We're all still reeling a bit from Microsoft's announcement yesterday of their policies on Always On and Used Games for the XBOne, and the internet seems justifiably concerned about this latest round in the DRM fight. Personally, I can see Microsoft's point of view in trying to make users less able to just lend out their licenses to play games, but it seems they've taken it a step further than people are prepared to follow them. Yes, PC gamers have been dealing with required installs and CD key activation for years, but not daily internet check ins to keep your computer running or byzantine rules regarding trade ins or retailer re-selling.

Which brings us to Sony, Microsoft's only real competitor in the console space (sorry Nintendo, Wii don't like U at the moment)*. While Sony has been heralded as the gamer's console this generation, we know from the previous one they have the ability to make colossal errors in judgement too**. With E3 now days away, they have not given out details of their internet requirements, if any such things exist. The decision to have the 24 hour check in requirement didn't seem to come from Microsoft, but rather pressure from publishers. Is Sony under the same pressure? If so, will the PS4 require daily check ins too?

And If that's the case, what will happen to people's opinion of the console space? Will we grin and bear it? Will we accept that online gaming is just the norm from two of the biggest brutes in this battle***? What do you guys think? After all, Microsoft has gone from being the first company to put an ethernet cable port on their console to requiring it to be online in just two generations (granted, one was among the shortest generations while the second has been the absolute longest), so what if this is the way of the future? Just a thought I needed to get out and see what people think.

*See what I did there? Huh? Huh?

**See PS3, initial prices of...

***Aliteration is amusing.

Injustice: Gods Among Us has been another remarkably successful game for Mortal Kombat devs, NetherRealm Studios. It has a story that, while a bit ludicrous*, still manages to satisfy the comic book nerd deep within me. Okay, not that deep. The fighting engine is different enough from MK to make the change seem worthwhile, there's 24 DC characters included, the detail put into the character dialogue and backgrounds are full of easter eggs and references, the whole package seems totally worthwhile.

Adding on to that, the DLC has been superb as of late. Lobo was an unknown quantity for me, but he turned out to be pretty cool and Batgirl is downright devastating with some of her combos. Her super in particular is one of the most awesome and outright funny bits of animation I've seen in years. And today I awoke to find Scorpion, my favorite MK character (kharacter?) will be making an appearance soon too. Awesome, right? Oh, wait... It's the internet.

Of course people are pissed off, it's new content for a great game that they happen to disagree with. A Mortal Kombat character showing up in a Netherealm game? Apparently they never thought such a thing would come to pass and now that they've seen it will, they are furious. I've seen something similar to the following comment posted a lot of places...

"There are sooo many good DC characters they could have put in instead."

Right, probably true. If you're that upset about it, don't buy Scorpion. "But I've already bought the season pass and I thought I was getting 4 DC characters." Okay. Next time NetherRealm does a season pass for characters they haven't announced, wait. Don't buy things sight unseen. Make smart purchasing decisions. Rumor has it that Sub-Zero might be in the next pack, so chill (haha) and wait. Learn something from this if it pisses you off.

As for me, Scorpion's coming to a fighting game I totally dig. I couldn't be more excited... about something in a video game. Including Half-Life 3. Never got into the series, so I'm not on pins and needles for that.

*Which, to be honest, shouldn't be that big an issue, come to think of it. It's based on comic books where an alien can be anything from looking exactly like humans (and being able to breed with them) to the Martian Manhunter.

I loved Zombieland. It was a fantastic movie with characters that were fun to watch. Ever since its release, we the fans have been clamoring for a sequel, for more content, for more Zombieland. It seems the creators heard us, but didn't quite understand what we meant...

You see, they made a pilot for a TV show. Which would be fine if it were as well made, acted, scripted and cast as the movie. I'd happily watch episodes with those characters roaming around Zombieland, looking for adventure and having what is essentially a more fun version of The Walking Dead. The problem is that they didn't consider what made their movie so great; The actors involved. It may sound petty, but those actors created those characters and made them what they are. I cannot imagine anyone but Jesse Eisenberg playing awkward hero and writer of the rules of Zombieland, Columbus. Woody Harrelson IS Tallahassee. No one could replace Emma Stone or Abigail Breslin as Wichita and Little Rock. It'd be like seeing someone besides Harrison Ford playing Indiana Jones.

All this I could have told them a mile off, but it seems no one wants to learn from history either. The phenomenon of making a TV series (or more accurately trying to make a TV series) out of a popular film hasn't worked all that often. One trip to Wikipedia turns up Ferris Bueller (1 season, 13 episodes), My Big Fat Greek Life (1 season, 7 episodes), Blade: The Series (1 season , 12 episodes) and 10 Things I Hate About You (1 season, 20 episodes). Every single one of those changed the concept, actors or set up of the film that made them big in the first place and turned it into a crappier, weekly version of what we enjoyed for an hour and a half.

All this is the lead up to this article...

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/17/amazon-passes-on-zombieland-tv-series

Which contains a charming tweet by Zombieland co-creator, Rhett Reese, expressing his deep confusion as to why hardcore Zombieland fans didn't like his new TV show, claiming they, "Hated it out of existence." Really Rhett? You took 100% of what I enjoyed from the movie (namely, the four lead actors) and removed them from the story, gave them to four relatively unknown actors and expected... what? That it wouldn't effect our perception of the franchise? That we'd just accept it with open arms? That history wouldn't repeat itself when you take a movie, try to serialize it and you receive less than a warm reception?

I know Zombieland was intended to be a TV series from the jump, but the movie and specifically the actors involved (their chemistry, timing, comedic influences, etc.) made it into a new animal. Rhett Reese's refusal to accept that and see that the characters he helped create are nothing without the people who played them has led to what could be the death of the franchise. I am sad for that. It is truly a bummer.

Rule #7, travel light... including your emotional baggage.

Stab stab stab stabbity stab stab stab stab...

I've been playing the Assassin's Creed/assassins-creed/62-38/ games since the first one. I'm probably one of the few people who actually enjoyed the original because it made you feel like a knife wielding Batman long before Arkham Asylum/batman-arkham-asylum/61-23245/ perfected the formula... and took away the knives. It also helped that I didn't even try to care about the flags, having learned that lesson from hunting hidden packages & pigeons in the GTA series. There's always one you miss on the check list.

Anyway, the latest installment, Assassin's Creed: Revelations/assassins-creed-revelations/61-34975/, has gotten some flak for being yet another annualized series and bringing in elements that no one seems to dig (the tower defense section definitely takes away from the fun of the game), but the main buzz seems to be concern over the multiplayer being ignored again. While I respect Ubisoft for trying to create a unique, non-deathmatchy style game, I think I've figured out why it largely goes ignored: The lengthy campaign.

Modern FPS games have learned that the vast majority of their player base doesn't buy the game for the single player or the story. If there's a good one, great, that certainly helps the game, but it doesn't wipe away bad game design and core fundamentals. That's why Modern Warfare has managed to have scant 6 hour campaigns that are essentially explosion and set piece porn. It doesn't even get played by the majority of Call of Duty players. AC is a different story entirely though. The story is what keeps me coming back to the series, along with the attractive concept of putting knives into fools and seeing beautiful cityscapes. Not only that, the campaign in AC games is LONG... I'd guess I'm about 20 hours into Revelations and a lot of that time was spent running around town, buying up shops, changing my weapons around, stabbing dudes and altering my cloak colors (royal purple currently... felt very Ned Flanders of me).

At the end of the game, I expect I'll feel the same way I do about most of the other games in the franchise at the conclusion; Time for something else. The time I spend putting into the campaigns is usually extensive and, while fun, exhausting. When I finish an AC game, I need to play something different. This attitude is what hurts the multiplayer population. That and the steep learning curve it takes to get good at it. It's similar to why you don't see people rocking chess very often and instead play Angry Birds or similar. They're simple, easy and don't require hours of invested time just to get competent, let alone good. What does everyone else think?

Shadow of the Colossus is an amazing game. I know this because I own a PS2 copy that brought me hours of entertainment and an ending that still ranks highly among video game stories. I've never played Ico, but I am looking forward to it... just as soon as my pre-ordered copy of Ico and Shadow arrives at my local Best Buy. Yeah, you read that right. I pre-ordered a game and it the store doesn't have it on the Friday after a Tuesday release. As far as I can see, they never got ANY copies in. One is currently being transferred from a neighboring town.

I feel this experience is indicative of brick and mortar stores as a whole. What good is it to put down my money for a pre-order if you're not even going to be able to honor it less than a week after the game is out? I don't generally do this for blockbuster releases (believe it or not, they MAKE enough copies of Gears of War 3 for you to just walk in and get it), but I do do (he he) it for smaller releases like this. I know Sony isn't going to make a ton of these games and not even the sales staff of my local Best Buy knew the game was coming out when I asked about it. But still, even if I was the only person in Boise, ID to reserve a copy, what kind of message does it send to me, the end consumer, that they didn't even receive copies of the game I told them I wanted to pay money for?

So that's it for me and real stores. Screw the waste in gas and time it takes to get there, screw the idiots in the shipping departments, screw the whole damn system, man. Amazon orders for me from now on. I've never had them screw up anything and they deliver my games right to my door. Anyway, just needed to rant a bit... Still looking forward to experiencing Ico for the first time and reliving Shadow of the Colossus... tomorrow. *sigh*

After almost a full month, Sony has re-instated everyone's favorite part of using the Playstation 3 online: Mandatory Updates.  Oh, how I had missed them... the hours I wiled away unable to do anything but watch a progress bar fill.  Thank goodness they got it working again... *sniff*

This has been a truly trying time, not only for Sony fans, but everyone who owns a PS3.  I, for one, am thankful it is finally drawing to a close and it leads us, the users, to ask a few very important questions.  Questions like, "Can this happen again?", "Can this happen to other systems?" and, perhaps most importantly, "What do I get in return for continuing to use this system?"  The answers, in order are Yes, Yes and we'll get right back to you on that.  In the meantime, enjoy a full month of Playstation Plus... Hopefully you'll subscribe to it too... we really need the money.

Also, what does this do to E3 for Sony?  I can only imagine a re-enactment of Jack Tretton's last month at work.  Picture the scene... A lone desk.  A sleeping figure, his head in his arms.  The phone CONSTANTLY ringing, all 10 lines lit up.  The racking, deep sobs of anguish and terror.  He lifts his head, the eyes that haven't properly slept in 20 days.  The unshaven face, the unwashed shirt, the look of utter, UTTER defeat on the man's face as he reads a quickly scrawled note, "Yeah, I'm not coming this year... You're on your own for the press conference.  Best Regards, Kevin Butler."  Behind him, pandemonium as PR people run backwards and forwards as though their heads are on fire*, desperately trying to draft a press release with the scant information they are allowed to release to the public.  Finally he stands up, composes himself and says, through the exhaustion and pain, "2011.  The year of the Sony Playstation... this year our... I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE!!!"  Security and men in white coats run out to stop him stabbing himself with a desk ornament.  Kaz Hirai pats him amicably on the back, "You tried your best Jack... We take care of our own.  Go get some rest, I can handle it this year."

All kidding aside, I'm glad things are getting back to normal.  Hopefully Sony can ascend from this dreadful pit back up to the level they once held, just weeks ago.  It's gonna take a lot of free stuff though.  A lot.

*I wouldn't mind seeing some of them actually on fire.

So I recently upgraded my TV in my bedroom because my old CRT TV in there was beginning to die.  New flatscreen with a built in DVD player means I don't have to connect a DVD player to the thing to watch movies late at night.  It also means my old PS2 is getting some much needed attention and what better way to test it out than a long ass JRPG?! 
 
I played most of the way through Final Fantasy XII before and remember liking it; My old save files have 90+ hours on them (I alternate between two save slots), but I know it's been way too long to just jump in to those again.  So many systems to relearn, such high level fights.  So I just started all over.  Loving it so far. 
 
The main thing I've noticed about it though has nothing to do with the gameplay, the slightly outdated graphics (though honestly not bad) or the utter strangeness inherent to all JRPGS.  It actually has to do with one of the main characters, Captain Basch.  Maybe I'm just imagining things, but he looks a helluva lot like James Hetfield of Metallica.  Here... have a look below
  
Am I crazy?  Or do these dudes look alike to you too?     Anyway, i might keep this going, if I feel like it, I might not.  I'm about 10 hours into my new palythrough, we'll see how long that lasts. 
   

Somehow, don't ask me how, but somehow I received the following article in my inbox.  The date was some 10 years hence in 2020 (a  year where jokes about how well people are seeing run rampant across the interwebs) and covers a company that seems to be making all the wrong calls from a PR standpoint.  Enjoy. 
 
Bobby Kotick, ex-head of the video game publishing company Activision, was spotted last week at his job at a car wash in Seattle, Washington yesterday.  Though it seems amazing, this man once had control of what was once the biggest publishing franchise in the video game business, a position now held by mega-corporation 2K Square Enix EA Micro-Ubi-Soft Inc.  How did such a high ranking official destroy a company once known for such innovative games as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Guitar Hero and Call of Duty fall so far and so fast? 
Activision's troubles began in the late part of 2010 (a time when people could see extremely well) when Infinity Ward, creators of the Call of Duty franchise, dissolved completely, having lost over 80% of their staff.  The remaining employees went to work for Treyacrh, but their hearts just weren't in it after producing Call of Duty: Conflict at Falkland Islands.  Soon after, following their lead, the once great franchise was usurped by the former Infinity Ward employees and their new studio, Respawn Entertainment, and their new game/experience/piece of art that has become so ubiquitous in our lives that naming it here is almost unnecessary.  Even acclaimed movie critic Roger Ebert, a long standing proponent against the "games as art" argument, wept in tears at the ending of the "game," stating, "It's so amazing, words fail me..." 
Truly the firing of Inifinity Ward heads Vince Zampella and Jason West had a marked effect on Activision, but it was just one of many mistakes in the company's history.  After butchering the skateboarding series with Tony Hawk Ride 2: Ride Harder, Neversoft quietly announced that it had gone bankrupt and left the video game industry completely.  They now make purses in Dubuque of varying quality (it is widely held that the peaked on the third iteration, but new models keep coming out every year). 
Finally, with only one annual franchise left to sustain them, Activision execs finally crossed a line when they announced Guitar Hero: Nickelback, thus causing a mass exodus not only from their Guitar Hero studios (they had 5 running at the time), but from the company as a whole.  Said one secretary in a now famous YouTube clip, "F*%$ you Mr. Kotick!  I'll not be filing your s&$^ anymore, nor answering your calls! "  The rest of the company left much more quietly, though it is rumored that many of them left flaming bags of dog crap on Mr. Kotick's front door step for years to come.  Some also egged his house, while others merely left Post Its on the window of his hover car, stating "How about Guitar Hero 9?  Think we should put it out just a week after #8?" 
Oh how the might have fallen.  For those interested in contacting Mr. Kotick, he works 8-6 most weekends and all day on weekdays at his car wash, Kotick's Kleen Kars.  His staff will clean your car fairly well once, then offer to do it again in 2 hours at a higher price. 
 
Startling isn't it?  Think it's real?  Or just a meta-joke?  Only time will tell how prophetic it will be... 
 
Oh, and feel free to read this on Bitmob.com as well.  Same title.