#Good morning to everyone except Capcom

[trssshh]

why does Phoenix not have a consistent skintone

Like, i'm being serious, every time someone draws him is not the same color,,, I'M BEING SERIOUS LOOK AT THIS

AND THAT IS ALL OFFICIAL ART EITHER USED TO PROMOTE GAMES OR USED IN THE GAMES. AND NOT A SINGLE COLOR IN THERE IS THE FCKIN SAME (i think)

(sorry if any of the text is unreadable i'm stupid, but y'all get the point)

[tiffanyvalntine]

good morning to everyone except crystal dynamics and capcom

[pale-opal]

I did not see this coming, but I am not complaining. I fully support this. Let's get into it:

First of all, I am so happy that you're cool with me and Sneaky hijacking your post (lol). I didn't think you would mind, but I was also curious about how you would react outside of that.

Marty being isekai'd to save the lives of everyone she cares about has so much potential. Most people would probably take the easy route and try to prevent the Elf Wars by focusing on keeping Zero from being sealed up, but not Marty. She's going to do this right. She's snatching everyone up and improving their lives, not just making sure they survive.

The Hunters would totally be after the pirates after Marty commits two kidnappings (technically it's only one, but they don't know that). Maybe Colonel would lead the efforts to get them back, since Repliforce doesn't exist yet? He'd probably be concerned about their wellbeing. Hence the alliance - while he respects X and Zero's decision to stay onboard the ship, he'd absolutely want to make it obvious that they can come back whenever they want (they never do). He could also take out Sigma when the pirates are too busy living their best lives. I think he and most of Repliforce (including Iris and General) would be survive the events of X4 (they could even team up with the pirates to clear their names, since Repliforce was also labelled maverick for some debatable reasons.

The X-Hunters would be absolutely SCREWED. Since the pirates wouldn't really get involved in X1, the X-Hunters would be more concerned about resurrecting Sigma for reasons other than revenge. They never get the chance. They make the mistake of talking about their plans near the pirates, and Marty is just like "Yeah, no. Not on my watch." She knows what bringing Sigma back to life led to. The man needs to stay dead. So the X-Hunters get pulverized. Them's the breaks.

Doppler or Gate would probably be the ones to end up bringing Sigma back, though (let the crazy scientists be crazy scientists of their own volition, Capcom. Sigma can't run everything all the time), much to Marty's dismay. But then she figures that if X and Zero could take him out in the original timeline, then things would go much smoother now. X5 would be much less traumatic (nobody dies except Sigma! Hooray!)

I like the idea of the crew becoming a mix of random people who just need a second chance! I think X would have something to do with that. He'd definitely come to extend a hand to anyone willing to take it, now that he's in an environment that allows him to do so.

Also, I agree with X having a bunch of hobbies that he can work on when he isn't a diplomat. Maybe he'd have pet sea snails? Have a bunch of plants? Take up scrapbooking? Let X be domestic, gosh darn it!

Zero would be the best bodyguard. Nobody is getting hurt on his watch. He would probably break up any fights that took place (not that there would be many - nobody would want to run the risk of ticking him off, after all).

Axl would absolutely do random, little things that would cause Saturday-morning cartoon levels of silliness ("Hey rookie, wanna test out the new cannons?"). Nobody gets hurt, but everyone does learn a lesson and ends up having a good laugh.

Vile would probably be alive either the events of X3, assuming he still needs to be rebuilt. Maybe he has something to do with Red Alert being able to track the pirates down after they recruit Axl (imagine Red Alert with a boat??? Like, they get Splash Warfly's battleship and start going after them, but the problem is that Warlfy is the only one who knows anything about boats. At least one person falls overboard at some point), and he continues to be a menace afterwards. So Zero, Marty, and the rest of the crew would eventually come to the conclusion that they need to take this guy down. Doing so leads to them finding out about Lumine, who could be the antagonist of the whole thing, maybe (he keeps actively trying to discourage Marty from altering the timeline, but he never shows his face until X8 because he is a coward)? After finding out that this little lavender-haired loser has been behind the problems that they have, Marty, Zero, and Axl all look at him and think: "Yeah. We can take him." Cut to him being kicked on the ground. He doesn't get to insert the mystery gem into Axl's head. They make sure he's too dead to pull a fast one like that. Marty brings moondust home for X.

And once the alternate version of Command Mission takes place and all of The Horrors have successfully been stopped, Marty and X get married and live the rest of the rest of their days out at sea with their found family in peace, potentially featuring the Guardians as their children.

MartyX but Marty is trying to undoom X from his tragic narrative.

To embrace the wonders of freedom without the burdens of destiny. Break free from the shackles of fate and cast away your thorned crown!

I want Marty to take X away and let him enjoy life!! Be a pirate!! Let’s go to the sea together!

Well technically they have the fight but he can be a diplomat and see the world in a different angle! Se different points of views human and reploids views! The law isn’t the only answer!

I love the idea of the chosen one character to break free from their destiny and choose their own path! Especially the rebel character being the one to show them that there’s another way!!!

[aion-rsa]

Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat: The Many Ways the Crossover Almost Happened

https://ift.tt/38sRB2j

Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, the game that really kickstarted the fighting game genre, has turned 30 this year. To celebrate, Ryu and Chun-Li are appearing in Fortnite. It’s par for the course for Ryu, who has been in so many crossovers to fight everyone from everywhere. Ryu has crossed over with the cast of Tekken, the guys from King of Fighters, the Marvel superheroes, just about everyone under the Nintendo banner, GI Joe, Power Rangers, and even Family Guy for some odd reason. Ryu and Street Fighter have crossed over with nearly everyone.

Yet for some reason, the number one dream fighting game match-up has never happened. Yes, we’re talking about Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat. These two giants of the fighting game industry have never exchanged blows despite being household names from the very beginning of the fighting game boom of the early 1990s.

That doesn’t mean there haven’t been some close calls or that they haven’t brushed shoulders in the past…

The Beginning of the Rivalry

The first iteration of Street Fighter II came out in February 1991. This was the sequel that made good on the promise of the 1987 original, which had great ideas that it couldn’t really execute. It would be bold to say that Street Fighter II perfected the formula, but it was such an improvement that it’s still incredibly playable to this day. It was a lucky break for Capcom, who would go on to milk the game’s success with several new editions of the title, from 1992’s Champion Edition all the way to 2017’s Ultra Street Fighter II: Final Challengers for the Nintendo Switch.

If you’re a fighting game aficionado, you know the history. The success of Street Fighter II sparked a boom for the fighting game genre. In Japan, SNK released Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting right on the heels of Capcom’s hit, while Alpha Denshi gave us World Heroes in ’92. Meanwhile, in America, Midway Games was planning its own Street Fighter II competitor, which was originally meant to be a tie-in game for the movie Universal Soldier starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. When that project fell through, Midway turned to the much gorier Mortal Kombat, a fighting game that digitized actors instead of sprites, an innovative approach to animation at the time.

Released on October 1992, Mortal Kombat was a major hit, and Midway quickly put out a sequel, Mortal Kombat II, six months later in April 1993. The third game would be out two years later. Mortal Kombat was speeding through its early days with cabinet after cabinet, while Capcom was focused on re-releasing newer versions of Street Fighter II. After making bosses playable, adding new characters, and tossing in other bells and whistles over the course of various upgrades, the studio concluded the game’s original run with 1994’s Super Street Fighter II: Turbo.

That meant that at a time when the internet was in its infancy, these two popular franchises were mainstays of print gaming magazines. Announcements, previews, reviews, secrets, tips, and so on. If your early ’90s magazine didn’t have at least a page dedicated to Street Fighter and/or Mortal Kombat, then get your eyes checked because you weren’t looking hard enough.

In 1992, Electronic Gaming Monthly famously pulled an April Fool’s Day gag on readers where they took the Street Fighter II mistranslation, “You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance,” and insisted it was a reference to a secret boss fight that involved working your ass off in the game in a way that was outright impossible, making your way through the game as Ryu without taking a single hit until your battle with M. Bison (and that was the “easy” part). The joke led to many stressful nights for gamers, who were finally told the truth about the hoax the following December.

But Midway took the idea of a secret boss more literally. Using the Sub-Zero/Scorpion ninja sprites, Midway introduced a green-clad fighter named Reptile, a seriously difficult opponent that you could only fight in arcade mode under some seriously ridiculous circumstances. Reptile was added in the 3.0 version of Mortal Kombat, making him the first secret boss in the genre’s history.

Capcom would eventually catch up with Akuma, a character extremely similar EGM‘s design for Sheng Long, in Super Street Fighter II: Turbo. By then, Midway had thrown in three more secret boss fights for Mortal Kombat II, and even SNK had already introduced Ryo Sakazaki as a secret final boss in Fatal Fury Special.

Brushing Shoulders

The Mortal Kombat series really thrived as a gorier and campier alternative to Street Fighter II‘s more fundamental approach to the genre, but that didn’t stop Midway from taking a couple of jabs at Capcom. In-game, secret characters would occasionally pop up before rounds and say something cryptic for the sake of helping the players figure out how to unlock their fight, a nod to the Sheng Long joke. But there were more direct pokes at the competition. For instance, Jade would occasionally appear for the sake of asking, “CHUN WHO?” and vanishing. Midway also included “RYU” as default initials on Mortal Kombat II‘s high score board. Cute.

Meanwhile, Capcom stoked the fire with a commercial for Street Fighter II: Champion Edition for Sega Genesis. It featured a security guard at a toy store coming across a box for the game. Blanka’s arm would thenreach out and grab the nearby box for Mortal Kombat and crush it into smoldering trash.

But it wasn’t all jabs. The two companies crossed paths in other interesting ways. In 1993, Malibu Comics published a Street Fighter II series for only three issues before having to drop it because Capcom was unhappy with Ken Masters’ grisly fate in the story. Around the same time, Malibu also launched a Mortal Kombat series, and the publisher would actually batch issues of both series together and send them to vendors.

Read more

Games

The Strange History of Street Fighter Comics

By Gavin Jasper

Games

The History of Mortal Kombat Comics

By Gavin Jasper

Hasbro double-dipped when it came to action figures too, releasing sets for both Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, complete with weapons and special vehicles. But while Street Fighter characters were treated like part of the GI Joe line, and were even featured in commercials where they all hang out and beat the crap out of Duke, Mortal Kombat was kept separate from Hasbro’s most popular figures.

Nintendo also used both franchises as major selling points for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The SNES ports for Super Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat II both played big parts in Nintendo’s Play It Loud ad campaign. One such commercial even had a guy getting a massive Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat tattoo on his torso.

But the closest thing we’ve ever gotten to a real crossover between the two games was through their Saturday morning cartoons. Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm were both released as animated follow-ups to their live-action movies, although they were directly inspired by the games themselves. On Nov. 16, 1996, both series, as well as Savage Dragon and Wing Commander Academy, took part in a long-forgotten crossover event based around a hero named the Warrior King and his search through the multiverse for a special orb that controls the weather.

The Warrior King played a major role in his Street Fighter episode as the romantic interest of Chun-Li, while in Mortal Kombat, he merely made a quick cameo as a shadowy figure running through a portal. Regardless, both stories involved the villains (M. Bison and Shang Tsung) wielding the same mystical orb.

No, the crossover ain’t much, but that’s still more than what we got in Wreck-It Ralph. Although the Disney movie featured M. Bison, Zangief, Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Cammy, it didn’t bring in any official Mortal Kombat characters to face them. Instead, the movie included “Cyborg,” a blatant Kano knockoff with the same cybernetic eye, goatee, and zest for heart-ripping. Why didn’t Disney just use Kano? Probably because he’s a Warner Bros. property. Still, missed opportunity.

Copying Test Answers

The video game adaptation of Street Fighter: The Movie will always be a fascinating novelty. Released in 1995 in arcades, the game not only copied Mortal Kombat’s digitized actors but it actually featured Jean-Claude Van Damme, the actor Midway had been unable to secure for its own Universal Soldier tie-in years earlier.

Interestingly, whenever Capcom sets out to make a totally new Street Fighter game, the studio usually chooses to go in a new art direction. Street Fighter V is the exception, although Capcom did initially start with a more photorealistic art style before nixing it and going with “Street Fighter IV but extra.” So, when Capcom tapped Incredible Technologies to put together the video game version of Street Fighter: The Movie in 1995, it was at a time when the publisher was also considering using the digitized Mortal Kombat style for Street Fighter III. Thankfully, Capcom decided not to go in this direction.

Midway hilariously dipped its toe in Capcom’s waters a bit more blatantly in 2004. Mortal Kombat: Deception introduced a fighter named Kobra who was supposed to be the latest human POV character, only evil. But Midway initially named him “Ken Masters” due to his physical similarities to the Street Fighter character. The studio included “Ken” in a beta version of the game provided to the press, with the express direction NOT to mention the character.

Guess what happened next. A German publication posted the images of “Ken Masters” anyway, suggesting Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter was finally happening. Sadly, no, this was not a teaser for the long-awaited video game crossover. It seemes Midway just hadn’t come up with a proper name for “Ken Masters” yet.

Capcom did throw in a cute reference to Mortal Kombat in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The game featured Nathan Spencer, the Bionic Commando, whose cybernetic arm could shoot out like a grappling hook and grab opponents from far away. When doing that to yoink an enemy towards him for a haymaker to the face, he’d quote Scorpion’s famous “GET OVER HERE!” Nice.

Not the Right Fit

Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon admitted in 2008 that he’d tried to make Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter happen at one point but Capcom wasn’t interested.

“I’ve always wanted to cross MK over since about MK4, or something like that. I’m a big fan of all of the other fighting games, Street Fighter, Tekken. I always thought, wouldn’t it be cool to have MK vs. SF and MK vs. Tekken? We pursued some of those ideas to the extent we could but we always ran into some kind of road block and couldn’t do it.”

A full-on roster vs. roster situation was out back in the ’90s, but these days, guest characters are a normal part of fighting games. Tekken 7 alone includes representatives from Street Fighter, Fatal Fury, Final Fantasy, and The Walking Dead. Mortal Kombat and Injustice have gone all over the map with their DLC choices, including slasher villains, ’80s action heroes, Spawn, Hellboy, and even the Ninja Turtles. When a fighting game announces a new season of DLC, you usually know to expect at least one crossover character to be included in the package.

For 2019’s Mortal Kombat 11, Boon reached out to Capcom once again. Wouldn’t it be neat if a Street Fighter character got in on all the gritty time-traveling action? While we don’t know which character Boon was interested in using, many fans theorize Akuma would have been the perfect fit. But Capcom said no.

Here’s what former Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono had to say about it:

“It’s true that a proposal for a Street Fighter character in Mortal Kombat was rejected by Capcom, but it wasn’t me personally! There were many people at the company that felt that it wasn’t a good fit for our characters. I actually met Ed at the Brazil game show and spoke to him personally about it. So it’s true – but I didn’t make the decision!”

So why didn’t it happen? Probably because Mortal Kombat 11 is banned in Japan due to all the gore and extreme violence.

“I understand why people want it,” Ono said at the time, “but it’s easier said than done. Having Chun-Li getting her spine ripped out, or Ryu’s head bouncing off the floor…it doesn’t necessarily match.”

Maybe one day. For now, we’re left waiting for Ryu to finally get over here.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Special thanks to tabmok99 for helping with this article. You can check out his Mortal Kombat know-it-all YouTube channel here.

The post Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat: The Many Ways the Crossover Almost Happened appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/30veXj9

[pixelgrotto]

The horrific Resident Evil playthrough, interlude three

I just finished watching all of the Resident Evil movies I could get my hands on. When I told people I was doing this as the last part of my great year-long playthrough, they all let out groans and said something along the lines of, “Ugh, don’t you wanna end on a good note?” Undaunted by these words and fueled by my ability to tolerate crappy cinema, I moved forward, courageously making it through nine of these suckers...which, to be fair, ranged from surprisingly enjoyable to just as terrible as everyone warned me about. 

Before I begin, it’s important to note that we’re dealing with two separate film series here. There’s director Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil Hollywood films, which are the ones that most people know about. Then there are three Japanese-made CG movies that are canon and co-exist alongside the stories of the games. The Anderson movies are...mostly ass. The Japanese ones are okay. 

Let us start with the ass first. 

Resident Evil - The first RE film came out in 2002, which means that what little CG it has is laughably dated and it’s refreshingly small-scale when compared to its sequels. The movie’s a fan fiction remix of some themes from Resident Evil 1, except with none of the characters from the games present. Instead, we have Paul W.S. Anderson’s wife Milla Jovovich taking center stage as Alice, the former head of Umbrella security in a secret base called the Hive that goes to hell when some dude tries to steal viruses. The entirety of the action takes place in the Hive, and we get a surprisingly tiny number of monsters, with just your garden variety zombies, a few Cerberus and a single Licker showing up. Even though she does run up a wall and kick a Cerberus in the face, Alice is at her most realistic here (she turns into a dual wielding mutant with the ability to make the camera go into slow-motion whenever she wants in all the other films), there’s a nifty laser grid scene that all the sequels keep referencing when they want you to feel nostalgic, and the Hive’s sentient AI, the Red Queen, is compelling enough that Capcom eventually stuck her in Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. Aside from this movie being full of British actors who do REALLY awful American accents, sounding like they all have mouths full of sausages, Paul W.S. Anderson’s first take on Resident Evil is probably the most watchable one he made. 

Resident Evil: Apocalypse - Okay, this one is watchable too, but in more of a popcorn-munching “lol, this shit is dumb” way. It steals the general plot of Resident Evils 2 and 3, with Raccoon City getting infected, but ups the cheese by a hundred. Alice is now a thirteen-year-old boy’s version of a BADAZZ woman, with lots of guns and a bare midriff, and she teams up with Jill Valentine, who resembles her game self in looks but not exactly in personality. Together, they’ve gotta escape Raccoon City along with Carlos Oliveira, who is possibly the only character from the games who is done a great service in these Anderson movies, which make him much more likable even if they couldn’t find an actual Hispanic actor to portray him and had to settle for an Israeli instead. Oh, and Nemesis shows up, because one of the dudes from the first movie who accompanied Alice into the Hive gets experimented on and turned into what honestly looks like someone’s Halloween costume. The writers commit a cardinal sin at the end of the flick by humanizing him, having him suddenly remember his TRUE SELF and help the good guys, but aside from that screw-up I admit that I had a goofy grin on my face throughout several parts of this movie. After Nemesis blows up the Raccoon City station and murmurs his one line of dialogue- “STARRRRRSSSS” - I even kinda felt like clapping. So yeah, Apocalpyse is idiotic fun.

Resident Evil: Extinction - Here’s where the movies stop being mildly entertaining and become varying degrees of either “meh” or just plain bad. Extinction’s biggest problem is that it makes the weird decision of having the entire PLANET be wiped nearly completely clean by Umbrella’s virus, giving the franchise the most generic setting imaginable for a zombie flick - a post-apocalyptic world. And even though this film features Claire Redfield and actually has Alice fight a Tyrant that looks the part, I feel that by turning the environment into Mad Max the filmmakers missed the entire point of the franchise. Resident Evil isn’t really about a “what if” scenario with mankind dying and zombies taking over the world. Instead, it’s about how humanity manages to cope in a time where zombies are used by corporations for terrorism purposes - hence the franchise’s “bio-organic weapon” catch-phrase for its creatures. It’s about how brave people live on in an era that just happens to feature biopunk monsters as a deadly fact of life. It’s about the evil that resides within a world that is pretty shitty, but hasn’t completely gone to shit. By turning the whole planet into the same ol’ zombie playground that we see in most popular fiction starring these workman-like horror tropes, Extinction - which probably thought it was upping the stakes - instead just feels sorta dull, and anyone who views the film today is probably going to see it as a weaker version of The Walking Dead. Oh, and it ends with Alice discovering clones of herself, which will only serve to screw with the loose continuity of these movies as they go on. 

Resident Evil: Afterlife - This one starts with Alice’s clones raiding the Umbrella facility in Tokyo, and the whole sequence - which feels like it should be the finale - is reduced to a few minutes of special effects in the beginning. (This is foreshadowing for the next two films, which both end with hints of giant, climatic battles that mostly happen off-screen, if at all.) The first thing that I noticed when watching this was how slow-mo kicked in every five minutes and how the camera seemed to linger on bullets, and I eventually remembered that this film was released during Hollywood’s obsession with 3D during the early 2010s. This explains Afterlife’s IN-YOUR-FACE-IN-THREE-DIMENSIONS action scenes, which are initially pretty in a music video sort of way but become overdone and tiresome as the movie goes on, kinda like a Zack Snyder film. (I place Paul W.S. Anderson in the same “style over substance” category of director as both Zack Snyder and Michael Bay, by the way.) Anyway, Afterlife deals with Alice teaming up with more survivors to try to find a secret ship haven free of zombies. Along the way she runs into Chris Redfield, who looks more like a janitor than the jacked BSAA agent that he is in the games, and Chris and Claire Redfield have a quick sibling reunion and fight Wesker in a scene with choreography shamelessly stolen from Resident Evil 5. It’s pandering fan service and sort of diverting, but ultimately none of it matters. Chris disappears after this movie and is never seen again, and Afterlife is more interesting as a specimen of 2010 3D excess than it is as an actual narrative.

Resident Evil: Retribution - Retribution amps the pandering fan service that Afterlife dabbled in to new levels. Ada Wong is here, played by Li Bingbing but dubbed by her original voice actress, Sally Cahill, probably because Li’s English isn’t that great. Leon Kennedy and Barry frickin’ Burton show up, both looking pretty much like their in-game counterparts. Even Michelle Rodriguez and a few other faces from Paul W.S. Anderson’s first Resident Evil flick make an appearance, thanks to the fact that this movie has clones up the wazoo and uses them to handwave away any series inconsistencies you could think of. So you’re got fan service for the people who like the games and fan service for the folks who liked the first movie, and on top of it all the film has the extreme 3D that its predecessor possessed and a buttload of battles because it all takes place in a giant Umbrella simulation facility full of stuff that can easily be wrecked. By now the plot to these things has gotten more scrambled than my eggs in the morning, but I will say that thanks to its inclusion of classic characters, Retribution is more or less tolerable. There’s even a bit of characterization this time around, thanks to a little hearing-impaired clone girl who Alice takes under her wing and begins to care for, and the movie ends on an okay cliffhanger in a Washington DC under siege, promising epic things to come in the next movie. Unfortunately... Resident Evil: The Final Chapter - I really did not enjoy The Final Chapter for a myriad of reasons. First of all, the Washington battle promised at the end of Retribution never happens. Instead, we fast forward to several months later, when Alice is (big surprise) the only survivor, and EVERYONE she was with in the last flick - Ada, Leon, the little deaf girl - is gone and never mentioned ever again. Wesker, who Alice was working with in Retribution, is back to being a bad guy for poorly explained reasons. Another bad scientist dude that Alice killed in Extinction also returns for even worse reasons, because supposedly Alice only offed his clone three movies ago. But wait, this “real” bad scientist dude is also revealed to be a clone as the TRUE bad scientist dude shows up in the movie’s last act! AND THE ULTIMATE TWIST (look away now if you actually care about spoilers) is that Alice is HERSELF a clone of the original daughter of the Umbrella corporation’s founder who died of a degenerative disease and served as the basis for the Red Queen AI. The idiotic thing is that this daughter was said to be the progeny of Dr. Charles Ashford in Resident Evil: Apocalypse, but this movie retcons her to be the spawn of Dr. James Marcus. The Final Chapter, in fact, screws with continuity to a degree I have rarely seen before in a long-running film franchise. Yeah, the framework tying this series together got weird as soon as clones were introduced, but previously it seemed that Paul W.S. Anderson at least cared about his own messy fan fiction. Here? It’s like he forgot what he’d spent the last 15 years building up to and ended on one sloppy fart. If this weren’t bad enough, The Final Chapter is edited in that god awful “shaky cam, lots of fast cuts” way that I hate. In fact, I counted something like twenty cuts in a scene of a few seconds when Alice is attacked by a creature, which means that this film won’t just baffle you with its disregard for continuity - it’ll give you a headache too. 

Resident Evil: Degeneration - After watching an array of live-action flicks that took random Resident Evil threads and mashed them together with the elegance of a splattered turd, it did feel good to switch things up and move to the CG movies that were actually put out by Capcom. This 2008 offering takes place in between Resident Evils 4 and 5, stars Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy, and deals with a virus breakout in an airport and some of the pharmaceutical company backstabbing that occurred in the aftermath of Umbrella’s destruction. It’s all stuff that feels like it could have come from a lesser gaiden game - perhaps in the same vein as the first Revelations title - and it kinda gives off that “so-so anime movie” vibe, especially because the dubbing always sounds a tad off. Nevertheless, Degeneration’s still a breath of fresh air compared to the Anderson series, and there’s a nice gag where Claire’s searching for a weapon in the airport, someone hands her a physical umbrella, and she looks at it and is like, “Hm, didn’t see this coming.” (Lollerskates.) The main issue I have with Degeneration is how “plasticky” everyone looks - it’s hard to realize how far computer animation has advanced in the last decade until you look at Degeneration’s stiff visuals and compare them to the other CG films. Also, Leon’s characterization is terrible. He’s meant to be a super serious badass, I guess, but he mostly just looks like someone rammed a Samurai Edge up his sphincter. I prefer my Leon Kennedy to be the “Don’t worry Ashley, I’m comin’ for ya!” version from Resident Evil 4, or at least a dude with a little sass to him. The guy in Degeneration is about as interesting as a board.  Resident Evil: Damnation - Damnation is a noticeable step above Degeneration, both in computer animation, which really got better from 2008 to 2012, and in all-around presentation. The dubbing’s still somewhat wonky with that same anime movie vibe, but the characterization is on point, and Leon, who’s taking center stage once more, is just like his RE6 self. Speaking of RE6, this movie channels that game’s themes of international terrorism with a plot that involves rebels in a made-up Eastern European country using Lickers and Las Plagas in an effort to fight for their freedom, only to learn that lo and behold, the nefarious female president who’s seized control of their nation has her own B.O.W.s - in the form of Tyrants - at her disposal. Leon’s caught in the middle of this mess and ends up befriending some of the rebels, and Ada Wong’s also infiltrated the country to manipulate the president. Ada and Leon’s interactions are as insubstantial as they’ve been in pretty much every game that isn’t the recent RE2make, but we do get a cool fight between Ada and the president, who for some reason knows substantial knife fu. There’s an even better battle between Tyrants and Lickers in a city hall square, and Leon gets throw against pillars, regularly takes hits that would kill a normal person and pilots a tank alongside one of the rebels who looks a lot like Chris Redfield but isn’t Chris Redfield. This dude serves as the film’s sympathetic character - a guy torn from his peaceful existence thanks to political wrangling and is tricked into using B.O.W.s to try to achieve a brighter future. It ends with the fella severely injured but learning how to live and move forward in a world infected with nefarious bioweapons, which is the very theme that the Anderson flicks ditched around movie number three. So good work for side-stepping previous failures and recognizing what Resident Evil is all about, Damnation. 

Resident Evil: Vendetta - If Degeneration’s a so-so anime movie, and Damnation a good anime movie, then Vendetta is just a good movie in general, with no “anime” distinction needed. The dubbing’s finally pretty decent, for one, and the story takes place in between RE6 and RE7, teaming Leon and Chris Redfield up with - HOLY CRAP - Rebecca Chambers, who’s been AWOL since Resident Evil Zero. They’ve gotta stop an arms dealer from bio-nuking New York and doing nasty things to Rebecca, who resembles his dead wife, and along the way Leon pilots a motorcycle on the freeway with his feet while shooting at Cerebrus with his hands. Nearly all of the movie’s considerable action segments are punctuated with rapid fire John Wick-style gunplay, and it works. It’s like the folks who made this film realized that the coolest part of Resident Evil 6 was the point where Leon and Chris point their guns at each other for a few seconds before deciding that they need to put their differences aside and cooperate, and even though you could conceivably fault Vendetta for leaning heavily towards the “action” side of Resident Evil rather than the “horror” side, it’s a well-paced film that finally gives us a substantial interaction between two series mainstays beyond the one minute they shared with each other in RE6. Also, people are still posting GIFs from Vendetta’s action sequences all across Tumblr and forums whenever arguments break out over whether Chris or Leon is TEH COoLER Resident Evil protagonist, so Capcom obviously did something right. If we get another computer animated film, I imagine it’ll lean more heavily towards horror since that’s where the series has gone recently...but hopefully the path of improvement that we’ve seen from Degeneration to Damnation to Vendetta won’t be broken. 

And with that, whew, I’m done with RE movies, at least until the rumored Hollywood reboot that’s supposedly drawing inspiration from Resident Evil 7 comes out. (It can’t be worse than The Final Chapter, I suppose.) I can’t say that my friends were wrong when they warned me that half of these would be shite, but I also can’t say that I ended on a bad note, because Vendetta was pretty good.

After all this, my grand playthrough and consumption of all Resident Evil media is about to finish Next post I make will be a last look at the franchise as a whole...and what a year’s worth of zombie headshots taught me.  All screencaps taken by me. 

[thewanderingswordsman2030]

Good morning to everyone…except this guy. 😒🙄 Name me some of your favorite gaming moments in life (in the comment thread or on my story)! Annnnnd GO! #twitch #gaming #streaming #kareemtalksgamestart #kthacreator #sony #microsoft #nintendo #sega #capcom #consolegaming #pcgaming #pcmasterrace #videogames #gamer #xbox #playstation #emulators #gamingmoments #explorepage https://www.instagram.com/p/CikZ4d7rI7e/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[synnefo-nefeli]

Any and all klavier headcanons are welcome in my house I love that boy

Oh boy you’re your in for a storm, Anon.  Prepare yourself for some HCs for everyone’s favorite German Birb Prosecutor:

I headcanon Klavier has happily pansexual more than bisexual. He’s had partners of different genders and gender identities and has loved and cared about them all.

His whole, “I’m doing it for the frauleins, lol, look at how fabulous I am, ja?” MO, is really Klavier putting up a front. He knows that people dismiss him and assume him to be an unfocused and ridiculous rockstar who has no business being back in the courts.  While true, creatively, Klavier can flit between projects chasing down new interests at the drop of a hat, when it comes to the law and his performances, Klavier is laser-focus, detail-oriented, strategic and driven.  This is his secret weapon, a way of keeping people off-balance.  He allows people to make assumptions about him, get comfortable in those assumptions, and then he takes them by surprise.  He’s underestimated genius, a prosecutor who is both some parts defense attorney, some parts prosecutor, with an astute and a suspicious mind that’s deadset on looking for the truth.

Klavier easily falls in love, but it’s not a mercurial or flippant sort of infatuation; when Klavier falls, he falls…this has lead him to some heartbreak thought, as usually he’s more into his partner than they are with him.

Despite having having different partners, he’s not a playboy (that is Daryan) and isn’t interested in just hooking up just to hook up. Once he’s with someone he’s with that person, and once the relationship is over, he doesn’t rebound, he just channels that heartbreak into music until he’s ready to fall in love again  

Klavier’s one true religion is Football (Soccer), and he follows TSV 1860 Munchen.  While he is very devoted to the law, Klavier will make an exception when court interfers with a broadcast of his favorite team; shifting his schedule around or trying desperately to record the games so he can watch them immediately after court. Edgeworth allows it, because he and Franziska are guilty of the same thing.

Apollo had to get used to Klavier’s soccer hooligan ways.  Had to get used to Klavier getting up before the sun rose so he can watch a match live or kip off to a sports bar (and meeting up with Edgeworth) that’s offering breakfast specials for such an event.  Has to deal with Klavier’s stormy moods when the team loses and over excitedness when there is a win.  Fortunately, Apollo has Phoenix to commiserate about this, as they are both the “yay sports!” part of the couple.

Klavier gets fat easily, so he’s always watching his weight and working out.  He does strength training, dance, yoga, and swim classes.  

He and Athena go to the same hot yoga studio, and because they live in LA, they go out for smoothies afterwards.  Athena keeps trying to get Klavier to join her and Simon in running a ½ marathon or an Iron Man competition, but Klavier has happily declined.  He just wants to keep in shape, thank you- not kill himself.

He and Simon form a close relationship after AA5.  Simon has a wicked sense of humor and a propensity to have a little bit of fun/good trouble, that it fills the Daryan shaped hole in his life, but unlike Daryan, Simon is comitted to justice and their work to be a wonderful friend and co-worker for Klavier to have.That said, Simon was Klavier’s best man when he got married. 

After the events of AA4, Kristoph has placed Klavier on a “banned visitors” list.  So has Daryan.  

Klavier’s preferred drinks are either beer or whiskey.  Occasionally he’ll get a cocktail or a glass of wine, but he does enjoy coming home, pouring a cold glass of beer while sitting out on his apartment’s balcony.

 Apollo’s birthday gift to Klavier when they were first dating was to take him to a beer brewing class. They both found it really interesting and surprisingly pretty easy to do at home, so they actually have brewed their own craft beers.  Apollo teases Klavier, that beer brewing could be Klavier’s new side hustle, you know, for when being a prosecutor and a rock star doesn’t work out.

Apollo is, Klavier’s greatest muse- in court and on the rock stage.  While, they are a notoriously private couple, a few songs about Apollo/their relationship have been released to the public.  The other songs are either on song notes or have been recorded (in Klavier’s personal studio at home) but are kept under lock and key for private viewing (ie. Apollo’s birthday or on their anniversary).

Despite being very private…Klavier and Apollo have gotten up to things outside of their bedroom.  Apollo has an exhibitionist kink, and Klavier won’t ever say no to Apollo when Apollo gives him a certain look.  Also, Klavier is pretty shameless when it comes to PDA, so he allows Apollo to set the tone and expecations of how far they go in public. How far they go can range to holding hands and kissing at public events attended by the paparazzi to Klavier and Apollo fucking in an ally way outside of the trendy club Klavier has gotten them into that night.   They have been walked in on by Phoenix and Edgeworth, that time when they were going at it in the broom closet on the 4th floor of the Court House, but seeing that Phoenix and Edgeworth were clearly heading into the closet to do similar activities, they couldn’t reprimand their subordinates.

Klavier and Miles often play chess together in Edgeworth’s office.  Klavier has a strategic and competitive mind to make the games interesting. It started off as weekly one-on-one work-related meetings, but then it became a nice way for Miles to bond with Klavier as co-worker and mentee.  Klavier has also started playing poker with Wright, Herr Butz, Simon, and Gumshoe- it’s also a nice way to bond with the others, but Klavier is certain that Phoenix’s initial invitation was for him to sizing Klavier up to see if he was good enough to date Apollo.

Klavier has written scores and arrangements for Trucy’s shows.  He’s also helped her finesse some aspects of her showmanship.  Not that she needed it really, but it is nice to hang out with her and get close to Apollo’s “little sister”.  They text often and will gang up on Apollo at times.  Apollo swears sometimes Klavier only married him so that Trucy could be his little sister-in-law.

There are more head canons here: 

Klavier’s eyesight: https://synnefo-nefeli.tumblr.com/post/158323381460/klapollo-head-canon-eyesight

His Morning Routines:

https://synnefo-nefeli.tumblr.com/post/142532761740/favorite-breakfast-foods-for-narumitsu-and

Klavier’s Birthday:

https://synnefo-nefeli.tumblr.com/post/148287813805/head-canon-apollo-and-klaviers-birthdays

Random Head Canons for Klavier:

https://synnefo-nefeli.tumblr.com/post/97814725260/random-head-canon-time-klavier

https://synnefo-nefeli.tumblr.com/post/155213847870/klavier-for-the-2016-ask

https://synnefo-nefeli.tumblr.com/post/133837213095/klavier-is-the-one-that-puts-his-cold-feet-on

https://synnefo-nefeli.tumblr.com/post/117258276335/klavier-headcanon

Hope you liked what I have!!!

[daleisgreat]

Dale’s Top 11 Videogame Experiences of 2016

Greetings! It has been awhile since I did one of these top 10 of the year lists. It felt right to place my list on my long dormant Giant Bomb blog where a few of my past lists reside and because I always enjoy the wealthy amount of game of the year content from the Giant Bomb crew each year. This is not a ‘Top 10 games of 2016,’ but more of a ‘Top 10 Experiences’ of 2016.

As you will see, a lot of my games listed will be from prior years. Also you will definitely notice I cheated on most of my entries and included multiple games on most entries. I tried to make each number on my list a theme for each experience, so I hope that suffices for you. If you take a liking my ramblings, please check out my movie blog where I recently ran down my favorite and worst movies from the past few years. I may post this on my movie blog as well since I have a ‘Top 10’ label there too, so if you are reading this blog there, greetings again! *Edit* I saw after I finished editing this I screwed up my numbering and actually had 11 items, not 10, but it is too late now to remove an item after working on this for so long, so onward with my top 11 experiences of 2016! 11) Finally acquiring current gen consoles Yes, that is right, three years they debuted I finally picked up both PS4 and Xbox One. My gaming backlog grew out of control because I do not have nearly enough time to game as I use to so I wanted a few years to get caught before I got the current systems. I first jumped on the Xbox One shortly after they released the S model in September and caught a good sale on the 2 TB version that knocked off $100. It took me six weeks though to get around to hooking it up and playing it however, but I have gamed a fair amount on it since.

The PS4 I got a couple months later on Black Friday weekend when retailers were having big sales on the Uncharted 4 500gb bundle, and I was able to stack a couple other discounts to get it for $190. An awesome friend gifted me a 2 TB hard drive for Christmas shortly thereafter. I have since hooked it up and got all my cross buy games from PS3 and Vita transferred over, but have yet to find any time to play a single game on it because of all the other games I am trying to catch up on. I think one of these weekends I should do nothing but binge on Uncharted 4 because it is one of my favorite franchises and it is a crime that I have yet to play the latest installment. I also want to squeeze in here two other platforms that kind of meet the criteria of this subject: the Retron 5 and the NES Classic. The games I have tested out on the Retron 5 have worked great on my HDTV, and results in my classic games running flawlessly in HD, with none of the fuzziness that would result from hooking up my classic systems with RCA/composite cables into an HDTV. Like everyone else, I hate the Retron 5 controller, but am thankful the Retron 5 is compatible and works well with my classic controllers. The NES Classic I lucked into getting one morning right when a retailer opened and I was not even looking for it, but happened to hear the store had them. I brought it over to play with the family after Thanksgiving dinner and it was a big hit that night. My brother-in-law kicked my ass in Tecmo Bowl that evening. Later on I let my six year-old niece, and eight year-old nephew play the system for a bit and took in their reactions to experiencing classics like Bubble Bobble and Super Mario Bros. 3 for the first time. I have since busted out the NES Classic a couple more times with my nephew and we made a lot of progress in Bubble Bobble since, and have also had good times playing the original Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong with him. My nephew loves Minecraft and other tablet games, and I feared him playing these older games I grew up with would not jive with him, and I was delighted he took a liking to many of them. 10) Arcade Racers! I love me some arcade racing games! Racing and pinball games are the perfect way to start off a gaming session. I like to invest about 30-45 minutes and knock off a few races from a career mode before moving on to whatever game I am working on in my backlog. Going through my gaming journal I realized I have invested significant time into five racing games in 2016, and have completed the career modes in three of them. I first finished off Blaze Rush, an excellent downloadable racing game that is essentially the old school Micro Machines games, but with crazy weapons. The career mode is filled with a ton of variety, and while I had a few hair pulling moments trying to win certain races, I very much enjoyed my time with it.

Toybox Turbo is from Codemasters, the same people who made the aforementioned Micro Machines games and this is a contemporary follow up to them from a couple years ago. You still race in crazy environments like kitchen tables and workbenches, and the racing is still as quick and fun as the 8-bit classics. The third career mode I finished in 2016 went to Dirt Showdown, also from Codemasters. This is an arcade spinoff from the sim-heavy Dirt rally racing games, and Showdown is more of demo-derby racer in similar fashion to Destruction Derby and Flatout. I love that style of racers, and they do not make enough of them! Dirt Showdown is a welcomed addition to the genre, and I had a blast doing both races and last man standing demolition derbies! It is pretty fun, but not quite perfect, but establishes a good foundation I hope Codemasters builds on with future sequels. Road Redemption is the contemporary take on Road Rash I have wanted EA to make for many years. These guys are getting it right, but it is still in Early Access on Steam so the developers are constantly building upon it. It controls how I would imagine a Road Rash game would evolve into today, and they thankfully took out having to run out back to your cycle so you can get back into the race quicker. I had some friends over for four player couch play, and we had a blast and it convinced them to get it too. If you have played old school Road Rash give it a look! Mantis Burn Racing is another Steam game I put a decent amount of time into that offers up a similar isometric perspective and has a good arcade/sim hybrid feel to it complete with drifts and turbos. It recently hit consoles so give it a look there too. Finally, I have lately been making a lot of progress into Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed. Sega really stepped up their game with their second kart-style racer a few years back. I really dig how the karts morph into planes and hovercrafts during the race and how some tracks transform during the race to keep me on my feet. The roster features a ton of Sega favorites and the racing feels great and is right up there with Mario Kart! 9) Pinball!

Anyone who knows my gaming habits knows I am a pinball nut. Ever since Pinball FX on 360 I have spend countless hours on various pinball games. As I stated in the previous entry this is another one of my go to games to start off gaming sessions with. In 2016 I played a lot of Pinball Arcade, Zen Pinball 2 and a little known indie game on Steam called Hyperspace Pinball. I love nearly the entire Zen 2 roster of tables and spent a good chunk of the year trying to replay each table on my PS3 at least a couple of times. I am all caught up now with the exception of the recently released Bethesda pack that offers up tables based on their Doom, Skyrim and Fallout properties. Alternatively, the real life translations in Pinball Arcade are also up my alley, and I always find myself coming back to tables in attempts to best previous high scores and knock off all the preset goals for each table. I recently busted out the spinoff Stern Pinball Arcade disc on Xbox One, which offers up a couple exclusive tables that are not yet in the standalone Pinball Arcade hub and have been eating that up a lot too. Hyperspace Pinball is an under-the-radar game that got buried in the plethora of indie games on Steam and it is unfortunate that it has gone ignored for this long. It features simple-yet-groovy futuristic graphics and a very fitting soundtrack. The primary mode is like a addicting version of pinball-meets-Asteroids and every several levels there are unique boss battles to vanquish. It took several runs before I got use to the physics of this pinball game, but once I did I was glad I mixed Hyperspace Pinball into my rotation. 8) Road Trip gaming!

This past October I went on a week long road trip to hit up some attractions I have always wanted to see and hang out with some friends who have moved out of town over the years. I visited my friend, Dick in the Twin Cities. We have a history of playing many hours of our favorite wrestling game, WWF No Mercy together and we could not resist busting it out again. We had some intense matches where we teamed up against the computer on expert difficulty, and then a few more grueling one-on-one encounters. Later that day, we checked out an game shop that had an arcade machine with a ton of games built in and one of them was for a Japan-exclusive sequel to Saturday Night Slam Masters I had no idea existed until that point. Slam Masters was Capcom’s take on wrestling meets Street Fighter II, but the sequel, Ring of Destruction, is a straight up fighting game that plays as good as any Capcom fighter back in the day. After that, we traversed to a recently opened arcade in the Cities called Up/Down, which is an arcade bar loaded with arcade and pinball games and has a full service bar. All the hits from 80s and 90s I grew up with were there such as classic brawlers like TMNT, X-Men and Simpsons to the hits Midway dominated the 90s with like NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat I-4 and NFL Blitz. There was even old school Nintendo games like Excitebike, Donkey Kong and a version of Fix-It Felix straight out of Wreck-It Ralph I had no idea was a thing until I saw it with my own eyes. There was also around a dozen pinball tables there, with a good mix of classics like Funhouse, Terminator 2 and Adams Family to more recent Stern releases like Ghostbusters and Metallica. I guess this is a slowly expanding chain, so if you happen to run across one, make sure to check it out as you will be guaranteed hours of fun.

The next destination on my road trip was to visit my brother in a smaller town a couple hours outside of the Twin Cities. I had a great time hanging out with him, and like my friend in the Cities, we also have a history of beating the tar out of each other in WWF No Mercy. After telling my brother about experiencing the awesomeness of taking on expert level AI opponents in tag mode and proceeding to have another close match with the AI where we emerged victorious, we proceeded to take on each other in about 15 one-on-one matches. I consider myself a pretty darn good No Mercy player and can hold my own with any other seasoned player, but for whatever reason my brother has always had my number and is the only one I know that can outplay me (that link is a clip of us squaring off in a tournament final from several years ago for proof!). Of the roughly 15 matches we played, I only had one victory out of them all, and I made sure to savor every moment of it! 7) Awesome Local Coop! This is where I will give a shoutout to my local friends in town, Ryan, Derek and Brooke! Last few years we have had recurring couch multiplayer game nights every several weeks! I always look forward to them, and we are constantly rotating in old favorites like Mario Kart: Double Dash, Mario Party and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect with newer games for a constant fresh variety of multiplayer goodness. I will give props to some of my favorite moments I had with them this year. One awesome early multiplayer night in 2016 involved a NES theme night, and me busting out my four player adaptor which led to many hours of Gauntlet II and Super Off-Road fun.

For a couple weeks we were into slaughtering zombies and we played through a couple levels of Left 4 Dead 2. I forgot how awesome and frustrating that game is as I experienced both soaring highs when our teamwork was flawless and devastating lows when we ran into trouble a couple of times. Either way, it was still a blast re-experiencing Left 4 Dead 2 for the first time in years. That led us to a couple days of long sessions of Dying Light. I loved the first Dead Island and this game is from the same developers and plays just like it, but mixes in an awesome parkour system. That resulted in all kinds of crazy running dropkicks and being on the lookout for next great weapon that would turn up in our endless piles of loot. Just a few weeks ago we had another great session where we played Drawful and Fibbage out of the Jackbox Party Pack. Both are awesome social party/trivia games from the same people who made the also-excellent You Don’t Know Jack. These games make great use of cell phones as controllers so anyone could play, and we had way too much fun guessing at what the heck we were drawing in Drawful. It brought back classic memories of staying up all night in another similar multiplayer game on the DS, LOL!

We followed that game up with a random game I got for Xbox One since I heard so much good buzz about it online called Overcooked. This simple four player Root Beer Tapper-meets-cooking game featured some of the most fun I have ever had in a multiplayer game. When your teamwork is firing on all cylinders it is a blast, when it is not it led to us playfully shouting at each other until one point a few of us had to drop the controllers because we were uncontrollably laughing so hard. It was a moment I will never forget. There was one other multiplayer night between us that usurped these moments, but I will save it for later. 6) Extra Life 2016 Extra Life is the annual 24 hour gaming event where we game for a day straight in order to raise funds for our local children’s hospital! These last two years I traveled down to my friends, Chris and Lyzz’s house to game for 24 hours straight. I always attempt to beat WWF No Mercy’s 100-man Survival mode, and just like all previous attempts, I failed about halfway through. There were two main takeaways from Extra Life 2016. One of them was binging through Gears of War 4’s campaign from start to finish during the 24 hours. I love me some Gears, and Extra Life happened not to long after I picked up my Xbox One, so Gears 4 ended up being one of the first games I played on it. I had to take a break halfway through Gears 4 because I signed up to run a local 10k in the area, which was actually a nice breather to get out of the house and get some exercise and fresh air! I came back revitalized and had a great time playing nonstop until I finished. Chris and Lyzz were playing their own Gears 4 campaign in split-screen coop and we both did our best to look away from each other to avoid spoilers. Turns out you cannot have a split screen system team up online with another player on their own, but we found a way to get through it on our own without spoilers! Gears 4 turned out awesome as expected, and was a return to form after the experimental game in the series that was Gears Judgment.

The other game I played later on in Extra Life I want to make sure to recognize is Mega Man 2 off the Xbox One Mega Man Legacy Collection. I never gave a Mega Man game a serious chance before. I recall trying to play the first one a couple times long ago and getting frustrated many times and not beating a single stage. In the Legacy Collection however, it has save states which I made sure to exploit to the fullest. I was saving every screen or two in Mega Man 2. I decided to start on that one since I usually hear that is the best, and it had a firm, but fair challenge level to it. I died many times, but wanted to try out different techniques in order to progress and beat each boss. I did not finish the game, but did complete three stages, which will go down as the first three levels I ever finished in a Mega Man game! One day I will return to at least finish Mega Man 2, mark my words! 5) Firewatch After finishing Dear Esther and Gone Home a couple years ago, I have become a huge fan of the genre that has become known as the walking simulator! Firewatch hit out of nowhere early in 2016 and became a much talked about indie game throughout the year. I finally played it towards the end of the summer, and relished every hour of the six or seven hours it took me to finish. The graphics are superb and perfectly capture the solitude and beauty of being a fire ranger in the vast wilderness. I could get lost out there forever, and spent many moments just pausing in the game and taking in the sublime surroundings. The score is not always present, but knows when to kick in to amplify the moments that need it.

I could not help but get immersed in the narrative between the two fire rangers, and the mystery that the two found themselves in as the summer unraveled. Reading other game of the year reactions in recent weeks I found myself in the minority that liked the twist towards the end and was not thrown for a loop by it. I really loved the final days in the game, and it all culminated in an impactful moment for me when I could tell my summer with Firewatch was coming to an end. I got lucky and managed to get in on the Limited Run release of the physical copy of the game on PS4, and look forward to replaying it sooner than later with the newly added developer commentary. 4) Objection, dedicated handheld gaming is here to stay!

I try to dedicate a couple hours a week to traditional handheld gaming. I am not talking smartphone games, but good old fashioned DS/Vita/3DS gaming! I grew up playing a ton of my various versions of the GameBoy and still try to cram in a little bit of the current stuff too. I am a huge Ace Attorney fan and spent a good chunk of my 2016 handheld gaming getting caught up in the series. I finished off Ace Attorney Investigation: Miles Edgeworth early on in the year, and spent a good chunk of 2016 gradually chipping away at the first 3DS entry in the series, Dual Destinies. The last couple weeks I finally put my first few hours in the most recent release in the series, Spirits of Justice. If you have played one Ace Attorney game before you know what to expect, and that is a ton of crazy over-the-top characters you meet investigating crime scenes and cross examine on the witness stand as you try and clear innocent names from murder cases. There is a ton of reading involved in these games which is why they take forever to get through at my rate, but they are worth it in the long run to me since I find myself craving what kind of adventures the Wright Anything Agency are getting themselves into next.

There was one other non-Ace Attorney game I snuck into for a few hours at a time in-between my travels in and out of the court room. That game was the PSone version of Final Fantasy VII on the Vita. I have started FFVII a couple times before, but never made serious progress in it, and I guess I did not make a ton of progress in it this year either, but barely set a new record for time and progress! I originally was trying to keep up with Game Informer when FFVII was a part of their Game Club feature, but quickly fell behind. I came back around to FFVII in December for a few more hours, and am glad to say that I finally got out of Midgar and into the overworld for the first time in FFVII! I went on to get through the portion of the game in the village of Kalm, and then failed a few times at trying to kill off that big serpent by the Chocobo farm outside of Kalm. I think I need to grind by there for a bit in order to proceed. While I know I am nowhere close to finishing the game, I plan to periodically pick it up and eventually beat it in 10-15 years! 3) Nintendo Sixty-Fourrrrrrr!!!! If you have somehow stuck with me through this dreadfully long top 10 blog, you might recall that I stated I had one other awesome local coop gaming night I wanted to elucidate on later. That brings us here to where my brother was visiting from out of town and he joined me, Derek and Ryan for an N64 themed night of gaming. I knew Derek and Ryan had a bunch of N64 games, and I brought a bunch of my favorites to play also. I was a little taken aback when Derek asked me to bring the N64 wrestling game I loved so much because I did not associate Derek and Ryan to be much of wrestling game fans before. Turned out that WWE 2K16 was a recent Xbox Live Games for Gold free game of the month and both of them spent a bit of time suplexing and powerbombing the heck out of each other in recent weeks and wanted to give the N64 game I raved about the most a whirl as a result. Derek and Ryan picked up the controls for WWF No Mercy in no time and we spent at least a good hour tearing each other up in intense tag team and Royal Rumble matches. I am still befuddled that Derek and Ryan had a legit good time playing wrestling games that night, and it will probably be the only night that will ever happen with them, but I will forever remember it! The night did not end there because we went on to spend hours in other four-player hits like NBA Hangtime and New Tetris. I was surprised New Tetris went over as well as it did, but the timeless puzzle game was the right breather we all needed after some heated rounds of basketball and wrestling. It would not be an N64 night if we did not bust out the Giant Bomb favorite, Mario Party 2, and we proceed to complete a 20 turn game where everybody won!

The highlight of the night however was breaking out the original console FPS multiplayer hit, Goldeneye 007. I have read many times online how this game does not hold up in modern times, but I beg to differ! Play it on a big TV and play for at least 10 minutes, and trust me, you will be conditioned to like it was 1997 all over again! That is what happened to us that night. Sure the graphics are obviously last-century, and there is a bit of slowdown in four-player split screen when the explosions start rolling, but if you are on a big screen TV after about 10 minutes, you get use to it because the core gameplay is still that damn good. We played all kinds of variants including old favorites such as Grenade Launchers in the Temple, Rocket Launchers in the Complex, Proximity Mines in the Archives and a random map incarnation of Slappers Only with Golden Gun rules so that each slap meant instant sweet death! These five games for about five-to-six hours that magical night combined for nonstop greatness and hands down my favorite multiplayer game night 2016! 2) MGS 2/3/Peace Walker Since the fall of 2015 when Metal Gear Solid V released. I swore to myself I will get around to playing through all the Metal Gear Solid games in order. Up until that point I only finished MGS4 and gave up on MGS2 after just a couple hours. I somehow have found myself still determined to meet this goal as I plugged away and finished The Twin Snakes GameCube remake of the original MGS by the end of 2015. Throughout 2016 I managed to finish MGS2 and MGS3 and got through around the first 15 story missions of Peace Walker off the HD Collection on PS3. I even dabbled a bit with the first hour of Portable Ops through backwards compatibility on the Vita, but decided to stick to playing on consoles and moved on to Peace Walker instead. So what do I make of the series thusfar? I have absolutely enjoyed the core three games immensely so far. I am probably playing these games completely wrong, but I played through all three MGS games on very easy difficulty. I have no shame, but for what it is worth I try to play stealthy, and if I blow my cover and fail to retreat that is when I bust out the AK-47 and go guns blazing. That works OK most of the time for me in very easy. In Peace Walker there is no difficulty setting so that involves a bit more trial and error, but thankfully that game’s missions are shorter since it was originally designed for the PSP so failure does not mean a ton of backtracking there.

I really enjoyed my time with the first MGS, and the updated graphics on the GCN made it much more pleasant on the eyes. By the time I finished it, even all these years after its release I could tell I finished something special. Playing as Raiden did not bother me in the sequel….unless it came to saving which sometimes resulted in a few raised eyebrows. It still had the same unique, great gameplay as the original, and managed to tell another memorable chapter in the MGS universe. That said, I still rank it at the bottom of the core trilogy I liked the least, but not by as much one may think. I am probably going to give the slight edge to MGS3 to being my favorite so far. The gameplay seemed to have hit its stride there by finally giving the ability to move and shoot simultaneously, and I actually did not mind the healing/wound treatment system in MGS3 either. The Cold War-era story is probably what I will give the nudge to me liking MGS3 the most. Each MGS game got to gradually become more bonkers in nature, and wrapping the Cold War narrative around it seemed like a perfect fit. I also loved the boss battles the most in MGS3, especially the final battle with ‘The Boss’ and the beauty with how it is presented in MGS3 will easily rank as one of my favorite moments in videogames. 1) Oxenfree When it came down to it, I only finished three games in 2016 that were released that calendar year, and Oxenfree was one of them. It is a walking simulator like Firewatch, and also like that game the small development team at Night School Studios has members that worked on the critically acclaimed first season of The Walking Dead from Telltale Games. Unlike Firewatch though, Oxenfree has far simpler 2D graphics that are watercolor-esque in nature. Do not let these simple looks deceive you, because the narrative that surrounds these four coming-of-age teens out for a night of fun on an island quickly transforms into a night of sci-fi spookiness that I will never forget and left me wanting a sequel ASAP. I am heads over heels for the script and dialogue that unloads throughout Oxenfree. One moment the cast is trying to come together to figure out the grand mystery of this island, then the next they are taking quick asides to find out more about their personal lives that encapsulates the everyday life of teenage drama. Night School Studios make tremendous use of certain camera tricks and jump cuts that do not necessarily equal out to jump scares, but sure as hell something close that had my skin crawling with goosebumps as the adventure played out.

There are several pivotal decisions that will affect gameplay, so naturally I had to play the game a second time telling myself no matter what I am going to play the game differently. A lot of the dialogue choices in the game have positive, neutral and snarky response options so I spent a good chunk of my second playthrough being a snarky jerk and it was fascinating seeing the responses I would get in return. When it came down to bite the bullet in the end and make one of the big game-changing decisions, I had to pause the game and step away from it for a few minutes to think it over. Even after doing that, I could not go back on my natural instincts and I went with my original decision in one of the most frantic moments I had in playing videogames. Shortly after I finished Oxenfree a second time I was caught off guard by the developers patching in a remixed mode for people who have finished the game that offers up a slightly new gameplay experience. These changes were minor, but they did add a few new wrinkles throughout gameplay and the dialogue would unexpectedly change at random intervals to keep me constantly alert to see what tricks Oxenfree had up its sleeve next. I think it goes without saying if a game can manage to convince me to finish it three times within a year, especially at a time when I have just a fraction of the time to game than what I use to, then Oxenfree easily walks away from 2016 as my favorite videogame experience of the year! Limited Run has a physical release for PS4 set for later this month, and you can bet your booty that I will be attempting to pick up a copy and experience this game a fourth time!

[broketheyolk]

Inadequate

Wow, it’s been over a year since I’ve written in here. Well, some things have changed and a lot hasn’t. I just read my last post and it was pretty humorous for the state of mind I was in (which was pretty fucking depressed). Update: I was good for a while but now I’m back feeling depressed as fuck. I’ve gotten a new keyboard at least so now I can type a bit better than how I was with the last post from over a year ago. Since I just read my last entry I’ll try to keep the format the same so I can remember what I was doing or at least paint a picture if you’re a random person just reading this. It’s 3:07am on a Saturday night (technically Sunday morning). I was just kind of pissed off because I couldn’t figure out how to log into this blog since I thought it was tied in with my “regular” tumblr but after getting mad and getting kind of hot (literally, I was sweating) I figured out that this tumblr was under a different email. God, I’m such a genius. It’s July and it’s still warm at night so I have my fan in my window blowing cold air in so I won’t be all sweaty and gross while I’m trying to sleep. Ghost in the Shell is playing in the background on the tv. I’m listening to Spotify to Hello by Engelwood Radio but the station was kind of sucking so I had to just switch it to the song on repeat. I have a ton of thoughts going through my head and it’s hard to figure out what to write first.

I feel like shit. I’ve been depressed for the last two weeks. It isn’t as bad as when I had it last year, which was really the first time I’ve ever really been depressed and felt that way. I feel like I just have anxiety all the time. My sister, her kids and her stupid ass husband are moving back in which is going to be a shitty situation. They say they’re only going to be here for 6 or 7 months but god knows how long it will really take them to leave. That prompted one of the reasons for my anxiety/depression. I was looking to finally move out but with the stupid bills I have I can’t afford to get an apartment and they don’t even really have studios in  the area which I would be fine with. Not being able to afford to move out really fucked with my head. I’m 30 going on 31 now and I feel so fucking inadequate. I’m working at a job where my coworkers are in their early twenties and here I am 30 years old and I just feel like a piece of shit loser. I feel like I should have more to show for my age but then again I can’t really complain because I haven’t put in the work to earn a better living. Then there’s my job. I feel really complacent. I make an ok amount of money but at this point I need to make more so I can finally fully support myself. The thing is that if I don’t think about it I’m fine where I’m at grinding away. Unless, I think about it then I won’t want to do any better. Also, I’m still fat. I’ve made minimal effort in trying to lose weight and it just comes down to me being a lazy piece of shit.                                                    

Here’s the cherry on the top though, I met a girl. She came in while I was working and made a funny comment asking if I was the only person there, which caught me off guard but was a great ice breaker. We talked a lot and it was nice that we were the only ones in the store so I could really talk and listen to her. She told me about her family and I was enamored immediately with her. She is definitely my type. She’s just a cute white girl that’s pretty nerdy. We joked around a bit and I told her I would text her and we were going to be best friends. Braden saw some of it go down and he was like “wow, good job.” Like I’ve flirted with girls that have come in before but this was the first time I really trying to get at her. That was on a Saturday and I emailed her my usual conformation email but with added personal things. She replied back and it gave me butterflies. Actually, just thinking about the first time we met gives me butterflies. I text her on Monday telling her about getting her service turned on and she replied back with a “Finally!” and oh man my heart fluttered. It’s been a while since I’ve felt like this with a girl .The real last time was with her but I guess everyone except for me knew she just wanted attention so I finally had to fall back because I was just putting in all that time on something that wasn’t going to happen. Anyways, so we text back and forth and it’s kind of dry. Like I don’t know if she isn’t into texting but she usually takes forever to reply and it’s hard to keep the conversation going. I figure out she’s into anime and stuff so we find common ground in that. I threw out senpai forgive me and she liked that and probably got the first “lol” out of her. I remember we were texting pretty much throughout the whole 4th of July. I really wanted to see her but I was being a bitch and should have just went to the fort with her but I was hanging out with my family that didn’t care if I was there or not and with Steve and Kai since he was back from Arizona for like a day. So we keep texting and she tells me about a spot she likes going to called Quarterworld. It’s like Ground Kontrol/Wunderland. She said she likes to go alone and drink while she’s there. I poke and prod saying we should go but she says it’s her tradition to go alone and I don’t know if she’s being serious or not but for some reason I keep bringing it up and I don’t know if she wants me to leave it alone. Anyways we finally end up hanging out. We drive to Uwajimaya and just browse all the aisles and small talk about everything. I geek out a little on the gundams they have there but don’t buy any because I don’t want her to think I’m a super nerd and I don’t have the room on my shelf. We end up eating at that Korean spot Tony likes and the whole time from me picking her up and to the restaurant, she’s doing all of the talking. I saw some stuff here and there but I was just over thinking everything and was too nervous to talk. Thankfully, she was ok with talking and I honestly could just listen to her talk about anything. She told me stories of her old roommates and her old job and how crazy it made her. How she was drinking herself to sleep to cope with the stress from work. She told me about how she has a wedding she wants to go to in November but her significant ex’s will be there and it would be kind of weird because she told them to leave her and get with a different girl that was better and they ended up breaking up with her and doing so. That made me feel kind of weird. Also, how her old roommate that was schizophrenic called her the time lord because all the guys in the place had a crush on her and how she was controlling all of them because she knew that. That made me feel pretty weird too. Like is she the type of person to do that kind of thing? So we end dinner and I take her home. I couldn’t figure out if we were on a date or just hanging out but it was the ladder. On the way back she notices that I haven’t talked as much and tries making an effort to engage me in conversation but I’m still fucking nervous and I talk about my family and visiting Papa but it all comes in blurts. I drop her off and the whole time she was talking during dinner I was looking at her face and realizing how fucking attractive and pretty she really is. I pull up to her spot and she was like no one’s ever paid for me before and I was taken back like really? And she hops out to get her stuff out of the back seat and I was just looking back at her like well I guess no good night kiss so this definitely wasn’t a date.

Since then we’ve just been texting and I’ve been the one texting her first every day. I seriously cannot tell if she just wants to be friends or wants to see where this is going. Like I’m trying to hang out with her but she’s told me twice she’s blown her entertainment funds for the week which I don’t know is an excuse or she is really budgeting to the penny. Either way it’s been fucking with my head. All this anxiety and depression I feel is stemming from me being attracted and into her but not really receiving the same feelings back. Like with her even though it wasn’t going anywhere. She responded back with engaging conversations and told me good night, tagged me in memes, snapped each other and told me good night. With this new girl I don’t get any of that so I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong or she doesn’t care. It’s seriously fucking with my emotions. Like I am really into her and I don’t know what to do. There’s so much uncertainty around her and it just makes me internalize everything. Like would she show more interest if I was better looking? If was taller? If I weren’t fat? Am I boring? I’m over thinking it but I am having a lot of inadequacy issues. Like I’ll text her and sometimes she’ll reply right away and other times like hours later. I’m finding myself over thinking it a lot and getting all in my feelings. Like I just want to be loved and I feel like a deserve it. Her coupled with all the other shit going on has been giving me such bad anxiety and stress and everyone has noticed it. Everyone at work and even mama could tell I was stressed out. I’ll catch myself just feeling super anxious and being caught between what can I do to fix this or lie in fetal position. I haven’t had an appetite for a while because I’ve been stressed and when I think about it I don’t want to get fat because maybe she’ll like me more. These last couple days where I try to hit her up to no response I’ll find myself just thinking so much and getting depressed. The other night I needed to do something to get my mind off of it so I went to Quarterworld by myself and felt pretty good. I played a shit ton of marvel vs capcom and ate at the baowser next door after. It’s funny cause I texted her earlier that day with no response until hours later when I was Quarterworld by myself. Then I did the same shit the other day where I ended up by OHSU by a park and ended up walking Tilikum crossing and guess what? She finally replied to a text hours later. Like I texted her at noon then around 8 saying I wanted to hang out again and she said oops I fell asleep and I wanted to get ramen or do something cool and I took an hour to reply just cause I was walking around on the bridge and couldn’t think of anything to say. I respond like 40 min later and no response. I text her today 3 times and different times and no response until hours later saying she couldn’t because she blew her entertainment funds like night. So I asked her what she ended up doing and she was like refilling contact lenses. Like cool, you spend your entertainment money on contacts. I don’t know what to believe. I don’t know if my persistence is going against me or if she is just actually a bad texter. I seriously don’t know what to do. Should I keep trying to pursue her or is it a lost cause. I really want to get to know her and see where we can take things but I can’t force her to like me. This uncertainty just sucks and the feeling of being inadequate and unwanted is floating over me like a dark cloud. I wish the communication was better so I could figure out if this is a lost cause. I don’t care if she doesn’t have an entertainment budget I can pay for her. It’s not like I can be a sugar daddy but I feel like I could treat her well. Also, being my age and still feeling all these things fucking suck too, I don’t want to be old and alone.  

Well hopefully I’ll write more in here. I’ve had a lot of thoughts and feelings I’ve had to get off my chest. But if I don’t things will have worked out and I’ll be dating and if I do things won’t have worked out and I’ll be venting more. Peace out girl scout.

[raymondchouplayschess]

Calculation: Part 2.5, Scattered Notes While at Work

So I’m at work right now, and there’s no one else here (since I’m usually the first in in the morning, and I have no student assistant today), so I think I’m going to take some time to really think about some thoughts I was having last night.

Interestingly enough, though many problems can be simplified - this just may be one where the complexity is preserved, despite the transformations I’m about to make...

I was doing some of the daily chess.com puzzles, trying to practice my calculating skill, and I think I’m getting better at it! The idea of analyzing all of the possible moves first, and then simply switching around the order, is very effective. I have noticed a few things however:

It is very important to calculate the squares for which pieces can move in subsequent turns. I know how a knight moves for the first two moves only, I’ll try to figure out 3 very soon. With bishops, queens, and rooks (long range pieces, as I will now call them), since each one can theoretically end up on any square within two moves (except for bishops, they can move to any square of their color after only two moves), it is more important to look at paths and open lines. Do not forget captures to end up at the arrival point!

Very important, also, to be able to move the location where capture happens. (For example, say a rook was aiming down the h-file at your king, then you play h6, and if a capture were to happen, then the g7 pawn can defend)

We need some sort of system where we can count threats and immediately be able to rule out certain moves

Whoever has the move is very important - hence moves that gain tempo should also have some factor in the calculation

Also another thing to consider is how the defense of each piece changes as the shape of the board changes. The threats may change based on how the pieces move, and our goal is to be able to predict these in advance without having to actually calculate

It is good to “see the shape of a piece,” (for lack of a better phrase), or to view each piece not only as itself, but all of its possible attacking squares, as well as future attacking squares. For example, when I look at a knight, I see the 8 squares that it can attack - but also, I try to see if my knight is in any one of the “forking positions” with another piece (2x4, 2 apart, 4 apart, 4x4, 3x5, etc), because this means I can capture in 2 moves. For bishops, I look at all of the squares of that color, and for rooks or something of the like, I look at the cross it’s on, but then at open paths that aren’t blocked (or where silly captures don’t happen)

Undefended pieces

Whether pieces can capture back or not

The entire idea with this approach is to try to plan out the next 6-7 moves until a decisive moment is reached, but not by trying move sequences. The idea is to immediately identify all of the possible moves, all of the future moves, and then string together a few in a sequence that makes a lot of sense.

Let us briefly make a list of factors that we should consider and add up, and then try to establish a very primitive model that we will develop into something more substantial later.

Threats that gain tempo (checks)

Threats in general (including ones that attack 2 or more pieces)

Value of the pieces being traded

The squares which the pieces are traded on

The blocking/opening of lines

Moves that add threats or remove threats (or both)

I will append to this list later as I see fit.

An interesting thought just occurred to me - what if, to save time, as the game goes on (even whilst my opponent is calculating), to think of all of the pieces that we can capture in the next move or two “Marvel vs Capcom style,” (same with our pieces). Say, for instance, we’re playing the London system, and we are preparing the e4 pawn advance, and we have a knight on d2, a bishop on d3, and a rook on e1. Then, as e3-e4, I can think of that pawn as a pawn-bishop-knight-rook. Because whatever he decides to capture e4 with, I can immediately turn that pawn into one of those pieces. Interestingly enough, we can think of empty squares as that too...perhaps this will be helpful in calculating. Say I have a pawn on e7, and a rook on e1 - then I can think of the pawn as a pawn-rook, where if the pawn is captured, it can become a rook, and perhaps hit the king on h7. Or if we have a pawn-rook-queen on e7, perhaps we can turn the pawn into a rook-queen and checkmate someone...?

Interestingly enough, continuing off of this idea, if we have multiple pieces attacking a square or one of their pieces, we could think of that square in terms of our own pieces on that square. Say they had a pawn on d6, and we had a queen, a rook, and a pawn all attacking d6, we could say that d6 has pawn/pawn-rook-queen. So we could create a pawn-rook-queen on d6 as the next move. (Naturally, we would start to observe what queens can do on d6).

Perhaps that idea will come in later. 

A Very Primitive Model

It helps, when attempting to create something, or a method of any sort, to first see how we would deal with simple problems, before progressing on to more complex ones, and I shall attempt to do that here.

Let us begin with the simplest (and highly unrealistic) of all cases, which is two bishops (say the light squares) attacking each other, both pieces undefended. By starting with such a simple case, perhaps this will allow us to develop a system that lets us calculate more quickly.

The answer is obvious - whoever has the move ends up ahead.

This sheds light on another important factor - can the pieces capture back? Let us now take the exact same scenario, where the pieces cannot capture back. In this case, interestingly enough, one of two things will happen:

Both players capture

Both players evade capture

We quickly see that whether the second player can capture on the next turn is a very big deal, and also that whoever has the move is a very big deal. This is why checks are a big deal (and probably why they were invented in the first place) - the check provides us with an opportunity to “steal the move,” or “gain tempo,” as most chessplayers call it.

The next step is to add the defenders to the equation. Assuming both players have their bishops defended (say with rooks), then what will now happen is the “trade;” once player will capture the other player’s bishop, and the other player will capture back with the rook. Of course, the trade can be declined, as the first player can play a move that puts them out of the line of fire of the other bishop. 

What’s interesting though, is that if the rooks will be attacking each other after recapturing. An easy scenario of this is to image white’s bishop on c3, white rook b3, black bishop f6, and black rook c6, with white to move. (Note: If we examine the bishops as “bishop rooks,” (to be elaborated upon later on), we quickly see that the trade is neutral for white if white is to move, but favors black). If white chooses to capture the bishop, then black will reply by recapturing. Awesome. Take the same scenario, however, and imagine it was black’s turn - black takes the bishop, but cannot recapture with the rook on c3 because of the c6 rook - he will lose a bishop and rook for just a bishop. Not worth at all. So white’s only move is to flee with the rook after the bishop falls.

In that scenario, however, black is attacking the bishop twice, so I suppose that wouldn’t matter. Is it theoretically impossible to have the defending pieces intersect if they are not already attacking the other piece? I will have to look into this. It seems like no, however...

Here’s an interesting scenario: Pawn-bishop vs pawn-rook. Say white’s pawn is on d4, with the rook on d3; say Black’s pawn is on e5, with the bishop on g7. Ahhhh, yes, the bishop indirectly attacks d4, so that would be a second order threat. So technically (as we will see later), black is attacking the pawn with a “pawn-bishop,” and white’s pawn is a “pawn-rook.” This significantly favors black, because if black has the move, he can potentially earn an extra piece if white is dumb enough to recapture with the rook. If it is white’s move, they trade.

A brief interlude to summarize what we have learned thus far:

For trades where the pieces are attacking each other, whoever has the move wins the trade if they are undefended

For trades where the pieces are attacking each other but the player who does not have the move has his attacked piece defended, then it will be even (assuming the pieces are of same value), neglecting the effects of the board after those moves

For trades where the pieces are not attacking each other (they are attacking other pieces on the board), it will come out even so long as the number of threats are the same.

If one has more indirect threats than the opponent, then they will win a piece.

The next step, naturally, is everyone having a bunch of undefended pieces all attacking each other, with none of the attacks overlapping. A very simple example would be two rooks attacking each other, and then the light square bishops and the dark square bishops attacking each other.

Both players have 3 threats, but all of those threats are returnable as well.

It is not too difficult to see that whoever has the move will come out on top, because since none of the moves overlap, assuming capture-capture-capture, the player with the move will have captured 2 pieces, whereas the other player would have had the opportunity to only capture one. Perhaps it might be useful to either split pieces attacking each other into a separate category, or not count them at all? We shall reserve judgment for now. In this case, it makes sense to capture the rook first, removing the most valuable piece from play. Then, it’s black’s decision to decide which bishop they want to keep, and they will capture with that bishop.

Interestingly enough, if both players have 4 threats in this situation (say the other two rooks were attacking each other, in an area that does not intersect with the other rooks or any of the bishops), then the player with the move has the advantage, namely because he can choose which bishop to keep.

We’ve now dealt with trades where all of the pieces can capture each other, and the conclusion is as follows:

If the number of trades is odd, the player with the move at the beginning of the trade wins

If the number of trades is even, then the player with the move will not be up a piece, but can choose which piece to keep

Let’s add un-connected defenders to all of the squares. That way, we don’t have to worry about anything else. 

If there’s only one of each, either a trade occurs, or a trade doesn’t occur, and we have to consider whether the defending piece is under fire as well. If there are two of each, it doesn’t matter which piece is taken, but the second player will always capture the more valuable piece. The first player would do wise to capture the more valuable piece, unless there’s some sort of move available that could add or negate a threat.

So I suppose the defenders of the pieces is somewhat irrelevant if they are not connected.

We shall now discuss two final topics before wrapping up this discussion - when the values of the pieces are different, and when there are simultaneously pieces attacking each other, and attacks where that is not the case.

One thing is for sure though: unless you have a very good reason, never capture a defended piece of lesser value.

Anyway...let’s look at a really simple example when the value of the pieces are different. Of course, if there is no consequence, we want to capture the piece with the highest value first, whilst simultaneously avoiding our highest value pieces being taken.

An interesting thought just occurred to me - what if instead of keeping count of the amount of threats, we keep track of the amount of different types of threats there are as well? (And the amount that they have?) Perhaps that might help us clarify the position.

Maybe that would help us in the next discussion...

Let’s say we had two double trades (undefended), and then two non-attacking trades. Then, the player with the move has the slight advantage, as they can decide which piece to trade off. Interestingly enough, the player with the move can actually take one of the non-double trades, allowing the second player to choose which of the double trades he wants to commit to. If the second player decides to save a piece, the first player will be up a piece, after the second capture, player 2 can only hope to gain 1 capture. So a capture is essentially forced. If player 1 takes on the first move, player 2 is essentially forced into taking, unless he has a tempo gaining move. Since both players only have 3 threats each...

Tomorrow I will try to come up with a system that correctly encapsulates this idea.

[justinharst]

PLEASE NOTE: The main GameCentral team are out at a press event today, so there will be no evening Inbox. All the weekend updates will be as normal though, including new Reader’s Features and the Hot Topic.

Secret features

The one thing I’ve always got to congratulate Nintendo on is that they always provide entertainment: in both their games and the bizarre way they run their business. The thing that fascinates me is whether they realise how odd they’re being or if, as I suspect, they think it’s everyone else that’s being strange. Remember that oddness is in the eye of the beholder, and if you think someone is odd they probably think the same of you for the opposite reasons.

That attempt at seeing their perspective aside though, I just cannot begin to understand what they’re playing at. Even assuming we start getting proper previews next week, that’s barely a week before release! And we still know nothing definitive about the eShop, how the online will work, controller compatibility, the specs of the machine, third party support, the Virtual Console… basically anything other than what it looks like and the launch line-up.

How can they possibly not think this is damaging? I don’t even see any evidence of there being a Nintendo Direct before launch, which I would’ve thought impossible given the situation. I just can’t think of any possible reason why these things are being kept a secret. I just hope I’m not going to end up being more entertained by the circus surrounding the Switch rather than the console itself (naturally, I’ve pre-ordered one). Station

Real money

I was interested to see that Halo Wars 2 is yet another full price, big budget game with microtransactions in it. I don’t actually have a problem with the idea myself, as it doesn’t seem to interfere with any of my online play and I would certainly prefer to have microtransactions and free DLC than season passes (and probably microtransactions as well anyway).

What I cannot fathom though is who actually pays for them? Who cares so much about what hat their character is wearing (that they can’t see because it’s first person) or that they haven’t got all the cards in a virtual card game that they’re willing to pay real money for them. I read that someone paid $1,000 in microtransactions in Fire Emblem Heroes and still didn’t get the character they wanted!

Is anyone reading this willing to admit they pay for microtransactions? I haven’t paid as much as a penny for them my whole life and the idea of spending thousands just seems incomprehensible to me. I’m curious what the most is anywhere here is willing to admit to. Ron Orange

Small applause

Apparently the day one patch for Horizon Zero Dawn is just 250GB. I know we’re always happy to complain about ridiculous patches that seem to be half the game but can we get a show of appreciation for a developer that actually seems to be doing things right for once? Especially as such a small patch implies that the game is properly finished and not very buggy.

To me this is one thing Nintendo definitely gets right and there’s no excuse for it from other developers. If your game’s not finished don’t release, end of story. Just add an extra month’s grace at the end of your schedule and that’s all you need. Maybe yearly sequels like FIFA and Call Of Duty don’t have that luxury but everything else should realise that first impressions count. Rex

Ultimate disappointment

Has anyone else seen the first person mode on Ultimate Street Fighter II? It, um, looks rubbish? I know it was never intended to be anything but a throwaway mini-game but it looks almost embarrassingly bad. The thing that really worries me though is that the motion controls seem to be really unreliable. It looks like you’ve only got three moves (Ryu’s specials) and yet the Joy-Con controllers are only catching them half the time.

The whole mini-game (you could argue that the whole of Ultimate Street Fighter II) looks like it was knocked up in someone’s lunch break but that’s no excuse. I don’t see how Nintendo can be happy having this footage out there. Or what Capcom were thinking releasing this video. I mean watch this and bear in mind someone looked at it, edited it all up, and thought, ‘Yeah, this looks cool. This will make someone buy the game’. Crazy. Willis

Monthly budget

I wonder if anyone else has a gaming budget they try to stick to? I guess some (rich) people just buy stuff as it comes out, but I have £30 a month I afford myself that I spend the best way I can. I can carry over money to the next month, and I make special exceptions for new consoles (but not the Switch, sorry Nintendo) but otherwise I stick pretty strictly to that budget.

I find it works out pretty good on a number of levels. It makes me think harder about which new game to get, it cuts down on my backlog, and it stops me from wasting money on launch day when I could get two or three games for the same price. It also has the side benefit that if I’m buying games a few months after they were out then they’re all in working condition and properly patched.

But is this just me being too organised, or do other people do it too? Temble

Front row seat

So it seems we are getting an earlier day for the E3 Briefing this year from Microsoft. Instead of it being on a Monday it is now happening on a Sunday, on the 11th June this year.

I wonder what Microsoft has up its sleeve, to be doing something as unexpected and unheard of such as this? Considering we don’t know all of what is coming to Xbox One/Scorpio in the near future this is going to be very interesting to see what gets announced, and what surprises Microsoft and developers have for us.

I will be looking forward to seeing what their Scorpio will show at the event and to see if the existing games run well on it, as well as future releases. Regardless of which platform anyone supports this is at least going to be worth a watch, which I will be watching. I would like to ask will the community at GameCentral and the GameCentral team be watching this live or after the event has been recorded? gaz be rotten (gamertag)

GC: We’ll be in the audience in L.A.

Fictional release

Did a new BlazBlue come out not too long ago? Or are my memories becoming untrustworthy?

Some will probably find her irritating, but Taokaka is my favourite character by far. Is she still adorable in the new game? If there is a new game, that is?

‘I’m looking for Rawgnya…’ DMR

GC: BlazBlue: Central Fiction came out in November. We prefer Makoto, because she looks a bit like Squirrel Girl. Although we do wish she’d put some clothes on.

Space Control

I feel I have to challenge the comments Gary Bannister made about Dead Space. Yes, the games are slightly generic but most mainstream games are derivative of other pieces of media, it’s how the developer/publisher attracts sales – by reminding their potential customers of a game or movie franchise they may have already bought into.

The much-heralded Dark Souls, for instance, is very generic and influenced by the fantasy genre in its presentation. Do these generic aspects make Dark Souls a bad game?

My main point of disagreement with Gary is his mention of mediocre controls. I thought both Dead Space 1 and 2 were expertly designed in this respect. I particularly liked the ‘idiot button’ which put a line on the floor to show you where to go.

If we’re bringing up poor controls, how about mentioning Resident Evil 5 which (if I remember correctly) was compared unfavourably to Dead Space due to its general awkwardness and the fact that you couldn’t move and shoot.

I’d be interested in hearing what game Gary thinks has good controls. Control issues are a complaint that doesn’t seem to be mentioned much these days. Am I right in thinking controls are one aspect of gaming that has only become better? msv858 (Twitter)

GC: In general, yes. But there’s still a huge range in quality.

Inbox also-rans

Is it possible to work a little Inbox magic and get Samba De Amigo on the Switch? It would work great with the Joy-Cons and the HD rumble should be able to simulate the maracas. Pparker

GC: That’s actually a pretty good idea. Which with Sega and Nintendo involved means it’ll never happen.

Came across this today on Gameseek.co.uk do you think it is worth a pre-order? Anon

GC: We’d maybe wait until the release date gets a bit closer…

This week’s Hot Topic

The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Gannet, who asks what’s the worst game you’ve ever beaten?

Why did you carry on playing the game if you didn’t think it was any good? Was it because it only got worse as it went along, did the story kept you going, or where you simply trying to get your money’s worth? How often do you usually try to beat a game’s story campaign and what usually makes you not bother?

Do you get obsessed by completing a game and how seriously do you take 100% completion, Trophies, and Achievements? Do you generally keep your games when you’re finished with them and if so how often do you go back to them once completed?

The small printNew Inbox updates appear twice daily, every weekday morning and afternoon. Letters are used on merit and may be edited for length.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word 4Player viewer features at any time, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

[grabey]

PLEASE NOTE: The main GameCentral team are out at a press event today, so there will be no evening Inbox. All the weekend updates will be as normal though, including new Reader’s Features and the Hot Topic.

Secret features

The one thing I’ve always got to congratulate Nintendo on is that they always provide entertainment: in both their games and the bizarre way they run their business. The thing that fascinates me is whether they realise how odd they’re being or if, as I suspect, they think it’s everyone else that’s being strange. Remember that oddness is in the eye of the beholder, and if you think someone is odd they probably think the same of you for the opposite reasons.

That attempt at seeing their perspective aside though, I just cannot begin to understand what they’re playing at. Even assuming we start getting proper previews next week, that’s barely a week before release! And we still know nothing definitive about the eShop, how the online will work, controller compatibility, the specs of the machine, third party support, the Virtual Console… basically anything other than what it looks like and the launch line-up.

How can they possibly not think this is damaging? I don’t even see any evidence of there being a Nintendo Direct before launch, which I would’ve thought impossible given the situation. I just can’t think of any possible reason why these things are being kept a secret. I just hope I’m not going to end up being more entertained by the circus surrounding the Switch rather than the console itself (naturally, I’ve pre-ordered one). Station

Real money

I was interested to see that Halo Wars 2 is yet another full price, big budget game with microtransactions in it. I don’t actually have a problem with the idea myself, as it doesn’t seem to interfere with any of my online play and I would certainly prefer to have microtransactions and free DLC than season passes (and probably microtransactions as well anyway).

What I cannot fathom though is who actually pays for them? Who cares so much about what hat their character is wearing (that they can’t see because it’s first person) or that they haven’t got all the cards in a virtual card game that they’re willing to pay real money for them. I read that someone paid $1,000 in microtransactions in Fire Emblem Heroes and still didn’t get the character they wanted!

Is anyone reading this willing to admit they pay for microtransactions? I haven’t paid as much as a penny for them my whole life and the idea of spending thousands just seems incomprehensible to me. I’m curious what the most is anywhere here is willing to admit to. Ron Orange

Small applause

Apparently the day one patch for Horizon Zero Dawn is just 250GB. I know we’re always happy to complain about ridiculous patches that seem to be half the game but can we get a show of appreciation for a developer that actually seems to be doing things right for once? Especially as such a small patch implies that the game is properly finished and not very buggy.

To me this is one thing Nintendo definitely gets right and there’s no excuse for it from other developers. If your game’s not finished don’t release, end of story. Just add an extra month’s grace at the end of your schedule and that’s all you need. Maybe yearly sequels like FIFA and Call Of Duty don’t have that luxury but everything else should realise that first impressions count. Rex

Ultimate disappointment

Has anyone else seen the first person mode on Ultimate Street Fighter II? It, um, looks rubbish? I know it was never intended to be anything but a throwaway mini-game but it looks almost embarrassingly bad. The thing that really worries me though is that the motion controls seem to be really unreliable. It looks like you’ve only got three moves (Ryu’s specials) and yet the Joy-Con controllers are only catching them half the time.

The whole mini-game (you could argue that the whole of Ultimate Street Fighter II) looks like it was knocked up in someone’s lunch break but that’s no excuse. I don’t see how Nintendo can be happy having this footage out there. Or what Capcom were thinking releasing this video. I mean watch this and bear in mind someone looked at it, edited it all up, and thought, ‘Yeah, this looks cool. This will make someone buy the game’. Crazy. Willis

Monthly budget

I wonder if anyone else has a gaming budget they try to stick to? I guess some (rich) people just buy stuff as it comes out, but I have £30 a month I afford myself that I spend the best way I can. I can carry over money to the next month, and I make special exceptions for new consoles (but not the Switch, sorry Nintendo) but otherwise I stick pretty strictly to that budget.

I find it works out pretty good on a number of levels. It makes me think harder about which new game to get, it cuts down on my backlog, and it stops me from wasting money on launch day when I could get two or three games for the same price. It also has the side benefit that if I’m buying games a few months after they were out then they’re all in working condition and properly patched.

But is this just me being too organised, or do other people do it too? Temble

Front row seat

So it seems we are getting an earlier day for the E3 Briefing this year from Microsoft. Instead of it being on a Monday it is now happening on a Sunday, on the 11th June this year.

I wonder what Microsoft has up its sleeve, to be doing something as unexpected and unheard of such as this? Considering we don’t know all of what is coming to Xbox One/Scorpio in the near future this is going to be very interesting to see what gets announced, and what surprises Microsoft and developers have for us.

I will be looking forward to seeing what their Scorpio will show at the event and to see if the existing games run well on it, as well as future releases. Regardless of which platform anyone supports this is at least going to be worth a watch, which I will be watching. I would like to ask will the community at GameCentral and the GameCentral team be watching this live or after the event has been recorded? gaz be rotten (gamertag)

GC: We’ll be in the audience in L.A.

Fictional release

Did a new BlazBlue come out not too long ago? Or are my memories becoming untrustworthy?

Some will probably find her irritating, but Taokaka is my favourite character by far. Is she still adorable in the new game? If there is a new game, that is?

‘I’m looking for Rawgnya…’ DMR

GC: BlazBlue: Central Fiction came out in November. We prefer Makoto, because she looks a bit like Squirrel Girl. Although we do wish she’d put some clothes on.

Space Control

I feel I have to challenge the comments Gary Bannister made about Dead Space. Yes, the games are slightly generic but most mainstream games are derivative of other pieces of media, it’s how the developer/publisher attracts sales – by reminding their potential customers of a game or movie franchise they may have already bought into.

The much-heralded Dark Souls, for instance, is very generic and influenced by the fantasy genre in its presentation. Do these generic aspects make Dark Souls a bad game?

My main point of disagreement with Gary is his mention of mediocre controls. I thought both Dead Space 1 and 2 were expertly designed in this respect. I particularly liked the ‘idiot button’ which put a line on the floor to show you where to go.

If we’re bringing up poor controls, how about mentioning Resident Evil 5 which (if I remember correctly) was compared unfavourably to Dead Space due to its general awkwardness and the fact that you couldn’t move and shoot.

I’d be interested in hearing what game Gary thinks has good controls. Control issues are a complaint that doesn’t seem to be mentioned much these days. Am I right in thinking controls are one aspect of gaming that has only become better? msv858 (Twitter)

GC: In general, yes. But there’s still a huge range in quality.

Inbox also-rans

Is it possible to work a little Inbox magic and get Samba De Amigo on the Switch? It would work great with the Joy-Cons and the HD rumble should be able to simulate the maracas. Pparker

GC: That’s actually a pretty good idea. Which with Sega and Nintendo involved means it’ll never happen.

Came across this today on Gameseek.co.uk do you think it is worth a pre-order? Anon

GC: We’d maybe wait until the release date gets a bit closer…

This week’s Hot Topic

The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Gannet, who asks what’s the worst game you’ve ever beaten?

Why did you carry on playing the game if you didn’t think it was any good? Was it because it only got worse as it went along, did the story kept you going, or where you simply trying to get your money’s worth? How often do you usually try to beat a game’s story campaign and what usually makes you not bother?

Do you get obsessed by completing a game and how seriously do you take 100% completion, Trophies, and Achievements? Do you generally keep your games when you’re finished with them and if so how often do you go back to them once completed?

The small printNew Inbox updates appear twice daily, every weekday morning and afternoon. Letters are used on merit and may be edited for length.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word 4Player viewer features at any time, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

[thewanderingswordsman2030]

Good morning to everyone except the guys at #Treyarch & #Activision who thought this was a good idea. #JusticeForLevi. #twitch #gaming #streaming #kareemtalksgamestart #kthacreator #sony #microsoft #nintendo #sega #capcom #consolegaming #pcgaming #pcmasterrace #videogames #gamer #xbox #playstation #emulators #cod #callofduty #memes #attackontitan #shingekinokyojin https://www.instagram.com/p/CYq-yFKOowX/?utm_medium=tumblr