Pre-Orders, Call of Duty & The Gaming Industry

This morning I had the pleasure of carrying on a twitter chat with a like-minded gamer who is also very passionate about what's going on in the gaming industry. We discussed what I, and so many other gaming supporters have said over the years in regards to the business side of gaming. The slogan, "Speak with your wallet" came up as it usually does in such a conversation, and both of us talked about what needs to be done to change things for the better. What one has to understand going into such a debate is that certain marketing ploys that are being put into play via publishers, and the greed driven product pushing that follows suit are ultimately dictating the quality of video games that hit the store shelves as well as the online store listings. One publisher in particular, the one behind the modern-day "Call of Duty" franchise has set the standards that other publishers go by. They think that since the majority of gamers will pre-order the game despite the company's reputation of having released a sub-par game in the past that they can continue to do so, and milk the franchise for what it's worth. This leads to the "Half-Assed" game development that I'm constantly preaching about ...

Weekend Blog Vlog (5/16/2015)

Here I sit at my PC pissing away time as I tell you about my first world luxury lifestyle. I do feel half bad about it, but I've worked hard to get where I'm at in life. I've even paid my dues by serving some serious time in some unmentionable psych ward at some locally undisclosed institute for the odd & unusual folk of the world. I think I earned this leisurely life. I do digress though. As far as the week goes it went by with a mixture of family drama, review work, and some much deserved time off. At one point in the week I made several trips to various local shopping centers to treat myself to some goodies which included a couple of newer dvds, and a couple of vidya games (I know I misspelled it). Amongst the new dvds I picked up were 'John Wick', and 'The Voices'. In the way of gaming purchases I bought the Shin Megami Tensei re-release of 'Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker', and even got 'Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate" for the pure heck of it. Two games which I've yet to touch. I blame that on "Gaming Gluttony". It's a terribly sinful disease.

Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed (PS VITA)

Having had the privilege to play through, and review most of the recent Neptunia releases I've noticed a sort of gaming evolution within the series. It's a subtle yet noticeable evolution that seems to be aimed towards finding that perfect presentation for the attraction of a much wider audience. From the 'Re;Birth" re-releases to the Noire spin-offs 'Compile Heart', and their co-developers have re-imagined, and brought to life Gamindustri's CPU Goddesses in a variety of different ways. Some of these newer renditions of the fan favorite niche adventures stayed true to the original formula while others strayed from said path, and introduced entirely new gameplay mechanics. I watched as the Lily Rank system took on different meanings within each new release, and watched as the games' micro-management options took on different approaches that benefited each game in a uniquely complimentary fashion. In the case of this latest misadventure we find both the CPU Goddesses, and their sister candidates at an intersection of peaceful times within the Gamindustri. After being approached by a couple of competing journalists offering some article exposure opportunities based around quests, and monster battles the CPU Goddesses, and their younger siblings decide to take on a rivalry of their own in an attempt to impress their fanbase even further. Of course with this newly introduced plot comes some mechanics that are entirely different from the normal Neptunia adventures, and thankfully so ...

Mortal Kombat X - "3 Weeks In"

Believe it, or not, but MKX has been improving since my last post. I've been paying very close attention to how the game functions in both the offline, and online scenarios, and I'm pretty darn happy about it. I'm glad to report that 99% of menu functionality is fixed, and that the online multiplayer continues to get smoother, and more enjoyable as time passes. If you've paid attention to my previous articles you'll know that I spoke of the faction war page menus being plagued by constant server errors that would keep you from accessing the current faction challenges, and faction standings. This has stopped for the most part, but did happen once again recently as Netherrealm was updating the game's provided content for the Invasion event. I suppose that is to be expected though since the game is being updated internally via hotfixes, and whatnot. Along with that upside I have spent more time playing online, and have found more smooth lag-free matches than the laggy ones that were more commonplace at the game's launch. It is obvious, as I said before that Ed Boon, and his team of developers are hard at work to make the game as Awesome as possible for those who trusted in them enough to pay extra for the DLC along with the game's $60 price tag.

BRAWL (PS4)

Never in my career as a gaming journalist have I seen a developer initially offer up something so broken, and unplayable as their debut entry into next-gen gaming only to go back to the drawing board, and make it so absolutely awesome. Going into this review I had my doubts. I'm not going to lie. I just did not see Bloober Team pulling this one off, especially after seeing that it was free to everyone on the PS4. After playing it though I'm truly impressed, and on so many levels. Bloober Team took the journalists' advice, and added a significant amount of noteworthy content without simply tacking on extras to make it appear as if they'd listened. In this new re-imagining of "Basement Crawl" we have four new modes of gameplay with multiple options in each that are anything, but tacked on material. There's an objective driven story mode introducing each of the eight characters, an offline and online multiplayer with various types of modes to choose from, and two challenge modes that play sort of like a survival mode. The content is definitely there this time around, and the gameplay is far beyond what the first game had to offer in regards to a quality presentation.