#also yes this is based off his silly arcade game pose

[waterb0ttleguy]

Hey I like you

textures ur kakyoin

[gorgugplushie]

BAD KIDS GAMING HCS

Nobody asked but i cant stop thinking abt it so

Fabian - canonically doesn't know what mobile games are, much less actual videogames. He sort of sees them as pointless (why do quests and adventures in a videogame when he could just do them in real life?) Of course the bad kids pull him into their gaming sessions, though he spends most of them asking what the controls are again and raising an eyebrow at their shenanigans. Ragh sits him down and makes him play some sport based video games which he does enjoy, he can get really into it if you give him time (he yells so so loud) he also gets into ddr style games bc he likes beating the other bdkds at them. Videogames are a good excuse to hang but he'd rather go out and play football irl.

Kristen - coming from a heavily sheltered and what i assume monitored family, kristen probablyyy isnt all that into videogames. At most i think she'd have some mobile games like idk candy crush on her phone, like fabian she'd get confused and spend her in game time running around and just watching the others play, she goes along w the others shenanigans v easily tho and loves doing silly bits while playing.

Riz - Riz is the type to play window games on their families shared computer for hours on end. Stuff like sudoku, pinballs, or solitaire. He'd love those games like the nancy drew mystery ones, or those games where you find items like I Spy. The only downside is he gets unhealthily fixated and will spend 3 days getting to lvl 100+ on Tetris if you let him, obsessed w 100% games and making funny number go up. Surprisingly good at rhythm games.

Adaine - into open world games, like fallout or outerwilds. Will spend days writing and churning out backstory and lore for her in game character. Veryyy picky and wants every decision to be true to their newest ocs backstory, will spend a solid hour on the character creation screen. She also loves more violent shooting games, although playing online with strangers gives her anxiety and she cannn get gamer rage, she'll get fixated on getting stuff like headshots and Winning and Being a good teammate that she'll start shaking and have to step away from playing for a bit. Single player fighting games w blood where she can turn her brain off and just fight are more cathartic for her. I feel like she ends up doing insane shit in them like saw and hack off limbs and go full dark story mode route and then regret it so so much and lie awake at night not sleeping bc of it and delete the save file. Its her dark secret shell take to the grave.

Fig - plays a large range of games, mainly more colorful and silly goofy ones she can play with the badkids. Shes sort of a little nuisance in games tho, she will troll and grief a lil bc she finds it funny. In singleplayer games she does love being a huge stinker and do silly stuff like pickpocket and get caught or accidentally set a bomb off in the middle of a cutscene or glitch her character to a-pose, she does a bunch of shit and laughs and doesn't take it seriously at all. Like adaine she also gets gamer rage. she gets them both banded from online for a month bc they team up to cast a spell on someone thru the screen. LOVESS shit like guitar hero and skater games sooo much, also into those wwe type games. Cant stomach horror at all but will make the rest of the kids sit down and play horror games w her so they can laugh and scream together.

Gorgug - he tends to like more older games, say in the style of star fox/loz and stuff. His parents gave him and older gaming system when he was younger n he still has it around and collects games for it, its seeing a lot more use than it originally did bc now he has friends to play with. The type of guy to still carry their ds around. I feel like hed also modify and rom hack stuff for his friends. He likes going to the arcade in person and playing there than sitting in front of a computer.

Ayda - yes im including her shes a gamer girl in my heart. I feel like she loves life sims/complex puzzle games, stuff like slime rancher, portal, animal crossing. She has 1000+ hours into a single sims save file. She spends hours and hours building and working on the most elaborate farming system for whatever new sim shes getting invested in. She especially loves organizing in games, she gets a bit antsy playing more survival based games with the bad kids because they leave their systems so unorganized (shes def the type to redo the entire base from top to bottom in dont starve while the rest die off screen). neat and orderly decoration is soo fun for her and the bad kids try not to step on her turf too much. refuses to play multiplayer if it's with anyone else but the badkids, but if anyone would start a gaming channel its her. will do obscenely gay cutesy stuff w fig n game. They build their own little base and junk and pretend to hosts weddings n stuff. Shes also very into speed running and breaking games with glitches to figure out how they work.

[happymeishappylife]

So I finally beat KH3

As many of you know, I’ve spent my time delaying beating the game mainly because I didn’t have tons of time with work and studying for an exam to play, but also after waiting for 17 years to play the game, I didn’t want to rush through it. Especially because I had a fun time doing all the extra/silly quests in the game and exploring the worlds. But once it got very grindy and I learned the secret reports could only be done after beating the story (hate that mechanic), I decided to finally finish the story. And now I want to provide my critique on the game based on my initial experience.

And in case any of you have extended out your playthrough, I’ll leave spoilers below and warn you here. So SPOILERS!

Story:

Everyone whether they have played Kingdom Hearts or not, knew before this game started that the storyline has become complicated and ridiculous, but its part of the charm. I think there was some hesitation to see the storyline finish out, but I’m glad that this game did what it promised and at least closed the Xehanort chapter. However, it was not satisfying to see him “die.”

I mean this dude has been fucking EVERYONE over for decades. And has always been one step ahead, so of course finishing him off was the best thing the game could give you. But then they wanted to go through the whole game picturing him as a little kid, lost in fantasies and theories of light and dark and so at the end as a magical ghost version of Master Eraqus appears and forgives him for literally destroying everything, we’re (the player) supposed to be okay with him turning back into an innocent little kid and just disappearing? I hated it. I don’t have any sympathy for this dude and the fact that they tried to make him sympathetic, made me mad. And that also had to do for the very unsatisfactory battles and “deaths” of the new organization 13 crew because other than Vanitas and Terra-Xehanort, I didn’t care about any of them, though we’ll dive in deeper to the more problematic ones in a second. So to conclude, I’m glad that this chapter is closed.

Okay, so when I say problematic Organization members, let’s talk about the ones who have more history than the game. Not the ones who apparently just love to die over and over again (and yes I’m aware that those battles weren’t deaths, that these people are going to be real again, but that’s even more of a let down to be honest, but that could just be me.) So let’s start with a focus on Young Xehanort. Now that he’s gone back to his time knowing that his ultimate plan is failing, does history just play out? Does he forget everything? That’s the only loose end, I’m cautious about and don’t trust that the game designers will leave alone. Then again when I think of great moments of potentially great storyline the game designers just blink an eye at, so hopefully I’m wrong. Next, Xion. How exactly did she get to be there again? I’m assuming a replica, but all of a sudden she was there again with no pomp and circumstance. Which seems odd because I thought she was part of Sora… Especially since she is connected to Kairi still… But okay, cool she’s back and that magically made Roxas appear? Yay! But how? Replica? Not? I don’t know. He just magically appeared. Let’s move on, like the game designers did.

Now for the main two members I’m interested in. Thanks to completing the secret reports, I’m very intrigued about this storyline of this missing girl, Isa, and Lea. Mainly because this girl means something to them, but supposedly she means nothing to no one, so what’s the story there? I hope that gets explored somewhere. The second is Xigbar/Luxu because why did he have to be the important one. He’s super annoying! But apparently that means there might be more of him in the future… Boo! But of course we need more plot for more games, so lets see what happens. Especially since he ties in to the teased storyline of the black box. I mean I totally forgot about it, Maleficent, or Pete until that ending scene so it will be interesting to see where it goes from there.

Now let’s focus on the main group of characters. Beginning with the trio who to me has had so much potential, so many unanswered questions, and a completely heartfelt, but at the same time lackluster ending. Aqua, Ventus, and Terra are finally reunited and then practically forgotten at the end of the game. It’s so disappointing. I mean Aqua and Terra are some of the strongest and most kickass characters and they get reduced to just orphan children which sucks. I mean I hope they get peace now, but I also hope they come back super strong, if they come back at all.

Alright, unpopular opinion ahead, you’ve been warned…

I’m surprised the game designers decided to “murder” Kairi. I mean technically they did send Sora to the afterworld, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, but beyond my surprise that’s the only emotion I felt. I used to love her, but really… Kairi’s a useless character. She barely fights, she has no other conviction other than she is a princess of light and a constant light to Sora, and her dialogue is so vapid and unimportant when its meant to be sincere. To be honest, I was glad when Xemnas took her. I mean, she made Sora look weak, when he’s not at all, and I was glad she was gone. But then that brings me to the biggest let down of the game and that’s the end.

I don’t get Kairi and Sora’s link anymore. They’ve spent way more time a part then together at this point, how are they still in love? They don’t really act like it either. So I was devastated when Sora goes on this journey to find her and the end scene shows her alive and well and him just disappearing? Fuck that noise! At least the secret ending eluded to the fact he’s not dead and also that he’s reunited with his boyfriend, because I’m sorry, he and Riku are the ones who should be in a relationship. It’s made sense for so long and their relationship has depth. But for some reason the game designers are scared to commit to it, so instead they want you to believe the whole, well if Kairi is with Sora, then Namine must be with Riku even though that’s semi creepy since Namine and Kairi are somewhat the same. It’s like saying both boys are into the same girl, when really they are into each other, duh…

This also is because I adore Sora to death. I’ve always called him my monkey boy, and he’s an idiot most of the time and naïve, but he grew a lot in this game so I’m sad to see him be forced to go pining after Kairi just because this game gave him so much more maturity.

So we’ll see where things go. I hope the secret ending is an illusion to the next game, but if that means Sora’s in the real world, that’s a bizarre thought. At least he learned selfie tricks to help him get by in today’s day and age.

As I mentioned I didn’t like some of the storyline directions. I mean they did a great job of working with the worlds, but then there were weird moments like when we come across Vanitas the first time and Donald, Goofy, and Sora are just like, that’s weird, but he must be crazy. Not the psycho dark side of Ven they’ve been told about. Instead, let’s just forget they ran into him for a bit. Okay… Then when you have Sora on his knees, crying about the death of his friends, how do you make him so cheerful to learn he’s essentially dead as he reached the Final World and wants to come back to visit Chirithy? Okay… It all really comes to a head when you have to have Woody pretty much say what we’re all thinking to Young Xehanort which is essentially “I don’t know where you are going with this, but I don’t care” to sum up the problems with the storyline.

Now beyond this, I love the moments in the worlds and how the true essence of the game was captured as Sora, Donald, and Goofy just stumble into worlds, don’t understand a thing, and yet somehow make friends. Pirates was the best example of this because all the main characters pretended they didn’t exist. It was hilarious. I was just sad there weren’t more worlds. I mean what they did was great, but they could have had more and added more depth.

Also one of the best moments gets a shoutout, because having Yen Sid be awesome at the end was such a thrill!

Gameplay:

Overall, really, really fun! I loved that they brought together all the elements of the games, like forms, focus drive, links, and magic into the game and then added the ridiculous elements of the attraction based attacks, wall running, and parkour moves into this addition. It made for fast paced, action packed, awesome flow during fight scenes with silly consequences thanks to all the keyblade forms. I also loved the uniqueness to all the blades and the overall attention to detail they gave each and everyone of them. Especially how they interacted in other worlds. It was fantastic!

I loved that instead of journal, we got a phone. I loved that you could take pictures and get new selfie poses (though why that’s when most of the game is over, I don’t understand). Heck half the fun was taking pictures of random people just because you could. It was fun! I also loved the Classic Kingdom Games because they were well thought out to play off the old school arcade games. The keyblade you get for collecting all of them is silly but powerful which is great! The only thing I didn’t like, like I mentioned above, was that the secret reports you can’t even collect until after beating the game. I would have rather gotten everything and then beaten it, but it forced my hand. Sigh…

I loved cooking with Remy! That may have been my favorite part! It’s just a sweet way to include Ratatouille and not diminish the whole point of that story and you get to see Sora be a terrible cook, because he is. The keyblade you get for helping Remy is also my favorite one in the game. I want to make it so badly and cosplay with it. Plus there was something satisfying at the end by trying to defeat Xehanort with a frying pan and screaming, “Flambe his Ass!” that added to the mood.

I loved travelling through the worlds, I loved the openness of the maps, even though they still guided you places. I loved the aesthetic and the Unreal Engine made everything gorgeous. It got annoying after a while to hear Goofy and Donald talk about finding nearby ingredients, but helpful when looking for all the damn emblems! I loved their costumes and the way they treated the design for Toy Story and Monsters Inc. I’m in love with Sora’s Pirate’s costume, I want to also make that and cosplay in that! Maybe a mix between the that costume and keyblade? Could be fun!

The gummiship was a nice mix between 1 and 2’s style, though the fights were ridiculous and hurt my hands from trying to beat the missions. I loved the idea of constellations, but why were the designs so random? I also love the ‘Treasure Planets’ though can we have an actual Treasure Planet World? That would be amazing!!

There’s two main things about the gameplay I didn’t like though. First, the boss battles were too easy. I mean except for not protecting my pirate ship, which was bullshit, I never once died. All the cutscenes where Sora’s heavy breathing or on the ground defeated, I was like, this is crap because this was so easy. I want a challenge! So I’ll play again on Proud mode and see if it’s better. I mean not even the secret battles were hard, but admittedly I was battling them around level 70 by that point so that could be why…

And I wish they had done the fights with the Organization members better. I mean it was so jaunting to fight three enemies and kill one just to have a pause in the fight where everyone let so-and-so have their last words. Thoughtful, I guess, but dumb and if you want each death to be meaningful you could have done it so much better. Because I could have felt more for Larxene, if Marluxia wasn’t about to Axe me, ten seconds later. What I thought would have been cool is one-on-one battles and playing as all the different keyblade wielders. I mean, don’t tease me by letting me play as Riku a couple times, and Aqua once, if you won’t let me play with them at the end! That’s so not fair! I mean I love Sora, and he’s powerful, but there would have been so much more sweet justice getting to fight certain members as the other characters. Like Roxas for example. How badass would that have been to come back and beat down on Saix and Xemnas? But they didn’t let me!!!! Sad day…

Overall Rating: 8/10 Because ultimately, I did have fun. I will play it again despite the issues I had, and it still is one of my all time series.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far!

[vrheadsets]

10 Franchises SEGA Would Be Crazy Not To Bring To VR – Part 1

Welcome to another edition of VR vs. The weekly VRFocus column where the ‘other one’ from the site talks about most anything and everything to do with virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) or some crazed combination of the three. Today we’re continuing a thread begun last week in the final part of my three-week feature into what may lie ahead in 2017.  There I mooted the idea that of all the studios currently involved within VR, certainly from a gaming perspective there is one that is conspicuous by its absence. SEGA. Yes, yes, I know there are Hatsune Miku games but as I pointed out at the time Hatsune Miku and the vocaloid bunch ultimately aren’t SEGA property and aren’t a traditional franchise. They aren’t one recognised within their All-Stars series for instance – and whilst that isn’t a qualifying marker for this list considering how big the Project Diva series is and how iconic a figure Miku is in Japanese culture certainly, you’d’ve thought SEGA would make more of a deal out of things than they have were she theirs. So on that basis, scrub those out PSVR games off your mental tally.

Updated total? Zero.

This is unusual for SEGA. Historically SEGA (at least in the third-party era) have rushed in to support whatever new technology comes along. Do you by any chance remember the EyeToy, Sony’s camera accessory for the PlayStation 2? Yes? No? There weren’t exactly a whole heap of games for it. But SEGA were there with the original SEGA Superstars to fly the flag. They supported the Kinect they fell into bed with Wii U pretty quickly, etc, etc. For SEGA to not have had one of its more noted franchises in the West ready to rock and roll when VR came to retail, certainly the PSVR, was pretty unusual. (Again, discounting the leek-swinging singer lady.)

But that’s not to say there aren’t plenty of opportunities for SEGA to embrace VR and thrown a bone to its more beloved franchises. It’s one of the sad truths about SEGA that their most iconic of series, with the exception of the fast spiky one, have never exactly been humongous successes financially. Still, why not use some of them and maybe give them a new lease of life outside of a new racing game? (No, really SEGA. It’s time for Transformed 2. Throw some money at SUMO Digital, will ya?) It’s also not like we don’t know SEGA aren’t messing around with VR either. Both SEGA Europe (SOE) and SEGA America (SOA) revealed their ownership of VR kits (HTC Vive and PlayStation VR for SOE and Hololens for SOA) thanks to community videos. Way to keep that secret chaps. A+ work.

So let’s get things underway. As before I must point out that I used to work for SEGA for several years and worked on a number of the franchises listed that I’ll be bringing up. It was some time ago now, but I’m reliably informed that if I don’t do that the world will apparently end. We begin first with an honourable mention.

Honourable Mention: Alien Isolation

It’s just not going to happen folks. Many have said the masterfully creepy atmosphere of “SEGA’s Good Alien Game” – tho everyone forgets they also did an Alien game on the DS in that discussion – was a perfect match for a full and proper adaption into a VR experience. The scare factor would be immense, obviously. As it’s bad enough being stalked by a Xenomorph without actually looking down at your chest as its tail pushes through it to kill you.  As much as we’d all like it to, the economic factors involved just mean Alien Isolation is a non-starter for Creative Assembly to even get involved in really. Boo-urns.

However, speaking of Creative Assembly…

  Total War

It’s one of gaming’s little quirks that one of console gaming’s most well known names is the publisher that is in actuality one of PC Gaming’s powerhouses. Between Sports Interactive’s Football Manager series and Creative Assembly’s Total War franchise SEGA have an commanding grip of the PC chart, one would go far to say dominance at some points in the year.  If you have lived in a hole for the past couple of decades, Total War is a series of real-time strategy games that takes keen players take on the role of General in various eras of time. Replaying notable battles and playing tactical hardball with history. Whether it’s the Medieval period, the time of Rome, the rise of Napoleon or the era of the samurai there’s plenty to do. Heck, you can even throw history right out the window now and enjoy some Warhammer in your Total War.

Total War has always been about getting stuck in to battles. The planning, the preparation, the implementation and the execution.  The buck stops with you, and as the series has developed the control system has allowed you to get ever deeper into the action.  You can even follow individual soldiers. It’s such a well developed system that there’s even been a BBC game show (essentially) based on playing the series. One that’s recently had something of a comeback.

So with this in mind how would VR make Total War better?  Control.

Now, considering what I’ve just written you might be wondering what I’ve been talking about since I’ve just been praising the system. But you can always improve and everyone and anyone who has played Total War has always had periods where the game just won’t place units right or you can’t get the camera in jussssst the right position. Now imagine you are in the map as opposed to looking at a 2D surface. Imagine you were, with your motion controllers able to to manipulate your units and your surroundings just so. How much easier and dynamic and engaging an experience that would bee if you brought a touch of Minority Report to proceedings.

Heck, can you imagine a Hololens version of Total War? With you waging battles from your sofa over your coffee table, and manoeuvring your archers onto the high ground of the TV unit? That’d be amazing.

Samba de Amigo

Break out the Bellini boys and girls!

When I first saw the HTC Vive controllers my first thought, partly because of how they were being held and moved at the time, was that they kind of looked like maracas. And there’s only one game that invites you, without a hint of suggestiveness, to get your maracas out. Samba de Amigo first burst onto the scene on SEGA’s much loved Dreamcast and was actually developed by Sonic Team if you didn’t realise it. It also came out as an arcade experience before next surfacing on the Nintendo Wii. The game plays with you in amongst a vibrantly coloured carnival, armed with your maracas you control Amigo, one of SEGA’s two monkey mascots (the other being Super Monkey Ball‘s AiAi, strangely the two have never been seen as rivals in the Superstars/All-Stars titles. Which has always puzzled me.) You move and dance along to a selection of upbeat tracks, shaking your controllers in time to the beat and occasionally having to strike a pose. It’s a simple enough title, and well and truly puts the party into party game.

VR needs more games like that I think. More games that are just full on fun and colours. It’s why Balloon Chair Death Match got people excited, it was a simple premise and it looked fun. Job Simulator is the same. Bright colours and poitively oozes fun. Yes, we can all enjoy a nice serious game with high stakes, but in dammit we all just want to be silly sometimes. Samba allows you to do exactly that. Now, what I’m essentially asking you is to imagine this in VR. Please watch the video below as in this instance it is important to what I’m writing about.

A warning before you do however; if you are wearing headphones please turn them down. There’s some loud audio distortion on the video from the outset.

Just look at this man. Look how bloody happy he is. He doesn’t care he’s in the middle of an arcade, he doesn’t care he has a crowd. He’s just going for it: a master at work. Nevermind your beloved Salt Bae (a reference I realise will date this article terribly), in your heart of hearts you wish that were you. You wish you were as cool as the Samba Bae.

Now I’m waving any potential wire-based issues here. Forget ’em. Let’s lay it out. You put on the headset and you step into a party; a “Carnaval de VR”. Everyone around you is interacting with you. The movement is infectious. You are the centre of a mass celebration with bouncing creatures and an equally bouncing musical beat. You have motion tracking controls. You wave them about in time to the music. It’s escapement, elation, exercise and fun. Now we bring things up to date with the new technology and throw in a dash of evolution to the game as well. Unlike before you can use the sensors or PlayStation camera to fully track your movements. All of a sudden Samba can have a touch of Dance Central in it, evolving it into a bit more of a full body game with one stroke. You have greater accuracy than ever before on the controllers, the game can actually see you for the first time and you get one of the most smile inducing experiences on VR. As an added bonus it gets to be a game franchise fully realised on VR, something people are clamoring for.

Yo SEGA. You’ve got my number. Call my people (me) and let’s make this happen. I’m totally open to being Producer on this thing. SAMBA! Du du de-du du-du du de-du…

Condemned 

There’s a very good chance you don’t remember Condemned: Criminal Origins. There’s an even better chance you’ve never played it or Condemned 2: Bloodshot. Which is a pity really. Condemned is a first-person experience which puts you in the shoes of Ethan Thomas, a police officer investigating a murder which slowly takes him down a path to discovering secret societies, mysterious entities, encountering nightmarish visions and the city falling into the grip of madness. Both games are a twisted mix of dark menacing settings, genuine scares that mess with play on psychology and improvised combat usually involving whatever Ethan can get his hands on. It’s frantic, up in-your-face stuff and perfect for VR with the combat emphasis on melee.

It’s not just that though. The first Condemned game especially has you dealing, within your role as a police investigator, a number of different crime scenes. These are technical, and involve you hunting for clues, such as finger prints and making deductions. What Condemned is, is what I suggested it could be back at E3 2016. It could be the Batman VR game you’ve always wanted but combined with all the best twisted bits of Resident Evil VII.

We’ll just ignore the bit about shouting people to death from number 2. (Check out my good friend John’s Let’s Play of Condemned 2 to see what I mean.)

That’s all for this week. On next week’s selection of titles we’re embracing freedom in a couple of ways and I use the term “wave shooter”. Which will probably annoy people. Until then…

  from VRFocus http://ift.tt/2jsNXtJ