#when i say fifa is an rpg To Me this is what i mean

[fearnotthedemons]

houndposting below 👇

the beautiful thing abt hound is that they’re very much the same no matter what universe i decide to stick them in. irish (or the fantasy equivalent), affable, competent, fit to burst with bad dog puns. from a broken home of some sort and raised by a loving grandfather. a frustrated youth that comes off as angry and only cools off with time and maturity and proper Outlets. attracted to big, sad, hairy men. they all earn the nickname hound one way or another and that’s the Heart of them but jack healy is what shows up on government documents. short for jacqueline? weird nickname for john? just jack? depends on which hound you ask.

the biggest changes are backstory, gender, and to a lesser extent physical appearance. hound fifa2020 is a boy and hound dragonage is a girl largely for game mechanic reasons. the hound that lives in my head is delightfully ambiguous (though it must be said that there is an element of fluidity and nonconformity to every hound’s gender). hound callofduty is the most difficult to nail down, and that’s intentional bc i think it’s so fun to fill in the extra details a million different ways, but my other hounds more or less have the same or similar physical appearance as seen in this post. love is stored in that nose 🙏

wayyyy too many backstories for one post so i’ll just blab about the Default modern day nonfantasy hound origin……. jack healy, born jan 19 of some year or another in kildare, ireland to seamus and catherine healy. their parents weren’t outright abusive, but they were certainly neglectful, so by the time jack turned 11 they were deemed unfit and forced to give up custody. jack moved in with their granddad, one kenneth healy, shortly after. their grandmother nancy, affectionately referred to as ‘nancy nan’, died years ago and auntie dierdre never came around much with her family so it’s just jack and granddad for the most part. they both really needed each other. together they manage the small, struggling family farm, sorting sheep with their border collie named bad dog. jack throws themself into the work and this new life bc it’s easier than dealing with their complicated emotions surrounding. well. Everything. and though they do eventually settle outside of their anger it’s a long road to get there. granddad gets pretty regular calls from school about jack getting caught brawling. in an attempt to harness their energy for good and not evil, granddad gets jack their very own border collie pup for their 14th birthday. they call her fly, and spend just about every waking moment training her up to work alongside bad dog…

unfortunately there is much more And i skipped over parts but. i will shut up now 💖 sacred hound lore be upon ye @meowtavish 🐺❤️‍🔥

[darkspellmaster]

Thoughts on E3 2018 -EA

I’m going to start this out by saying right now that I’m basing my review of Nintendo on what they showed in the Treehouse as well as the main direct. So the score is going to be based on what we know by the end of day three of the treehouse, and the same for the other groups if they had additional presentations after their main show.

So let’s start with EA….Oh EA….

Starting out with the Host Andrea Rene, who I feel got stuck in a rock and a hard place with this weak presser, as she’s known for being a better host for her other appearances. Honestly, I somewhat had to honestly cringe on her segment with Respawn’s developer Vince Zampella due to the weird comment about getting to hold a light saber. Like I don’t know if she was trying to be funny, sarcastic, or sexy here? I was confused with it. Again, I don’t blame her for the conference, but I didn’t feel like she was a good fit for this given the response. Then again, I don’t think that anyone could have made that Conference work.

As for the games shown, I have a few thoughts.

Battlefield V looks nice, presentation wise, but given that it’s mostly a cinematic trailer, we didn’t really get to see a lot of in game footage. What we did learn though from Dice was that the environments are now destructive, and you can dive roll out windows (which might be interesting if you’re into that) as well as having movable artillery (which didn’t happen in the last game) which could be useful if you’re into that. Also they reiterated the lack of Loot Boxes and premium passes, yet didn’t mention anything about a deal with microtransactions. On top of this they’re bringing back a Battle Royal to the game.

There’s not much I can say on this other then what has been said already, although the fact that it’s pretty much what DICE has been doing in regard to the main series anyway. Given that leveling up has some ties to currency, I’m wondering if in lieu of loot boxes they’re just going to microtransaction this game. What has me a bit worried about the Single player aspect of the game is that there’s hints that it’s going to be tied into the live service which makes me think that it’s going to be limited play offline, and for someone that prefers playing mostly off line…

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order had no trailer at all. Just Respawn’s Vince Zampella explaining what it is. I’m not even sure if they were planning to have it be something to be presented (why even mention it if it’s not ready to be?) but it was a really odd vibe with that moment. The game itself doesn’t seem to have a lot going on. What we know was that it’s taking place between Episodes III and IV, and deals with a padawaan that escaped from Anakin’s moment of being nutty and you can use lightsabers. However, unless this is Kaan’s story we’re kind of running into the whole ���Luke not being the last Jedi” story thus nullifying the line that Yoda said somewhat. Unless he or she never takes the Jedi oath.  I mean, sounds cool, but we don’t even know what sort of type of game it is. We do know it will be out during the Holiday season 2019. So that’s a plus, but I would think that we’d at least have gotten a quick moment of something to see.

Star Wars Battlefront II made me roll my eyes a bit, as it was repeated trailer footage over and over, which personally annoys me, but I guess was the only thing they had to show. So we saw the new Solo Content, Yay –I guess? And learned we’re getting an expansion for the Clone Wars with Obi Wan, Grievous, Dooku and Anakin showing up for that. No surprise that EA had the Director of the game saying that they made some mistakes over EA actually apologizing for their horrible practices. Yeah, no EA, you don’t get a pass for any of the BS you pulled this past year.

Unravel 2 by  Coldwood Interactive  came out the day of the conference, which was a nice change of pace. I will say this much the creative team was nervous, but showed a great deal of love for Yarny and his new companion. The fact that this is local co-op is a plus, and seems to be a fun game. Already I’m loving the blue Yarny and it looks like it’s going to be a strong story. The one thing that was rather sad about this game is that it’s not coming to the Switch and –apparently according to the development team via Twitter –they don’t have the resources to do that, even though this game and the previous one would have been a good choice for the Switch. The fact that the team said it wishes they could do it makes me wonder if EA is sending any money the way of the Originals teams that they have. If not, they should start considering porting games like this to the switch because I can tell you it will sell even more over on that console then the Xbox and PS4.

Sea of Solitude is yet another Indie that I would say saved the EA presser from falling into a F grade and leaves it at an E. The creative director from Jo –Mei games, the creators of this game from Germany, Cornelia Geppert, was extremely cute and excited to be on stage. Her infectious excitement made people applaud even more when they put the trailer on the screen. The thing that caught my attention about this game is that it covers the idea of depression and loneliness in a very strong and very direct way. The designs of the monsters and the story about a human becoming a bird like creature, which I think has ties to German folklore is really cool and again, I wish this was coming to the switch, although we don’t know at this point if it will or won’t. If EA was smart it would allow for it.

And then EA decided to screw up the love that was being given to them via the indies by pulling out…a mobile game of Command and Conquer.

Command and Conquer: Rivals…I have words about this. The original game series was a Real Time strategy game that had a lot of complexity to the creation of the game play and the set up to maintain and manage your resources while taking out the opposing team. The last game of this nature from the Command and conquer franchise came out in 2013, on PC, and then Victory was shuttered. Which leads us to the new game. Command and Conquer Rivals is mobile and while the team does boast some former members that worked on Command and Conquer a lot of the game play relies on the idea of tapping the smart phone screen. There’s no camera movement so you’re in a static place and can’t see what’s around you to figure out what you need to do. Given the reaction to Rivals so far, it seems like people are not too happy with the situation. This game, apparently, is trying to get in with the Clans like games. Which makes me wonder if we’re going to see a lot of money grabs from EA on it.

Something slightly worse was the whole shoutcast that was put up by EA, and that I wound up skipping because it seemed way too staged. The fact that it’s also a one vs. one deal makes me think that they’re going after the Pokemon go crowd as well.

The final piece from EA was the Bioware game that I’ve been dreading…

Anthem, is…in a word…Sad. I don’t mean it’s sad in the sense that it’s physically depressing to see as it has the same sleek Bioware style, that’s not the issue. I expected nothing less from Bioware and the team behind this game. My issue for the sad comes from the fact that it’s a Game as a Service, or GAAS. Which means it’s on line all the time, and that means if you have crappy internet connections you may as well skip this game. While they mentioned that the game will have no loot boxes, there was nothing about no microtransactions, and, given the nature of the game and the whole “We have content for years to come” it makes me think that this is going to end up catering only to people who like to play Destiny. The fact that normally fans of Bioware tend to like RPGs, and thus more single player affairs over multiplayer affairs makes me think that EA is trying to use Bioware to grab at the GAAS players. Now, on the one hand, it’s true that there are a lot of players that like GAAS games, and I’m not saying that they’re bad. The issue becomes, again, if you don’t have the net for it, and given the FCC crap that just went through it makes me wonder how badly this whole thing will work out. Also if you don’t like Always online games you may as well pass on this because that’s all this is going to be.  How do you manage to make Iron Man fighting Monsters seem dull. Great Job guys at doing that. 

We also saw notices about Fifa 19, and it’s practically become a monopoly given that Konami and another studio lost their license of the Championship and another tournament from Soccer. Not much changed  other than some sort of mini game, and then we had Madden and NBA, and I think that was it. I didn’t pay much mind to a lot of it because after seeing the indie presentation it felt like EA had lost touch with what makes for a good presentation….

So over all I would give EA an E, the indie area of their presser was nice and gave some bit of hope, but the over all presentation of mostly Online games and sports games, felt like EA has forgone making actual games and is now pretty much a version of Blizzard Activison.

[spvg]

Games Literacy (this is hard)

I’ve been thinking about how to best introduce games to people that have never played them, or see no real appeal in them, and this has led me to dive a bit more into the notion of games literacy. 

And if you’ve ever tried to get a friend or relative that never plays games, to play something you really like, only to watch them struggle with tasks you take for granted, then you have been exposed to the lack of game literacy that concerns me.

How do we share our beloved medium with people that are not used to it? And what games are best to introduce people to? What game should you pick to introduce basic game literacy to someone who never played games?

First let’s see games literacy and what it is, as the name suggests, is the ability of an individual to interact with any given game at a novice level, Just like literacy is an individual’s ability to read and understand the words on any given book, at a surface level at least.

But games are so diverse that a player that is amazing at Sports games, like say, Fifa, might be completely lost when playing a real time strategy games like Starcraft.

This makes it very hard for us to decide what the line for games literacy is generally, but for argument’s sake let’s say that our goal is to teach someone between their 20’s and 30’s to become game literate and they’ll be so when they have the “ability to play any given game at a novice level” so our hypothetical literate to be players will all play everything but they’re not exactly high on the leader boards for anything.

We also have to understand that children tend to learn faster, not only for their all consuming brains, hungry for information, but because usually they do not have as much distractions as a full grown adult that might very well see no point in “wasting time” with a game, but games tend to be engaging so that might be a good innate way to counteract that feeling, children have another advantage though and that is usually the games are so engaging that they’ll go beyond any frustration with mechanics and will try until they learn, an adult usually will stop after a few tries when they start feeling overwhelmed with a game, even the simplest ones.

For instance I once tried to get my mom to play Little Big planet, run and jump right? like a Mario game but more handcrafted looking, No, for some reason, something I thought so obvious as pressing jump while moving forward, to, you know, jump forward, for her was extremely hard, so hard I was able to have her play SKYRIM better than little big planet! (still an extremely comedic and ludicrous Skyrim play through but she did it mostly alone) I still get surprised when I think abou this, how could some one have more trouble playing through the first little big planet level, than Skyrim?!

how could it be that a 3D world first person simulation was easier to understand than a 2D sidescroller? surely the sidescroller would have a lot less information to worry about right?

So here’s what I think happened with little big planet, it has too much information for a newcomer, the music the different textures, the quirky characters, it’s great to attract the attention of kids, it is not so great for an older person to keep track of what is going on, unless of course you are game literate, the physics based interactions with objects and characters also don’t help much.

Ok but why was my mother’s time easier with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim?

I believe the 3D environment was easier for her to understand, since it’s the one that  resembles our actual way of moving around the most, walking from point A to B was simple for her, controlling the camera on the other side had it’s ups and downs, and I noticed that she had a hard time separating body movement form camera movement, and frequently when in panic she would move both joysticks forward causing her to look straight down and face the ground instead of her foes, but still, she managed to use swords to attack (even if she was afraid of monsters) and perform basic tasks such as speak to non playable characters, or open doors, chests and so on, even if it did took a long time, she had to look to the controller and remember over and over again what button did what, even though effectively she was more literate in open world RPGs than side scrolling platformers. And this still is hard for me to fully comprehend.

it’s not like Skyrim had a tutorial so it made no real difference the way mechanics were taught, and she did play the first tutorial level of little big planet  and had trouble all the same, So I had to keep asking myself, what other differences were there between the two games, and what game should be the perfect fit to teach someone basic game literacy.

And so I did, I sat my mom down again this time to play the first level  of Super Mario world on the Snes, and then the first level of super Mario odyssey on the nintendo switch,

I wanted to see the difference in behavior from one to another, considering that the first is a course clear game and the second a sort of sandbox explorer,

It took her a few tries (about 6 actually) but eventually she did manage to beat both first levels all on her own, so the mechanics were indeed learned, they just need to be fine tuned, and I assume the more she’d play the better she’d get at it. So as far as Super Mario World went I’d say it was a major improvement over little big planet, and the simplicity of the game did make it easier to learn I believe (I still would have preferred to try this with an earlier Mario game though)

there was something interesting I noticed while my mother played super Mario odyssey though, as opposed to Skyrim, the other open world 3d game she played, in this one she had a harder time placing Mario around the map, the third person camera seemed to make it harder for her to position herself as opposed to the first person view of the elder scrolls games. I believe this has to do with a lack of experience with the controller, and how using the joysticks translates to movement and control this is something most of us are used to do since early, if we play games often, but to suddenly come in grab a controller and play it’s a drastically steeper climb.

so i’m still trying to figure my head around how this learning curve should go, but clearly a good way to start is with simpler easier games, probably, I’d say, something simple along the lines of Super Mario Bros mainly the world 1-1, that first level is a landmark in game design it has a great safe space to try mechanics of the game and most of all it’s clean, Mario is clearly visible against the background, there’s plenty of room ahead for players to get used to what’s coming and it is not overwhelming with information, it seems to be a good fit to new older players, probably something along those lines, with easy mechanics and understandable tutorials is a good choice. (please if you have any idea of games that might fit this description let me know). I thought of other types of games such as narrative driven games, or puzzle games as good gateways into the video game world since they don’t require as much dexterity with controllers, maybe some easier role playing games could then bridge the gap to more action focused games, and since rpg’s tend to have so much information packed in them, they could be a good starting point to strategy games or vice versa.

Now how can developers make their game easier to learn or at least to get a basic notion of how their game works? For that I think we should start with an Idea Zach Gage shares on his GDC talk on how to build easy to understand games, that is the three reeds rule, this is a graphic design rule that can be altered to work pretty well on a games design, it works like this:

1 what pulls you in - the core of your game

2 the key details - big unintuitive rules

3 contextual information - contextual rules

So the ideia here is to design the look of your game in a way that it is easy to read by anyone, and I’d go beyond just the look of menu and user interface and apply it to the game mechanics as well, since I’m focusing on console/pc gaming and your way of interacting or the controller is actually a very important part of how you learn/perceive a game

So in a Mario game the first reed would be Mario against the big blue sky, the question blocks and the ground you stand on, the second reed would be the question mark blocks and action enemies take towards you allowing the player to understand where interaction is possible, this isn’t exactly visible but it is well explained since you only have two buttons that work, and finally the third reed is the score the world you’re in, number of coins and the time you have left.

By making the game easy to understand for anyone, or at least easy enough to visually read, developers are able to make for an easier introduction to their game world mechanics and ideas.

But there is a long way from being able to play a game, and properly understanding any meaning one might have, this is where advanced game literacy comes into play, of course not all games have meanings or thought provoking ideas behind them, Duck Game isn’t interested in make you think about the inner workings of a sadistic duck universe where ducks fight for sport, it’s interested in being a fun crazy game for friends to play and laugh together.

But Night in the Woods for instance is interested in sharing ideas about finding meaning in yourself, in your life, in growing as individuals and even in the real life effects that a growing economical state has upon entire ways of living, and its sustainability. But imagine you never played a game in your life, I think the experience of trying to learn simple mechanics if you never tried them before, may very well get in the way of properly engage with a game’s ideas, that is why it’s important to make the learning a smooth curve for newer players, and if we can it’s up to us people that have been playing for a long time, to help our new friends to get the best experience they can, we can be curators for the great work developers put out there, and at the same time keep them  away from the sea of terrible content that is out there.

I know that this article is setting up more questions than answers, but I’m so intrigued by this situation that I felt like sharing and hopefully get some feedback and some deeper notions handed back to me.

Have different ideas? something that I clearly missed, suggestions? Write them to me, and we’ll be Speaking of Video Games!

[brothermouzongaming]

Far Cry 5 thots, hoeps, and fiirs

In my post about my most anticipated games of 2018, I talked about (and by “talked” I mean “masturbated furiously”) Far Cry. As I said, I love Far Cry, I have always enjoyed the empowering feeling that Far Cry gives you as a “regular dude” as far as the later iterations are concerned. That bow in my hands is like home to me, like seeing Old Trafford in FIFA, or when you find that first 10mm in FallOut. Shit gives me chills. Crouching in your vantage point, marking targets and tracking positions. Watching. Waiting. Most missions, from this point, allow the player complete freedom to in soft and quiet, or hard and bombastic. Each a challenge in their own right and an art form once perfected. I’m a little upset I never got around to Primal, cause I heard mixed things but that was bound to be the case given the sharp pivot in the setting. At the time, in January my Marvel-loving ass was coming through Lego Marvel, and then in March I was one of the poor fucks tricked into The Division. I grappled with that game for longer than I’d like to admit, more on that at another time. 

I was going to talk about how Far Cry isn’t that unique, open world games have been in style for a long time now. How they have in some ways become the forefront of the development priorities is (to me) a good thing. I believe that a lot can be done in this setting and more importantly, it can be expanded upon greatly as technology advances. I will say, it may be getting a bit stale in the realm of third person. The Witcher, Uncharted, MGSV, Horizon Zero Dawn, Watch Dogs 2,TC: Wildlands, TC: The Divison, Mafia 3, AC Origins, Dragon Age *catches breath* what I’m saying is, there are a lot. Again, not complaining but I did list an assortment for good reason. My point is, the true first-person open world experience is surprisingly limited.   In other action games like Dying Light, FallOut 4, Dishonored, and I will count GTA5 since it does allow for first-person and when you play it on single player I do get a similar feeling (especially since the cover system is decent in that game). So I guess In a way Far Cry is more unique in its concept, as well as basic in its design. Fary Cry is safe for the most part, seldom Primal, hopefully FC5 will capitalize and push the envelope just a little further. 

Far Cry always feels like your personal action movie in a less over-the-top looney way Just Cause offers. No zombie apocalypse as fun as Dying Light is. Dishonored is fantastic but again it’s roots in fantasy have a way of losing my immersion as well as enhancing it. Weird right? FallOut 4 was the most action-heavy of the series to the point where I was referring to it as an action game with RPG mechanics rather than the inverse. In Far Cry, it’s just grounded enough to feel like you’re having fun in the real world; while still offering the off the wall fun things like animals, helicopters, and the more unconventional ways of killing people. Sidenote: watch that highlight reel cause that person is fucking godly. 

Thots

This looks like it will be the most expanded upon game in the series. I feel like this might be a “FC2 to FC3″ kind of jump and I’m not just talking gameplay. This story looks like it could really push the franchise in a new direction. The social commentary is almost jarring. It’s just not what I expected from the series even with the semi-political FC4. On top of that, they are finally abandoning the essentially faceless protagonist. 3��s is barely there, and 4′s protagonists story was good and clever in a handful of ways. He was just a blandybland frontman of the blandband. It’s about time they just let us make our own character. The arsenal looks varied and deeper than games before, with an emphasis on melee. The animations themselves for melee kills looks pretty good, I’m hoping Ubisoft put more of those kinds of weapons in forced them to mix it up a bit. The same knife kills, over and over, and over again. It actually will make me want to use them I think, given they were sparsely found across the whole series if you ask me. I’ve been hearing a lot of talk about “player agency” which focusses on the players' relationship with the world and how they directly affect and change it with their actions. As far as I’m concerned that might be the other shot in the arm this franchise needs. If I’m gonna take a fuck ton of towers and outposts, I want to see how each one changes the landscape in the battle against the cult. Not just new map areas and fast travel points. 

Hoeps

I hope this game can break new ground in the terms of what the franchise is known for doing. The story-centric approach is interesting, FC has always featured some kind of attempt at a compelling story. This is, however, their first attempt at something so politically driven. FC4 had some politics but no one batted an eye at them. Clearly, 5 features something tangible despite how removed it is from reality. So much so there was an uproar against this game by people who would probably refer to me and people like me as “snowflakes”. The irony is not lost on me, I have it right here next to my vicarious embarrassment. I hope they can use the story to drive the player and push them towards freedom, not fence them in. I hope the gameplay and events are more than story mission, towers, and outposts with the occasional hidden secret thingy. This game has every reason to be the Phantom Pain of the Far Cry series, nothing compares but you get what I mean. Maybe Splinter Cell Conviction is a better one to use. 

Fiirs

After The Division pre-release fiasco: involving the trailer they put out vs the game that was given on release. I doubt I’ll ever take anything I see without more than a grain of salt. I’m also worried this game may not ship in the best condition, two poor moves Ubisoft has made many-a-time in the past. Aside from those arguably large points, I feel good that I don’t have too much to worry about. Ubisoft has their fair share of faults, I just hope they can learn from EA and use their slip-ups to really push their product quality. 

[guerilla935]

How To Read Reviews

Being a patron of the internet I see a lot of people who react very negatively to online reviewers. When you see a review of a game, movie, or show, you might be tempted just to scroll straight down to the bottom and read the verdict or even just glance at the number score that it received and base your judgement on that. I’m guilty of that, if I’m feeling lazy enough I will only see the last paragraph of a review and usually get a good sense of if something is good vs bad. But we are in the days of videos so you could actually have the author read the review to you which really makes there be less of an excuse to not hear the reviewers opinions.

The Author

When you enter the actual body of the review I cannot express how important it is to me that you acknowledge who the author of the article is. This is easy when you are watching AngryJoeShow, ACG, or Gameranx because the author of the review is often in your face and is very identifiable. But if you are on a site like IGN, Kotaku, Polygon, Dualshockers, etc. you have to see who is writing these reviewers. This is because after seeing what the game looks like and how it performs the rest of the opinion is based on personal experience with the game. Notice that I said opinion because at the end of the day a video game, movie, and show, are entertainment and can most accurately be judged on their entertainment value to you personally. And when a game like Jedi: Fallen Order gets thrashed for bugs and not being completely done you can trust that. In another way, when someone like videogamedunkey says that an RPG is boring and repetitive I know that his reviews bias against RPG’s and I can look up a separate review made by someone with similar taste in games as I do. But when videogamedunkey praises Dragon Quest XI for being charming and entertaining I know that this is not in this guys genre it is probably very accessible and fun. And that’s what I mean when I say to know who your reviewer is. You know that Angry Joe doesn’t put up with major inconveniences and hates when a game demands money out of you for content so when you see him rip into a multiplayer game you can know that if you are not bothered by paywalls then you can disregard some of what Joe is saying. And once again this comes from READING THE REVIEW.

The Poem

You have no context to why Joe just gave a game a 1 out of 5 if you do not listen to the reasoning behind it. Twitter is a big offender of this, they see an IGN review and see the number, and without clicking into the article are immediately in the comments thrashing IGN. IGN and many companies get a lot of heat because they generally give very high scores to games. Something that gets overlooked is that they are fully staffed facilities that have different people who rate each title. A first person shooter guy will rate the Call of Duty games every year which is why they all score 7-9 because Call of Duty is a reliable, well oiled machine that delivers a solid experience every year and the first person shooter guy at reviewing office A, B, and C will tell you that. The sports game guy will tell you why FIFA on the Switch dropped the ball (see what I did there) and why this other game lets you play the game how its intended. And you can learn this by NOTING THE AUTHOR which is super important. If you take nothing else out of this paper please just read articles or watch entire videos and remember who made them. A media reviewer delivers content based on things that make people happy and it pains me to see these same people get slammed on the internet without getting heard out. You can’t put a faceless company name in front of every review and expect a general accurate score. Learn who you have similar taste with and read and support their work.

[theloadingscreenblog]

The Loading Screen Best Of E3 2017:

Best Sports Game:

Madden 18 - The inclusion and use of the Frostbite brings the tight, realistic player movements that Madden players have been looking for. Added to the game modes, is a new career mode much like FIFA’s Journey mode from last year. Having played it on the new Xbox One X, the graphical improvements are very clear and present. This year’s Madden is shaping up to be a classic!

Runner Up:

FIFA 18

Best Racing Game:

Forza 7 – What can I say, this game looks beautiful! Utilizing the Xbox One X’s new tech, it boasts a stunning 4K/60FPS on console. The cars, as with any Forza game, look extremely detailed and handle as they should. The sound and world design is nothing short of exceptional.

Runner up:

Gran Turismo Sport

Best Multiplayer Game:

Destiny 2 – Bungie is back again with a new inclusion into the Destiny franchise. Yes, your Guardian is taken back to square one due to the acts of a new enemy, but it feels refreshing to this time around. The story elements will be far more numerous than the lacking Destiny 1. The multiplayer changes in the crucible feel right. Also, the introduction of Destiny 2 on PC makes this game look and perform even better than before!

Runner up:

Sea of Thieves

Best Shooter:

Call of Duty: WWII – Call of Duty has gone back to their roots. Boots are back on the ground! Oh, does it feel so right! The game looks amazing! The new multiplayer additions change up the monotony that had seemed to fall on Call of Duty players. The cinematics are theatrical level. Multiplayer action is fast paced. We can’t wait to hear that M1 Garand reload clink this Fall!

Runner up:

Destiny 2

Best RPG:

South Park: The Fractured But Whole – Looks like they have won 2 years in a row! This game is just plain fun! The new theme of superheroes allows for some very funny shots at popular super hero franchises. Equipped with the South Park humor and artwork that is a clone of the show, this is a great follow-up to its predecessor.

Runner up:

Ni No Kuni II

Best Action Game:

Marvel’s Spider-man – Ok, to say we are excited about this game is an understatement. I want to be slingin webs from building to building right now! The game demo shown off just adds to that hype. This game looks excellent! From the combat to the visuals, Insomniac has gone all out with Spider-Man. Additionally, with rumors of character cameos, this game surely caters to fans! 

Runner up:

Shadow of War

Best Open World game:

Far Cry 5 – Far Cry 5 looks impressive! With an interesting storyline and the ability to choose from 3 diverse characters, it seems like this one game you don’t want to miss. The gun play as always is on point. The special little perks each character has, like the K-9 companion of one, add new ways to approach situations.

Runner up:

Crackdown 3

Best Platformer game:

Super Lucky’s Tale – This game came out of left field! When Microsoft showed it off during their E3 Conference, I was interested but not overly impressed. It wasn’t until I was able to go Hands-on with it on the E3 showroom floor did it blow me away! First, this game has many aspects of a Banjo game and that alone makes it worth it. The gameplay, however, is extremely fun and we can’t wait to play more of it when it releases!

Runner up:

Cuphead

Best Adventure game:

Sea of Thieves – After seeing this game a few times over the last 2 years and it being a runner up for many of our categories this year and last, we can finally give it an award! Sea of Thieves deserves Best Adventure game because that’s exactly what it is, a great adventure! Playing together with your friends sailing the high seas has never been more fun than it is with this game!

Runner up:

Assassin’s Creed: Origins

Most Hyped Game:

Anthem – Anthem was a huge surprise for gamers this E3. Bioware throwing their hat in the ring with Destiny and the Division? Count us in! With an excellent writing team behind this game, expect more of a story than its competitors. The graphics and gameplay look amazing! It’s safe to say, we are HYPED!

Runner up:

Metroid Prime 4

Best Indie Game:

The Artful Escape- This game looks like a lot of fun! Music based platformer? What more could you want? The art style is excellent and I’m sure the soundtrack will be mind-blowing. This game just looks like pure fun!

Runner up:

Ashen

Best Trailer:

Beyond Good and Evil 2

Runner up:

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

Biggest Surprise:

This year’s biggest surprise were the announcements of a new Metroid and Pokemon game coming next year. Also, Beyond Good and Evil is making a comeback! Shadow of the Colossus HD Remake and Age of Empires HD Remake round out the list! Additionally, NBA Live was a personal surprise for me. EA’s NBA game this year feels and looks real nice! 2K better watch out.

Games we need/want to see more of:

Metroid Prime 4 (Obviously)

Anthem

Detroit

Best of Show:

This year’s Best of Show was rather simple. There weren’t too many games on the floor this year and not a lot that shouted, “Must See!”, but that doesn’t mean this year’s Best of E3 is a small feat by any means. I can say that even if there had been more stunning games on the floor, this one would still stand out amongst them all. One game stood up in the middle of the 65,000 people and said, “IT’S A ME!” That’s right, The Loading Screen’s Best of Show for E3 2017 goes to Super Mario Odyssey! The game threw its hat at us and made us jump around like fools! This is going to be one of the best Mario games yet! The fact that it’s on the Switch makes it even better. Controlling enemies with your hat, jumping from place to place, and traveling across a multitude of locations all while on the go is very appealing! If you don’t have a Switch yet, I promise you this one will make you go out and buy one! Super Mario Odyssey has won our hearts this year and has earned our Best of Show!

[cviperfan]

E3 2017: Nintendo Conference

-Arms trailer, makes sense -Oooh Rocket League confirmation! That's a heck of a get actually -and Pokken Tourney DX -aand "fifa switch" which again is not Fifa 18 -...it still looks pretty nice tho? I guess we'll see what happens -Hell yea Splatoon 2 -...OH SHIT IT ACTUALLY *IS* FIFA 18 :o -Reggie are you talking about a video game or "the game" as in like a life of crime -"maybe even... an odyssey" cute -"HELP THEY LEFT ME OUT IN THIS FIELD" Xenoblade Chronicles X - NO NOT THE ARCHITECT FROM MATRIX -WATCH OUT JODIE FOSTER'LL KILL YA IF YOU GET TOO CLOSE TO ELYSIUM -huh -SOUL EATER THE JRPG?!?!?! -I'm torn on the character art it's not as good as 1's was -that rival lady looks cool tho -"REX!" "shepard." -HMM -Ohhhh that's so anime i dig it lmao -IT LOOKS SO SKIES OF ARCADIA I WANT IT Kirby (2018) -"sometimes you need a hero! sometimes you're holding out for a hero, until the end of the night!" -YOOOO NEW KIRBY :D -kirby can enslave his enemies?!?!?!?!!? -AND MAKE GEM FUSIONS APPARENTLY -It looks like this is built for optional 4p co-op nice -YEA I BET YALL ARE RELIEVED PPL ARE LIKING THE SWITCH HAHAHA -Oh SHIT ISHIHARA :O -Reiterating Pokken Switch DX -??? -POKEMON CORE RPG CONFIRMED FOR SWITCH OH SHIT Metroid Prime 4 -.... -!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -HOLY SHIT -HOLY FUCKING SHIT -FINALLY -it must have JUST started development if they have nothing to show tbh Yoshi (2018) -! -NEW YOSHI?!?!?! -ooh interesting a Yoshi's Wooly World follow-up :o -I like that Yoshi's felt now and that the aesthetic is papercraft now -this looks GORGEOUS holy fuck Fire Emblem Warriors -"A long, long time ago..." in a galaxy far, far away -omg - JOHN AND JANE OF THE PROTA LINE OF GONIST?!?!?! - Okay so we got Chrom, Lobster Man, Corrin, Xander, Oh Hai Marth... -So does this mean this game's Corrin is specifically F!Corrin? Interesting -Working Together! Solving the Problems! Skyrim Switch -"select Zelda items" aww -"oh! When did this master sword get in MY hand?" Aonuma plz BOTW DLC -Trial of the Sword -Interesting so looks like it operates on the rules of that one Island Trial -Heroes Path -New costumes (hard to say if they do anything specific tho) -Master Mode -Ooh Kass is back :o -All My Friends Are Dead -The Champion's Ballad is DLC pack 2 -....DOES THIS MEAN WE'RE GONNA PLAY AS ZELDA????? Or like the champions maybe -well i would have liked more detail on what's going on with that last pack but sure -FOUR CHAMPION AMIIBOS -FUCKIN URBOSA AMIIBO OH MY GOD -I hope they're close to that quality but i doubt it they look SUPER good -I love that her shield covers her butt lmao -so what do they do Aonuma oh you're gone ok -Reggie is actually the Last Man on Earth and the remnants of Nintendo are playing some Twilight Zone bullshit on him -"Check out our sick booth YOU'LL NEVER SEE IN PERSON FUCKERS" -yea i gotta agree with Jim Sterling they didn't call it the INKVITATIONAL????? -Cooks Vs Cons For Fitegames?!?!?! Mario x Rabbids: Kingdom Battle -Yea I'm still not sure how to feel about this -AUGUST 29 HOLY SHIT THATS WAY CLOSER THAN EXPECTED Rocket League (Burnin out its fuse up here alone) -unique items/cars, cross play -all updates previously released, wireless multiplayer Super Mario Odyssey -...Monster Hunter? -No wait that's just a -OH MY GOD -WHAT A FUCKING VOCAL TRACK IN A MARIO GAME -HOLY SHIT -MARIO CAN CONTROL WITH HIS BANJO KAZOOIE HAT -WHATS WITH NINTENDO AND MIND CONTROL NOW -new costumes????? -THIS LOOKS SO FUCKING WEIRD I LOVE IT -IS THAT FUCKING PAULINE???????

[walkthroughfox]

/r/Gaming Game of the Year Awards 2017 - Results

/r/Gaming Game of the Year Awards 2017 - Results

Welcome to /r/Gaming's Game of the Year awards!

Disclaimer: Terrible humor below. This is a popularity contest for those who voted, not a super big deal! The best "Other" category is not always the top answer either.

Biggest Letdown of 2017:

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 Star Wars: Battlefront 2 5,519 47.3% #2 Mass Effect Andomeda 2,655 22.8% #3 Destiny 2 1,839 15.8%

How do you get everyone to hate a movie franchise that has a large portion of their franchise indebted to games as well? Lock nearly all progression off behind loot crates which can also be purchased. Damnit EA.

"Other" choice award:

still can't buy gf :(

also

you

... thanks

/r/Gaming's biggest controversy

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 Star Wars: Battlefront 2 8,484 72.5% #2 Net Neutrality 2,217 18.9% #3 Mass Effect: Andromeda facial animations 361 3.1%

Early on, EA is running away with the most rewards. Probably not the way they wanted to though..

"Other" choice award:

This terrible poll

You're the one taking it!

"Early Access Done Right" Award

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 PlayerUnknown's: Battlegrounds 3,587 34.7% #2 Fornite 3,113 30.2% #3 Divinity: Original Sin II 2,609 25.3%

The 1v1 battle between games that pride themselves in a one against all free-for-all; how oddly poetic. PUBG walks away one shot away from death, with this one by only a few hundred votes.

"Other" choice award:

The Witcher 3

ಠ_ಠ

Best Debut Indie Game

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 Cuphead 7,880 73.5% #2 Hollow Knight 1,765 16.5% #3 Slime Rancher 464 4.3%

While Golf Story and Hollow Knight were some of this year's best indie games, Cuphead walks away with this one in stunning fashion.

"Other" choice award:

Doki Doki Liturature Club

You all really made me aware of the mistake I made in forgetting this title.

Best Independent Game

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 Cuphead 6,079 57.2% #2 Hollow Knight 1,438 13.5% #3 Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice 1,339 12.6%

I mean, I almost didn't ask this or the last question because I just assumed at this point it would win.

"Other" choice award:

Why is there a trout under the TV Adam? Is this some kind of joke? A cry for help? What am I to make of this? What are you doing? Put down that knife. PUT DOWN THAT KNIFE, ADAM!

https://i.imgur.com/LvSxuKQ.jpg

Most Anticipated

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 Red Dead Redemption II 4,261 38.1% #2 The Last of Us Part II 2,855 25.5% #3 Monster Hunter: World 1,878 16.8%

Hear me out. 3 protagonists. A Union solider, a Confederate solider, and a Native American. They have to work together to find a ton of gold somewhere. They aren't friends and are constantly at each other's throats. The game ends with a three-way Mexican Standoff where the outcome is determined by the player.

"Other" choice award:

Every game

That's the spirit.

Best Esports Game

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 Overwatch 3,569 33% #2 Rocket League 2,630 24.3% #3 League of Legends 1,687 15.6%

"Other" choice award:

Rainbow Six: Siege

Wouldn't have won outright, but your voice and opinion should definitely be noted. Rainbow Six: Siege is a community favorite and has stuck around a lot longer than most of us probably thought. Kudos to Ubisoft on this one.

Best Multiplayer

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds 4,338 40.3% #2 Fortnite 1,856 17.2% #3 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 1,499 13.9%

Looks like we've got ourselves some buttery roasted chicken. I might head over to KFC after I'm finished writing this. /r/HailCorporate

"Other" choice award:

The Witcher 3

I've actually seen this voted for in almost every category now, regardless if it even fits. I have a feeling someone went through this entire thing while wearing the Witcher medallion around his neck, "Yessss, my preciuous."

Best Sports/Racing Game

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 Forza Motorspot 7 2,550 29.3% #2 Fifa 18 1,387 16% #3 Project Cars 2 1,213 14%

Even with it's turbulent release, Forza raced to the front of the pack early with the poll position, and held the lead throughout the race.

"Other" choice award:

The Witcher 3

Forgot about the horse racing bits.

Best Strategy Game

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 XCOM 2: War of the Chosen 3,166 33.2% #2 Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle 2,842 29.8% #3 Total War: Warhammer II 2,035 21.3%

I'm just going to leave my personal feelings on the game (Love the series btw)

http://i.qkme.me/3qykrl.jpg

"Other" choice award:

They are Billions

Steampunk survival RTS. Gotta love it.

Best Family Game The Mario Showdown Award

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 Super Mario Odyssey 4,849 46.5% #2 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 4,129 39.6% #3 N/A N/A %

I debated calling it "The Nintendo Game of the Year", but held back since Splatoon (The third place winner) wasn't really even close. In the race between the world's two favorite Mario games, the winner is.. Nintendo!

"Other" choice award:

Hunniepop

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Best Fighting Game

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 Injustice 2 3,808 40.8% #2 Tekken 7 2,200 23.6% #3 ARMS 1,295 13.9%

Guess it really wasn't an ARMS race, was it? HA. Haha.. Sorry I did that joke such Injustice

"Other" choice award:

the one where the guy hits the other guy

Yeah, me too.

Best Role Playing Game

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 Persona 5 2,163 20.7% #2 Divinity: Original Sin 2 2,142 20.5% #3 South Park: The Fractured But Whole 1,986 19%

We were really spoiled this year weren't we? Not every RPG lover will like all of this, but Persona 5 and Divinity proved to be legendary sequels. Then you could kick back and laugh at fart jokes all day on South Park. A deservedly close race. Even NieR was NieR the top (I'll stop soon, I promise).

"Other" choice award:

Horizon Zero Dawn

While very light on the RPG elements, for the number of votes you folks placed it's worthy of being mentioned. Again, I reiterate, we were spoiled this year.

Best Action/Adventure Game

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 4,779 42.9% #2 Horizon Zero Dawn 2,565 23% #3 Super Mario Odyssey 1,294 11.6%

After coming two points away from tying one of it's predecessors for the highest metacritic score of all-time, Breath of the Wild deservedly sits in the number one spot. While Mario also tied Breath of the Wild in terms of meta score, it seems users agree it's their pick of the two.

"Other" choice award:

NieR Automata

From Video Gamer, "NieR: Automata has more creativity and self-awareness in its little finger than most games have for their entire run time. Don’t miss this because it’s sandwiched between other, bigger games."

Best Action Game

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 Cuphead 3,634 34.7% #2 Wolfenstein II 3,124 29.8% #3 Nioh 1,411 13.5%

Our winner was just a Cup-a-head when it came to the vote totals. A slim 500 votes.

"Other" choice award:

Your mother was the best action I got all year.

:(

Best VR/AR Game

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 Resident Evil 7: Biohazard 3,939 43.4% #2 Superhot VR 2,939 32.4% #3 Star Trek: Bridge Crew 1,351 14.9%

Resident Evil 7 was one of the SUPER HOT games of the SUPER HOT. SUPER HOT. SUPERHOT. SUPERHOT. SUPERHOT SUPERHOTSUPERHOTSUPERHOTSUPERHOT.

"Other" choice award:

Skyrim

That's a SUPERHOT thing to say.

Best Handheld Game

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 Metroid: Samus Returns 3,428 40.4% #2 Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadow of Valentia 1,914 22.6% #3 Monster Hunter Stories 1,824 21.5%

Game Informer said it best, "This might be Samus’ first 2D adventure in more than a dozen years, but it’s a great reminder of why we fell in love with the franchise in the first place."

"Other" choice award:

Pokémon Ultra Moon/Sun

Wins with about 20 votes because I'm dumb and forgot to put it in here.. Also, there was the obligatory "Corey in the House".

Best Mobile Game

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 Fire Emblem Heroes 2,963 33.4% #2 Super Mario Run 2,726 30.7% #3 Monument Valley 2 1,798 20.3%

Nintendo went all out for mobile this year. Excuse me, Nintendo Game Software.

"Other" choice award:

Skyrim

Soon you'll be able to play it on a refrigerator.

Best Shooter

Rank Game Votes Percentage #1 Playerunknown's Battlegrounds 2,625 24.2% #2 Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus 2,193 20.2% #3 Fortnite: Battle Royale 1,070 9.9%

You all made the wrong pick. The other moderators forced me to put this in, but everyone knows this game is only played with pans.

"Other" choice award:

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Opens other options, "I swear, if I see one vote for Witche... SON OF A #####!"

MORE IN THE FIRST TOP LEVEL COMMENT

Love game walkthroughs? Bookmark WalkthroughFox.Com as it's about to rain walkthroughs.

[fancyarbiterexpert-blog]

How to Get FREE FIFA 18 Coins and Cash

Fifa 18 Coins Generator NO OFFER

Uncover FIFA Worldwide Soccer (also referred to as FIS, FIFA Worldwide Soccer Championship Version, FIFA ninety four, FIFAインターナショナルサッカー, EA Soccer), a wonderful game of 1994. As video games have, up to now decade, become ever more expensive propositions - costs typically exceed £100m - so the dangers have escalated. Ryan Payton, an American sport designer who worked at Konami, remembers being shown around the Professional Evolution Soccer group's workplace Fifa 18 Coins Hack on his first day on the Tokyo-primarily based studio in 2005. I was informed: ‘That is the challenge that brings in the cash. If something unhealthy occurs to this workforce, we can be in deep trouble,'” Payton stated. As we speak, Konami produces few video games and, as an alternative, focuses on Japanese pachinko playing machines and health spas. Any changes to the game are inclined to arouse fierce passions. In 2013, at E3, one of many video game business's largest annual conferences, held in Los Angeles, I keep in mind the whoops of enjoyment when an EA spokesperson announced that the players in that yr Hack FIFA 18 Coins Generator free's Fifa would be able to flip their necks to move the ball at higher than 90 degrees in each path - one thing that had, he said, never before been doable”. Thanks for continuing to improve the location. A few of your adjustments at the moment are dwell. Nonetheless, a few of your adjustments had been sent to moderation since you would not have enough factors to make those reside edits. You need factors to dwell edit the adjustments you commited. Having played around forty five minutes of every recreation, it is not possible to make a name on which is better. FIFA's general gameplay is unquestionably shifting nearer towards PES's. It's harder than ever to gain a yard on an opponent or run previous them on the flanks, and I had the most success when mirroring Barcelona's (or, more appropriate for my skill stage, Arsenal's) means of passing the ball laterally and waiting for an opening. Konami's sport, against this, is less involved with realism than what Burns describes as feel”. http://fifa18coinsgenerator.site requested a senior PES developer why it feels so a lot better to score a aim in PES than Fifa,” Burns said. He advised me that the shooting animations are deliberately not accurate recreations of the actual factor. They go away Android Version Fifa 18 Hack room for player intuition and invention.” Counterintuitively, Burns believes that, by using brisker, extra cartoonish animations every time a digital participant, say, leaps for a header or executes a showboating overhead kick, PES better replicates what we think about it feels like to be a hyper-athletic skilled footballer, reasonably than the precise reality. When it comes to pure gameplay, the revamped free kick and nook system makes the largest distinction. You'll now see far more gamified set items that have you ever selecting not solely the power of kick but the beginning place of your player and pace of their run up. Elsewhere there's a bit extra hustle and bustle, with an increased significance on shielding the ball and turning away from players to achieve a yard, and the AI has also seen an upgrade, particularly in assault, with teammates making extra runs to create space.

How to get Free Fifa 18 Coins Cheat Engine?

Lewis was adamant that the game ought to be made in England - the home, as he saw it, of football. Undaunted by the truth that the British wing of EA was not but arrange for game manufacturing, Lewis employed two freelance recreation designers - Jules Burt and Jon Regulation - to construct the game. The pair, who had been based near Liverpool, spent 12 weeks on the prototype, developing three variations of the sport, every of which employed a different camera place. The best of the set used a so-referred to as isometric camera angle, positioned as if wanting down on the pitch from one of many stadium's corners. Moderately than the top-down view of the pitch that other soccer video games offered, this new perspective captured the players' complete our bodies, closing the gap between video game and televisual representations of the game. Well, to start this overview off, I just recieved my PSP two days in the past. I purchased this sport yesterday and feel that it's a solid hit. Sure, the switching between the analong stick and d-pad is complicated at first, however you will get used to it after just a little bit with the intention to grasp moving and pulling off sweet tips. Taking pictures is troublesome at first but that you will also grasp Android Version Fifa 18 Hack with the 'joystick'. The challenge mode is plenty of fun, and so is the season mode. I have not tried the wifi mode but, however thus far on my different title, ATV offroad fury, it has performed properly. Yes, the game takes a while to grasp, however it is fairly easy to choose up with the totally different difficulty settings. All in all, the sport is basically fun, however some elements make take a while to get used to. I'd give this three and half stars solely as a result of it is a wonderful sport, not a breakout one. The controls just don't seem to have been optimized for the PSP... it is value taking part in but I wouldn't put this in the same class as Ridge Racer and Wipeout. In The Journey, you may play as a fictional soccer player named Alex Hunter, combating your manner from squad player to Premier League star and dealing with your in-club rival and assembly well-known gamers along the way. In contrast to the profession modes of the past, although, it's not only by way of playing that you will advance. EA Sports has taken a page from BioWare (another EA company) to an RPG of kinds, full with off-pitch places like locker rooms, residences and press events, and a branching storyline right out of Mass Effect. That is the form of thing FIFA soundtracks are good for. Previous years have been filled with globe-trotting crowd pleasers, that includes all the things from Swedish rap phenom Elliphant, Brazilian MC Emicida, and the Latin funk groove of Uruguay's Sante Les Amis. FIFA Soccer featured a track Fifa 18 Coins Generator from CHVRCHES the month they dropped their first full-size album, was among the first to introduce UK chart-toppers Disclosure to the American lots, and incessantly rounds out its playlists with various favorites like Beck and Foals. I've at all times been a fan of the FIFA games series and have owned FIFA 96 , 97, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06 and now FIFA 07. That is by far the most effective soccer (soccer) sport on consoles, i personal my copy for the ps2 and play it intensely. The statistics are amazing, you title a club or participant and they are on the sport, everyone from Barcelona to little Accrington Stanley FC! The visuals are improbable with licenced kits and participant appearances for all main players in addition to actual stadia from around the Free Fifa 18 Coins Online Generator world! The sound is the perfect part of this recreation, the commentary is excellent and the crowd noise is fantastic, sounds amazingly realistic to actuality. The fans can even get in your again if your taking part in very badly and encourage you as you assault which solely adds to the realism. I give this game 10\10 and would recommend all soccer followers to buy this now!

[thedragonsteaparty]

I wrote a post about Overwatch the other day (when I say the other day I mean 2 weeks ago, oops, time flies when you’re addicted to Overwatch, bear with me it comes up a lot in this post too) and how I’ve been playing as Mei, Tracer, and (as a relatively new addition) Mercy most frequently. Thinking back to when I wrote that post I felt kind of guilty because I realised that I hadn’t mentioned any male characters, or even actually tried any myself yet and I’m supposed to be a gaming blogger! When I first started the game, and went to pick my hero I immediately looked at all the female heroes first, I did look at the male heroes but very briefly. I’ll do this in other games too, I will very rarely play as a male character when I have the choice and if I do it will be because I have completed the game as a female character and want to see if there are any subtle differences in playing a male character (this is usually in RPGs like Dragon Age and Neverwinter Nights where relationships with other characters can be affected subtlety by this).

I don’t know why I do this, I’ve thought of a few potential reasons and if you tend to always choose the same gender in video games (men too!) as well then I’d love to hear if any of my thoughts below resonate with you or if you have any thoughts of your own about it. Let me know in the comments!

Let me just say first of all that I have no problem at all playing as a male character, I play a male protagonist by default in most of the games I play: Legend of Zelda, Far Cry, Bioshock, God of War, Doom, The Witcher, Dying Light, Shadow of Mordor, the vast majority of Final Fantasy games… to name just a few, and I love those games! (OK so I’m struggling a little with Final Fantasy, playing as Tidus Daddy Issues McLeatherLeherhosen really drained me of JRPG enjoyment and I need to reset a little before I attempt another.) So maybe the reason I always choose a woman when I have the choice is because I’m sick of playing as a guy and when I can be a woman I leap at the chance? As annoying as it is to have to say this in the year 2017 it does feel refreshing to have a female protagonist sometimes.

On the other hand, maybe the answer is simple and it’s just that I am a woman, therefore I identify more with female protagonists so I enjoy playing as them more. Even if they don’t talk and I’m just identifying with them aesthetically. When I was playing Portal I didn’t really think about what gender my character was, they don’t make reference to it and I just assumed I was a floating gun, it was only when I saw Chell’s reflection (well not a reflection, herself through a portal… Can’t be bothered to try and explain but you know what I mean hopefully) that not only did I have a body but the body belonged to a woman! Just knowing that kind of shifted my attitude towards the game from what had already been incredibly positive to ‘Hell yeah, this game is incredible’.

Moving onto my more feministy part of this post, I can remember numerous times throughout my life where I’ve been at someone’s house and they’ve had a multiplayer game on, usually one that I haven’t played before (Injustice, FIFA and WWF spring to mind here) and they’ve asked if I want to play against them. I would always go with a female character because like I said before, I like playing as a woman, but more often than not I would lose. This was partly because I hadn’t played the games before so was not used to them and partly because I find that female characters in fighting/sporty games are usually underpowered, or they used to be anyway, this is a while ago that I’m talking about so I’m not sure about nowadays. My choice of character before the game even began though would usually be remarked on with a comment along the lines of “oh you don’t want to be them, they’re terrible”, I can remember someone laughing because I chose the female football team in FIFA (it may not have been FIFA it might have been a different football game, I don’t remember but I don’t know any other football games off the top of my head) once to play against them, they told me they were a terrible team and I asked why, were the stats different? What was it that made them bad? Had they tried to play them before? Did they actually do very badly IRL and that was reflected in the way they were played in the game? The answer I got was simply “they’re just shit”, that made me more determined to beat them and prove that the female team were not worthless. Unfortunately, having never played FIFA before and understanding nothing about the rules of football I lost anyway. Whether the female team genuinely was terrible in the game due to their given stats or if the person I asked just didn’t know because they’d never tried to play as them I don’t know. This sort of thing has happened a lot though over the years with those sorts of games and it always fuels my feminist side, makes me want to shout GIRL POWER and obliterate my opponent with the girliest character I can find. So, thinking about it like that maybe the reason I always pick a woman is a subconscious, feminist fuelled, girl power stance?

Came across this delightful piece of bullshit as I was trying to find pictures of female FIFA players https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C05irL2Q2pY. Apparently they just look like men in the game anyway because of the graphics so they may as well just not have women in the game at all. Idiot. It’s a huge step forward for women’s football which has far less viewers than men’s football despite them working so hard and having some brilliant players, it will make the game more accessible to women and you know what? If you don’t want to play as the female team then don’t play as the female team!!! I don’t even like football but I have a huge respect for female players… I won’t get into that now though. See this is why I have female character pride!!!

Following on from the ‘girliest character I can find’ comment above, I am very girly IRL and if there is a video game character that is wearing a pair of kick ass, neon pink heels, or a dress, or if they just look super girly  then I will go for that character (the only reason I haven’t played D.VA in Overwatch yet is because I don’t like playing as a tank but I really like her and would say she’s one of the girliest Overwatch characters). Women in video games are usually very pretty but this often means that they are also sexualised. When I was trying to find an image of Tracer from Overwatch to use on my blog some of the first pictures were just fan art of her arse, for example. Often this means that people tend to trivialise female characters (not to say Overwatch has trivialised Tracer, far from it, everyone in that game is well balanced, as it should be! Last time I mention Overwatch today, I promise!) they’re the eye candy not the character you play if you’re playing to win and, like in my previous point, that is another aspect that would make me determined to say “No, this girl is awesome and I will prove it to you. Just because she’s wearing mini shorts and a bikini top doesn’t mean she can’t kick ass”. I don’t have a problem with sexy looking characters though unless they fall into one of the following categories:

1. The ‘every woman in this game is hot’ games

Dead or Alive, fighting game turned volleyball tournament… Somehow

2. The character who is wearing something super skimpy/revealing and they are obviously meant to be the eye candy but their personality or culture just doesn’t go with it

Kimono/maxi skirt to hot pants and crop top… Bit of a jump

3. Skimpily dressed characters that are in a war/space/apocalypse/zombie/etc setting and they are in a chainmail bikini or something that would just make it impossible for them to survive in that environment dressed in that way

It’s truly incredible that she is able to fight monsters on a daily basis and survive wearing this. Not going to lie, really like those boots though

If a character looks sexy but there is a personality behind it then I think that’s fine, I don’t like to make judgements on anyone’s personality or skills based on what their gender is or what they’re wearing – be they real people or people in a video game – and if they are a bit slutty then that’s OK! Each to their own! When you’re playing as them in a game though that shouldn’t be the core aspect of their personality. I have been told that I have been brainwashed to think that it’s OK to have slutty looking characters (that was an interesting conversation) but I like to think that I am just open to everyone being able to look the way they want and that your abilities should not be judged on if you chose to wear a mini skirt or a pair of jeans today, maybe that’s just what I’ve been told to think though… Will I wake up soon from the fake feminist Matrix controlled by the Anti-woman corporation and escape into the real world? Tune in next time to find out.

  I got a little side tracked there with my rant at the end but there you go. My reasoning for not playing male characters. Let me know in the comments which gender you usually go with, is it your own? Do you mix it up? Do you play as the opposite gender? Do you think that it even affects your choice at all? I’m very interested to know if this is just me or if it’s something that everyone does to an extent.

Gaming Like a Girl I wrote a post about Overwatch the other day (when I say the other day I mean 2 weeks ago, oops, time flies when you're addicted to Overwatch, bear with me it comes up a lot in this post too) and how I’ve been playing as Mei, Tracer, and (as a relatively new addition) Mercy most frequently.

[thecaptainsdesk]

Okay, so writing your own blog is something that many of us have always wanted to do, and is the dream we have achieved. But along the way, we still need to have that other job, the one that pays the bills while we are building our base of followers and beginning the journey to fully monetize our work, to have a good income from it.

Maybe not everyone has the dream of earning money from their blogs, and I know that some just do it for the love, and have no intention of making a career of it. But for those of us who do it for money as well as love, getting paid while you build it is something of a necessity.

Choosing the work you do in the meantime is up to you, and for a lot of people the nine-to-five is the way to go. A secure, steady income to provide for your family (if you have one) is needed to cover those horrendous bills that come along every month.

For me, the road to monetizing my blogs was paved with freelance work. I wrote articles for other blogs, provided content for marketing companies, payment processing solutions providers, other travel websites, and even did a stint writing about death and funerals. And while that may sound a little black and depressing, it was a real eye-opener on the funeral industry, and how varied and diverse it really is.

So I thought I would share some of the things I wrote in the past (and am still writing in the present), to give people some idea of what a freelance writer has to do to earn a crust. Some of it is not pretty, and a lot of it has nothing to do with a travel blog, but it was all about the experience – and the bills!

Travelling to Tibet…

One of my clients from the beginning was a Tibetan travel firm that was based in Beijing, China and Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region. I still write for them, and still love to cover their articles. Tibet is a land filled with mystery and spectacular landscapes, and a culture that is closely interwoven with their Buddhist religion. So close that sometimes it is hard to tell where culture ends and religion begins.

The company, which you can see from the name on the top and bottom of the page (if you can read Chinese!), is one of the premier tour agencies providing travel services to Tibet. I have been writing articles for them for what seems like forever, and will continue to do so for as long as they need me. I love writing about their tours, and have already added some of my work about Tibet here.

U.S. Cannabis articles…

With 28 states in the United States now legalizing cannabis for use in medicinal treatments (as well as five states legalizing it for personal, recreational use!), the need for marketing content for cannabis-friendly websites is higher than you would think. Some of my more recent articles have covered that topic on this well-known American pro-cannabis website.

I have to say here that I do not condone the recreational use of any drugs, including cannabis, despite the fact that it has been well proven to have few addictive qualities. Having never touched drugs of any sort (except some prescribed by my doctor), it was quite interesting to research and write about this topic, especially as it has been the talk of modern America for several years now.

Payment Processing…

Working through a content marketing firm based in Ireland, I have written a lot of articles on payment processing, mobile payments, credit card security and fraud, EMV chips in modern cards, mobile wallets, etc. Not the easiest topic to get your head around, especially when you have to explain exactly what end-to-end encryption (E2EE) is, and how it works. I think i actually became something of an expert on credit card processing and mobile payments at the time, and still shudder at the thought of how much research went into the articles, and how little I was actually paid for them!

Let’s talk about…DEATH!

Yes, I actually wrote a number of articles about death and funeral services. This was for a website in the UK that was a sister site to a french website known as Avis de déces. Some of the articles were originally written, while others were the result of translation and curation of the articles on their french site. Unfortunately, the UK site closed back in May of this year, as it was considered to be too morbid for most people, and they flopped badly. Pity, really. I actually had a byline on the site that time, instead of writing articles as a ghost-writer.

An excerpt from one of the articles.

Transaltion: “1st site of publication of notices of death in the French press“

Yes, ghost-writing is a big part of freelance work. If you are a freelance writer, ghost-writing is part and parcel of the business. I know, it sucks to put in all that work and then see another person’s name go on it, but that’s life, right? And it does pay the bills.

Heroes of the Storm…

This was the most fun I had had in ages while writing. In my younger days I was a big gamer, and loved playing RPGs on the Playstation, PS2, and Xbox. I still love playing, though I don’t get much time to do so these days. During this period I wrote a lot of articles for a gaming website, controllermagazine.com. I covered news reports on the various international competitions for RPGs such as Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, Call of Duty, Super Smash Bros, FIFA 17, etc. These were good times, and one of the topics that made writing for a living so enjoyable.

Maple Syrup Rocks…

Maplemood is a website based in Quebec, Canada, and produces products made of… you guessed it, Maple Syrup. The finest maple syrup in the world comes from the region of Quebec, and its uses are amazingly diverse. Not only is it a deliciously sweet snack, or delightful alternative to sugar in my morning coffee, it can also do wonders for your hair, and research into the properties of maple syrup extracts in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease are making huge strides in the world of medicine. I wrote hundreds of articles for the site, many of which can still be seen in their blog and article pages.

Irish Property Markets…

Working as a freelancer often means doing a lot of research on the topic you are writing about, spending hours on the web digging up articles to use as sources, and then curating that information into one single block of content, that makes sense. With this project, I rarely had to do much research, since I had already had a background in the Irish property and banking markets from living in the UK. And it helped me to keep in touch with what was going on in the banking and property arena back in Britain.

So when you look at the work you have to do to survive while trying to get your blog off the ground and profitable, remember that we have all gone through those days, and many of us have finally come out the other side, to reap the rewards of all that hard work.

  (Disclaimer: All the work I do remains my intellectual property, and I have complete rights to republish anything at my own discretion. One of the advantages of working from the Philippines and having clients based overseas is that there is often no written contract. This means that they are not entitled to claim intellectual property rights under international law, unless it is expressly agreed in a contract. And that includes if they have paid you for the articles.)

My other job… Okay, so writing your own blog is something that many of us have always wanted to do, and is the dream we have achieved.

[weblistposting-blog]

New Post has been published on Weblistposting

New Post has been published on https://weblistposting.com/gaming-enables-aaron-sanchez-put-together-for-mound/

Gaming enables Aaron Sanchez put together for mound

TORONTO — As with pitching, Aaron Sanchez takes his video gaming severely.

“I do not want to talk myself up but I assume I play way an excessive amount of. So if I am now not properly then there’s a problem,” he stated with a grin.

The 24-yr-vintage Blue Jays right-hander is featured on the Canadian cover of “MLB The Show 17,” the newly released baseball (generic term) for the Ps four.

For Sanchez, the sport is greater than a laugh. It enables him to preserve up with the most important leagues.

“If I’ve time pre-sport on my begin, there is an option wherein it indicates all of the games which might be going to be played that day and you can pass and select the matchup in terms of pitchers, how they think the lineup’s going to be,” he said.

the sport also frequently updates rosters, putting call-America inside the lineup if it thinks they’ll start.

“So I will attempt to get a touch scouting report earlier than the game in phrases of what guys like to do,” stated Sanchez, who went 15-2 closing season and led the Yankee League in earned-run average at 3.00. “there are (hitting) hot zones which are pretty (real) to real existence.

“It’d sound a touch weird that you can get a scouting document from a video game but it is clearly feasible,” he delivered with fun.

Sanchez grew up gaming in Barstow, Calif., as a minimum as a lot as his dad and mom could allow him.

“When I had the unfastened time, I was surely either on my Ps Portable or within the backroom in which my mother and father did not understand that I used to be gambling,” he said with amusing. “however I have continually played ‘The Display’ and (am) just humbled to also be on the cover of this and representing Ps. So it’s cool.”

In being the game’s Canadian cover boy, Sanchez is following in the footsteps of teammates Jose Bautista (2012, ‘thirteen) and Russell Martin (2015) and the now departed Brett Lawrie (2014).

Toronto third baseman Josh Donaldson became also on the cover of both the Canadian and U.S. editions an ultimate year.

This 12 months, the U.S. cowl capabilities Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr.

“I think that changed into one of the coolest reports about this,” stated Sanchez. “I always funny story around with my pals and get in touch with myself The child, (so) to be a cowl athlete with the real Youngster is some thing surreal.”

When Sanchez isn’t gambling “The Display,” he favors EA Sports activities’ NHL title over the FIFA game this is famous with some of his teammates.

“it is a bit bit extra speedy-paced,” he said. “Football isn’t always truly something that I watch in real-life. I generally tend to play games that are something I really like. I’ll play Madden, I will play Supercross, I’ll play golf.”

When he performs “The Display,” he will usually choose a new challenge.

“I know myself so nicely in the sport that I’ll try and play my pals inside the league. So from time to time I play the Phillies and pitch as (Vince) Velasquez. every now and then I play the Mets and pitch as (Noah) Syndergaard.”

but there are times While he performs for continues.

“If I’m playing and i really need to beat them, I will typically pick out the Jays and pitch myself due to the fact I realize me the fine.”

Gaming typically beckons at night time for Sanchez.

“My recurring is proper before bed. If I have time to play after the sport Whilst my day’s done, I’ll get on there and play a few friends or play my ‘Street to the Show’ or get on my season mode I have started. I do play as much as time lets in, I guess you may say.”

Textual content Adventure video games Assist Distant places Soldiers

For those of our international locations preventing ladies and men who get deployed, finding a way to pass the time can be tough. you can handiest log a lot time operating out, or every other bodily sports made to be had to you anyplace you’ll be stationed, earlier than things begin to turn out to be a drain to your thoughts. Solution? Gaming. free Text video games.

Positive, many troops may like gambling their console games down range, however there’s the constant fear of something taking place to their machine inflicting it to break. The choice to play Large Multiplayer Online games exists, but possibly there isn’t always enough bandwidth to pipe your recreation through. Heck, maybe you acquire a netbook as it’s reasonably priced and lasts some time, leaving you missing at the requirements to play many of the ones MMOs out there. Here is a really reasonably-priced (unfastened) way to bypass the time and also have a few amusing. Textual content based RPG games or MUDs (multi-consumer dungeons).

With the multitude of Online Text games to be had on your enjoyment, there are continually a ramification of options to be had for what to play. I, personally, locate that gambling unfastened Textual content video games maintains my mind occupied When it is not busy protecting the country. It gives me a innovative outlet to exercise parts of my thoughts which might be otherwise unused whilst out in doing the army job. I’m able to easily hook up with an available net source and play Online Text games to my hearts content, socializing, fighting different games, or just going for walks around killing each denizen inside the Online Textual content game global in which I pick out to play. The opportunities are infinite for those folks out here, and those of you who might be in some of the trickier places obtainable.

The advantages to simply zoning out right into a video game are quite obvious: passage of time. Nothing honestly helps passing the time more than logging some unfastened hours preventing the forces of magic or possibly building a Clan that worships a forbidden deity of a protracted-misplaced culture. you could without problems burn via most of a deployment running out, doing all your process, and gambling a few Text Adventure games.

Yet any other benefit of gambling these unfastened Online Text games is the potential to hold your social networks. Logging into this type of Online Textual content video games, even at a few abnormal hours in comparison to our buddies returned domestic, gives you enough opportunity to speak, perhaps about real existence, or possibly accomplishing a roleplaying scenario inside those Textual content Journey video games that will help you forget about your difficult conditions (despite the fact that simplest for a bit while). I find that simply having the ability to speak to pals from my Iron Realms On-line Text games helps me push through a number of the harder humps I come across whilst deployed. Being far from households and pals may be difficult, but being able to log in as my favorite characters and communicate to the ones who have end up friends through those loose Textual content games makes it a lot less harsh for me after long months of living the deployed way of life.

The closing large benefit I can hit on is a technical one. While I’m deployed, I see a lot of my brothers and sisters in fingers the use of netbooks. It would not truly provide a lot for gaming (unless you are willing to attain lower back and play games from lengthy ago), and most of the time the simplest element it is accurate for is checking 1ec5f5ec77c51a968271b2ca9862907d or playing solitaire. The netbook I exploit is Complete of masses of spreadsheets and documents about Textual content based RPG games, consisting of my dust purchaser (ZMud for individuals who are curious). it is were given a protracted battery life (that is splendid thinking about how hardly ever you get time to surely charge it returned to Complete lifestyles) and decent difficult power space (300 gigabytes average for most netbooks on the market) for storing all of your pics, motion pictures, tune and miscellaneous Text primarily based RPG facts. The exceptional element: they run ALL Online Textual content recreation customers I have ever visible hit the marketplace, that means you may use your favorite client and simply log in, gambling until your eyes bleed.

How Video video games Helped Me Give up Smoking

In rather latest years, there has been a campaign of anti-smoking advertisements from BecomeAnEx.Org, and i loved them. It was the primary time I felt like a person simply found the name of the game to quitting smoking, and supplied it from a sympathetic angle, with a humorousness and a sincere choice to Help people who smoke.

I have seen many commercials in opposition to smoking over the years. Some have attempted preventing cigarettes by means of unveiling statistics about smoking and its enterprise, with this self-righteous “look how clever we’re” method this is as an alternative alienating. it’s like being instructed to Stop smoking by using a person who is greater invested of their advertising pitch than the trouble to hand.

After which there have been the deluge of “scare tactic” classified ads that Show you blackened lungs and those residing with tracheotomies. even as I think those advertisements maintain a few well worth, they may be much more likely to offer a smoke pause, as opposed to without a doubt supporting them to Give up. Our selective reminiscence kicks in, and kicks out the awful ones.

The aforementioned marketing campaign, however, nailed the essence of the smoking hassle in some short moments. It mentioned that smoking is strongly related to habitual conduct; you smoke together with your morning cup of coffee, during your morning ordinary, or in the course of satisfied hour on the bar. these commercials suggested that you could relearn all of those sports without a cigarette. The only approximately glad hour even cautioned you “keep a larger in a single hand and anything but a cigarette within the different”. this is clever advice.

bodily addiction of nicotine is Nothing Whilst compared to the intellectual dependency of smoking. That is why sporting a patch doesn’t immediately restoration the trouble; a smoker still wants to keep and smoke a cigarette. mental dependency is king. I used to be pretty fortunate; I regularly gave up smoking honestly due to the fact I used to be now not taking part in it anymore, and that made it a ways less difficult to stroll away. however some of that recurring smoking through association became still rearing its unpleasant head. Getting rid of these previous few lines of defense may be the hardest.

When you Give up cigarettes (or are in the procedure of doing so), you can word positive new behavior taking up quickly. As soon as of them is the well-known one: consuming. And other ones pop up, like chewing the caps from pens (until they may be completely unrecognizable). however, one interest that interfered with my smoking changed into totally by chance, and Yet so powerful at preserving my thoughts and frame off of smoking, it must be endorsed in guide groups: playing video video games.