Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! SNES Classic Get!

I got an SNES Classic!  I still can't believe my luck!  What a nightmare it has been!  It all started back in July when Walmart jumped the gun and started preselling the SNES Classics too early.  I was one of the unfortunate few that locked down a preorder only for it to be canceled four days earlier.  I was so upset, I wanted to boycott.  Then, there were the official preorders that went live in August, and I missed every single one of them.  Amazon and Best Buy sold theirs while I was asleep.  The rest sold theirs while I was at work and unable to get to the computer in time.  Then, last night, I missed out on another round of online preorders by minutes.  

The only recourse I had then was to hunt one down in a brick and mortar, and that meant camping or showing up really early.  The thought of having to wait so long in line causes me great anxiety.  I have stomach and bladder issues, so I would be completely miserable should I camp, so that wasn't an option.  The plan then was to wake up early and try my local Walmart first.  As much as I didn't want to because I'm still pissed at them for making me go through all this shit, I figured they would be my best bet.  

I had a game plan ready.  I was going to try Walmart first, fail.  Then I'd swing down to Best Buy which was just down the parking lot and try to score a ticket they were to be handing out at 7, fail.  I'd swing over to Target at 8, fail, then head over to Toys R Us and fail again.  I wasn't even going to try GameStops, since most of their allotments were already preordered.  I'd then go home after failing at Toys R Us and spend the afternoon looking up store stocks and calling around and then travel across Colorado to find a store that had one. I took today off from work thinking I'd being doing all this.  I gave myself very low odds of succeeding, but I was still going to try.

My plan was to be at Walmart at 5, an hour before opening.  Sadly, that did not happen.  Snooze instincts took over and kept hitting the damn snooze.  When I finally looked at my phone, it was 5:30.  I jumped up, got ready and flew down to the Walmart arriving at 10 minutes till 6.  As I pulled into the parking lot, lo and behold, a line.  I eyeballed it at least 30-40 people.  The line looked to be growing in size the closer and closer I got to it, and then my stomach had that lurching feeling when I estimated the line to be over 40 people.  I knew this location had 39 units and I almost convinced myself to leave and immediately stand in line at Best Buy.  What made me even more anxious was hearing people talk about how they were selling them via tickets.  I thought at that point, "Why even bother now?"  I was SO close to leaving, but something held me there in line. 

As the doors opened, the mob of people hurriedly - but in an orderly fashion - marched down to the electronics department.  The line was so long that people were walking out of the department with their SNES Classics before the line slowed down enough to where I was standing still.  The dread would not go away.  I kept feeling that I was going to miss out and would have to start the long process of standing in line at other stores and calling around.  I just wanted this all over with.  I even prayed to Jehovah to help me, as petty as a prayer that was.  But He heard me. 

I don't think I overestimated my count.  There was a good 40 or so people in front of me, but what I didn't take into account was that they weren't all buying their own machines.  Some were together to just keep the people waiting in line company.  The line moved very swiftly and a guy I was chatting with in line named Will stood on his toes and looked over the counter to see how much stock they had left.  It looked like at least 10 units, he said.  We only had a couple more people in front us.

Then it started setting in.  I was going to get one!  I was next in line as Will was checking out to my right.  We both had this sense of euphoria surrounding us.  Before I knew it, I was sliding my card into the machine and the clerk handed me my bag.  I had it!  I took it out of the bag and felt the box.  This was real.  I even pinched myself thinking I'm dreaming!  I even had this weird dream last night that someone jumped the counter, grabbed one and tried to run off with it but I gave chase, took him down with a slide and did a citizen's arrest.  Because of my heroics, I was awarded with the opportunity to purchase the SNES Classic I had saved. 

Will and I walked out of the Walmart with our SNES Classics beaming brighter than 1,000 Watt flashlights.  And suddenly, I realized, "My entire day just got freed up!"  I came home happier than I have been in a long time, set the SNES Classic on a counter top and took pictures to post on Facebook to further cement the reality of the situation.  All this waiting, all this anxiety, the frustration, the fear of disappointment; it all faded away leaving me in a state of blissful joy.  The hunt was over, and I landed my five point buck on the first shot!

Today, I'll spend a good amount of time with my SNES Classic revisiting some of my favorites.  I probably won't play them all for a quite a long time.  I just wanted to make sure I had this thing in my possession so I wouldn't have to keep looking for the damned thing.  I did actually play a bit of it this morning.  I played the first level of StarFox, which is required in order for you to unlock StarFox 2, the only reason why I wanted the Classic this badly.  Unfortunately, I need to be honest and say StarFox 2 just isn't any good.  It's not because it's dated, although that does play a part in making it hard to appreciate.  The structure of the game just isn't that fun.  It's a bunch of mini-missions scattered around a map where you constantly have to stop what you're doing to fight off missiles that's threatening Corneria.  Playing in first-person with a d-pad is also not very fun at all.  Still, disappointed as I am in the game, I'm glad I found an SNES Classic.  There were also a few games I used to have, and now I have them again, and a couple I never even played.  I'll get to them eventually.

As for the system itself, it really is tiny.  You don't really get a feel for just how small it is until you hold it in your hand.  Even Will and I were surprised by how small the box was.  The replication of the system is near perfect, catching every detail of the old 16-bit system.  The cartridge slot and eject buttons are purely for cosmetics but the power and reset switches behave exactly like the original SNES.  The controller is also an exact replica and feels about the same as I remember the original feeling.  Sadly, even at five feet, the cord is still too short.  I had to bring the unit down to right under my TV in order for the controller to give me enough slack as a result, it hangs a little off my desk.  I don't think I want to spend more money on an extension cord.  I'll just make do.

As for the interface, I like how the menu is done.  It has a nice 16-bit style background and the music that plays is very reminiscent of what you'd hear in one of the old Wii apps.  I also discovered that if you idle long enough, Mario will come along and bump the underside of whatever game you currently have your cursor on and it'll launch.  While the game is demoing, you can hit Select to go back to the menu but if you're actively playing a game, you'll need to get up and hit the reset button.  Once a game has been reset, you'll be given the option to select a save state, which I found odd.  This should have been an automatic thing, but you're required to MANUALLY do a save state.  If you get a Classic, don't forget that when you reset. 

The library of games is a great collection, but I'm still bothered by the fact that there's only 21 in comparison to the NES Classic's 30.  There are a few glaring omissions, most notably Chrono Trigger, but considering you have Secret of Mana, Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasy III and Earthbound, you'll have plenty of RPGing to do. One omission I don't get is PilotWings.  The Classic has legendary launch games Super Mario World and F-Zero, but no PilotWings?  No SimCity?  I appreciate the fact that a Street Fighter 2 title is in here, but it's Turbo edition which isn't bad by any means, but there's a few better editions they could have included instead. 

I'm not trying to be nit picky.  I should count my lucky stars that I even have reason to write this blog, but I've always been the Nintendo gamer that expects more from them.  I felt to reduce your catalog by nine games and charge 20 dollars more while you're at it is a bit insulting to your customers.  The SNES is a lot more special to most than the NES was, and I honestly don't feel Nintendo did enough justice with their library this time.  Still, being able to play StarFox 2, a game published 21 years ago but never released until now, as disappointing as it is, is a very special feeling.  I'd do this all over again.  So glad I don't have to, though.

Third Parties Are Supporting Nintendo. Now It's Time to Support the Third Parties

Nintendo had one of their biggest Directs today.  It was roughly 45 minutes.  To disclose, I haven't had the chance to watch the Direct, and probably won't.  I just haven't had the time.  I did glean from the news outlets all the pertinent information that stemmed from the Direct, though.  Two of the biggest surprises, and honestly bigger surprises than Metroid Prime 4, were Doom and Wolfenstein 2 coming to the Switch.

When I first read the tagline, I was thinking, "Oh, that's cool.  Play some old school Doom and Wolfenstein ... " But then the connection was made.  "2?  Wait a minute..."  I read the article, and there it was.  This was Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus.  This is the sequel to 2014's Wolfenstein, which I have yet to play.  So that means Doom... yep, this isn't the original Doom.  This is last year's remake of Doom.

So, let this announcement sink in for a few minutes.  The Switch is criticized by many to be so weak that there's no chance third parties will support it, and third party support has always been one of Nintendo's greatest weaknesses.  If that's the case... why is Bethesda bringing over two graphically intensive games?  Doom and Wolfenstein are both highly acclaimed games, and the Switch will be receiving Wolfenstein's sequel along with the other platforms (albeit at a later date).  Skyrim was one thing, a port of a six year old game, but Bethesda is keeping current with the Switch.  They're showing faith in the Switch.  They're not afraid to make these games work on an undeniably weaker console.  This isn't just some rinky dinky third party company supporting the Switch.  This is the Bethesda, a publisher so big, they get their own press conference at E3.  This. Is. Huge.

What this moment means could very well open the doors for other companies to look at the Switch from a new perspective and realize that they could see success on Nintendo's hybrid platform.  EA is already supporting the Switch with a version of FIFA, granted a far inferior version.  Ubisoft has already released the amazing Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle and a Switch version of Rayman Legends (not really worth the mention to be honest).  I wish they'd factor in a Switch version of Assassin's Creed: Origins, but who knows... maybe they will.  Rockstar is also playing ball with a version of L.A. Noire.  Yes, the game's six years old like Skyrim, but it's a ROCKSTAR game!  ROCK. STAR.  They completely skipped over the Wii U.  If things go well, could a Switch version of GTA 6 be in the cards?  Depends....

These third party companies are testing the waters.  Rockstar's putting one of their old games on the Switch, same with Bethesda and Ubisoft, but at least Bethesda is upping the stakes with a much more recent game and an upcoming sequel.  They're looking to see if there's enough interest to possibly release more games on the Switch and this won't happen unless you buy them.  If you're a Nintendo fan, you're more than likely to be the kind that wants third party support, but when third party games come along, you don't buy them.  You just stick to Nintendo titles.  Well, it's time to put up or shut up.

If you've always complained about Nintendo not having third party support, then you owe it to yourself to buy these games.  If you're a multi-platform owner like myself, you need to make the Switch versions the versions you'll buy.  Yes, you might be buying inferior, downgraded and... fuck... even pricier versions, but remember what platform you're buying it on.  The Switch!  You can take it anywhere and play at any time!  No amount of graphical performance can replace that kind of functionality!  These games HAVE to succeed!  These companies need to know that there is interest in third party titles.  Nintendo needs to see that their fans want these games so that more third party titles get release and Nintendo's library continues to become more appealing.  But they can't do it by themselves.  They need YOU!

They've got me.  I've already pre-ordered Skyrim and I'll be getting L.A. Noire as well, even though I already own it on the PS3.  I've actually never gotten around to it, so this will literally be the first time for me.  You can be rest assured that I'm making the Switch my platform of choice for Doom and Wolvfnstein 2 as well.  I know some of you are probably balking at me being excited about inferior versions of multiplatform games... but to be honest, I'm sick of the graphics wars.  I honestly have way more fun playing games on the Switch because I can take them with me.  Who knows?  Maybe this will lead to third-parties trusting Nintendo more and Nintendo not having to rely on gimmicks to make up for lack of third party support and will make their system finally graphically competent, and then we Nintendo fans get to enjoy the best of both worlds.

Gaming Should Never Be In the Olympics

I've had this blog in  my head for the past few days.  I had a bit of a debate with someone who insisted that gaming should be in the Olympics, and I felt that I wanted to save the majority of my arguments for a blog.  So, I'm finally getting down to it.

I just want to preface this blog by saying that I'm a pretty big gamer.  I consider myself to be in the echelon of hardcore, but probably at the lowest tier.  I've certainly played more games than today's young gamers going as far back as the days of Atari personal computers.  I play many different genres, and I spend tens, sometimes even hundreds of hours, on my favorite games.  The only thing that I don't really do is play games competitively.

With that said, I do respect and acknowledge that gaming has a true competitive spirit.  eSports is getting larger and larger every year, expanding across the globe with new genres and venues being added.  As with anything that expands, so does too the amount of money involved and the audiences that speculate.  For the past several years, professional gamers have been trying to get their hobbies and professions acknowledged as sport, also trying to get their "sport" into the Olympics.

This is no new debate.  This has come up a few times before and you would think, even though I'm not a professional gamer but a hardcore gamer nonetheless, that I would be thrilled for my passion to be honored and recognized as an Olympic event.  Unfortunately, no.  I cannot give credence to the idea that playing video games should ever be an Olympic event, let alone even a sport.  I feel those who do have lost themselves too far in their virtual realms.  Olympics have, are and should always be a competition of athleticism.  In order to participate in athletic sports, you need to be an athlete.

Merriam-Webster defines the term athlete as such:

:  a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina

Now, think about what a gamer does.  They sit in a chair, hold a controller and press buttons.  Or, they move a mouse around and type into a keyboard.  That is hardly athletic.  I'm racking my brain here, but I cannot for the life of me find anything athletic about gaming.  I guess people who really want to stretch the term will say that it requires stamina to sit in a chair for hours on end and play a game.  Yes, it does require stamina, but usually because you are NOT moving, your body cramping up and trying to keep your head from dipping.  Sitting still is hardly a physical activity and if using stamina to not fall out of your chair is really the argument you want to go with, congratulations.  You're putting world record holding taffy stretchers to shame with the definition you're stretching.

So, let's discuss a few common arguments I've seen for gaming being included in the Olympics.

There are tons of events in the Olympics that aren't athletic!  

Ok, let's take a look at all the official Olympic events for 2020.

Summer

• Aquatics
• Archery
• Athletics
• Badminton
• Baseball/Softball
• Basketball
• Boxing
• Canoeing
• Cycling
• Equestrian
• Fencing
• Field Hockey
• Football
• Golf
• Gymnastics
• Handball
• Judo
• Karate
• Modern Pentathlon 
• Rowing
• Rugby
• Sailing
• Shooting
• Skateboarding
• Sport climbing
• Surfing
• Table tennis
• Taekwondo
• Tennis
• Triathlon
• Volleyball
• Weightlifting
• Wrestling

Just for the hell of it, I'll list official Olympic events for 2018

• Alpine skiing
• Biathlon
• Bobsleigh
• Cross-country skiing
• Curling
• Figure skating
• Freestyle skating
• Ice hockey
• Luge
• Nordic combined
• Short track speed
• Skeleton
• Ski jumping
• Snowboarding
• Speed skating

Now, going through the list, I can think of maybe three things that arguers will try to use to validate gaming as an Olympic event.  I'll start with Equestrian.  I will admit, I've always been puzzled by this as an Olympic sport.  At the surface, it doesn't seem like there's much athletic about equestrian but if you take just a couple of minutes to research what it involves, your perception will begin to change.  For starters, riders need to be at peak physical condition in order to pull off their skills while also being in control of a 1,000 pound animal.  You also can't weigh 300 pounds and expect to have a good performance on a horse.  Riding is taxing to the body, and that's where the fitness comes in.  The more fit you are, the more control you have over the horse.  Equestrian just seems like an odd choice for an Olympic sport because there's an animal involved but rest assured, it's far more physical than gaming.  

Shooting also doesn't seem like it would be all that physical.  That is, until you think you can do it and pick up a rifle, fire it and dislocate your shoulder.  Aiming is easy in gaming.  You just point your mouse and click.  But shooting... you're holding a gun steady, pulling a trigger while keeping your gun straight, and bracing it when it kicks back.  And you do this over and over.  It's a physical exertion to your body while firing guns in video games just isn't.  Although hand and eye coordination is required to be an excellent gamer, the level of coordination you need to be a skilled shooter is on a completely different level. 

Then, there's bobsledding.  Some people might think, "How is that athletic?  All you do is push a sled down a hill!"  I'm not going to even debate this one.  I'm just going to suggest to anyone who doesn't think bobsledding is athletic watch Cool Runnings.  Bobsledders go through a hell of a lot more than you think they do. 

Oh, there's a fourth people might try to argue: curling.  Well, I don't really understand the sport, but all it takes is just watching what they do to understand why it's athletic.  You need full body control to glide that stone down the ice while in a lunge position, and you need full body control to skate and push a broom without being clumsy and running into your teammates.  All these events, regardless of what you think of them on a personal level, are FAR more physical than gaming. 

Olympics is a sports competition!  Ever heard of eSports?

Yes I have, but I also understand why it's called eSports and not sports.  A sport is something that's physically demanding, and this ties into what I wrote about earlier with athleticism.  Just a quick Google search of the definition of sports yields this:

noun

plural noun: sports

1. 1.

   an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

What, exactly, is physically exerting about gaming?  We're back to the chair example here.  If you feel exhausted because you've spent a few hours in a chair, tensed up from not moving your body, that's not exactly the same kind of physical exertion as someone throwing a ball to another player or lifting 500 pounds.  Again, if you think the physical exertion a gamer feels is the same as an actual athlete, you're getting a few evil looks from those taffy stretchers....

So no, gaming isn't a sport.  That's why there's an e in front of Sports.  eSports needs to be its own division, separate from sports.  Gamers calling themselves athletes because they are playing eSports are delusional and need to come back to Earth.  If you still insist eSports being sports just because the word sport is in it, then I'll assume you believe virtual reality is reality just because the word reality is used.  

Well, if NASCAR is a sport, then gaming can be a sport!

This one makes me facepalm all the time.  Clearly, the people who use this argument have no idea what a driver has to endure when they're racing.  True, it may not seem like a sport since all they're doing is sitting in a car driving around in a circle, but let me ask you a question.  Have you ever seen a fat NASCAR driver?  Neither have I.  You know why?  Because they all have to be fit.  You need to be strong in order to be able to control a roughly 3,300 pounds of car fighting you at every moment.  

You're also inside a closed environment where temperatures exceed 100 degrees.  Drivers can actually lose weight after racing from just sitting in those conditions for hours at a time, up to four pounds if they don't stay hydrated.  Put any gamer in a NASCAR car for a couple hundred laps and see if they don't pass out.  Plus, you also need to be fit to pull yourself out of a burning car should you be unfortunate enough to crash.  

Chess is in the Olympics!  Gaming should be, too!

Except, it isn't.  I don't really know why or when gamers started believing this.  Committees have applied several times for Olympic inclusion, but just applying for something doesn't make it so.  Although some consider chess to be a sport, it's really more of a mind sport.  This designates it separately from actual sports just as the "e" does in eSports.  Apparently, a committee has also been trying to get bridge into the Olympics.  Tell me, honestly, with your gamer bias aside, do chess and card players really have any business alongside physically fit athletes?  If you say yes, I'm sorry, you still haven't controlled your bias. 

But, the Olympics is about competition!  Gaming is very competitive!

True, gaming is competitive.  Very competitive.  So competitive in fact that some of the world's best players win millions in tournaments.  There is no question that gaming is competitive, but just because something is competitive does not mean it deserves to be in the Olympics.  There are many competitions out there.  Should singing be an Olympic sport?  Gardening?  Baking?  Hell, beard grooming?  Are you telling me that just because you believe something is competitive, it should be in the Olympics, so you'd be happy if beard grooming became an Olympic sport?  If you truly believe that, I'm sorry, but you're just blowing smoke.

There HAS to be a standard.  There HAS to be a solid line that keeps certain competitions out of being included in the Olympics.  The Olympics was created as a competition for athletes, and should always remain so.  A certain level of physicality should be required in order to be considered an athlete and thus an Olympic athlete and again, nothing about gaming has anywhere close to the level of physicality the Olympics demand.  Well, unless your discipline is Dance Central... 

What's it to you?  Why do you care?

Ok, so this one isn't really an argument, more of an inquiry on the validity of my opinion.  Why should I be bothered?  It doesn't affect my life in the slightest, so why try to argue against gaming being included in the Olympics?  Well, I've always been one to believe that things should be called what they are, and I dislike lines being blurred by people who wish to alter definitions in order to fortify their beliefs.  I dislike people deluding themselves.

Ironically, the passion that I have for gaming that SHOULD be cause for me to rally behind the inclusion of gaming in the Olympics is the same thing that's causing me to voice my opposition against it.  I love gaming.  I love being a gamer.  I love my gaming community.  I, however, simply cannot see gaming being a valid Olympic event because I feel it's insulting to actual athletes.  Gamers get scrutinized all the time for various reasons and we are at a constant struggle to reaffirm our hobbies and lifestyles against a plethora of different stereotypes.  Unfortunately, there's a fact of being a gamer that we are helpless to combat against when it comes to the world's perception of us: we're static.  Everyone in the Olympics are not.  If we as gamers want to be taken seriously, we need to stop trying to put ourselves in places we simply don't belong.  

Now, there's also another reason why gamers, both virtual and board, should not considered athletes: our activities put us at no physical harm.  If you've ever watched the Olympics, both Summer and Winter, you've no doubt seen at least one injury during competition.  Pulled muscles, torn ligaments, broken bones, cuts, scrapes, bruises.  Some athletes don't even make it to the games because they injure themselves in training just trying to get there!  Hell, athletes have even lost their lives in the Olympics!  What risk of physical injury is there in gaming?  Carpel tunnel?

So, I think I've illustrated my opinion as clearly as I can as to why gaming should not be included in the Olympics.  Don't view this as an attack on gamers, because it isn't.  This blog isn't meant to put aspiring gamers down, nor is it to discredit all the hard work and training that professional gamers go through.  I am not invalidating any of that.  I recognize and understand all of that.  I'm just saying that gaming isn't a fit for the Olympics, and that should be perfectly fine to understand.  If the Olympics wants to make a division solely for eSports and call it eOlympics, that would be perfectly acceptable, but to say that a gamer, someone who may never have a run a mile in their lives, are just as able to obtain the same kind of medal as say, Usain Bolt who had to overcome scoliosis just to be able to train, is laughable.  Downright laughable.  

Here you go! Just kidding! Here you go! Just kidding!

Today sucked.  It just sucked.  I was going to write a blog about how I secured a pre-order for the Super Nintendo Classic via Walmart.com, but I never got around to it.  Now, it seems I'll be writing a blog about how my pre-order was instead canceled.

Ok, so it's not quite the video I wanted.  The video I wanted to use was from an episode of The Simpsons where Bart was daydreaming that he was dangling a yo-yo just out of reach of a tiny Ms. Krabappel. I could only find two videos of that, one which was a one second clip that cut off after Bart says "Just," and another where the segment was in Spanish.  So, this one will have to do. 

Also, I adore this image from Kotaku. 

So, if you haven't been on the Internet the past week, you may not have heard what's been going on with what some call the Wal-Mart debacle, but I call the Wal-Mart clusterfuck.  Around 9:30 PM MDT, Wal-Mart sent out email notifications to customers saying that pre-orders for the highly anticipated Super Nintendo Classic Edition were live.  I couldn't believe it when I checked my phone and saw that notification, so I flew to their website and pre-ordered one.  I felt SO relieved and lucky to have secured a pre-order so early in the game.  I never did get an NES Classic, and wasn't sure I was going to get an SNES Classic considering what a joke it was to find an NES Classic last year.

Very shortly after, Wal-Mart's page threw up a "Technical Difficulties" message for anyone looking to find the listing.  It was thought that their site was just overloaded, but that wasn't the case.  The page was disabled, because Wal-Mart dun goofed.  People began posting on forums and Twitter and etc. that their pre-orders were being canceled, but many people's orders were still in the processing phase.  It was assumed that the ones canceled were just the last seconders, the ones who got their orders in before the system could cut everyone off due to lack of stock.  For several days, those who didn't receive the notification of cancellation that night began to feel as if they were spared.  I mean, four days have passed with no word.  If your order was going to be canceled, it would have been done so by now, right?

That's how I felt until about 3:30 pm today.  I checked my phone and saw that email from Wal-Mart.  It reads: 

Hi Lucas,

Thank you for your interest in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System – Classic Edition. As you are aware, this is a highly sought after console that will launch later this fall.

Unfortunately, due to a technical glitch, the Super Nintendo Classic Edition was mistakenly made available last Friday evening ahead of the official release date. We, regrettably, will have to cancel this item on your order. We know that this is incredibly disappointing to you, and we’re truly sorry for this mistake.

In regards to the cancellation of this item, if you paid by credit card, your card has not been charged. Any authorization holds placed on your account will automatically expire in accordance with the card issuer's policy. If you paid through PayPal or with a gift card, your payment will be refunded when the order is cancelled.

The official launch date for this item is 9/29, please check the product page on Walmart.com prior to that date for any updates.

I do hope you’ll give us another chance to earn back your business.

Warm regards,
Deserie Dulaney
Sr. Director Customer Care
Walmart.com

First of all, I don't need to be told how fucking sought after the console is... That's why I dropped everything I was doing at the time to order this damn thing WHEN YOU TOLD ME I COULD!

Second of all, how the fuck is it a technical glitch when SOMEONE has to flip a damn switch to make a page go live?  No, someone working in your IT fucked up.  It wasn't a technical glitch.  You jumped the gun, and Nintendo probably put their sights on you, so you backed out of it.

Lastly, if you want to earn my business back, you start by honoring that pre-order I made with you last week.  Or, you could at least let the people who originally ordered know a day in advance that they're available again, so we have a chance to pre-order them again before everyone else beats us to it.  It's only fair.

I'm really pissed off with Walmart.com.  But, my main source of enmity is with Nintendo itself.  This company KNOWS what their customers are going through.  They KNOW the NES Classic was highly sought after, and many who want one now have to pay upwards of 300 dollars to scalpers.  They KNOW that even though they say they're making significantly more units than the NES Classic, people are panicking to buy these things the moment they become available because they only have THREE months to do so after launch!  THREE MONTHS!  That's 90 days!  If you don't get in on the first wave, it's going to be much harder to try to find one down the road.

They know all this, yet they refuse to continue to keep making them.  

People are DYING to throw money Nintendo's way, and they know this as well but yet, they turn them DOWN?!  What kind of fucking company stops making something that hundreds of thousands, even millions of people STILL WANT?!

But yeah, I forget who I'm talking about.  Nintendo has never made since to me ever since the N64.  They're my most beloved game maker, but GOD DAMMIT they are stupid sometimes...

The SNES Classic Edition: Get Ready for Round Two

Nintendo Announces Super NES: Classic Edition

Even before the rumors began circulating about Nintendo following up their NES Classic with a 16 bit mini edition, I knew this would happen  I am not surprised that Nintendo was going to do the same limited run of mini SNESs.  At least Nintendo has made it clear that these will only be shipped until the end of year.  Due to the NES Classic last year, people know full well what to expect this year.  The race is on.

I've already shared my thoughts on the NES Classic.  I already told myself due to Nintendo's stubbornness, they aren't deserving of my money should they inevitably decide to make an SNES Classic.  Yet, here its.  But there's one thing that's making it very hard for me to resist this time around...

If you'll notice in the upper right corner of the box, you'll see the logo is Star Fox 2.  This is both a blessing and a curse to the system.  No gamer anywhere in the world (aside from those with extremely special connections) has played the sequel to one of the most memorable space shooters made, because Nintendo never released it.  They are giving people a chance to play it now, but so far, the SNES Classic is the only way to experience it, which means this drove up the demand for the system exponentially.  

Nintendo claims they're going to ship more units than they did with the NES Classic but I can guaran-damn-tee you that they won't ship enough. For one, the inclusion of the never-before-released Star Fox 2 just made every single person who owned an SNES in their childhood want one of these things now.  Some people passed on the NES Classic, because of various reasons such as having all these NES games on their phones, or owning them across different platforms via Virtual Console, which I'll get to in a bit.  But now, I'm guessing at least four to five times as many people will want this for that one game alone, and at 80 dollars, it's a fair price to pay for a never released SNES game, a sequel to one of the most amazing SNES games of all time at that. 

Then, we have the scalpers.  I fucking hate scalpers, and if you're reading this and have scalped before, I apologize in advance, but you're a douchebag.  Sure, it's just capitalism, but most capitalists are usually douchebags.  The idea of taking up units that other people genuinely want and flipping them around to sell at gouging prices is just a shitty thing to do, and Nintendo knows this.  They've known it for a long time, as evidenced with Amiibos and of course, the NES Classic.  And although shitty people as scalpers are, they're also smart so you know they're well award that the value of these things just shot through the rough.  Add the increased demand from people wanting this for themselves and the scalpers who want them for the money, yeah... Nintendo, there's no way in General Fuck's Hell you're going to ship anywhere CLOSE to enough units to make people happy.  These will be harder to find than the NES Classic.

Also, I'm wondering if Nintendo is going to bother to fix the short controller cord that was a problem with the NES Classic.  And, the main reason I didn't bother to seriously find one of those Classics was because it was a closed system.  It appears it's the same thing with the SNES.  Unlike the NES, it actually has less games.  But, oh wow, look at this catalogue!

• Contra III: The Alien Wars
• Donkey Kong Country
• EarthBound
• Final Fantasy III
• F-Zero
• Kirby Super Star
• Kirby's Dream Course
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Mega Man X
• Secret of Mana
• Star Fox
• Star Fox 2
• Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting
• Super Castlevania IV
• Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
• Super Mario Kart
• Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
• Super Mario World
• Super Metroid
• Super Punch-Out
• Yoshi's Island

I own, have owned or have played pretty much all of these and these are some of the best, most iconic, classic and beloved titles on the SNES.  Any time you talk shop with an old school gamer and mention the SNES, these are most likely the first titles to be mentioned.  I actually wouldn't mind playing several of these again.  But... it's that Star Fox 2 one that I want it for the most.  If I ever decide to go hunting for the thing, it will because of that very game. 

And it irks me that with as many years that Star Fox 2 has been kept stored away, Nintendo decides to finally release it in a limited edition extremely collectible mini SNES.  I can only hope against hope that Nintendo released it through their Virtual Console... which still doesn't exist on the Switch!  This continues to irritate the fuck out of me, because I hate seeing Nintendo blow business opportunities! Again, they are my favorite company, so it only pisses me off more when they act stupid.  So, honestly, I'm not holding my breath to see Star Fox 2 released via Virtual Console.  Nintendo claims they're always listening to us, but most of the time, they just aren't.  Metroid Prime: Federation Force is a clear example of that.  Hell, have you played a Nintendo game online recently?

Do you want an SNES Classic?  I'm sure you do.  If you decide to try to get one, I'll wish you the best of luck, but while you're at it, buy some lottery tickets.  You'll most likely hit the lottery before you find one at retail price...

A Way Out Needs to Find a Way Out for Single Player Gamers

One of the games during this year's E3 that attracted my attention was A Way Out, an action game that tells the story of two brothers escaping from prison and staying one step ahead of the law.  I love games where the focus is on a strong narrative, but lead developer Josef Fares lost me when he said the game was co-op only, via local or online.  There's not even matchmaking for online co-op.  This was a bold move, but in my opinion, a bad one.

The fact that the focus on the game is co-op is commendable, but the exclusion of a single player mode is problematic.  You need to find someone to play with.  For most people who are quite social and have lots of friends, this may not be an issue, but for solitary and introverted people like myself, it does become an issue.  For starters, you need to find a friend who has free time to do something with you.  Good luck if all your friends are busy with school/family/careers. Then, that friend needs to be close by to visit, or have the same console you do if you want to play online.  If the latter is the case, that person will also need to be interested enough in the same game you are to buy it.  Lastly, both of you will need to continue to schedule future sessions in order to finish the game.  Also, real life can affect either player at the drop of a dime, meaning the game can abruptly be put off when all the unaffected player wants to do is finish the game.

But see, even if I had one or many friends that could fit this perfect scenario, I honestly wouldn't want to play a story driven game with them, because I don't like playing games with other people when I'm trying to enjoy the story.  Constant mic chat actually bothers me, because I tend to lose focus on what I'm doing.  During a cutscene, I'll miss a key line of dialogue, or during gameplay, I might miss something in the background because I have to not only pay attention to what I'm doing but also what my partner is doing as well.  I'd rather just not be FORCED to play a game co-op, so I won't play A Way Out at all.

It makes no sense for a game like A Way Out to be co-op only when there have been countless other action games that had co-op also have single player options with AI controlled characters.  Army of Two and Resident Evil 5 are just a couple of examples that come to mind.  Granted, the trade off is having to rely on an AI controlled character, and they're usually pretty brain dead, especially in Resident Evil 5, but single player games such as The Last of Us and Uncharted have proven that if you put forth the effort into programming decent AI, you can have partners that can carry their weight.  What Josef's decision to omit single player proves to me is that he's unwillingly to do the work required to make a decent AI controlled character, so he's championing the decision as "bringing back the couch co-op game!"  And I call bullshit on that.  Fuck you, Josef.  You ain't fooling me.

Then there's an issue that I encountered shortly before I decided to make this blog, which is actually the reason why I'm making this blog.  Online bullies will assume that you have no friends if you have a problem with this game being co-op only.  I was already told that by a few today.  That just isn't the case.  I don't have the right type of friends and the right moments to enjoy this game with, and even then, I would prefer to not play this kind of game with someone else.  I am really irritated with that kind of behavior from people online, but it's the Internet and I should just learn to accept it already.

I hope this game fails.  I hope it underperforms, because I want Josef Fares to realize that you don't cater to one group of gamers while completely omitting another group of gamers.  To me, this is like making a car that can only be driven when someone is sitting in the passenger seat.  No game on Earth that I can think of actually benefits from being co-op only, because again, there are games that have decent AI controlled partners.  I just wish those that criticize players like myself would have a bit of foresight and realize single player games are impacted by this choice and will cause the game to lose sales.  If Josef wants to patch in a single player option, then I'll bite, but until then, A Way Out is No Way for me.

Overall E3 2017 Thoughts

I thought I'd write up my thoughts regarding E3 just in case you didn't have the time or chance to read my individual conference impressions.  Now, I just want to preface that I haven't spent time delving into other areas of E3 so my thoughts are only based on what I saw from the conferences and from other people.  With that said, let's go.

At a glance, my ratings for the conferences:

EA: D
MS: B
Bethesda: C
Ubisoft: A-
Sony: B-
Nintendo: B-

I just want to say that my ratings reflect how I was feeling about them at the time.  I also don't like changing ratings that I give just because I see a better conference, which makes me go back and lower the previous conferences.  No, I stick by what I give them.  I wanted to get that out there in case some of you Nintendo diehards freak out over seeing MS with a slightly better score than Nintendo's.  That actually makes a good jump off point, so let me start with Microsoft.

It was pretty clear before MS even began that their show was going to focus on 4K enhanced games via the power of the Xbox One X.  You spend hundreds of millions of dollars on souping up an existing machine, yeah, you're gonna pretty much want to make that the focal point of your presentation  What disappoints me the most about the Xbox One X is that it is 100 percent unnecessary for me.  For starters, I don't have a 4K TV.  What makes it even less desirable is that there isn't a SINGLE game that's exclusive for the Xbox One X.

And speaking of Xbox One X... I've come to the assessment that Microsoft is now worse at naming consoles than Nintendo is.  It's like, Nintendo tricked MS into thinking how much fun they were having confusing the fuck out of their customers, and MS wanted in. It's like some perverted Tom Sawyer shit, only instead of whitewashing fences, it was console branding.

Most of MS's games were really pretty and to be honest, if I could justify spending a thousand bucks on a new TV and console, I probably would.  Forza 7 got my ears perked.  I haven't played a racing sim in a long time and that game ALMOST makes me want to spring for it.  But most of the other games just got a "cool" reaction for me.  There were two games that really attracted me, however, and they were Super Lucky's Tale and Ori: The Will of the Wisps.

Super Lucky's Tale speaks to that old school gamer inside me, the one who had a flu for two days and stayed home from school playing Super Mario 64 until I literally passed out.  It also has that Rare vibe going for it, which also makes me sad at the same time considering the state that Rare is in.  Ori, for anyone who played the first game, was reason enough that MS didn't get anything lower than a B.  Seriously, when it comes to indie games, Ori and the Blind Forest was one of the standouts.  It wasn't just a fantastically well produced game on a visual and audible level, but its gameplay was rock solid.  Seeing a sequel in the works really excited me.

So now, let me address what everyone's thinking.  Why didn't I give the best rating to Nintendo?  Well, I'm sorry.  No, they don't just get to win the whole fucking show because of an announcement everyone knew was already coming: Metroid Prime 4.  Sorry, but if you didn't know that was coming, you lack some serious foresight.  See last year, when Reggie was asked about Metroid Prime.  He no commented.  Everyone who no comments ends up confirming right there.  It was nice to see the game officially announced, though.  Now, Samus Returns for the 3DS, that was a pleasant surprise.  Apparently, it's a remake of Metroid II, which I never did play.

Even with all they showed of Super Mario Odyssey (and honestly, I didn't watch any gameplay because I decided I'm on a blackout), I still can't hand them the award for Best of Show.  It's not their fault; it's my fault.  My expectations are always incredibly high for them since they are my favorite company.  I knew, just KNEW, they wouldn't make me as excited as everyone else, because I feel the average Nintendo fan is too easy to please.  There was so much missing from their show.  No new F-Zero, no new Star Fox, Punch-Out, Wave Race, Pilotwings, etc.  And one HUGE omission.  No info on Virtual Console.  They'll be glad to sell you Mario for the 100th time at half price on Wii U and 3DS, though.... I get so mad at them, I almost want to say, "Fuck off Nintendo" and be done with them!  Man, they're lucky I didn't give them an F!  Seriously, I get pissed at them with all the potential they squander!  But... I digress.

It's weird.  It's really, really weird, that I've ended up giving the best rating to Ubisoft.  They always were such a pain to sit through the previous years, but they made a major change that finally made the show enjoyable.  No fucking Aisha Tyler.  It's not that I don't like Tyler; it's just that whenever they use a celebrity host, all the jokes just come off super cringey.  Same with Joel McHale.  I love both comedians, but HATE them during Ubisoft press conferences.

Now, Ubisoft made a genius move starting off the show with Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, with a special guest appearance by Shigeru Miyamoto.  That's how you get your audience going!  (Unlike Sony's, but well get into that in a bit).  Honestly, this game deserves to be highlighted, because quite frankly, this game shouldn't exist!  This is a WTF game.  Not only is it Rabbids invading the Mushroom Kingdom, it's a completely different kind of game for both franchises.  Ubisoft needs to be commended not only for even coming up with the game, but for also showcasing it at the very start of the show.

There were a couple of weaknesses in the show.  They're still using ridiculous dance numbers to show off their new Just Dance games, and personally I don't think those games have any business being shown off in their conferences anymore in this day and age. It took time away from games that deserved more time, such as Assassin's Creed: Origins.  It felt very odd to me that Ubisoft's flagship franchise, which took a year off, is only given seconds of actual gameplay... shown outside of the conference.  It should have been one of the highlights of their show.

Those two shortcomings aside, though, the rest of the games they showed off were pretty strong.  I'm not giving any of the "but they'll downgrade" complaints any credence, though, because I judge what I see when I see it, so if those games get downgraded, then I judge those games verily. Now, the reason why Ubisoft gets Best Showing of E3 is because of how they ended.  No other show (sorry, Nintendo and Nintendo fans) ended with me as excited and moved as Ubisoft's because of one game announcement: Beyond Good and Evil II.  Yeah, Metroid Prime 4's announcement was huge, but I already knew it was coming, and Nintendo showed NOTHING.  Metroid is also a long running franchise, and Beyond Good and Evil isn't. Beyond Good and Evil was released 14 years ago and is a much beloved game that fans were clamoring for a sequel.  Not saying fans weren't clamoring for a new Metroid, but there were already several games in the series.  Sorry, but no Metroid announcement will ever carry the same weight and impact as Beyond Good and Evil 2.

Let's move on to Sony's.  They would have slipped into C territory had it not been for one little announcement: Shadow of the Colossus.  I feel that was the second biggest announcement just SLIGHTLY behind Beyond Good and Evil 2, and only because I already own the game twice, and played it scores of times.  What has me excited about it this time is that it will TRULY look like how it was imagined to be.  The original was held back severely by the PS2's limitations, and the HD remaster with ICO was capped at 30 frames per second with barely upgraded textures.  As much as I loved it, I still felt it wasn't as beautiful as it could be.  Now, we'll have proper treatment and it should look as impressive, if not more impressive than The Last Guardian.  I cannot wait to play it again!

As for other games, the two I felt were the most disappointing were Days Gone and God of War.  The reason why I list Days Gone is that I felt its demo just wasn't really all that impressive.  It's things we've seen in plenty of other action games before, and in fact they had a better demo at last year's E3.  For a second, I mistook it as Last of Us 2.  It just doesn't stand out.

Now, for God of War, I probably triggered some Sony diehards, but honestly, God of War in its current form fails to capture my attention.  I mean, I'll still play it.  I played almost every other God of War with the exception of Ascension, but god damn, the game just looks... boring.  God of War to me as always been a non stop hack and slash romp where you set up ridiculous combos with crazy moves and the action. When there is action in this one, it isn't as flashy.  Knowing what I know of walking narration (I'm looking at you, The Last of Us), the pacing of this game is going to get ruined with all the walking narration of Kratos and his son.  Just the wrong style to put in a game like God of War.  And I'm not the only one that thinks this.  Take a look at all the memes going around.  People are calling it Dad of War, and I'm calling it Boat Pulling Simulator 2018.

I will say they ended on a high note.  Spider-Man (no longer called Homecoming) looks fantastic with the exception of excessive use of QTEs.  It's 2017.  We should be past that.  But, the combat looks great.  The web slinging looks fun.  The writing... I'm still not really convinced about, but I'm sure there will be great one liners that will make me laugh.  Come on, it's a Spider-Man game.  You can't really screw that up.  I also enjoyed the fact that out of all the games Sony showed, they spend the most time showing off Spider-Man's gameplay.

EA and Bethesda... what can I really say... Bethesda, you saved yourself from a D because your presentation was actually entertaining with Bethesdaland, and you made me scream with the Evil Within 2 announcement.  Also, I really appreciate you spending time to show off Doom, Fallout and Skyrim VR.  Most people don't like hearing about VR, but I actually really enjoy it.  I would love to play Skyrim in VR, but I already decided that I'll get it for the Switch because, Link gear, dude.  Come on...

But EA... EA... you get a D just for this guy.

Allegedly, the teleprompter dropped the ball, which caused Jesse to stumble, but this is why you don't use YouTubers.  They spend their time rehearsing what they want to stay in front of their cameras, and if they screw up, they edit it out.  If you're going to use a YouTuber, you need to use someone who can adapt.  Jesse clearly couldn't, and it reflected poorly on you as a company.  It made me keep thinking of this guy well after the rest of the conference moved on.  

You also made a grievous error announcing Star Wars Battlefront II's story mode but then NOT SHOWING IT.  Then you just went straight into the multiplayer.  I should have flunked you for that alone, but the only thing that kept you from an F was that I know Battlefront II will have a story mode, and Need for Speed Payback looks great, but I had to sit through that Wellins guy.

So that's pretty much it.  The one trend I did notice, though, was that just about every company trimmed all the fat from their conferences (and Nintendo went 100 percent lean).  There weren't any long drawn out talks with celebrities about game services, no 10 minute openings with company statistics, no comedian hosts trying too hard to be funny by telling stereotypical gamer jokes... to a room full of gamers.  But, they steamlined too much, I think, because what was missing in just about every conference were stage demos for just about every game that mattered; most games showed gameplay footage cut in between cinematics.  It simply made E3 feel less exciting as a whole.

E3 2017: Nintendo Spotlight Impressions

Nintendo starts off with a montage of people playing Switch games.  Looks like Rocket League is on switch!  I see Pokken Tournament.  Now, FIFA.  Now it's Splatoon 2.  Not much really shown, though.  So, I'm hoping there will be more.

Reggie Fils-Aime is here now, talking about "fun".  He's gone full on philosophical.

A trailer starts to play.  Monolithsoft, so this will be Xenoblade 2.  It shows two characters, one of them named Pyra, fighting together, heading towards some place called Elisium.  The other character's name is Rex.  Looks to be a huge world, More characters shown, dragons involved. Holiday 2017.  Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it.

The next trailer talks about needing heroes, and it's a new Kirby!  YES!  Man, I love Kirby games, and it looks like this will be a traditional Kirby now.  No more yarn or rainbow drawing gimmicks.  Wow, it's just called Kirby.  2018

Shinya Takahashi appears now.  He talks about how relieved he felt after seeing how well Switch is received.  He shares an announcement with Tsunekzau Ishihara from The Pokemon Company, so I'm guessing it's Pokemon related.  Pokken Tournament DX is coming, which we already knew.  Sounds like it has all the extra content from the Wii U game.  Gamefreak is making a new Pokemon game for the Switch.

Shinya returns to talk about how most games shown today will be available this year.

A new video plays, showing a teaser of... METROID PRIME 4!  FINALLY!  And the  music... I'm getting chills.  AND NOTHING ELSE IS SHOWN... Damn...

The next video shows what looks to be possible a new Paper Mario?  Or maybe it's a Paper Yoshi?  Although Yoshi is not made out of paper, but the environment is.  I already want it.  God, I love Nintendo's creative artistry!  So imaginative.  But oh the juxtaposition... it's just called Yoshi.  2018.  So, is this going to be a new trend now, to just throw a generic title name up?

Next trailer is shown from Team Ninja.  Looks like Fire Emblem?  Yep, it is.  Cutscenes look great.  So what kind of game will it be?  Sounds like a Dynasty Warriors type game.  Fire Emblem Warriors.  Fall 2017.

Ejia Aonuma appears to talk about Zelda DLC.  Actually, he's talking about Zelda items showing up in Skyrim for Switch.  Now, he talks about Zelda DLC.  I think I might get the DLC, because I actually miss playing Breath of the Wild.  The Trial of the Sword trial is being shown.  If I remember right, this is a long continuous battle against waves of enemies to unlock the true power of the Master Sword.  Something called Heroes Path Mode, new armor including that fucking Tingle suit... More Koroks I guess?  Master Mode.  The DLC Pack 1 will be called the Master Trials.  DLC Pack 2 will be called The Champion's Ballad.  Released June 30th and Holiday 2017 respectively.  Season Pass is 20 bucks.

Ejia comes out to talk about how the Champions will be released as Amiibos.  Great....

Reggie again. He talks about a new competition, a World Invitational for Splatoon 2.  Pokken invitational begins tomorrow.  Also, there's an Arms Open Invitational.  Sounds like Nintendo wants to be serious with eSports.

Another video plays.  This is Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle.  Yves Guillemot says, of course, that it's exclusive to Switch.  We already saw the gameplay from Ubisoft.  It looks great regardless.

The next video shows Rocket League.  I actually really wanted to play this game but never got around to it.  Now, Switch will be the platform that I play it on.  Also, there will be cross-platform play, so that's great.  And of course, there will be exclusive Nintendo items like Mario and Luigi hats.  It's coming out this holiday.

The next video shows a dinosaur.  This is most likely Monster Hunter XX.  No, it's actually Mario Odyssey, because that damn Mario hat popped up on top of the dinosaur's head!  Wow, talk about being trolled.  Wow, this game looks so damn good!  It's like a combination of every 3D Mario ever made.  It see a lot of Sunshine and Galaxy influences.  Of course, there's the living hat, which I'm sure will be a great character in its own right.  And there's airships!  Looks like, he can also ride a bullet buil.  Seems to be a lot of variety in power ups.  Teh human world is just really weird though.  10/27 is the release date!  Nice! Sooner than we thought!

Ok, so I do this every year.  I expect so many things from Nintendo, but always walk away disappointed.  I knew I wasn't going to get much with the Spotlight not even lasting 30 minutes, but I did get a couple of very pleasant surprises in terms of Kirby and Yoshi. I knew last year that a new Metroid Prime was coming when Reggie was asked about it and confirmed through no comment, so it was nice to see it officially confirmed today.  I hate that nothing at all was shown for it, though.  Must be a very, very long ways off.

Missing, however, was footage from Monster Hunter XX.  I really thought the last video was going to be just that, with the dinosaur, but it turned out to be Odyssey, which really looked damned good.  Still, I think it was a bit of a misstep not to show off MHXX considering they showed Monster Hunter in Sony's conference.  And speaking of missing, where's a new F-Zero? A new Wave Race? A new Pilotwings, a new Star Fox, Punch-Out, Pilotwings, etc.  Lots of franchises going to waste here.  Step it up Nintendo!

Overall rating: B-

E3 2017: Sony Press Conference

Sony stars with a video that looks like an advertisement, quite honestly.  Yep, it's an ad for Vue.  Wow, Sony... wow... Then, there's another video that follows. Another ad... are you fucking kidding  me?

Now, it truly begins.  There's some live music being played, and I am willing to bet dollars to donuts this is leading to God of War. Man... I'm getting bored.  I'm starting to dislike these build ups.  I do like the waterfall effects in the background though.  And here comes the trailer.  Clearly, this is God of War.  Oh, wait!  It's Uncharted!  Crap... there's no audio.  Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is the title.

We have a new video showing off a winter environment.  There's a monster chasing some people, then we see the character from Horizon.  I take it this is going to be an expansion.  It is, the Frozen Wilds.

Next up is a trailer from Bend Studio.  This has to be Days Gone.  Finally, the audio has kicked back in.  The guy's riding a bike, escaping from a wolf.  He fell off and is now being beaten.  He's fighting back and just knifed someone, then broke another's neck.  Graphics look pretty good so far.  He's inspecting a wrecked bike and now is running off down the mountain looking for someone named Manny.  He's making his way through hanging bodies, then gets attacked by one.  Now there's some stealth gameplay.  He's grabbed a bear trap. laying it down for later.  He threw a rock to attract attention.  Of course, the guy gets caught on the trap.  OH SHIT!  A flood of zombies down below. Zombies eating bodies everywhere.  He just blew up a gate, and of course, that's going to attract the zombies, and they ran straight for the enemies in the camp.  With the distraction set, the player's climbing to the top of a lookout, where he rescues Manny.  And now there's a bear.  A zombie bear wrapped in barbed wire, and it ends.  Yep, it's Days Gone.

Shawn Layden comes out on stage now. I'm not really enjoying this guy much.  He seems a bit stiff.  He's talking about Sony platforms, how they offer VR and 4K and yada yada.  He's listing some games like they're all supposed to be exclusive, but he mentioned REVII... Enough praise.  Move on.
A new video finally plays.  Oh look, another jungle game.  And this guy has a BIG sword..  There's fireflies everywhere for some reason.  They form symbols where he collects something from them.  Now there's monster encounters.  They look kind of like dinosaurs.  Scenery has changed to grass lands, there's a t-rex looking thing.  Apparently, the player can camo.  Now he's attacking it.  You know, I think this is a monster hunter game.  Indeed it is.  It looks pretty good.  Monster Hunter World is the title.  Early 2018.

A new trailer plays from Japan Studio.  Horses trotting.  OH MY GOD!  THIS IS... SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS!!!! I just screamed like a little girl!  Shadow of the Colossus for PS4!!!!!!  So buying it again!  *drools*

A new trailer unfolds from Capcom.  Some kind of Marvel cross Capcom game.  There's Chun Li, and I saw the Ghost and Ghouls guy.  Mega Man, Zero.  Something about a time stone.  Marvel vs Capcom Infinite.  Is this supposed to be a fighting game or what?  The cutscenes make it seem like something else.

Another video plays, looks like a war game taking place around World War 2?  Yep, this is the new Call of Duty.  At least it didn't start the show.  But, personally, I'm happy to see the franchise return to WWII.  I JUST might get this one, because I loved Call of Duty 2.  It looks fantastic.  Call of Duty WWII is the title.

A PSVR trailer now.  And this looks like Skyrim.  I still haven't played Skyrim, but my dollar is going to the Switch version.

Next is a video from Playful.  Another VR trailer showing a ship landing, elevator carrying it below the surface.  It's a sidescroller.. I like the look of the game.  There's giant robotic insect enemies, and then there's a giant robot that takes the player up.  The game is called Star Child.

Another VR video plays, showing what looks like a mental institution.  The Inpatient.

Now another video is showing of a VR game.  Looks likes it's fishing for FFXV.  Monster of the Deep: FFXV.

Next up is a video showing a war game.  Hopefully, this will use the Aim controller.  If so, I'm already sold.  Bravo Team is what it's called.

Next one shows a book, then some nature scenery, a lost ruin, some mouse creature with a green gauntlet.  There's a mask in the water, and there's this circle of the light that floats across the screen.  Moss is the title.

Looks like that's it for the VR titles.  Now there's the sounds of someone paddling a boat.  The video plays, showing someone doing just that.  Yep, here's God of War. There's the boy, there's Kratos ax, that he just threw away.  Now, he and the boy are talking to each other.  Now they're in a frozen land.  What's with the floaty camera, though?  That is annoying.  Now, there's some gameplay.  Classic hack and slashing, saw some climbing, a boss fight. I'm so concerned though that the walking narration of Kratos and the boy is going to interrupt the flow of the game too much.  The boy is revealed to be his son.  A giant monster just came out of the water.  Called the World Serpent.  It just spit out the axe he threw away earlier.   God of War with apparently no subtitle.  Early 2018.

Another video plays shows a man singing, then there's shots of a futuristic Detroit  Oh, I forgot about this game! I love David Cage games.  The characters are trying to rescue their people, they get the attention of law enforcement drones.  The gameplay has them ducking detection, climbing around, taking down the drones.  It looks pretty cool.  They just drove a vehicle through a store front.  Now, these "people" are androids, and there's going to be a revolution against the humans.  Oooh, the decision making scenarios look pretty intense.  Detroit: Become Human.  Loving it!

The next video up shows a game from Bungie which is obviously Destiny 2.  Don't care.  September 6th. And there will be Sony exclusive content.  Again, don't care.

NO!  The boring guy Shawn Layden comes out again.  At least he didn't talk much.  He lets another video play.  IT'S SPIDER-MAN!  Gameplay!  He's doing what a Spider-Man can!  Stealth take downs, flinging himself around to new vantage points, webbing up enemies.  Kinda reminds me of Batman in a way.  I'm loving the moves!  Seems like we got a Rocksteady influenced combat system.  Now we got a helicopter that's dropped a boss for Spidey to fight, who's handling himself well.  Didn't take long for him to knock him out.  Looks like we got a villain.  Martin Lee.  They just knocked a crane over on their way out, so Spidey has to save it.  And he's saving it... by QTEs... god dammit.  Here we go!  Web swinging!  It looks good so far!  Man, though, I am not a fan of these QTEs, though. Now, he's free running through a building and it's being blown up. Now he's fighting Lee on the helicopter.  He just caught the copter with his webs.  Ah, it's just called Spider-Man.  No Homecoming tie in apparently.

The show closes with another montage, and then goes back to Spider-Man real quick to show one little last surprise.  Miles Morales!  Ok... so, does that mean we have the first Miles Morales Spider-Man outside of the comic book, or was it just a cameo?  Only time will tell.

Ok, so... I'll be honest and say that I was expecting better from Sony.  I was expecting more gameplay shown for these games, and now that I think about it, that's kinda been the trend this year for all companies.  They've been glossing over a lot of their wares, just focusing on cinematics with the occasional gameplay footage cut in here and there, but Sony... you were meant to show more!  And your guy Shawn Layden, you got to get him out of here.  Replace him with someone a little more... lively.

Now, games that stand out?  I am interested in Days Gone, but what they showed I felt was not really having their best foot forward.  I felt it lacked the impression their demo had last year.  God of War still fails to excite me from what I've seen, but I'm sure I'll play it anyway.  The fact that Shadow of the Colossus is being remade for PS4... That right there got me most excited, like seriously, I screamed out loud.  It's one of my favorite games of all time, and might be the sole reason that I upgrade to 4K.  It was also nice to see Detroit: Become Human again, and it looks pretty good.  Also, Spider-Man was the right decision to close out the show.  I can't wait to play that game.

Then of course, there's the VR games they showed, of which The Inpatient has me wanting to know the most about.  Bravo Team looks fun, and if that game supports the Aim controller, it's an automatic purchase for me.  Farpoint was a lot of fun.  Now, I've heard people say they don't like Sony pushing VR in their faces, but I actually quite enjoy PSVR, so I'm glad I saw several games shown.

Overall rating: B-

E3 2017: Ubisoft Conference Impressions

Ubisoft's conference starts off with a trailer for the new Rabbids Mario game, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle.  Heh, it's pretty cute and funny, as you would expect from the Rabbids.

Yves Guillemot comes out to talk about the game, and then introduces Shigeru Miyamoto to a standing ovation!  He's got something with him, a life-size replica of a weapon from the game.  He gave one to Yves.  Then, Yves gushes praise unto Nintendo.  There's a lot of banter between the two... and now I'm starting to roll my eyes.  Get on with it!

Xavier Manzanares comes out to HOPEFULLY show off the game.  Yes, showing some gameplay!  It looks like an adventure style RPG.  Hehe, there's a Rabbid dressed up as Peach, inspecting the crew.  There's one dressed up as Luigi.  There's some kind of thing that looks like a Roomba wearing Rabbid ears that's leading them.  They're running around Mushroom Kindom, and there's all sorts of classic Mario imagery.

Now, a battle is being set up.  It looks like it's tactical RPG style.  They can use cover which will also be destroyed.  Pipes can be used to reposition units.  It looks very interesting and fun.  There looks to be a lot of different weapons and combo opportunities.  I love seeing all the different Rabbid takes on Mario costumes and whatnot.

Xavier again.  There's a tag that advertises Rabbid figurines, most likely Amiibos. He leaves the stage and another video of the game plays.  This game is going to be so funny!  Haha, there's even a Donky Kong Rabbid.  August 29th is the release date!  SOLD!

Ashraf Ismail comes out to obviously introduce the new Assassin's Creed: Origins.  The backdrop on the stage is full of hieroglyphics.  A trailer rolls out showing dunes and pyramids and rivers.  There's wildlife that shows hippos and lions and cranes.  It shows slaves moving giant stonework.  Horse chases across the dunes.  Live gameplay is now being shown.  The assassin is riding horseback, lets his eagle fly to scan the area.  As I said in the MS conference, it just seems weird to see the eagle hovering.  More gameplay will be shown after the conference.

A new trailer begins to play. Looks like a street racing game, I bet you this is The Crew 2.  Because the first Crew was only online, I had no interest in it.  I'm willing to bet that will be the case with this new game.  The trailer, all pre-rendered, looks great, but shows no gameplay.  There's a mix of all sorts of different vehicles.  Race, street, airplanes, motorcycles, trucks, speedboats.  Yup, it's The Crew 2.  Better not be online-only again, or I'm not playing it.

Stephane Beley comes out to talk about the game, with a very heavy French accent.  I can barely understand him.  He lets another video play, showing in-game footage.  It does look very pretty.  It shows a lot of varying gameplay, varying scenery.  The boat racing looks great.  You can race from oceans to rivers.  There's also airplane racing over and through the city, which looks like San Francisco.  Not much else is told about the game, no story details and more importantly, if the game will be only online or not.

A new video begins to play, and it's South Park: The Fractured But Whole.  I am getting tired of waiting for this game!  This game looks so good, a must play for any South Park fan.  October 17th is the release date.

Another video plays, shows some people talking about a new project.  Some company called Spectrevision.  I spot Elijah Wood. Seems like this might be a virtual reality game?  Test subjects are wearing VR headsets.  The game is called Transference.  Spring 2018, no idea what to expect.

Yves again, to talk about a new surprise.  A video begins to play about pirates.  Everything is underwater.  Drowned bodies.  Then, we have pirate ships on open water, loaded with gold.  There's a female captain.  I'm getting a kind of Black Flags vibe from this.  Yves says this is "something truly unique"... but there's nothing unique about pirates, especially if you aren't going to show any gameplay in your trailer.  Skull and Bones is the title.  Yep... that's "unique"!

Justin Farren comes out to talk about the game.  Sounds like they're taking the naval combat gameplay from the Assassin's Creed games and building on it.  I can get behind that.  I loved the ship combat.  Sounds like they're focusing on multiplayer.  He's going to show gameplay from a mode called Loot Hunt, a five versus five PVP mode.  Yep, the gameplay is very reminiscent of the ship battles from the Assassin's Creed games.  I only pray that there's a solid single player mode.  It's coming Fall 2018.

So, we have some Daft Punk looking dancers coming out on stage dancing to Jamiroqui to promo the new Just Dance. Now some girl dancers some out dancing to some j-pop.  Then, there's someone in a panda suit dancing.  A singer comes out. Bebe Rexha, whoever that is.  You know, Ubisoft was actually doing pretty good so far up until this point...  Just Dance 2018 arrives this October.  Yay.

The next video shows off a South Park game coming to mobile. Looks like some kind of card game.  South Park: Phone Destroyer is the title.

A new video plays, set in space.  A ship arrives to a new planet.  There's a force called The Legion.  Oh it's a Switch game.  It showed some kind of toy or something being assembled on the Switch controller along with other controllers.  This looks interesting.  Starlink: Battle for Atlas I think was the title.

Matthew Rose comes out to talk about the game.  Sounds like this might be Skylander sci-fi edition, since there will be a focus on toys you attach to your controllers.  October this year, on Xbox One, PS4 and Switch.

Rebeka  Coutaz comes out to talk about Steep.  I have Steep, but never got around to playing it.  I have no idea what Rebeka is talking about.  Oh, she's leading up to an expansion, this December.  A video plays, showing winter athletes gearing up to take on Olympic events.  That's cool, tying in with 2018 Winter Olympics.  The expansion is called Road to the Olympics.

Yet another new video.  Right off the bat, it's recognizable as Farcry 5.  It shows a church, with the party singing Amazing Grace.  And... that's it.

Dan Hay comes out to talk about the game.  He talks about Hope County, Montana.  There's a religious cult that has cut off modern communications of the county.  A gameplay video begins to play, shows a player scouting the area with his revolver and a dog.  Such beautiful mountain scenery.  There's a sniper partner, the player assigned her to the water tower.  Now, he's going down street level, slowly sneaking up on the enemies.  Now he's running around shooting, just saw the dog take down an enemy, grab his gun and bring it to the player.  There's vehicles, cars and airplanes.  Even a farm machine like a combine.  Looks like a lot of fun!  I never played a Farcry game before, but I kinda want to play this one now.

A new video plays, looks to be in China.  But, there's talking animals.  Some monkey with a metal arm selling something to a pig.  Now, he's escaping from the pig.  He's got some kind of grappling hook, flying around a building, gets on a hoverbike driven by a human woman.  The scenery looks great.  They just hijacked a flying vehicle and blew up a much larger one.  I'm intrigued... what is this game? They arrive home.  A space map is shown, a ship takes off, goes into warp.  Title is Beyond Good and Evil 2!!!  OMG! OH MAH GOD!

Michel Ancel comes out, in tears, clearly moved by the reception of this game.  Gabrielle Shrager alongside him, starts to talk about them game.  Wow, it looks so good.  The design, the graphics, simply amazing.  The hype level is strong with this one!  You can register for something called The Space Monkey Program.  Now, the entire team comes up on the stage.  Yeah, there's a lot of emotional impact surrounding this game.  I have to be honest.. I'm a bit moved.  GREAT WAY TO END THE CONFERENCE!  I just wish I could  have seen a bit of gameplay.  It must still be a very long way off.

Unbelievable... I can't remember the time a conference left me with my jaw dropping so much since Sony showed The Last Guardian back in 2009 I believe...  *APPLAUDS*  My hat's off to you, Ubisoft.  You had an almost perfect showing!  I can't believe you actually started it off by showing Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and having Miyamoto come on stage, and then ending with Beyond Good and Evil 2!  What a way to end a conference!  I mean, I'm still riding high from the emotions of everything!  Really, seeing Michel Ancel in tears, KNOWING how loved his first game was by the community, and then FINALLY being able to announce the sequel to the fans... It was just an amazing moment!

Ok, so, having to take a step back from that.... Let's talk about the rest of the showing.  First, I just want to thank GOD that Ubisoft did not go with Aisha Tyler to host the show again, or any comedian for that matter.  Almost all the filler was trimmed away, with the exception of a bit too much talk between Miyamoto and Guillemot and then a big misstep with another Just Dance number.  At least that was over quick.

As for the games themselves, I would have really appreciated more gameplay shown for some of them, especially with Assassin's Creed: Origins.  I thought it was rather peculiar that, with Assassin's Creed being absent last year, that hardly anything was shown of it during either MS or Ubisoft conference.  The game's coming out this year, so I was expecting at least a five minute demo from either side.  Maybe they'll show more at Sony's conference tonight?  Also, Skull and Bones looks great, but I'm worried that might turn out to be online only, along with The Crew 2.  I also liked how they had some mysterious games such as Transference.  I would love to learn what that game's about.
Overall rating: A-

E3 2017: Bethesda Conference Impressions

Bethesda starts their conference off with a video about the kids of Bethesda workers.  Cute! It's followed by a montage of Bethesda games.  Seems like nothing new in it.  I recognize Dishonored 2, Doom, Prey, etc.

Next is an intro done in the Fallout style.  Pete Hines of global marketing comes out.  He talks about their E3 experience calling it Bethesdaland, then about people playing the current video games.  Then he talks about virtual reality.  Two VR games will come out this year.  He shows off the first.

Looks like it's for the Oculus.  It's some kind of space game.  It actually looks like Doom.  Yes, this is Doom.  It's called Doom VFR.

Another trailer rolls and it is instantly recognizable as Fallout.  I can only imagine how awesome this would be in VR.  Fallout 4 VR is the title.

A Bethesdaland video plays to talk about stats for Elder Scrolls Online, and then leads to a player video about the Morrowind expansion.  I never tried Elder Scrolls Online because at the time, I was playing FFXIV and after I quit FFXIV a second time, I swore off MMORPGs so honestly, I'm not even interested in this.  Plus, I never got into Elder Scrolls III to begin with.

Another Bethesdaland video to talk about the mod community and how mods were brought to console players last year.  This is followed by another video, an animated one, introducing a new system called Creation Club, which is supposed to streamline and enhance features for the mod community.  It arrives Summer of this year.

Bethesdaland again, talks about Elder Scrolls Legends, a strategy card game. A video follows showing off gameplay.  Not really excited about it.

Once again, Bethesdaland.  It talks about Skyrim coming to the Nintendo Switch.  I really am hoping for a release date, because I think I want to play the game on this platform.  I never got around to it in the past.  And OMG THERE'S LINK GEAR!  SOLD! SOLD! SOLD!  It looks so awesome!  You can also get treasure chests with Amiibos.  No release date, though... Damn.

Bethesdaland is back, talking about what sounds like DLC for Dishonored 2.  A trailer follows, and although it's all cinematic, it looks awesome.  I enjoyed Dishonored 2, but I very rarely revisit games for DLC, but I might play this.  The title is called Death of the Outsider.

Wow... Bethesdaland... again... This is starting to lose its charm.  Now, it's talking about Quake Champions and eSports.  A video of eSports players follows with a gameplay video right after.  Wow, it's such a fast moving game!  There will be a Quake World Championship with a one million dollar prize.

Bethesdaland introducing another game. It looks like some kind of horror game.  The main character is called Sebastian, mentions some group called Morbius. It looks mysterious and interesting.  They aren't showing any gameplay, though, so I wonder what it's like.  OMG!  IT'S THE EVIL WITHIN 2!  I did not see that coming! Now they're showing gameplay, and wow... it looks so different.  October 13th is the release date.  CAN'T WAIT!

Bethesdaland closes the show with another video.  It's shot like an old television show.  A guy's in trouble, a girl blows a whistle for a dog to come help, but the dog's a giant machine.  Haha.  Liesel? I don't know what to make of this video.. Now it's jumping channels.  It moves to a cinematic game video where a cat's banging the TV remote, and now a guy is getting out of his bed, apparently injured.  It looks like his pregnant wife.  Then there's something happening in a city under fire.  There's a scene with some KKK people, now there's a Nazi... what is this... This Nazi is talking to you, calls you a fireman.  Asks for ID... then it jumps to another scene where they're fighting armored enemies. There's a futuristuc ship, jumps scenes again.  Sounds like everyone's in Nazi occupied America.  This trailer gets more and more interesting by the minute.  Lots of characters being shown. Now gameplay is being shown.  It's a first person shooter of some sort.  A gate says New Orleans.   Ah, the game is Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.  It looks quite good, actually.

Pete Hines comes back out to end the show.  He says everything that's shown tonight will be out this year.

To be honest, I wasn't really expecting much from Bethesda's conference.  The shortest one so far at roughly 38 minutes, it really didn't have much to show.  Just about every announcement they had was for games that were already out.  I will say I'm excited about playing Doom and Fallout 4 in VR, but I've yet to play either game.  I was really excited to see The Evil Within 2, because I loved the first.  Wolfenstein II also looks fantastic, which is actually making me want to play the first game, which I never did.  I will say my biggest disappointment was no release date for Skyrim for Switch.  I really want to play it now.

Overall rating: C