The Loot Box Vol. 4

Football Jock Games vs. Drama Nerd Games (The Jimquisition)

Long story short if you don't want to watch the video, Jim Sterling makes an argument that jock-style games (basically FIFA) end up with the lion's share of a publisher's money over other games such as Anthem.  He referenced The Faculty (Great movie, btw.  If you haven't seen it, check it out) with a scene that showed the principal cutting money for music class while still giving the football team all the gear they wanted, because they lived in a football town.  That's a pretty good way to look at the ecology of the AAA industry.  The games that will be guaranteed to net the publisher more revenue will get more money for development.  That's just basic business sense.  

With that said, however, that doesn't make it right to alienate other studios within your company.  The fact that Anthem got little support with the Frostbite engine was one of the many factors that doomed the game at launch.  EA should have recognized that Anthem had the potential to be a huge title made from a company with an impressive track record (well, not so much recently) and offered more support.  But again, it's very easy for EA to only put bets down on surefire winners.

I love how Jim Sterling calls EA "Unicron Arts" because of how they treat developers.  They stick their tentacles into them, sap them of resources, and then leave their withered husks in the graveyard.  There list of studios EA has killed is long, and it instantly puts the thought to the forefront our brains whenever EA acquires a new studio that they're next on the chopping block.  Everyone's now concerned about Respawn.  Apex Legends is doing great for now, but what happens when the next live service games comes out and leeches Apex players?  Star Wars Jedi: The Fallen Order isn't even being given a chance by some, not even knowing anything about the game, all because of EA's involvement.  It could very well be the best Star Wars game ever made, but people's bias against EA would help nail their coffin shut.  I get why people feel that way, too. 

What's to say that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order isn't EA trying to put their foot in the door with a potential new live service?  Sure, they say they won't be adding multiplayer and microtransactions to the game, but let's say everyone lets their guard down and buys the game.  It does extremely well.  Now, we start seeing multiplayer modes and skin packs and all these things being attached to the game.  Or, EA keeps their promise and doesn't add anything extra, but does so to the sequel.  Now, Fallen Order is yet other microtransaction riddled mess.  Honestly, though, I want to give EA the benefit of the doubt.  I hope that the single player game is fantastic and it sells well, so EA knows they won't have to turn it into a live service to make money.  I'm willing to bet, though, that if this game underperforms, EA will take steps to rectify it in the future.  Best case scenario, they'll turn Fallen Order into a live service.  Worst case scenario, they'll close Respawn.  After all, the football team needs their jerseys this year. 

Racist PSN User Suspended From Accessing His Digital Games

Ok, now this one's a bit more controversial than I'd like to address, but I'll give a shot to see how I feel about it.  So, a user was suspended on PSN for some rather nasty hate speech , which I fully agree with, but as a result he lost access to his digital games, which I don't agree with.  I don't care if he's a full-blown Nazi.  If he paid for a game, he should maintain access to his game, provided it's not a live service game where he can continue to interact with other people.  Therein lies the crux of the problem.  He doesn't FULLY own a digital game.

If you know me, you know that I'm a huge proponent of ownership via physical media.  One reason is what was just stated in the paragraph above.  Because this guy decided to buy digital games, he's subject to Sony's policies that blocks access to them based on his conduct.  Again, it really doesn't matter what he says.  He shouldn't have lost access to games that he bought, but because they were digital, they were tied to Sony's policies regarding their network.  Now, his behavior's consequences has extended past online services and affected his actual library.  Yes, the guy's a shithead, but he should still have access to his single player content.  

People who are lauding Sony's decision to lock him out of his games and saying, "Just don't be a jerk online" aren't understanding the possible repercussions of moves like this.  The article I linked cited a couple of instances of users with names that were misinterpreted as racist or politically incorrect, and they were suspended and lost access to their games as a result.  Sure, they eventually got unsuspended, but they were greatly inconvenienced because of a misunderstanding.  These precedents means it could happen to everyone.  You may have a perfectly acceptable username and act like a saint but your IP could be confused with the actual offender and suddenly, you can't play the games you paid for because they're tied to Sony's services.  This shouldn't happen.  You should always have access to what you pay for.  Ownership rights are very important because they affect ALL of us, racist or not. 

R.I.P PSP Battery

So since I got all my Switch games beaten, I needed a new game to play on the go.  I decided to bust out my old PSP because one of the games in my backlog was Puzzle Quest.  When I opened the back of the PSP, I noticed that the battery cover slightly popped off.  I was trying to get it to close again when I pulled out the battery and examined it.  It swelled.

Off to Amazon I went.  Turns out, Sony stopped making PSP battery packs a long ago, and not many third-party manufacturers have very high ratings regarding their products.  I went with the only one that had four stars, and even then there were a few one star ratings saying the battery lasted only a few charges or didn't fit.  One battery I was looking at even had a review that said the battery caused his PSP to explode!  Yikes!  Ah well, the battery pack set me back 15 dollars... Such is the price of retro gaming.

An Epic Grind Causing Workers to Lose Steam

Sorry for the stretch in the title.  Sometimes you just have to try.  Anywho, seems like we have to talk about crunch in games development yet again.  This time, it's Epic and Fortnite. There are reports of work weeks varying anywhere from 70 to 100 hours.  100 hours!  There was a report of one such worker working 12 hour days seven days a week for months! That isn't healthy.  Sure, they're being paid overtime, but is that really worth your body inducing that much stress?  And let's not kid ourselves here.  Sure, the overtime is "voluntary", but when the company expects it of you, there's a good chance that if you aren't working the overtime, they'll let you go in favor of someone who will.  But well, how else do you keep one of the world's most popular games going that has 250 million registered users?  Simple. Hire more people. Epic has the money, obviously. Speaking of which...

Epic says they'll stop with the store exclusives if Steam pays devs more money.  Heh... you have all this money to throw at devs for timed exclusives on your store, yet you can't seem to get your store's functions up to snuff with other stores.  You certainly can't seem to spend all that money you're throwing around on, I don't know, more staff so the staffers you have now can actually spend time with their families?  You're wringing human turnips dry, yet you want Steam to pay devs more... Ok.  See, this is one of the reasons why I'm not a PC gamer. This whole Epic Store versus Steam debacle is only affecting customers who just want to buy a damn game without all the BS.  It's just so funny to me to see a greedy company calling another company out ... for being greedy. 

Mortal Konvoluted XI

I haven't played a Mortal Kombat game since... 4?  Anyway, I was trying to get myself to get back into Mortal Kombat.  I wanted to pick X up but never got around to it and was eyeing XI.  After watching Boogie's video, though... XI doesn't sound all that appealing.  I know, I know... microtransactions are optional... but if you listen to Boogie describe the game's single player content, it sounds very much designed to encourage microtransactions because of how incredible the grind is.  I don't get why companies think gamers are made of time and money... I don't care how fun a game is.  If the grind is horrendous, I'm not going to do it. 

There's also reports that say it'll take about 6 THOUSAND dollars if you wanted to buy everything without actually playing, but some are saying that number's incorrect because of a few skins you can't buy with real money.  Still, though.. you shouldn't even have to pay 100 dollars in order to buy things for your game.  I just don't get why people spend so much more money after the initial cost of entry...

And while we're still on the subject of Mortal Kombat 11, guess who's guilty of crunch?  You got it!  NetheRealm!

So not only is NetheRealm exploiting their playerbase with a grindy single player game, they're also exploiting their workers with work weeks up to 100 hours!  Oh, and apparently the bosses take off in the evenings leaving the drones working well into the night.  Hearing more and more of these stories should be concerning to us, but sadly, most don't care.  Again, it's all because of consumerism.  There's just far too much of it in gaming culture, and I wish gamers and companies would slow down.  It's not worth breaking people.

Days Gone

Days Gone for the PS4 is now out and it's been received with mixed reviews.  Currently, it's sitting at 72 at Metacritic.  Can't say that I'm surprised, but I will say that I'm disappointed.  Sony has been having a pretty impressive track record so far with games like Horizon: Zero Dawn, God of War and Spider-Man.  Sony was putting Days Gone in the spotlight the past couple of E3s, so you'd think it had a fair shot of being included in the upper echelon of Sony exclusives, but as it turns out, it's basically just a good game, nothing special.  

To be honest, I wasn't very impressed from what I saw of it.  Like I said, it just looked like a good game, nothing special.  I do love zombie games, but I don't need every one of them.  I certainly haven't enjoyed every one of them I played, the last being Dead Rising 4.  I'm sure Days Gone will start dropping in price, but I'm not sure if I'll ever end up getting it.  Considering I'm in a phase in my life where I'm only allowing myself one game a month, it'll have to be a pretty slow month and I'll have to be pretty desperate to play a zombie game.  By the time I'm ready for it, The Last of Us II will be just around the corner.  

No New Switch Models This Year

Again, can't say that I'm surprised, however, I'm not disappointed.  I wasn't looking forward to any revised Switch models, because I'd rather not upgrade another console like I did with my PS4 and Xbox One.  I'd rather Nintendo focus on the Switch as it is now.  A Pro version probably would be appreciated more so than a Mini because I can't really see the point of a Mini.  The Joy-Cons are already too small as it is, and I can't imagine playing with a smaller screen.  Nintendo says they won't be announcing anything this E3, but you never know.  Nintendo hasn't always been good at keeping their word. 

Gaming Update

I finally got around to starting Titanfall 2 on the PS4 last weekend and finished it a couple days ago.  I only played the single player campaign, since I'm not a multiplayer gamer, and the campaign was fantastic!  I loved the mobility of running and jumping off the walls.  It reminded me a lot of Mirror's Edge.  The mech battles were pretty fun, too.  Some were actually pretty challenging requiring me to adapt my play style on the fly.  There was a really cool level as well that involved time travel to get past certain obstacles, which I loved.  My only complaint was that I wished the campaign was longer.  Speaking of Titanfall, though, it looks like we're going to have wait even longer for the next installment as Respawn wants to focus on Apex Legends and the upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.  It's ok, though.  I can wait. 

Since I'm currently playing through my backlog, one game that I wasn't crazy about returning to was Motorstorm: Pacific Rift on the PS3.  This would actually be my third attempt at trying to finish it.  The last time I played it a year or two ago, I got stuck on a race and couldn't figure out how to win.  All I remember was the truck I was given had very horrible controls and I just couldn't steer my way through a part of the track.  When I returned to the game, I didn't remember seeing any unfinished events, so I just did other events and actually won several when I discovered that my point total ended in 50.  Every time you place first in an event, you earn an even 100 points, so I must have only placed third in one of the events.  

I went back through the past events and found it pretty quickly.  Once I started racing it, I remembered this was the event.  I think I placed 6th or 7th the first time and I couldn't remember why I was having so much trouble with it the last time. It didn't seem all that hard, so I just kept at it.  In less than an hour of trying, I finally got first.  Now I was making headway!  Won a few more events last night as well.  I think the mistake I made last time was not taking a break, just playing it hours upon hours at a time.  I probably got so frustrated with it, I just stopped playing it entirely.  That's what I'm going to do from now on, just play it for an hour or two at a time and play something else.

Now that my replacement PSP battery has arrived, I decided it was time to start Puzzle Quest.  I remember people saying it was a lot of fun, but man.. I wish I played this back in the day when I could have appreciated it better.  For starters, I forgot how small the PSP actually was.  Having played on the Vita and Switch (even 3DS) for so long, I got spoiled and it's a bit hard to go back to the PSP's screen.  The game itself is fun, but it's also ridiculously cheap at times because it seems like the computer always gets the better luck after I take my turns.  I'm going to stick with it, though. 

That's it for Volume 4 of the Loot Box.  As always, thanks for reading and look forward to Volume 5!

The Loot Box Vol. 3

Star Wars Jedi: The Fallen Order

So literally a few minutes after I published the last Loot Box, I get word that the trailer dropped for Star Wars Jedi: The Fallen Order.  Nothing to get too excited about for now.  The trailer looks good, but it's all cinematic, no gameplay shown.  All we know for certain is that it's a Respawn game published by Electronic Arts.  Supposedly, there will not be multiplayer and EA "promises" there won't be any microtransactions involved.

But what does that say about AAA culture?  The fact that one of the things you need to clarify before you even release gameplay footage about a game is that you won't put microtransactions in it?  Are we supposed to get on our knees and praise you, EA, for saying you won't put shitty things in your games?  The shitty things that caused such a kerfuffle in your last Star Wars game that governments got involved and were investigating you?

So that's why I'm not excited right now because of EA's involvement.  Even though it's Respawn making this game, a fantastic developer, EA has a history of corrupting developers and ruining their games.  Visceral and Dead Space 3 anyone?  Right... So I trust EA's promises about as far as I can throw a controller in a six by six padded room. I mean, very recently, EA came under fire for putting battle passes into Apex: Legends, a game - a Respawn game mind you - that was being praised because it didn't have shitty EA elements in it.  I'm going to watch this game, though.  Hopefully, I'll get a good vibe from it.  I really want a good Star Wars game.  It's been a while...

The Hard Games Need Easy Modes Debate... Again

I'm actually tired of this debate at this current moment, so I won't be talking more about.  I just put Jim Sterling's video in it in case anyone wanted to see it.  He makes a lot of great points, but I'm sure you've probably heard them all.  Good video, just rather late.

PlayStation 5 Tech Specs Revealed

PlayStation 5 tech specs have been revealed.   Now, I'm not a tech head, so a lot of these numbers don't really make sense to me.  From what I've been reading, though, it sounds likes it'll be a sizable upgrade from the PlayStation 4, which any next-gen console should be.  What really got my attention was the fact that PS4 backwards compatibility has been confirmed.  Now that I think about it, though, I don't think I'll really use it.  I have only a few PS4 games in my collection left to beat.  If, however, the PS5 makes PS4 games look even nicer, maybe I'll wait to get a PS5 and then finish up my PS4 collection on it. It would be nice if Sony decided to take it a step further and increase the BC all the way back to the first PlayStation.  Then Sony could finally tout BC that rivals Microsoft's as they're still working on getting the rest of the older Xbox games running on Xbox One. I'm also happy that PS4 PSVR will work, but I'm sure they'll release an enhanced version of that hardware as well.  I'd love to game in PSVR with 4K and 60 FPS. 

Another interesting thing to note is that it will use an SSD (solid state drive). This means that games will load even quicker.  The article mentioned that they loaded Spider-Man on the PS4, which took about 15 seconds, but when they ran it on a PS5 development kit, it only took 0.8 seconds.  That's incredibly quick!  I've always felt that loading times were one of the things that never really got improved when consoles evolved to the next generation.  Games got prettier, got bigger, but were always stuck with noticeable loading times.  Whether or not developers can take advantage of this new speed is yet to be seen, but it would be nice for loading times to disappear entirely.  

Last thing I want to point out is the support of ray tracing.  Now, I'm not really versed in the technology, but I know that ray tracing helps with a game's lighting and is commonly used in movies and computer games.  I read somewhere that in order to use ray tracing, the computer usually costs somewhere around 10,000 dollars, so it needs a lot of processing power to do.  If PS5 really can pull this off, hopefully being sold around 500 dollars (but I have a suspicion they may try 600 dollars again), that would be extremely impressive and give Sony a leg up on the competition.  

Sony Censoring Games

So it appears that Sony has a new policy regarding sexual content in their games.  We've already seen a result of this as the PS4 version of Devil May Cry 5 had a scene edited with lens flare to obscure an exposed butt.  The Xbox One version was not censored, but what confuses the situation is that the Japanese PS4 version of the game was not censored, either.  Japan usually has a looser policy regarding sexual content than we do in the States, so it's peculiar to see an American version censored and not the Japanese version as well.  It sounds like, however, they'll be buckling down on it in across the board.  

Personally, I don't really play games that have extreme sexual content.  Those titles would be rated AO (Adults Only), and no AO game has ever been published on a console platform.  Games that have sexual content are usually rated M, but it sounds like Sony's going to take steps to further reduce the content in rated M games.  One such example is a visual novel called Nekopara Vol. 1 which received extra steam effects to cover girls, and the removal of a breast slider.  No such changes were made to the Nintendo Switch version.  That right there should be cause for concern.  Why does such a family focused company like Nintendo allow uncensored M rated games on their consoles, but Sony has to censor them?  The whole thing doesn't make sense.  

From what I can gather, Sony is beginning to be more concerned about their public image.  Kotaku cited that the #MeToo movement has played a part in Sony revising their policy.  I get not wanting to have your company sued, but this is an over-correction as far as I'm concerned.  We have a ratings system in place just for these purposes.  If you're really worried about people being affected by sexual content, then obligatory steam and lens flare filters aren't going to do anything.  If you're the only company of the Big 3 censoring games, you're going to get backlash.  People have already started boycotting movements.  There are other platforms to game on, so people who don't believe in censorship will jump ship.  

I really dislike censorship. I feel that we should be mature enough to decide for ourselves what is and what isn't acceptable.  Working in a library has only reinforced what I believe in.  Sony censoring their games belittles us.  As much as I dislike censorship, however, I'm also against boycotting due to personal politics.  I'm not going to deny myself quality games from Sony.  If I end up playing a game that happens to be censored by Sony, I'm just going to grin and bear it and move on with the rest of the game.  If it's a multiplatform game, then I'll easily get it for another system.  Definitely getting Devil May Cry 5 on Xbox One, though.  Sony, please reconsider.  

Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons Drifting

  

So for a while now, I've been having an issue with my left red Joy-Con controller drifting upward.  If you don't know what drifting is, it's when you leave your analog stick in a neutral position and it keeps moving in a certain direction.  For me, my controller tends to drift upward.  It's been happening ever since Octopath Traveler.  I put up with for as long as I could but when Smash Ultimate came out, it was really affecting my game.  After looking for a fix, I found that if you blow air under the apron of the stick, it tends to fix it.  After a while, though, the issue came back.  I'd have to blow it more and more and the fix would last less and less.  After seeing what was involved in the video, though, I don't think this is something I'd be able to permanently fix myself. It baffles me that Nintendo would actually use graphite-like contacts that easily wear instead of actual metal contacts.

Sega Genesis Mini Update

10 more games have been revealed for the upcoming Sega Genesis Mini.  They are:

1. Earthworm Jim
2. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
3. Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
4. World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck
5. Contra: Hard Corps
6. Streets of Rage 2
7. Thunder Force 3
8. Super Fantasy Zone
9. Shinobi 3: Return of the Ninja Master
10. Landstalker

As you can see, it's a pretty competent list.  I think I've played them all except for Contra: Hard Corps, Thunder Force 3, Super Fantasy Zone and Landstalker.  I actually can't wait to try Contra, because I've played a lot of other Contra games, just never on the Genesis.  I also played Earthworm Jim on the SNES, so it'll be nice to revisit it on the Genesis this time. 

A few of these are nice to see as they're no brainers.  I was sure we'd see Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Streets of Rage 2, but what really made me smile was seeing Shinobi 3. Shinobi 3 is one of my all-time favorite games.  I used to play it every day after school while listening to music, and I played it so much that I would enter a trance.  I had the game mastered, beating it on hard without getting hit.  I got to relive it years ago with the Sega Genesis Collection on the Xbox 360, but it would be amazing to go back to the game with an old-fashioned Genesis controller.  I'm also really excited to see Castle and World of Illusion games on there, too, as Disney games were one of Sega's strengths over the SNES.  I'm hoping to see a few more Disney games in the final library.

Gaming Update

Have you ever heard of Kid Niki?  Probably not.

Kid Niki was an arcade game that came out around 1986.  I first remember playing it when I went to an amusement park in California.  I used to really love this game, but it was also hard as nails.  Basically, it was the Sekiro of the 1980s arcade era.  I don't think I ever made it past the second level as a kid.  When I got my Switch, the company who handles Arcade Archives ported Kid Niki to the Switch.  I was so excited, I bought it immediately.  And yes, it was as hard as I remembered.  I kept at it, though, and eventually got up to level four where I hit a wall and just stopped playing.  I think that was about a year and a half ago.  Well this week, I decided to finally return to it and it has been hell.

I'd like to mention that one of the main reasons why I was able to beat it in the first place was because the game allowed you to use infinite continues.  Because of this, I was able to make it to the final boss, but it wasn't enough to allow me to actually beat it.  I still needed the skill and luck to beat him.  The first time I got to the boss, I unfortunately let the continue counter lapse and I had to start the game all over again.  I almost wanted to give up at that moment, but I got on the horse and continued again.

So the final boss fight was very unfair.  It was a multiple stage fight that had you chase him across a series of rooftops.  He would belch out columns of fire, which soon I was able to get past 99 percent of the time, but the second phase was far too random to learn.  He perched atop a cloud and you had to jump on a moving cloud to get up to him, slash him, retrieve your sword (which flew out of your hand every time you hit a boss) and get back up to his cloud to hit him again.  The problem was there were balls of energy that flew up from the bottom of the screen so quickly and so randomly, it was nearly impossible to get past.  You'd be stuck trying to hit the boss, get hit.  Jump down, get hit.  Pick up the sword, get hit.  Try to jump back up, get it.

Every so often, I got lucky enough to get past him and make it to the final phase, but then he started spewing more fire and would change positions to the other side of the screen when you got close enough to hit him. You had to hit him right before he started to shoot the fire at you, and then you had to pray that you weren't stuck in a recovering frame when one of the columns of fire came down your way.  I started to get so frustrated, I almost threw my switch but then it finally occurred to me that I could just use a save state right when I got up to that phase of the fight.  Funnily enough, when I had that realization, it took me roughly an hour to get to that point of the game again...

On Wednesday, Joker was finally released for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but I didn't download him that day; I was busy with Kid Niki. It was for the best anyway as I heard that Nintendo's servers were being clogged by everyone trying to download him at the same time.  That begs the question, what exactly are we paying Nintendo for if their servers can't handle downloading an update?  Anyway, I downloaded him the day after and gave him a quick spin.  I didn't take him into online battle, just his Classic mode.  From what little I've played, I can say that I do enjoy him.  He has an interesting mechanic of actually purposefully taking damage so he can build up his Rebellion Gauge to summon his persona and become stronger.  I can see how really great players would use this to their advantage.  I also like how his stages change appearances depending on the music. 

Lastly, I finally got around to playing King of the Monsters, another Arcade Classic.  This was a Neo Geo game that I remembered loving as a kid, but whatever fond memories I've had of the game are long gone.  It's a wrestling type game that uses kaiju as fighters and Japanese cities as rings.  I forgot why I disliked wrestling games.  A lot of times when I tried to grapple, I'd be reversed and even though I had much higher health than the enemy, it just felt like skill was being taken from.  I had to remember that this was an arcade game, and most arcade games from that era were designed to be cheap to steal more quarters from you. I decided during my first playthrough that I wasn't going to bother with playing the other fighters, as the game doesn't have individual endings and the fighters feel pretty much the same.  Anyway, with that game beaten, my entire Switch catalog is now beaten!

As always, thanks for reading and look forward to the next Loot Box!

The Loot Box Vol. 2

Welcome to Volume 2 of The Loot Box!

This could be an ever-changing thing for me.  Every week, I may come across something I want to add or change.  I think from now on, I may start them off with Jim Sterling's Jimquisition provided it's one that I want to talk about.  (More than likely, I won't talk about the ones where he rants about Steam or the Epic store...)  So without further ado.

I know I touched on the state of Anthem last blog, but I didn't really go into much detail about the work conditions of BioWare.  If you don't have the time to watch Jim's video, he's basically saying that one of the worst issues with BioWare currently is working their staff to the point where they need to take stress leave.  They literally have to take doctor mandated leaves because they're too stressed to work.  This wasn't something that just started happening because of Anthem; it's something that's been affecting them for quite some time, especially since Mass Effect: Andromeda.  Jim mentioned something called "BioWare Magic," which was a term that described the event of a BioWare game that is having problems being finished having all the pieces magically falling together in the end.  But we haven't seen this with Andromeda.  We surely haven't seen this with Anthem.

Developers and publishers applying pressure on their staff to finish up a game, which is called crunch time, is not healthy.  There appears to be a bit of defensiveness when it comes to the workaholic culture.  It seems common place that for a game, especially a AAA game where release dates are set and millions of dollars are at stake thanks to investors, that crunch time seems to be a rite of passage if you wish to be a game developer.  You have to give up your weekends and miss out on seeing your family most of the week.  I get if you're the head and this is your labor of love and you voluntary decide to give up most of your free time to work on the game, but forcing workers to put in extra hours with little reward is unethical to say the least.  Not only that, but how many times have we heard stories of development studios being closed down by publishers not happy with how their game was performing?  All those 60,70, 80... even 100 hour weeks you put in and for what? Now you're looking for a new job....

I wish most gamers cared about the business side - and even the political side - of games, because we really shouldn't be giving money to companies who treat their employees this way.  Once again, it comes own to consumerism, which I've said for the past couple of blogs now that there's too much of it in the industry.  We salivate and foam at the mouth for the next AAA game, not caring at all what it took to get that game on our plate and sometimes, like Anthem and Fallout 76, it turns out to be not what we want at all.  We really got to say no to these types of games that come from studios that mismanage their people.  There are millions of other games that come from better companies that deserve our time.  I wish boycotts would work more often, because unethical companies need to see that what they're doing is wrong and will ultimately affect their bottom line.

Assassin's Creed: Boy Edition

Next, I want to talk about the rumor that the next Assassin's Creed game will be set in the Viking era.  According to a GameSpot article, the next Assassin's Creed game could be placed somewhere between the ninth and eleventh centuries.  More than likely, they're going to continue to use the RPG style they've been using with Origins and Odyssey and I really hope that's not the case.  As much as I thought Origins and Odyssey were good games, I felt that the RPG style didn't really fit.  The whole leveling mechanic affected the pace for me, but the real issue I took with the previous games were fighting gods.  The franchise is based in historical and science fiction and gods simply don't exist as they're purely mythical.  There's no way the ancestors of whose DNA you're reliving would ever come across an actual god.  So if the next Assassin's Creed does take place in the Viking era, we're looking at Norse gods this time.  This means we could be fighting all sorts of gods from Thor to Loki to maybe even the mighty Odin himself.  Can't we just go back to killing targets in the shadows?  I killed Norse gods in God of War and again in Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.  I don't need to be killing them in an Assassin's Creed game.

The Hard Games Need Easy Modes Debate

I saw a tweet by boogie a few days ago commenting that his video didn't get very many views.  His followers replied saying that they felt the topic was covered too much.  They're right.  Ever since Sekiro came out, people have been doing nothing but talking about whether or not brutal games needed an easy mode.  Well sorry, I'd like to talk about that myself, so you can skip on to the next part if you'd like.

As you may know, I decided to pass on Sekiro largely in part because I wasn't in the mood for a notoriously difficult game (that, and I chose Yoshi's Crafted World as my game for the month of March). It's not that I can't handle difficult games.  I've beaten all the Souls games, including Bloodborne.  I've beaten games like Super Meat Boy and Celeste.  I can do hard games but from everyone I've talked to who's played the game, Sekiro sounds like it's an order of magnitude harder.  I think the debate of whether or not games need an easy mode is a valid one.  Boogie's position is that they don't need them because people who can't "git gud" at them need to accept that not every game needs to be for everyone.  I agree.. .and I don't.

True, not every game needs to be for everyone, but it should be encouraged to make games that are.  Accessibility helps everyone.  It helps more gamers experience more games and developers make more money from their games, which leads to more and more games.  I get the argument of not wanting to compromise their artistic vision by making a game easier. If they want to make a brutally hard game, they have the right to do that, but they could make an easier mode and I think some people are confused by what's being asked by some people.  True, a game that's meant to be hard but is modified to be easier for more people loses its impact, but adding an easy MODE does not change the default game itself.  Players playing the easier mode in no way invalidates the achievements of those who've played it on the normal or harder difficulties.

It's interesting that this debate is going on at the same time I'm reading a book called The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games: Why Gaming Culture is the Worst, which I'll talk more about later. The book's general theme is that video games are a meritocracy in that those with the most skill and talent are rewarded more than others. Although it seems like that would just be the natural order of things, it does create a divide among gamers.  Those better at it feel that they're more deserving of games than those less skilled. This is why we see the "git gud" attitude and people who are adamant that hard games don't have any accessibility options for less skilled gamers.  People who exhibit this attitude are quick to dismiss those gamers making them feel bad and less inclined to play games, which is why I can't stand "git gud".  I've always felt gaming is for everyone.

I mentioned this before, but I'll mention it again because I feel it's that important.  Video games are the only entertainment that some people consume but cannot fully enjoy because they lack the skill to do so.  But if you're one of those types of people that feel you need to "git gud" to enjoy a game, consider something.  The people complaining about Sekiro being too hard are less skilled than you, but what if From Software made the game harder than you could take it.  Your attitude would probably change.  You'd probably get tired of trying to beat a boss 100 times and wished there was an easier mode, or some way to exploit the system like the Souls games used to have.  It's about empathy.  It's about understanding what other people are experiencing.  You can stand behind the belief that every game isn't for every person, and I agree for the most part, but to think you're better than someone because of your skill level is an elitist way of thinking, and that just isn't good.

Yoshi's Crafted World 100 Percent Complete

Last night, I just beat Yoshi's Crafted World for the Switch with 100 percent completion.  I have to say, Nintendo lulls you into a false sense of security.  They present you with easy games but once you beat them, then some true challenges arise.  After you beat the game, you unlock boss challenges that feature three separate challenges to overcome to earn flowers.  There's a time limit flower, a no hit flower, and unique conditions, such as hitting a boss from the back.  I was able to do most of them myself but when it came time to do Great King Bowser and Kamek's challenges, I went ahead and looked up videos because I was getting tired of trying.  So what did I get for completing the game?

Yep, that's it.  Just a costume.  Nothing else to do.  A costume that I won't be using, because I'm done with the game.  No ending stuff.  No other areas or levels to do... just a costume.  Seems rather anti-climatic.  Here's an awesome video that shared most of my feelings about the game, although he seemed much more relaxed after the last few challenges than I was...

"Trust me, we're not in it for the money."

So Randy Pitchford is basically blowing smoke up people's asses by saying the exclusivity deal with Borderlands 3 being on the Epic Store and not Steam was not driven by money.  I'd believe that if they didn't pay Gearbox a shitload of money for the six month exclusivity deal. I personally don't have any stock in the Steam vs Epic Store war because I'm not a PC gamer, but I can tell you I think it's a pretty shitty thing to do to pay a huge amount of money for the right to sell a game only on your store.  I know countless stores have exclusives, but they're mostly limited editions.  You can still go to just about any brick and mortar and buy a Borderlands game, but I've never seen a store like Best Buy or GameStop being the exclusive store to buy a Borderlands game.  By snatching up exclusives and selling them on your digital storefront, you are in turn dragging your customers through your own muck. You're making them have to download all sorts of launchers in order to play the games they own.  Some would say that having multiple launchers isn't a big deal, but the argument is that you shouldn't have to deal with it at all.

The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games: Why Gaming Culture is the Worst

So now we arrive at this book.  I only have a few pages left, so I decided I'll talk about it before being completely done, as I'd have to wait a week for the next Loot Box to do so.  I knew I'd have to try to remain as objective as possible in reading this book because of its subtitle, "Why Gaming Culture is the Worst."  It does run the theme that out of all of entertainment culture, gaming is the worst.  When you're a gamer and you hear that, it makes it feel like it's an insult to you.  Honestly, though, it made me reflect on how many people act in the gaming community in comparison to other communities.  The author Christopher A. Paul mentions a few times that it's true there are jerks everywhere on the internet, but the jerk of the gaming variety tends to be more toxic.  I hate admitting it, but it seems like there's a slight kernel of truth to that.  Slight. 

He does make interesting observations and while he continuously brings up examples of why meritocracy enables toxicity in the gaming community, I can't seem to shake off the feeling that he's writing from his own biased viewpoint.  You see, Christopher A. White, like myself, is a typical straight white male gamer.  He makes this very well known in his introduction and posits that straight white male gamers are more prone to be better at video games than other gamers because of structural advantages and how the typical games are aimed more towards us than others.  It's a lot to take in and I considered stopping my reading because the introduction just kept going on and on.  I really was curious about the rest of his book, so I powered through it and just kept reading.

Whenever he wasn't trying to invoke white guilt, and referencing Gamergate, the book was actually a bit interesting and brought up fair points about how gamers tend to act more toxic in regards to protecting the majority of their hobby's perks for themselves.  It all has to do with meritocracy, a word I grew tired of very quickly because he must have mentioned it a thousand times before the book was done. To sum it all up, it's the "git gud" mentality.  Those more advantaged (not just being SWM) than others tend to feel more privileged when it comes to games, thus making gaming itself feel less welcome for those less skilled.  The book is politically driven and indeed biased, which sucks because the theme itself is interesting and explains a lot.  I can't really recommend my fellow gamers read it, because I know it takes a good amount of patience and tolerance to swallow something like this.  We want to just move on and enjoy our games, so we become bothered when someone wants to bring to light a negative truth of our hobby and community.  If you have the patience for it, though... give it a shot.  You can check it out at your local library.

Xbox One S All Digital

Oh boy... So what we here is a leak that reveals the specifics of what we all knew was coming, the all-digital version of the Xbox One S.  The official reveal will be on April 16th, but here's what was mentioned in the video:

• 250 dollars
• Three pre-installed games: Minecraft, Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon 3
• 1 TB hard drive
• Same size as the original Xbox One S

Now, the price may change when it hits the states.  So far, all that's been mentioned about the release  is that it will arrive in the UK on May 7th.  If it'll actually be 250 dollars in the States, then that's a bit off... You can get a base Xbox One S for about 200 bucks.  You can find many bundles for around 250.  Although the all-digital version includes three games, they're pretty meh.  I mean... Minecraft?  Really?  There's Sea of Thieves, which I heard is actually fun now after a series of updates, but then we have Forza Horizon 3.  The current game is 4!  With all the games that MS puts out on Xbox Gamepass,  you'd think they could have at least slapped the current Forza Horizon on a machine that costs 50 dollars more than the base model!

Then we have the hard drive size.  1 TB is a lot of hard drive space but since you'll be downloading every game to it, it'll fill up very quickly if you buy a lot of games.  Also as RG 85 said in the video, the appearance of the all-digital version looks exactly the same as the S.  Why is that the case, though Why is it the same size?  There's no disc drive, so also again, why is it more expensive?

I've been against digital-only machines since the PSP Go.  I've always been a proponent for physical media because I believe in the right of ownership.  I remember when MS tried to take their first steps against it in 2013 when they unveiled the Xbox One as an always-online machine.  I'm glad gamers rose up against it, but it seems like the all-digital (notice they didn't word it 'digital only') Xbox One is a way for MS to try again.  They're testing the waters with this machine and if it takes off, they may feel that those who've adopted the all-dig... I mean digital only avenue will finally be ready to adopt an all-di... fuck... digital only next Xbox.  Don't try it, MS... That's when I stop supporting your shit.

I'm not entirely against digital games so long as they remain an option.  If PS4 owners want to buy games digitally, cool, so long as there's a disc drive.  Switch owners want to download games?  Make sure cards are still available.  Digital only across the board?  No. That's a big fuck you.  That's why I'm against Google Stadia and Apple Arcade.  I want to OWN my games, not be dependent on your servers still remaining up for the next 30 years as I lost my console a long time ago and want to get my games back.  Gamers who think digital only is the future need to smarten up and look at the bigger picture.  Fight for your ownership.  It's one of the few tools of power you have against publisher tyranny.

As always, thank you for reading and look forward to the next Loot Box. 

The Loot Box: Vol. 1

Hey everyone.  This is my third Saturday in a row that I've written a blog, and I think I want to try to do a weekly blog from here on out.  So, I want to change up the format a bit.  Instead of just writing a blog as topics come about, I'm going to attempt to incorporate topics into one weekly blog at the end of the week called The Loot Box.  We'll see how it goes.  So, welcome to The Loot Box!

We'll start with what I've been doing gaming wise.  Believe it or not, I'm still playing Yoshi's Crafted World and still enjoying it.  I've been taking my time with it, though.  It's harder to just sit down and play for hours on end anymore, so I get an hour or two in a night.  When I am playing, I'm spending the extra time trying to 100% the levels.  This means getting all the flowers, the red coins, finding all the poochies and souvenirs.  On the upside, it means you're getting a lot of mileage out of these levels, but on the downside, it's stretching out a game I wish had more levels.  Don't get me wrong, Yoshi's Crafted World has a ton of levels; it's just the novelty of repeatedly revisiting them is beginning to wear a bit thin for me.

I believe I mentioned in a previous blog that I've set a goal for myself for 2019 by only buying one game a month.  This is going to help me not only save money but finally get to work on my backlog.  It really needs to happen... This also means I'm going to miss out on a ton of upcoming games.  I already had to pass on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice in favor of Yoshi's Crafted World.  This month, I was planning on buying Cuphead for Switch, but a friend of mine talked me into buying Borderlands: The Handsome Collection to play co-op.  Unfortunately, I just realized I bought my game for the month of April... Oh well.. Maybe I'll buy Cuphead next month.  I wonder what will come out next month that I'll want more, though.  But hey, look at it this way!  By passing up on Sekiro and Cuphead, I not only saved myself money from breaking controllers and consoles, but probably extended my lifespan by several years!

Speaking of Sekiro, games like Sekiro and the Souls games have been responsible for an ugly side of the gaming community: the "git gud" mentality.  I HATE that phrase and anyone who uses it.  I think I already talked about this in a previous blog before, so I won't go any further.  I do want to say that I read an article on GameSpot about how Nintendo uses luck to help make multiplayer games more fun. There was a lot of comments from angry gamers balking at the idea of making games more fun for less skilled gamers.  There was actually a book that was referenced in the article called The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games: Why Gaming Culture is the Worst, and it discusses behaviors exactly like what was being described in the comments.  I haven't started the book yet, but I'm hoping it'll be an interesting read and not something written from a one-sided perspective by someone who doesn't understand video games.  The subtitle "Why Gaming Culture is the Worst" is causing me to be a bit suspect.  We'll see. 

So a couple of interesting things that happened this week were exposes of Anthem and Prince Henry wanting to ban Fortnite.  Now, it's no surprise that Anthem was very badly handled, but just how much of a mess it was turned out to be more alarming than usual.  Anthem is yet another example of what happens when AAA games become too ambitious by development teams that lack proper management and structure and publishers that apply more pressure making things worse and further complicating matters by trying to milk gamers with microtransactions and promises of upcoming content.  Look, I'm all for gamers having different tastes and whatnot, and what they spend their time and money on is really nothing of my concern, but Anthem really bothers me.  To me, it's objectively a bad game, yet there are a lot of gamers out there that somehow defend it.  They clearly take no issue with playing a game that yields very little interesting rewards with extremely monotonous missions.  I don't get it... aren't there better games they want to play instead?  What is it about Anthem that causes them to believe in it so much?

Now on to Prince Henry.  He thinks Fortnite should be banned.  I'll be the first to admit my dislike for the game becomes of its tremendous influence among young gamers, but because I believe in freedom of expression, I cannot believe that any game should ever be banned, no matter how bad, how offensive, or how addicting.  Fortnite has a right to exist regardless of what we think, and 250 million gamers find some value in it.  What Prince Henry doesn't understand is that it's up to parents to step in and moderate their children's game time so they don't become addicts.  That's how it was when I was growing up.  I've seen this argument for nearly 30 years now.  Governments always try to link something bad to video games, always wanting to control them, but never expend the energy to inform parents to be more involved in their children's lives.  So as much as I dislike Fortnite, because it's now a target of a government who wants to ban it, I'm going to root for it.  Good luck, Henry.  You're going to need it. 

I just want to give you guys a heads up about blogs in the future.  Some will be short, like this one.  Others might be longer.  It all depends on the time I have to write.  But I WILL commit to getting something up for you guys every Saturday.  Until then, look forward to the next Loot Box!