Valkyrie Profile Is Officially Dead – Valkyrie Series Is Born

Sony’s Downfall Couldn’t Come Sooner

So Sony have recently released their damage control in regards to the PS3’s Playstation store which I find to be absolutely hysterical as not only does Jim Ryan finally have to go back on his plans to get rid of the Playstation Store but there is absolutely no mention of the Cmos battery issue whatsoever. You would think that Jim would want to take out two birds with one stone but in the end, his damage control backfired because he failed to account for the real problem here.

You see Sony, if this was any other industry, we would have had you by now. I mean this is literally checkmate right here, you can’t possibly pull yourself out of this, your days in the gaming industry would be comming to an end… but this is the gaming industry we’re talking about here where people actually think that when companies admit they are wrong about something, they have suddenly pulled a heel-face turn but that just isn’t the case, there’s so much for Sony to account for and it doesn’t just stop at the Cmos battery issue either, there’s also the price rise, the online paywall and of course the lack of backwards compatibility.

Hikikomori Media‘s video

For those who are unaware, Hikikomori Media released a video in regards to the Cmos issue, in this video he showcases many of the issues that both the PS3 and PS4 has. If the PS3’s Cmos battery dies, all digital games will be either innaccessible, or reverted to trials, essentially taking your license to play those games away, which is why I find it so funny that Jim Ryan has decided to bring back the Playstation Store, it’s almost as if he’s just figured out about the Cmos issue and decides to continue to sell digital games knowing that they will inevitably get reverted to trials, that is until next gen when they will try to take the store down again LMAO. If this wasn’t bad enough, get this, the Playstation 4 is worse, well of course it is, it’s a newer console and it goes without saying that every since the 6th console generation, consoles get worse and worse with every release. The Playstation 4 will not only render digital games obsolete but physical games as well. So what you’ll be left with is a useless brick.

Apparently the Xbox systems aren’t much better due to the need for online activation according to this tweet which makes things even worse for console gamers. It’s almost as if the end times have come if you don’t own a gaming PC but fortunately for me, I haven’t invested too much into modern systems but believe me, I’ll be taking some losses from this as I do own a PS4 so I’m not exactly happy about the news but part of me is relieved that I wasn’t foolish enough to invest much money into collecting for modern systems.

With all this in consideration, there couldn’t be a better time for you console gamers out there to get into PC gaming, we want all of you on here so that we can finally end console exclusivity so that we never ever have to support these companies to access games ever again. Trust me on this, you are all better off with PC now, sure it may be difficult to set up but by the time you finally get it going and understand it, it’s actually easier than console gaming because you are able to diagnose problems easier (by understanding your own system), back up data with a simple copy/paste to any external HDD without any need to format it, several free storefronts, some of which being DRM free where you can get competitive prices, free online (with arguably better servers) and of course the ability to mod your games in any way you please. It really is a dream come true. Now I know, people have preached about this many times before but by now I hope you’re smart enough to realize that it is the smartest choice.

You don’t need to sit at a desk to play PC games either, just plug in a gamepad and sit on your couch, Steam even has a big picture mode just for couch gaming, it’s nuts just how accessible and flexible PC gaming is nowadays, why aren’t Y’all jumping on this opportunity? Why stick with consoles? I don’t get it at all. Your physical games are gonna be worthless when the consoles finally brick themselves anyway so you can’t really use that argument anymore, at least on PC you have DRM free digital games which you can back up as much as you like, though to be fair, not every game is DRM free and I’m aware of this. I partially blame game companies for this as they refuse to release their games on DRM free platforms but that’s a whole other fight to be fought. You can’t fight that fight if you’re still on the side of these consoles.

Now y’all are probably wondering, what of Nintendo? It goes without saying that they are a threat to the consumer but as of now, they aren’t showing any weak spots sadly so unfortunately we will have to put up with that for a while. Let’s just be thankful that Sony is failing because that’s a stepping stone in the right direction, I’d love to see you smug bastards try to make it on PC, see how strong your brand is against GOG and Steam, now that’s something I’d absolutely love to see Sony try and do, it would be the equivalent of putting Sony in the stocks and throwing wet sponges at them, it would be hilarious.

As great as it would be to witness Sony’s downfall with my own eyes, the chances of it happening are still very low because Sony Fanboys will eat up all of Jim Ryan’s damage control and completely overlook the cmos issue. Oh well, maybe next time in another 100,000 years when I’m dead, Sony will finally get their comeuppance one way or another, just like the rest of those corporate scumbags… I hope.

Warcraft: The First War Trailer – Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires Scenario

Welcome to the World Of Warcraft… but in Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires, Here you will choose one of the heroes of Warcraft to battle against rival nations in order to claim dominance over the whole of Azeroth.

Kingdom Factions:

– Stormwind

– Horde

– Ironforge

– Kul’tiras

– Quel’Thalas

– Stromgarde

– Kirin’Tor

– Gilneas

– Lordaeron

– Alterac

Vagabond Factions:

– Frostwolf

– Turok & Griselda Blackhand

Characters are made using the in game character creation tools so they may not look exactly like the real Warcraft characters. Characters that do not have official artwork will be custom designed.

How to play:

Launch Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires

Select Edit Mode

Select Custom Scenarios

Select Download

Set to Normal and Other

Look for Warcraft: The First War

Update: Still busy, Need a new TV for Screencapping too.

Well it has finally happened, My Digilogic CRT TV died last night. All I can say is thank god it wasn’t my computer. In any case, the loss of my CRT has set me back a little. Not that it makes any difference anyways as I am busy trying to deal with home refurbishments at the moment and planning on moving, hence why I have been busy recently and unable to work on much content. Almost all of my games have been packed away into storage and soon, many of my consoles will join them as well as my PC.

So I will have to get a new TV, probably an HD one, the problem is that up until now, I have always recorded via composite cables, I have never recorded via HDMI which leaves me with some unanswered questions that I will need to solve once I get my HDTV. Can I still record from my PS2/WII/PS3/Xbox 360 with an HD TV using composite cables? Is it possible for me to put composite cable splitters in a HDMI/AV converter and still record footage that way? I hope so because otherwise I’ll probably have a bit of trouble recording footage and who knows, I may end up needing to get an elgato.

Other than that, I may still have time to do the occasional stream or two but right now I don’t want to get started on a review project since I have a lot on my plate right now. The main reason for this update was to announce the death of my CRT TV, this means that I’m going to have a really difficult time playing Time Crisis without being able to use a lightgun… oh well, I’m pretty shit at that game anyways so it doesn’t matter really.

So all in all, apologies for the lack of content recently, it’s bothering me as much as it’s bothering you guys, if not more but I have to get all this stuff sorted out so that my mind is cleared, that way I can put my all into it.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards Live – Watch me get my ass kicked by a kids game + Update

Update: Sadly something came up recently and as a result,  the site is going to be on hiatus for a bit longer… I’ll try to get back to making content ASAP.

Nintendo want you to pay Ransom before they take your online privileges hostage

Today for the very first time, Nintendo are giving their customers the option to pay off their ransom in advance for 12 months… only for them to demand more money after that 12 months is up.

Do you know what subscription fees remind me of? Fucking Ganondorf! Every time Link beats his ass, he comes back every single time and Link has to kill him again… only for Ganondorf to come back and rinse and repeat… it’s a never-ending ordeal for the customer to have to pay ransom money to free their online privileges from the hands of these filthy console manufactures.

You know what? These companies are more than just manufacturers now… but what else can we call them? In any case lets change the subject. I’m going to give y’all a little history lesson. Back in the day, there was a wonderful little game called Diablo which came with a free service known as Battle.net. Battle.net is an absolutely wonderful service, just play Warcraft 3 online for a couple of minutes and you’ll see what I mean… oh wait.

Putting Warcraft 3 aside, Battle.net allowed players to connect with people all over the world and play together in a co-operative game of Diablo. As long as you had working internet, you could dive straight in to the wonderful world of online gaming. This was back in 1996 and all I can say is that Diablo is one hell of a game to play with friends, I highly recommend trying it.

Fast forward to the year 2002 and oh no… a console known as the Xbox received its own online service in the form of Xbox Live. Thankfully, the Xbox was pretty shit back in the sixth generation. Everybody was too busy playing all the exclusives on the PS2 to notice this shitty system.

The Xbox is hands down the worst console ever invented… now this may seem like harsh words considering the fact that the Phillips CDI alongside many other shitty consoles existed beforehand but the Xbox is by far the most criminal as is was the first console in history to successfully hold people’s online privileges to ransom. Many had tried to emulate Xbox’s paid subscription service models such as SEGA but none of them succeeded. For some reason, Microsoft were able to not only make a paid subscription service work but they also managed to muster up the balls to give us all the finger, because Microsoft are untouchable, they have a monopoly on Operating systems… mainly because PC gaming isn’t big enough yet… why? Because people keep playing these shitty consoles, that’s why.

I’m not telling you all to kneel before the PC master race, rather I’m telling you all to use common sense. Take a look at how all the bullshit we see in this industry started. Did it start with Activision? Nope, Activision invested in a lot of popular IP’s, yes but they didn’t have the means to exploit people the way they do now. EA? Nope, they may have milked countless sports games but they proved that they were capable of bringing us top quality games in the past such as Hot Wheels Turbo Racing and the Need For Speed series.

So what is the route of all evil you ask? That’s simple. Microsoft. Microsoft are hands down the absolute worst company in the gaming industry… or they would have been had Activision and EA not taken their place.

You see, because of how much leeway we, the consumer have given to these companies, they think that they can get away with robbing us in broad daylight. Just look at Sony for example:

Standard Price Of Kingdom Come Deliverance:

Sony Price Of Kingdom Come Deliverance:

That’s £14.00 that Sony have stolen from every single person that has purchased Kingdom Come Deliverance and nobody bats an eye.

Ok so for all you idiots out there who think I’m exaggerating, sure Sony aren’t really thieves but from a moral standpoint you could argue that their actions are almost equivalent to that of thievery.

You could say that Sony are scam artists but that would be an understatement, I believe the term “thieves” better describes Sony in terms of how immoral their actions as a company are.

Now I have played every single Sony console, something I cannot say about the other two leading console manufacturers these days though I made damn well sure I got my PS4 second-hand the moment I heard that Sony were getting their own online paywall, courtesy of the Xbox One’s terrible launch.

You see, if it wasn’t for the terrible launch of the Xbox One, there is no way that Sony would have gotten away with taking people’s online privileges hostage but considering the fact that the Xbox One would only function with an online connection and the fact that it tried to deprive us of our right to deny publishers our money by purchasing second-hand games, Sony’s console was arguably the lesser of the two evils, this gave Sony a chance to do what they would never have gotten away with in seventh gen, taking people’s online privileges hostage at a price that would continue to rise as it grew more and more accepted.

It has come to the point now that we as consumers do not question this bullshit, rather we accept these things as the norm. We might have dealt a massive blow against lootboxes but we still have a lot of unfinished business to take care of. We mustn’t tolerate these online paywalls any longer… but how can we do that? That’s simple. It’s called having principles.

Step 1: Never give Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo any of your money

Step 2: Never encourage others to purchase any of their products unless it’s available second-hand

Step 3: Buy a 1080 TI, an Intel I7 processor, a power supply and a motherboard (be sure to ask an expert on which motherboard/power supply to get because you’ll need them to be compatible with the rest of your PC) and at least 8gb ram.

Step 4: If you don’t already have a HDD or a case for your PC then get one, you can either put it all together yourself or go to your local computer shop and ask them to fit it for you (they love this because they get your money for doing an extremely easy job)

There you go, now you have a good enough PC to play all the games you could ever want up to eighth gen consoles. It may not be cheap at first but in the long-term, it will save you a lot of money and will give you a lot more in return.

Anyways back to the history lesson. After Sony’s success with their online subscription service, Nintendo decided to follow suit as well.

Quite frankly it saddens me to see how pathetic Nintendo have been in recent years, I used to enjoy playing Nintendo games on their consoles a lot but it would seem that they are now a shadow of their former self. Not only are they arrogant enough to believe that they can get away with taking our online privileges ransom but they are also stupid enough to be the last major console manufacturer to actually do it.

Oh how the mighty have fallen… the Nintendo that crushed SEGA back in the console wars during the 90’s would be ashamed at the state they are now, back then, Nintendo were fighters, they were the Bruce Lee of the gaming industry, now they’re a bunch of clowns that forgot to put their makeup on.

Now I know that I declared Nintendo dead a while back… but somebody has brought Nintendo back from the dead. Is this the Lich King? Are the Dreadlords behind all this? Only one thing is for certain. Nintendo need to be put back in their graves and the only way to do this is to stop buying their systems… unless it’s second hand of course.

We need to stop being a bunch of monkeys and start sticking up for our rights, I’m talking to all of you people who continue to support these console manufacturers, stop being a bunch of simpletons and start using your bloody brain or your ignorance will doom us all!

As contemptful as this may sound, these words come from someone who is frustrated at our industry. My enemies are the console manufacturers and the publishers, not the consumer… but if you stand in the way then you’re just another obstacle preventing me, and many other gaming enthusiasts from making progress, just think of how frustrating it is to have to see this bullshit happen without being contested, then you will understand why I am being such an asshole… because sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

 

Witchfire – The spiritual Successor To Painkiller

So the game awards happened… I didn’t bother watching it because I knew it would be shit, went on Twitter to people posting their GOTY. So I just happened to stumble upon Adrian Chmielarz’s Twitter page where he mentioned not having a GOTY. Here was my response:

As someone who also doesn’t have a GOTY, I of course have to bring up the legendary Painkiller. Why should I give a crap about GOTY when most games that get GOTY these days are nothing compared to older titles such as Painkiller? My point being, we don’t need a game of the year, we need a videogame hall of fame and Painkiller deserves to be in it alongside Valkyrie Profile 2 and F-Zero GX.

Afterwards something crazy happened:

Coincidence much?

Looks like the team at The Astronauts are alive and kicking. For those of you who don’t know, The Astronauts is a development team made up of former People Can Fly employees… one of whom is Adrian Chmielarz, the creative director of Painkiller.

Based on the trailer, Witchfire appears to be a combination of Vanishing Of Ethan Carter, Painkiller and Bulletstorm… but I also saw a bit of the new Shadow Warrior in there. The gameplay is clearly inspired by both Bulletstorm and Shadow Warrior, the visual style is clearly inspired by Vanishing Of Ethan Carter and Painkiller. So essentially this game is the equivalent of the Shadow Warrior reboot but for Painkiller, though it may not be an old school style shooter with bunny-hopping, it’s certainly an interesting looking shooter that seems to blend a lot of good ideas together.

That being said, I’m not going into this game expecting Painkiller, I’m going into this game expecting something different, more akin to Shadow Warrior based on the gameplay.

What I would personally like to see in Witchfire is the return of the soul gathering mechanic. The ability to heal by killing enemies is always great as it encourages aggressive play. I’d also like to see some more experimental weapons, maybe some medieval style weapons like a crossbow or a magical staff.

The addition of what appears to be magic powers seems to also be reminiscent of Shadow Warrior, I can’t wait to see how they approach this idea in-game. They also brought the dodging mechanic from Shadow Warrior, while I personally prefer the old school style of bunny-hopping, I do think that this evasion mechanic feels a lot more balanced in the sense that you have to time it. I’m glad it’s in the game though because movement is important in a FPS and so many games neglect it these days.

In any case, I highly doubt that we will be seeing this game any time soon. I have a hunch that this was a very early reveal and that the game will remain in development for quite a while. Be sure to keep this game on your radar people, I certainly will. I hope the developers can take their time with this game in order to make it the best it can be.

Witchfire will be joining my anticipated game list alongside Kingdom Come Deliverance and Mount And Blade II Bannerlord. If you want more information on the game, you can check their website here for a more detailed summary of the game.

There’s still hope for Star Ocean

Turns out Kobayashi is still adamant that the Star Ocean series can succeed. In addition, according to this article on Silconera it appears that Kobayashi has leaked his long-term plan for the series.

For starters he talks about resource management and cutting costs. This might anger a lot of people but let’s be honest what he says is true. You can’t take a niche game like Star Ocean and throw money at it expecting it to succeed, the brand isn’t strong enough.

Realistically speaking his plan to slowly put tri-Ace on the map seems like a good one… though I don’t expect Star Ocean games to succeed with this plan in the near future, I will continue to play them since I personally enjoyed Star Ocean 5 and can’t wait to see more of it.

My expectations for the next Star Ocean game will be pretty low though considering this information. Still after Star Ocean 5, I can’t see a reason not to keep supporting this series because even though the news may sound pretty bad in the short-term, I realize that there is room to further expand on the foundations set by Star Ocean 5, furthermore I also see this as a means of putting tri-Ace back on the map.

I can honestly say that I trust Kobayashi to properly execute this plan. He seems to be invested in the project and won’t walk away anytime soon unlike that clown Yamagishi. I want to see him prove Yamagishi wrong and show to him that Star Ocean can still succeed, same with Valkyrie Profile.

I hope people can see the same long-term benefits as I do rather than being short-sighted. Those who are too impatient or intolerant towards the series in its current state should go play something else. That way we can see some real numbers and see if the series can still succeed commercially.

Issues with space engineers Part 4: Resolved!!!

That’s right folks. The windows have finally been fixed!!!

 

Take a look:

Before:

After:

I love being a gamer. This is the defining moment of my gaming legacy. I shall forever be known as the legendary window beta tester for Space Engineers. You people said it couldn’t be done, you said it was impossible, you said it didn’t matter. Well take a look at these two images and see for yourself.

Credit for all the hard work goes to the devs of course but remember, if it wasn’t for me, this wouldn’t have happened. People wanted the windows to stay as they were without considering the consequences. They were so fixated on fixing the game’s net code and performance optimization that they missed a very small, yet important detail in the game.

This is exactly why testing is so important people. Early access is never an excuse to just piss about and play, it’s about doing real work. As a dedicated gamer it is my duty to make sure that this game is released in good condition and now that the windows are fixed, we no longer have to worry about breaking our willing suspension of disbelief when we see a clear depressurization hazard… ok, ok so there’s still the conveyors but still, you can’t deny that this is one hell of an accomplishment for the developers of the game.

Why Do I Support #Performancematters

Here’s a detailed look on the strike and my thoughts on what is going on and what I personally believe from a consumer’s perspective which outcome would be of the greatest benefit. There are a few inaccuracies in the video such as mentioning 2K games when I was talking about the Duke Nukem anniversary remaster which is apparently not true. Apparently Gearbox were solely responsible for it.

In addition, subsistence farming is the word I was looking for when describing farming. The point I was trying to make is that the game is their idea, not the publishers and they are making the game to bring about their vision using the publishers to fund their project. Probably not the best example but that’s the only thing I could come up with at the time.

Ultimately I do support the strike and even though there are some potential issues that could come from this strike, I believe in the long run that it will be for the better. To me, this goes beyond merely the voice actors themselves, this concerns publisher ethics in general and if they are forced to make more ethical decisions with voice actors, it will essentially make a point. The fact that people are even opposing them is enough to give credit to this strike.

Oh and for those who do not know, the union which organized the strike goes by the name of SAG-AFTRA. However many voice actors/actresses have banded together from outside the unions to support this, others are undecided on it. The terms are simple. Voice actors want a safer work environment, they want to be more informed about their roles and what they are working on and they also want residuals to be paid out so that they can earn money that other actors do for other media.

Most publishers and developers have agreed to these terms and the strike is only occurring because of a small group of big name publishers, namely EA and Activision (no surprise there) are too stubborn to let the unions have their way.

A few things have happened after the recording. The publishers have brought lawyers and have claimed that voice actors make only a small percentage of a game’s total assets. However, let me remind you that Publishers contribute almost zero percent of a game’s total asses and in most cases it pretty much is zero. So who deserves the money more?

As for developers, regardless of what happens, they aren’t getting anything out of this, they’re still going to struggle no matter what the outcome.

Make your own judgement but please be civil and understand mine. Plus please understand the situation fully and provide more information if you can. Leave me your thoughts on this topic. Are there any voice actors you particularly like? If so, mention them in the comments.