in the franchise. It's hard to get too mad when these games continue to be better than much of the competition.

It's ok to to be a little angry, disappointed or worried about the state of the Call of Duty brand and the FPS genre as a whole. I just believe gamers should make sure that anger isn't misdirected. When I read complaints about the impending release of MW3 from people who haven't played the game yet, I can't help but call bullshit. If you're sick of the franchise since Activision forces the release of annual installments or because studios that want to emulate it, fair enough. Just don't tell me it sucks because it's not innovative enough when Battlefield 3 isn't doing much more that what it's already accomplished in the past. Well, there is dinosaurs.

"Gaming is Gaming. And competitive professional Gaming is a sport. I think the term "cyber athletes" is silly, but people who specialise in one game to earn money and compete in it are no different from David Beckham. Why must they be either a Gamer or a Sportsman. People can be both, and that's why it's awesome." - WrexShepard


I don't want to beat a dead horse, but after reading comments and reactions to Elsa's blog I just wanted to say one quick thing. There seems to be this idea that highly competitive tournaments and professional gaming leagues validate gaming as a sport. I have a problem with this because people are basically saying those who are really good at games play sports while the rest of us play games. By that rationale the kid in the header isn't playing basketball; he's just playing a game that looks like it. This is wrong. Basketball is a sport through-and-through. Whether you play it in you backyard or in the NBA you are playing a sport. The stage on which you play is irrelevant to whether the game you're playing qualifies as a sport. Hell, whether you're good at it or not doesn't diminish that fact that it is a sport. The game makes the player, the player doesn't make the game.

This argument seems to be coming from different people. Some are normal gamers that just recognize the skills of others and they appreciate the attention these competitions gain. However, I think a lot of the ones using this excuse are elitists that want to be taken more seriously. You have to have a certain amount of arrogance to believe your skill in a game transcends the normal gaming experience and elevates the actual game you're playing to a higher level. A sport is a competitive and athletic exercise. You can argue that how precisely and quickly you move your thumbs is "athletic," but you can't say because you compete on a higher level than others you are now playing a sport. Unless we all are willing to accept regular online competitive multiplayer as people playing sports we need to let this go and just have fun.

I've written a Monthly Musing for almost every month for the past few months but never posted one. Sometimes I just didn't like where the article was going and other times I felt like it wasn't written well enough to publish. No matter the reason for keeping my blogs to myself the result was the same: I went and played a video game instead of toiling away at an article. Like every other month I sat down to write my piece for January but couldn't come up with anything. How could I complain about 2010? It was an amazing year for games. Out of the 20+ games I played this year I only regret buying one. I was happy to ignore this month's subject then it clicked. It saddens me this is my first Monthly Musings post but I think it's important enough to put out there. A large portion of the Dtoid community seems hellbent on ruining the joy of gaming.

I've been a reader here since 2009 and a more active member of the community throughout 2010. What attracted me to the site was how community focused it was. Destructoid wasn't just about posting game news–we can get that anywhere–it was about a group of dedicated gamers sharing their ideas on the games they love (or hate) no matter how unpopular those opinions may be. Sure I don't always completely agree with everyone's opinion but I can normally look forward to an interesting read. All of these things remain true today but I've noticed an increase in negativity across the entire site. The C-Blogs, the comments even front page articles have a more hostile slant to them than I remember before.



Like I said, I rarely post blogs but do comment frequently. When I read comments here it makes me wonder why people are so pissed off. Sure there are the trolls that try to start a shitstorm by posting things like "INB4 butthurt PS3 fanboyz start complaining!" or "This has an 9 on Metacritic you're biased!" but those assholes don't concern me as much. It's the little things that make me wonder why even post that? I reflect on all of the complaining I heard this past year and then I think of all the bad games I played and it doesn't match up. Read the first page of comments on this post. Done? Good. Half the comments aren't even about the game and the ones that are are mostly negative. Don't get me wrong. I'm not telling people to censor their opinions in anyway but I just have to wonder why so many feel the need to wipe their ass on a game whenever it's mentioned if they have no interest in ever picking it up and playing it. Is it really necessary to shoot down fellow Dtoiders' excitement? Why do you even care? We're coming off of one amazing year and people still find ways to complain and get into little pissing matches with each other over nothing.



Then there is the rampant fanboyism. Ladies and gentlemen I thought we were past this! Look, I love my PS3 but I wouldn't take anyone's 360 or Wii from them. I receive less flak for being a Redskins fan than from being a PS3 owner. No one gets mad at me for liking that team or try to convince me I shouldn't either. What business is it of mine what people chose to play and what system they do it on? Enjoying ourselves is the ultimate goal for us all right? If it isn't fanboys shitting on everyone it's some pretentious commenters that feel their opinions trump everyone else's because they own all 3 consoles. Why so serious? I really want to know.

All the community hate aside, some of the posts from staff don't help either. When we have editors that openly admit to posting flamebait to get people riled up it is a problem. Sure the community tends to overact at times but we don't need writers trying to piss us off. Hell, this month's musings exists because they expect us to be negative. I know we're better than that.



I enjoy a good rant or game review. I like reading/hearing people's opinions especially when they differ from my own. It reminds me that we're all different and there is more than one way to look at something. However I feel our community has lost sight of why we got into the business of playing games in the first place. We do it for fun. Remember fun? I do and I know most of you do as well. That's why I'm still here after all. I still love this community but to me Destructoid is like a big meal and someone spit in my mash potatoes. Yeah only part of it is tainted but it kinda ruins my appetite. I want to know what you guys think. Good or bad. That's what makes this place special but I just wish people would keep their mean spirited comments to themselves because it helps no one.



I'm not here to bitch and complain. I'm not here to tell everyone that disagrees with me to fuck off. I'm here to send out a sincere plea to all Dtoid readers out there. I want us all to get back to having fun. I want reading Destructoid to be fun, I want to be able to comment without getting trolled, I want us to discuss instead of argue, I want us to share ideas that go beyond hatred. I'm not asking you to censor yourselves I'm just asking you to be civil and have a little fun because there's plenty to be happy about this year.

Label this under rumor but I ran into Chris Bevins, the voice actor for Dhalsim in SFIV and Super SFIV, at Otakon on Saturday. He hinted at a quote "unannounced" Capcom game. He specifically said it is NOT the previously announced Capcom/Namco collaborations. Another possible crossover? Maybe. My money is on it being the 3rd Strike Online Edition. I'm guessing it'll be a full HD remix of the game complete with new VO. Perhaps he's not aware it was just announced at Comic-Con. We do know Capcom is focusing on it's proven franchises given it's current financial rut so more Street Fighter games besides the ones we know about are very much a possibility. I'm not sure if this qualifies as news but I thought it was worth mentioning.

UPDATE:

I went to Bevins' Q & A session Sunday to see if he could clarify what he may be working on. The game is not the 3rd Strike remake. He knows all about it but it's so early in development they haven't even contacted him for VO work. He did say it will likely get the full HD remix treatment Street Fighter II received so he very well may be a part of it. Bevins also said that the cast of SFIV will remain the voices of their characters as long as the SFIV brand continues to produce games. SF vs Tekken included. Whatever project Capcom is cooking up he isn't involved yet but said he's "keeping his fingers crossed" and hoping they get him to do it. So the final word is Capcom does have a secret project in the works right now we just don't know what it is. Ideas?