Memorial Day Weekend Blog Log (May 2015)

Here I sit at my dinosaur of a PC sipping on some Dr.Pepper, which apparently confirms a certain westerner stereotype about all of us soda guzzling, candy bar gobbling, and fast food munching Americans. To hell with that stereotype! I eat healthy, and treat myself to the occasional soda pop. What of it!? I even drink tea, water, and milk (which is probably no good due to all the steroids, and sh*t put into cows) ... Anyways, I digress. I'm here today to talk about my week, and my weekend. This week has been interesting, bothersome at times, but interesting nonetheless. I've had the usual family drama, and crisis arise. My Grandmother is still not doing well at all, and still seems to be on a health decline. My family also continues to invade my personal, and private space by spying on me. I've always been the black sheep of my family, and everyone in said family seems to think they know what's best for me. Buncha control freaks are what they are. Aside from that my week has been nothing, but a gaming grindfest.

Destiny - House of Wolves (PS4)

It has been a while since I even bothered to touch Destiny, or dedicate any amount of serious time to it. To me it had lost it's appeal long ago when my fireteam members sought other friends to game with, especially when they had left me in the dark during the Crota raid expansion. To be fair though it was also partially my fault as I slowly, but surely drifted away from the game, because of the stress it caused as well as the late nights spending 5 hours trying to defeat a raid boss. Looking back through my articles I realize that the game made my yearly "Top 10" list shortly after launch, but in seeing that I know that's when the friendly co-op was going strong, and when the social aspect of the game was at it's funnest. What you have to realize is that Destiny made my yearly 'Top 10' list, because it was the perfect social experience, at the time. It got friends together, and helped people form online relationships with people they'd never known before. I actually met some Awesome friends through it. For that reason I'll always have a soft spot for the game's social features ...

Conspiracy Corner - "Hacktivists, Activists & the Common People"

Welcome to the premiere article of a series discussion I like to call "Conspiracy Corner". I know most return readers will be baffled by the inclusion of such a topic, but bare with me as this does have something to do with gaming, if slightly so ...

As a "Commoner" we all know that hacktivists, and activists are making the front page news of various journalistic outlets more, and more often these days. In fact said individuals mold, and shape the online structure of the internet, gaming, and other online oriented activities through their actions. By this I mean that what they do dictates the laws that go into effect afterwards as a result of their cyber crimes. It's these laws that pull the legal noose ever so tighter with each, and every misdeed for the common people. The odd thing about all of this is that the major hacktivists, and activists rarely ever make the prime time televised news, and for some reason never get caught. With the NS@ in place spying on the "Commoner" why can't they catch a criminal hiding amongst the scripts of the internet? What if I were to say to you that all of this may be a devilish scheme to gain full control of all freedoms? What if I were to also say that it's the world leaders, and governments that are using these hacktivists, and activists pull off such a stealth move. It would explain the fact that the hacktivists, and activists aren't being dealt with, wouldn't it?

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 ...