I'd love to be able to read your review of Time and Eternity. Is that at all possible?

I wanted to like T&E so much and had several attempts. But on the PS3, the movement speed is so snail-like, I just couldn't take it and eventually gave up.

The ol' "which file is it" hunt. We've all been there.

Fair enough. I'm intrigued as to where it actually came from in the first place.

I don't know which of the hundreds of files for each page it's in, is the main problem! My Developer Tools workaround works for the moment, and I only need it until I get the stuff republished so I'll live with it for now.

Joking aside, you may be able to use notepad++ to remove that URL from the files with a regex replace?

I have thought a few times about whether to suggest some kind of weekly Evercade discord online club for these sorts of games.

orange brain have no thoughts. head empty.

Thanks bud. Much appreciated. We're trying to hold out hope as best we can.

I'm sorry the search for your cat, Oliver, hasn't improved. I, myself, have had two cats go missing, and another, my childhood cat, who was killed when my father accidentally ran him over.

Similarly, my life is in a period of uncertainty or turmoil, and I am put in a standstill. My current cat has bone cancer. We've yet to put him down because he's still enjoying life despite losing an eye and having a tumor that is slowly growing every day. Coincidentally, my cousin, who just graduated from elementary school, has terminal cancer.

But I totally understand what you mean about distracting yourself with mechanically demanding games. Overwatch is that game for me, and it's also a coping mechanism, as I grew up with it and it is relatively static compared to the changes in my life. There's something about media where the ending is certain, like narrative-driven games or novels, that creates in me an aversion or anxiety. Perhaps it's because they remind me of progress, change, and endings. Progress, which I feel somehow causes me to forget a loved one. Change, which I desperately do not want. And ending, which comes with a whole slew of emotions.

Anyway, I hope things get better for you and me. Because the truth is—with time, and—if one is willing to look, things do get better.

thanks man. we are beside ourselves (negative) at the moment, and all this is happening a week before we're supposed to be going away on holiday. I just. cannot. right now

Another thing I've noticed is the connotations around friendship. Serious friendships after a certain age is considered "childish" or "feminine" (nothing wrong with femininity). This makes it difficult to criticize friends who are not being respectful or to even feel wronged by them. The many times I have called friends out, it's often taken with a sort of disgust or surprise that a man should even care about another man's attention. If so, they must be a homosexual.

Maybe it's the autism, having this unnatural sensitivity to what many would consider small things, because I too remember incidents no one else does that seem to hurt me a great deal like you've mentioned about the response to the invitation of your birthday last year or having something like a prize which was meant for a special occasion, i.e. to be won, being returned to you.

Anyway, happy birthday, I hope you have another good year.

No worries! This is something I continue to grapple with myself, but I think I'm a little better than I have been. Analysis paralysis is such a killer of enjoyment, relaxation and even personal growth, so sometimes you've just gotta tell yourself "just pick something!" — there are no "wrong" choices when it comes to engaging with media that is good for your mental wellbeing.

You don't want to know, believe me!

I feel the same about professional online social spaces too. In that instance you've set up a communal clubhouse for folks to enjoy their shared interests together, and the last thing you need is someone stinking the place up.

You owe rude people nothing, whether in your personal or professional life. Drop them in the sin bin and never think of them again, I say!

So, I hear you. I know the feeling.

Localisation into English is censorship? That's news to me – I don't even know what that means! 😅

I am aware of this. Read the rest of the paragraph:

"Surprisingly, GameZone does seem to have some of Kombo’s old articles archived, though none of them are under their original byline, instead all attributed to 'kombo' (lower-case). There are 28,435 articles attributed to 'kombo', all with the wrong dates on them — they claim to date back to 2012, but there are some with the headline 'E3 2010', suggesting that they were simply republished on the 'newer' site in 2012 — and no means of identifying who wrote what. As such, it’s useless for me to use as part of a portfolio."

GameZone has, itself, erased all its archives, removed its search function and apparently pivoted to AI slop recently, as reported by Aftermath here:

https://aftermath.site/gamezone-video-game-journalism-reviews-archives

So my point here stands.

From https://web.archive.org/web/20110122042505/http://kombo.com/

"

Kombo has joined forces with the GameZone Network. You may have noticed a few changes already (e.g. the cleansing of spam) and there will be many more to come as we get a more functional design up an running, a better flow of content, and a new editorial direction. Thanks to all of the readers who stuck by Kombo's side, and stay tuned for more.

Brian Rowe, Media Content Manager
"

While I don’t always read your posts, I’ve noticed that lately, it is more apparent that you’ve been going through a hard time. I can’t say anything that’ll help practically, but know that these posts you put out are amusing at worst and thought-provoking at best.

I had hot honey for the first time at my second Burns Night Supper of the season. It was nice.

I was intrigued that you're also a fan of Shakespeare & Hathaway. We don't often get British TV shows here any more (well, apart from the tedious ones about psycho-murder, husband ghostlights wife into madness, or other way round etc.).
I bought a secondhand DVD set of this show (couldn't get all, just 2 seasons) and while we don't watch it often, we enjoy an episode in between other things.

Atm we're watching Dept. Q which has us hooked, and I'm hoping it'll keep up quality and tension.

I guess I'm fine with it if there was a guarantee that they'd remain online indefinitely, but obviously that's a big unknown, and it wouldn't be an issue if games shipped in a complete state. But that hasn't been true for a long time, so I think this is just where we're at.

The good thing about the game-key cards should be that you could continue to purchase or trade them long after the eshop is no longer selling Switch 2 digital games, since the download servers are a separate thing. But again all that remains to be seen. I just think that people are rightfully wary of getting screwed out of their purchases.

The prices are bonkers at the moment, at least in part because of Cheetoman's tariffs. But yeah, £75 is what it says for a physical copy of Mario Kart on the official Nintendo store. The digital version is a little cheaper, and if you get the bundle, you effectively get the digital version for £30, which I guess is what they're counting on. The prices on there are usually pretty much what you pay anywhere else as Nintendo first-party stuff doesn't tend to see a lot of discounts anywhere.

I hope they do take a look at this prior to launch because I know a lot of people have suddenly hit the brakes after having seen these prices!

But 75 quid sounds really OTT.
Maybe there's a chance they'll correct or adjust that.

And I guess that's the thing – the North American Atari Crash could happen for the same reason the market there was so huge; the economic powerhouse that was the US suburban middle class 1950-2001. Kim made a good point that a big part of the problem was that "everybody" (i.e. US middle income households) had an Atari VCS but Atari didn't have a Next Big Thing to sell them and drive games on from the "we already have dozens like that at home".

In Europe middle-income households just weren't as rich, certainly in the UK with its economic situation of the early '80s. I'm sure like me you remember boggling at US-made films and TV showing "typical" families with entire closets full of toys, TVs in every bedroom, two cars on the drive and a pool in the back yard. While there were definitely saturation and oversupply issues (the '84 slump which did so much damage to Acorn) there was always the fallback of people who wanted a home computer, hadn't been able to afford one, but could if the price dropped to £129, or £99, or came with a monitor so they didn't also have to buy the kids a TV, thank you S'ralun.

This gave much smaller peaks but also shallower troughs, and drove so much of our market – those "pocket money" games from Mastertronic and Codies and the like. I think that also helped even out the ebbs and flows of consumer demand even before you hit the "for every game you bought, you pirated ten" side; you bought a budget game, you knew it would be crap and you'd get bored of it, but by the time you were bored of it and your mates didn't have anything good to copy you could buy the next budget game and start the cycle afresh.

I lost track of a point somewhere round here and I think it's this: I wonder how much that strong attachment to the idea of "the global video games crash" is tied up in a sense of longing for the silver age of the American middle class (and by extension, its 1950-1963 golden age) – that the veneration and overprotective attitude is not so much about the crash, but the idea that ordinary households held that economic power, that within a mere couple of years families were going out and buying the expensive NES packs with the robot and the zapper and in going, "sure, but that was only you" we're also on some subconscious level saying, "look, we existed perfectly fine over here without this notional great lost age of suburbia, stop tying your country in knots trying to recapture it". Maybe that's a reach but then, hey, I'm looking at that from the perspective of someone living in a country that's spent over 100 years trying (and failing) to come to terms with no longer being the sole global superpower.

Depending on which hashtag a journalist clicks, they can either write "video games are radicalizing young men into hateful ideologies" or "video games are offering a voice, creative outlet, and sense of community to traditionally-marginalized people of all stripes." With as many people as there are in the world, you can find plenty of examples for both.

Learning about these harmful pipelines that are specific to communities – whether that is gaming or sports or guns or religion or health&wellness – is an important step to countering or dismantling them. But I think you're right: saying men are "falling into" gaming _due to_ lack of a proper role model is reductive to the point of being actively unhelpful.

Young men kicking the football around with dad more often isn't a solution. A bigger picture of masculinity's changing role in society and supporting men in finding what that means to them is something that can and should be applied to all hobbies and communities.

Suggesting the hobby/community/activity itself is the problem – or even a symptom of the problem – is othering and denigrating in a way that will simply compound itself atop the existing problems.

My wife scored a completely free and rather nice Sony stereo system that someone had just left on the pavement for anyone who wanted it to nab a while back, and she's been grabbing occasional charity shop vinyls here and there. She also fixed the tape decks and the CD player (she's a lot handier than I am!) so, I mean, potentially I *could*…

No. That's dangerous thinking, that is. 🙂

I do get in that mood still, now and then, so I'll go flip through vinyl bins at a local assorted-physical-media store. But there I mostly stick to things I know and like with space _definitely_ being at a premium for vinyl. The closest I get to this for finding new music these days is using the various discovery tools on Bandcamp.

Which has helped me find a lot of great music, but it definitely doesn't feel the same as having this little pile of potential that I drive home from store and slowly work my way through.

Of course I've since played most of the big games from the platform through re-releases, collections, and emulation. But I'm still slowly picking my way through the RPG lineup. I managed to pick up a SNES Jr and Secret of Evermore a couple months ago and I'm just about through that.

But Soul Blazer is not one I'm familiar with, so I'll be on the lookout for more about that. And maybe I'll queue it up for next. Looks kinda pricey, tho, so maybe one for the flashcart 😅.

With kind regards,

Vael

Children's taste buds are more sensitive than adults' taste buds which is why children tend to be fussier then adults. Some things tasted worse when I was smash(coffee), lots of things tasted amazing (strawberry jam, ice cream, ginger snaps). When we go on holiday, I buy the children variety packs of cereal and they are still the treat to them that they were to you.

I doubt sandwiches are actually worse. We are worse because getting old does that to you.

Top tip: Waitrose salt beef and gherkin sandwich is worth hunting down.

I did, yes — I wanted to use a classic system font (Atari ST, to be specific) to go with my retro interest, but I wasn't sure about using it for the body text. Thanks for letting me know it's hard to read — I've changed it back to something hopefully more readable and kept the custom font just for headings!

Oh no! Glad I've got the whole experience on one cart for Switch then! 🙂

It definitely feels like a Vita game in several ways. This is a compliment, so far as I'm concerned!

However… the internet is full of flaky accounts that post part 1 of their "epic, 100 part series guys, I promise!" YouTube series and then just disappear, so I'm not surprised that there is a bit of a trend towards viewership wanting to watch things that are already marketed as "complete". Your 150 game reviews is definitely a cool project, but let's be real, 99% of people who make the review of game 1 get bored and move onto a new project.

So I think it's actually two competing pressures. The first is the viewership demanding "finished" products to watch, and the second is the amount of energy creators have to give adequate time to any given project. Not to mention if you're a person doing YouTube (or tiktok or whatever) as a fulltime job there's the additional pressure of having to produce *something* new regularly, which I'm sure leads to half-baked videos, "content"-ifying the art they discuss.

Hi Britta! Good to see you again. And yes, it's an unfortunate reality of today's Internet. It makes just enjoying things — and wanting to share that enjoyment — very difficult and frustrating at times.

A difference is that influencers' need to protect their own personal brand arguably keeps them honest. Games journalists do not have as much at stake in their personal brand.

Yeah, there are pros and cons to weighing oneself that frequently. You're right that it helps get rid of some of the tyranny of the scale, as well as helping you get into the mindset that your weight *does* fluctuate from day to day, but there's also the very real possibility you can get unhealthily obsessed with your daily weight. Not saying that's happening to you as it clearly works for you, but I fear it might happen to me if I tried it!

As you say, all I need to do is be a bit more careful, acknowledge where I've gone wrong and do something about it. The past is already passed, so the only thing I can do is make sure the future goes in the right direction.

I weigh myself more than some people say I should, every morning after I urinate. This removes some of the tyranny of the scale. This week my weight has been fluctuating wildly because of the height. One day I gain a pound. The next day I lose a kilo. Then I put a pound on again.

It's difficult because it's hard to see what's really happening because of the variation caused by water.

All you can do is to keep doing the right thing and you will see results. I'd be better off binning the biscuits too…

Thanks for sharing your story — I don't think it's an unusual one at all. I wouldn't say that I ever drifted onto the actual "right" as such — my fundamental beliefs, if I had to pin them down, have always been a bit left of centre — but I completely understand how and why people got drawn into that side of things, particularly at the height of GamerGate.

There were lots of people feeling disenfranchised and disillusioned with the state of things around then, and it was frustrating — I felt that frustration and expressed that frustration, and thus often found myself on the periphery of GamerGate, which ended up costing me a lot of friendships, unfortunately.

But you're absolutely right — ten years later, the right wing end of things haven't really achieved anything. They're more visible, yes, and I think that's a bit of a problem when it comes to the homophobia, transphobia and racism you see in YouTube comments and suchlike these days, but they haven't actually achieved anything such as, like you say, making their own games.

Sure, there are stupid meme games like that Alex Jones run and gun game that did the rounds a little while back, but they're not creating anything on a larger scale themselves — and the games that do fit in with what they want (not necessarily from a "right wing politics" angle, simply those games with a laser-focused audience I talked about above) still end up going ignored.

As some commentators say, it often feels like it isn't really about the games themselves.

To be honest, as someone who went right wing and believed in such things to someone who have developed an extreme aversion to their politics and now firmly on the left. One thing that got to me in honestly is how this culture war has shown how ineffectual they are. They don't make games, they don't realize they are a captive audience who doesn't see the key is in front of them to make what they want and instead spend their time shaking their prison bars in utter contempt of their inmates across the room who cannot be bothered with the fake signs of kindness and politeness the prison guards are showing as of late. They are focused on making the best out of their bad situation in life that is steadily going worse which includes games and media being delisted for a tax cut. But the right wing reactionary has always been proven to be a parasitic existence from it's inception, with no creation in their goal to try and futilely destroy an industry too big to fail.

That said, the right wing isn't just found in the states and UK, their support base also stems in places like Southeast Asia where mobile gaming is popular and still panders to them not because they care but because the quality of gaming there is so bad that a PNG collector with attractive women can win them over but they remain threatened by the presence of anything that breaks their lull of security.

That said I do want to see their safe spaces gone, as long they think they have voice they will keep screaming even as their voices go hoarse and I would prefer an "all quiet by the peanut gallery" that Sony did for TLOU2

Might it be useful motivator to publish your weight on your blog each time you do a weigh-in? It might help you to win more battles with temptation than you lose. Just an idea, because I think it would help me if I was in a similar situation.

Good luck. Be optimistic. Think about how it will feel when you hit any targets/milestones you set yourself.

Regarding the fear of getting things wrong, I have similar difficulties and the best bit of advice I was given is to imagine what you would say to someone else if they had made the same mistake. Usually, it would barely even register.

A therapist told me that those very negative thoughts are a form of self harm. We can't stop them popping in our heads, but her advice was to have some different things to think about 'banked' ready to distract yourself with.

So sorry to hear this, it's incredibly sad when this happens to a beloved pet. Thanks for sharing the story of how you all came to be together, sounds like you've had some wonderful times.

It's awful news. It's never a good time, and that's no age for a cat. Sorry Pete.

You want to espouse the joys of your childhood franchises, sorry but Content for Kids makes sure you cant comment on that video where you made memes online years ago

Say something mean or mildly controversial? Automods will make sure your comment is deleted and your account banned.

Clickbait is just the means to ensure there is some lifesigns left in a thoroughly sedated internet free of meaningful content and the cries of old men screaming at the digital clouds is proof of that.

By all means! Likewise, you can reach me at the same email address I've been using for God knows how long now, and that also works for Google Chat. If you prefer Discord, you can get me at MoeGamerPete#2465. I won't recommend Twitter as I barely use it right now with the way things are, and I don't really use any other social media.

You can also catch up with my professional writing at https://ricedigital.co.uk and https://evercade.co.uk/blog/, my vids at https://youtube.com/@ThisIsPete and… I think that's about it right now. There's also a ton of stuff over on https://moegamer.net but with my position at Rice I haven't been updating that actively for obvious reasons.

No embarrassment here, don't worry — you know how much I put myself out here anyway! 🙂 Thanks for the kind words, and I'll keep you in mind for any illustrated projects!

I put this message on your website as I thought it would reach you that way – then realised that as you'd sent me an email I could just reply to that. Hope it doesn't embarrass you on your site – it shouldn't. It might even get you a few more people adding to the sentiments especially about publishing.

Stay well and productive.

Always,

Jud ________________________________

"Favourite" is a strong word, but I'm happy to see these lyrics in full! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!

1. Communication! mmm. Communication! mmm
Way back long ago men sent messages,
Beating out rhythms on drums and bones.
Others blew shells to sound like trumpets, Or
carved out signals on trees or stones.

Chorus:
Trying to get a message through to you
Trying to get a message through
Trying to get a message through to you,
Are you list'ning?

2. Communication. Communication
Once when Indian tribes in America
Sent smoke signals across their land.
Blackfoot. Cherokee. Sioux and Apache
Could tell when a meeting of the tribe was planned

Chorus

3. Communication. Communication.
Sailors crossing the sea put flags out.
Different colours upon the mast,
Semaphore signals then morse code
And emergency flares to call help fast

Chorus

4. Communication. Communication
New technology helps us communication
Messages travel at the speed of light.
TV, radio, teletext, car-phone
Carry ideas in sound and light.

Chorus

Yes, I'm very interested to take a look at Xanadu Next on it! I had forgotten it came out on N-Gage until a browse for games earlier today. Copies are going for a premium, it seems, but I kind of want to get my hands on one now.

If you are in the mood for some more structured writing at some point next year I’d be pretty interested in reading your modern impressions of the N-Gage and any games you play on it (no pressure, of course!). I’ve always found it to be a really unique system with some interesting games, but there is surprisingly little in-depth coverage of it on the internet. If you could get your hands on the port of Xanadu Next that might make a good MoeGamer article?

I've never even used Google Maps on my phone. I'm a firm believer in the "jack-of-all-trades = master of none" philosophy when it comes to tech. I firmly believe that no device that does anything can do one thing well. I prefer dedicated devices. I have a proper MP3 player for music. A fully featured Garmin GPS for navigation. I hate the idea of even using my phone for stuff like that. I guess that makes me a dinosaur.

Yeah. I hate being tied to my smartphone, and I hate being around people who have their heads buried in smartphones. I'm aware that I've *been* someone with his head buried in his smartphone in the past, and I kind of regret that now, because now I feel like people who do that are douchebags.

I hate how all-encompassing and "important" smartphones are, like some people think they would literally die without them. I hate how people will prioritise their smartphones over actual human interactions (a particular bugbear in retail around Christmas time — GET THE FUCK OFF YOUR PHONE IF YOU'RE AT MY REGISTER, FUCKER). And I hate the negative impact smartphone gaming — particularly after the introduction of in-app purchases — has had on gaming at large, both in terms of the world's collective attention span and exploitative, shitty business practices.

I was thinking more about this today. I think were I to abandon smartphones, I'm pretty sure the only real thing I'd *genuinely* miss would be Google Maps. And even then I can deal with that just by doing the old-school approach of printing out directions before I leave. I often do that anyway.

I saw an N-Gage on Amazon for £40 last night. It's getting hard to hold myself back.

The entire world of smart phones exhausts me, and I find myself resenting mine fairly regularly. My wife and I try to live day-to-day with a "simplify your life" philosophy. We like to eliminate clutter – and I don't just mean physical clutter – from our routine. The compulsion that seems to come hand-in-hand with smartphones feels heavy, and it's something that I think about escaping from fairly often. As the world strives to be ever more connected, my instinct is to move in the opposite direction.

I get what you're saying and totally understand. I certainly wouldn't blame anyone for going "fuck this" after falling into the same pit of spikes for the 50th time.

That said, it's not entirely without precedent for a Final Fantasy game to feature a dungeon that is seemingly at odds with the structure and overall feel of the rest of the game. Consider FFVII's Ancient Forest, which features one of the only genuine puzzles in the game. Or that dungeon in FFVIII where you recruit Brothers, where it practically turns into a small-scale gridder. Or indeed the Labyrinth of Time in the newer releases of FFI, or the Ancient Labyrinth in FFII — though granted those weren't present in the original release.

In most cases these were optional content, but I've always found it enjoyable and interesting when a game shakes up its standard structure and mechanics temporarily. Nier made a whole game out of the concept, after all! 🙂

Seriously, it's insane to think about how long Final Fantasy has been a part of my life – and how much of an impact the franchise has had on who I am today. I mean even a tiny microcosm of the series' legacy – the saga of FF Versus XIII morphing into XV has occupied a part of my headspace for the span of 10 years. Think about that. Just short of a 3rd of my life. When Versus XIII was first shown off I hadn't even met my wife. I didn't have my MA. I hadn't started my current job. It's nuts.

As far as the game itself, I'm basically on media blackout. I'm hopeful that I will find the enjoyment, but I really did not like the combat in any of the three demos that I played. And that is a huge thing to miss on. I do like the world so far, though. We'll see how it goes. This is probably my favorite overall gaming series of all time, but as my Countdown list has shown, I have not really enjoyed this particular Director/Executive Producer's entries prior to this one. But during the review I plan on giving it ever chance to change my mind.

Agree with all of this. Klepek at least admits his inherent biases up-front in this article, which is progress after a fashion, but you're right; there are plenty of other writers out there still keen to push the "omg gross" angle. Polygon makes a living out of it, after all.

Still, I do think it's worth highlighting and praising a step in the right direction, as this is.

Clearly Kenichiro Takaki is an outgoing and gregarious individual who is happy to talk frankly to the press. That’s great (I really like the guy), but it’s completely unfair and unreasonable for Klepek to expect all other Japanese creators to do the same.

Even ignoring the varying temperaments of game developers (not everyone is going to be as friendly as Takaki) there are plenty of other developers out there who just won’t feel comfortable speaking to journalists, especially to a non-Japanese speaking reporter from a different culture who has shown themselves to be biased in much of their previous work. Klepek has a history of falsely representing his work as fair and balanced (deliberately or not) and misrepresenting the positions of those he disagrees with. The example I think of most often is when he got translators to talk about how completely literal Japanese-to-English translations are often difficult or impossible – which is a fair point – but then used this to defend the English Fire Emblem: Fates script, which doesn’t translate parts of the Japanese script so much as completely rewrite them from the ground up.

Also, even if Klepek himself writes a neutral article I suspect he knows that there are many other people out there who won’t have any compunctions about using the words of game developers in these interviews to further push the “sexist, misogynistic and gross!” narrative. I don’t blame developers for not wanting to expose themselves to that.

Something tells me that if this was any other demographic and subject matter (say, a queer developer from the US who made a controversial indie game about race or gender) you wouldn’t see Klepek blaming the developer for fanning the controversy and insisting that they have to talk to journalists to set the record straight. Also, it’s pretty insulting to straight up suggest (as Klepek does) that creators and PR reps are lying when their answers don’t match up with his preconceptions.

I suspect that what most developers and fans of these sorts of games want is to just be left alone to get on with making and enjoying them in peace. By all means, journalists should review, analyse and otherwise report on these games (you’ve done a pretty good job of this yourself, Pete), and of course they have the right to express their opinion of them. The problem is that a few Western journalists seem to view themselves as moral adjudicators, who get to decide whether this kind of content is “acceptable” or not. When, really, it’s none of their business.

As for Patrick Klepek – I think he’s got a lot of work and personal growth to do if he wants to convince people that he genuinely cares about having an open and honest discussion about these issues.

Yeah. It's hard to eat into that "business" side of things, as they're firmly entrenched in the "we must only write about popular games"thing. And unfortunately, they adopt this model because it works thanks to people Googling stuff like "call of duty review" and whatnot.

I don't know how you can discourage that sort of model when it's so firmly entrenched. There's been growth in alt sites like OpRainfall in the last few years, but we really need a site like that to be able to break into full-on commercial venture territory, hire full-time staff for fair pay and provide an honest to goodness service to readers who currently lack what they want.

I thought USgamer might be that place in the early days, before we were specifically told to focus our attention on what would get more traffic.

From what I understand, Niche Gamer is probably the closest to achieving this with advertising deals and actually paying its writers. It's unfortunate that the site owner's attitude kinda stinks, and they've already found themselves having to bow to the whims of advertisers — they closed the ecchi side of their forums after advertisers complained.

What we need, of course, is a fundamental rethink of the whole business model. We used to be more than happy to pay up for magazines, but the assumption on the Internet is that everything should be free, forcing publishers to rely on advertising revenue rather than selling their product. And, as has frequently been said, when you're dealing with PPC ad-based income, the product is not the product, the reader is the product.

That said, Microsoft recently seems to be pushing for the idea of Xbox being a more contiguous platform between hardware generations. Whenever Phil Spencer talks about Scorpio he talks about the idea of the whole Xbox library being carried forward, making comparisons to PC, and even includes the Xbox 360 games currently being made backwards compatible with Xbox One.
Compare this to mobile, which in the case of iOS is a closed platform that has generally maintained backwards and forwards compatibility throughout the lifespan of the App Store.

But I think that guy is generally right on PS4 and Xbox One discs. Basically every physical PS4 game I've played has had to install over 30 or 40GB of data which is usually pretty much the whole game or all the data that a Blu-Ray would be able to contain. A lot of games let you play CERTAIN PARTS while the disc is still installing though. Having to install the whole game seems to be the rule, not the exception. As with PC, physical discs on consoles have become nothing more than a delivery medium, and developers don't even really develop for a disc world anymore. All these day-one patches happen because there are always improvements and fixes that can be done in the weeks during which the discs are being manufactured. Sometimes huge portions of the game (like the multiplayer for Halo Master Chief Collection) are never even on the disc and just get pushed out in the form of multi-gigabyte day-one patches.

Nice, super glad to hear that the lectures get much more in depth. I might even be willing to travel to see one now.

My friend Tom, who's a lot more into this stuff than I am, pointed out that Cox's "popular media" work tends to be a lot more layman-friendly, presumably to attract people without scaring them away, while events such as this evening were designed to cater to people who, like you, crave a little more.

Tonight's lecture was certainly on the heavier side and obviously aimed at people who already have a certain amount of interest and emotional investment in the subject, but it was interesting nonetheless, even as a relative layman. (I was interested in science in my youth, but dropped studying it in post-16 education… there are days when I kind of wish I hadn't!) He got well into the mathematics of a lot of things, so I think you'd have enjoyed it and perhaps might have got a little more out of it than I did! 🙂

It was time well spent, though. Nice to get away from the noise of the Internet and be reminded of our place in the cosmos.

Try contacting him via his website if you think you can assist him. he has so many talents they are of value to any number of employers.

Well they should catch up with the rest of the world – here in OZ agencies specialize in finding work for people of any age including over 50! He is still totally employable. I am shocked and disgusted by that attitude.

He is past 30 I think. It is hard for the employment centers to help people over 30.

Great advice.

No problem! It still holds up pretty well today. 🙂 I have fond memories of customising and fiddling around with the program. Ah, the early days of modding!

Thanks. "This, too, will pass" and all that, huh?

I made it all the way through Purino Party without making it easier once!

I also swore at it a lot, but I got there in the end. 🙂

And speaking of Purino Puzzle, I think the biggest problem about it was just them not explaining some things in the tutorial, which later got patched in and shouldnt pose a problem anymore. I do admit though, that I have used that make it easier button after failing way too often though.

squeeeeeeee. Hello! I've sent you and Scorp a longer email but wanted to acknowledge this comment too. Thanks for getting in touch, I'm really happy to hear from you both. 🙂

That dog article actually did get me thinking a little bit. I personally don't see the problem with having different kinds of dog costumes marketed regardless of the dog's gender.

And on the Forza article, for starters, it was published at Vice, not Vice Gaming. It seems to me like the story WAS written for a more mainstream audience, not just game enthusiasts. And what's wrong with writing articles about video games for general audiences touching on subjects other than the playing of the games? Starting out I had to do most of my video game writing for general audiences.

There's even this line in one of the paragraphs: "The developers are in no way responsible for that making me feel uncomfortable. " I don't think the author is trying to make anyone feel bad for liking Forza Horizon 3 or trying to make the developers feel bad for making the game the way they made it. He's just pointing out something peculiar he felt about the game which might reflect on how developers portray real-world locations in video games.

Well, as a BLM I am lucky, that the new Scripture Weapon is really good. Until then my upgraded Lore weapon will keep me going. I also did finish it again today, got one of those new things, but sadly didnt get anything good out of it. Since I am leveling Bard at the moment, I might do another complete run before 3.45 to see if I can get to +30 for the next 50 floors.

Palace is good fun. It's a decent way to level alt classes and/or a good source of tomestones, plus the i235 weapon, while not exactly cutting-edge any more, can be a good stopgap while you work on an Anima.

Yep playing on PC and request sent. That said, I'm also very tempted to import a PS4 copy of the Ultimate release when it comes out. Seems Japan isn't getting that any time soon, otherwise I'd buy a local copy.

I have similar concerns, which is why I'm trying to enjoy it now while it's still reasonably "alive"!

What platform are you playing on? If it's PC, feel free to add "AngryJedi" to your friends. 🙂

That's how good The Crew is in my opinion. I want to still be playing it 20 or so years from now. There's no better way to relax than to just drive around that map with no real aim in mind, and I can easily spend hours without realising it doing just that.

For that matter, if you haven't already, check out the Free Drive stuff. You can set up your own race routes, etc. I have one that takes around 2 hours to complete and is a huge loop around the map. Great for taking in the sights!

And when you do hit "end game", you'll also unlock Platinum rank, so there's a fourth set of parts to get too. You only need to hit level 50 to unlock that and that's easy to do even before finishing the story.

Can't wait for the new expansion to come out. Also really hoping that Steep follows The Crew model, as I can see that being really good too if it does.

@judsartwork MMO is Massively Multiplayer Online. Basically it means the game is online only so it's only playable when Ubisoft's servers are up (they go down a few hours each week for maintenance). Much like Everquest or World of Warcraft if you've heard of either of those.

Yeah, he's done a few things, and he always just sounds like Jim Sterling in all of them. It's unfortunate.

Rom does look great. It's lower-res than VA-11 HALL-A but, like its spiritual successor, fundamentally understands how low-res pixelart worked and did its best to remain authentic… which is why the voices are so jarring.

The other reason is that a number of the characters are seemingly supposed to be a bit "ambiguous" in terms of identity, and giving them a voice undermines the good work they did with the writing, with the most glaring example being Turing. The writing explicitly states that Turing was designed to be outside of the uncanny valley, yet the moment you give him/her/it a voice, you not only humanise him/her/it more than intended, you give him/her/it a gender that may not have been the same as the one in the player's mind — or indeed, assigned a gender where the player may not have assigned one at all in their mind. That seems to somewhat undermine one of the messages in the game.

Made redundant at the end of April and only now am I currently working a short-term temp. placement. The only good thing about large companies is the benefits you sometimes get. The work itself and staff(usually) are forgettable.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/charnelhouse/charnelhouse.htm

On a more positive note, Jesus H. Christ I want to make love to ROM's graphical presentation. It's one thing for indie devs to ape the looks of Western adventure games . . . but this sucka is pure Snatcher. I can't look away!

The alternative for not having ads is having people actively donating to you by Patreon or something like that. It's just sad since almost nobody reach a considerable amount to completely remove the ads and even then some are afraid of doing so because if you do something "wrong" a lot of the money you get from donations will vanish in the instant (some people deserve it though).

Yeah, I heard Dark Goddess route *starts* around level 60 or so. I'm over 40 on my Goddess playthrough, though, so I should be fine by the time I get there.

I'd definitely recommend that. Goddess route is the shortest and easiest. I was playing it for review before there were any guides up online. So I stumbled into the Dark Goddess route on my NG+ run through and found myself quite underleveled. It wasn't a huge deal, I just had to do some serious grinding. But it was fairly obvious that route was meant to be last, as you really need to get over level 100 pretty early on.

Closing in on the end of Goddess, I think. Doing Vile God next then Dark Goddess last.

Also, can't wait to hear your view of FFF: ADF after you have completed the Dark Goddess Route. It's only available after you've beaten the game once with either the Goddess Route or the Tyrant Route.

Excellent recommendations! To this list I would also add Siter Skain’s Alltynex trilogy, which is also included in the sale. Those games are the stuff of indie shmup legends. Some of the earliest examples we have – and they’re damn fine games to boot. They really nail that Saturn and PS1 era graphical style. Also, a pretty cool story. Such a delight.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/taleofalltynex/taleofalltynex.htm

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/taleofalltynex/taleofalltynex.htm

Oh yeah, Mushihimesama is great. I haven't spent as much time with it as I have with some of Cave's other work, but it's definitely a good one.

Even 2ch agreed that CH was an eyesore and "That Guy" in video game development? I bet they were surprised to see it get so much traction from gaijin gamers.

Actually for all of the crap done to them I am amazed they haven't created a villain based on the oversea journalism. A Two Faced giant robot with several megaphone cannons blaring out propaganda on the sordid lives of the CPU goddesses

As someone said it, I feel this is the mindset that the New Tens overseas Japanese gamer fans face. At least when it comes to the VITA

"On one hand you have extreme Japanophiles who unquestionably buy everything out of Nippon. This includes but not limited to: Expensive figurines, import Bluray sets, anime "comfort" pillows, everything FF13 related, PC hentai games, and of course Underage Panty Quest XVII: Hurt Feelings Vita Edition, and buys all PS1 Imports on the PS Store despite not knowing Japanese. They will defend Bandai Namco's honor in spite of getting nothing in return for white knighting a corporation.

vs.

Average Vita fan who is OK with indies, JRPGs, and came to terms with the handheld's fate. They love everything about the Vita and have for the most part understood why the Vita died the way it did. Despite this, they are not full-fledged weeaboos and want to be treated equally among PS3/PS4 owners. Not having a proper localization like Type Zero/Xillia 2 infuriates them because it makes them look like second class citizens.

One group is OK with whatever they get, the other wants at least some standards even if the Vita is largely shunned by publishers in the West. Of course, I hate both groups since they port beg endlessly; I don't really care who comes out on top."

Mackey and the Journalism cliques is very much in the latter category to put it in loose terms. People like me also lie in the latter territory however. You may be happy with what you got but outraged at how reviewers don't think that way. It is infuriating to see the good games get skipped over for proper localization or endure a 5 year waiting period while Compile Heart Quest XVIII: Hurt Feelings Edition gets almost instantly localized in any country that hasn't become a sex negative nanny state. So when you got offended over how USGamer reviewed the game,

People want standards in the industry, standards that Compile Heart for the most part ignored.

Agreed. It is absolute nonsense to suggest Compile Heart has stopped any other Japanese developers from doing their thing. As I say, they know their audience and they cater to it. If other developers and publishers aren't willing to do that, that isn't Compile Heart's fault at all.

To bring in the perceived social standing of people who enjoy their games is just plain offensive, and a big reason why I continue to champion their games and highlight the parts that mainstream reviews never talk about. And, indeed, the parts where mainstream reviews are just plain wrong.

As for Dragon Quest and Yakuza, well, we're still getting them. These are under the banner of much bigger companies, however, which means they have to be a lot more careful about the risks they take, so they may take longer to come West. Remember, Square Enix is the company that considers a multi-million selling game a "failure" if the number of multis isn't high enough, and Sega? Well, who knows what's going through their mind at any given moment? One minute they're churning out triple-A stuff, the next they're giving us Hatsune Miku. If anything, Sega's case is proof that you can have it both ways and cater to multiple, disparate and often exclusive audiences.

I'm not saying everyone has to like Compile Heart games. But maybe, just maybe, someone who hates them and is unwilling to engage with them — as is very obviously the case with Mackey's review, since he only talks about the game on the most superficial of levels — shouldn't be reviewing them.

Your business can't function when the bad rep of others ruin it for you. Remember the Hollywood industry, after Heaven's Gate flopped it saw the end of the kind of ambitious movies in exchange for safe profitable blockbusters. Nowadays it's MCU rehashes and novel flavor of the month adaptation with a clear release format for Hollywood. The same is with Japan, they taken the decision to play it safe with VITA panty quests and MonHun clones. No revolutionary first party games or big hits from the big guys. No they all left for greener pastures where they won't get persecuted like Compile Heart is.

A good analogy is if a chain of restaurants have suffered from a Mad Cow outbreak, people will be suspicious about eating that kind of food and your company will indirectly lose business because the other guy didn't bothered, they just wanted to feed their audience trash and they are willing to eat it up.

It is a stupid idea that just because a game or developer exists that you don't like, that prevents stuff that you will like from being made. This complaint pops up all the time, especially in the age of the internet, whether it is about Compile Heart or Michael Bay or Stephanie Meyer. It's frankly the stuff of internet trolls. I personally enjoy Compile Heart a lot, and gave this game a very glowing review. But that doesn't mean that everyone is going to feel the same. Pete and I disagree on several other things. But at no time do I feel that his opinion interferes with me getting the enjoyment I want out of the gaming space. It's fine to want more games like Yakuza. But it's myopic to think that it is universally considered a good game and Fairy Fencer F is considered a bad game. Different gamers want different things from their games. I personally enjoy the Yakuza games as well, and would like to see more of those games and similar from Japan. But that doesn't mean Compile Heart needs to have any concern at all over them either. They serve their own audience, and their audience tends to love them for that. Myself included. If you don't like the games, don't buy them. If enough people don't like them, they will have to change their business model or go out of business. But blaming them for what you perceive to be the downfall of other Japanese developers or the lack of localization is a straw man argument at best, and ridiculous at minimum.

I am not a fan of Compile Heart and saw them as why sites like USGamer takes their time to trash Japanese gamign.

To me, they are what the idol industry is to Japanese gaming, low brow pander by the numbers and backed by a fanatic audience who's social standards are considered to be bottom on the pole in Japan. The kind of person who's outward face is a disgraceful sight (aka their tatamae) and the inner self almost as pathetic. The Wota audience in a sense created this untenable situation for the music industry. An industry dictated on mediocrity where any attempts at talent is quashed by the stampede of fanatical Wota. Compile Heart has likewise been backed by an audience so fed up with the politically charged reviews from journalists that they use Neptunia as their banner to fight under. It was their idea of supporting this as the apex of the Japanese game industry, along with Senran Kagura or any game that was wrongfully attacked by these reviewers.

My idea is the opposite, localize and support good games niche or not and people will build respect towards Japan again. Respect that Compile Heart had disgraced the Japanese game industry by not realizing the times have changed. The journalists with big ad revenue which companies like Sony and Nintendo bleed their wallets to sponsor do not like shovelware but CH persisted thinking that people want their games. When I think about good Japanese games, I think stuff like Yakuza, Dragon Quest, you know the kind of games that we never see localize because there is "No Market". Well who ruined that market? It begins with C and H. They keep perpetuating the worst parts about Japanese game design and while the Galapagos series has been a massive effort to win back the crowd. I see this as foolhardy penitence from someone who ruined it for Japan and only through Gio Corsi was Yakuza given another chance (and it earned a nice review score). I honestly want more games like Yakuza where the fandom and reviewer's feels respected about Japanese culture, not the middle schooler's first fantasy fanfiction made into a video game.

I will be brutally honest with you Pete, Japanese big companies only care about the opinion of the guy with actual ad revenue, not the person who was washed out and spitted out and forever disgraced from Journalism. Like it or not, companies like Sega and Nintendo are going to do whatever they can to appease IGN and sigh, yes USGamer. Not the gamers who are fans of Compile Heart or you.

Sometimes I wonder if Konami left just get away from this.

Indeed! A lot of the upcoming new stuff sounds really cool.

Anyway, nice entry, I linked it in my blog.

If it comes to honorifics, well, sometimes it's a dealbreaker for me, especially in drama/romance/slice of life or general games/series settled in Japan. There is no option, honorifics are just too important for dropping them. Same goes to other cultural things.

And I don't understand some people which are arguing that "it's too Japanese" etc. Why they want to play/read/whatever Japanese story, settled in Japan in the first place?

It might interest you to know that the game largely considered responsible for starting the Japanese roguelike or "Mystery Dungeon" subgenre was Torneko no Daibōken: Fushigi no Dungeon, which was a Dragon Quest IV spinoff.

Feels a bit like Ys you say? SOLD!

I actually love the Crystal Chronicles series, and I've played them all.

Ring of Fates and Echoes of Time are closer to the original as far as being action-RPGs, but mechanically, they actually feel much more like some of the Ys games, especially the Napishtim/Felghana/Origin trilogy. Ring of Fates is my least favorite in the series. (Can't quite remember why, though.) Echoes of Time, on the other hand, is really good, and probably the most "mainstream" (or least experimental) of them all, but it's very polished.

The Crystal Bearers is definitely an odd duck, but I do love it for its experimentation. Like the original, it's very much an Akitoshi Kawazu game, but it's probably his most accessible game. You can tell it had a troubled development cycle because it just doesn't feel quite finished. But it's got high production values, and in my opinion, an EXTREMELY under-appreciated soundtrack.

I haven't played the later Crystal Chronicles games either. The Crystal Bearers in particular sounds like a fascinating experiment.

I've only actually played FFL2, but I liked it a lot when I did. I still have the cartridge lying around somewhere; should probably revisit it sometime!

Well, other than Final Fantasy Tactics. Most people know of that game, but as I've always said, it's one of my favorite games of all time and a true classic.

I started the second series but got a little distracted, so need to pick it up again sometime. Interested to see how it develops. One of the most quietly interesting shows on TV in recent memory!

Oh, exactly, I know that it's different strokes for different folks and all that, and to be clear, I still like The Witcher 3 a great deal. I'm just exploring the things that I like a bit less about it.

edit: I wouldn't have spent 90 hours on it if I didn't like it. 🙂

The change in color palette certainly is large. That region of the world is very beautiful even if your PC can't run it on top settings. But the tone of the sidequests has also changed a bit. A little less grim, and a lot more based on South and West European folklore, not as much Norse. More King Arthur and Brothers Grimm, less Odin and Poetic Edda. I still love the main Witcher 3 sidequests a lot, and I've been through the entire game 3 times, but my favorite sidequests are probably almost all in Blood & Wine.

We'll see. The change in colour palette might make me more inclined to do sidequests!

I see what you did there!

and by "this" I meant "those"

Unfortunately, I can't do anything with 8 man groups. Unless it is a premade party.

Sounds good! Black Desert is the one with the amazing character creator, right?

Like my friend Chris, who comments here every so often, I very much enjoy the MMO style and structure of gameplay, but find that the reliance on groups or other people to be at best restrictive and at worst unpleasant (as described here) so we're both tending to gravitate more towards "single player MMO"-type experiences like Xenoblade Chronicles X and its ilk. Will definitely consider taking a peek at Black Desert at some point, though, if it shakes things up as much as you describe.

I have started playing Black Desert, which gives you a huge and gorgeous world to explore, and multiple ways to play it, you can go around in a cart between cities and towns trading goods, but you'll have to plan a route or hire a player to guard you, as your wagon might be assulted by monsters and bandits along the road.

Or you can specialize in production, hiring npc workers to collect materials from farms and mines for you to sell or craft various equipment or even build ships to sail the seas and fish to sell to nps traders or on the market board.

I've been a bit too busy to get into the higher level content but I'll eventually get there when I have the time.

P.S. Played any Tokyo Mirage Sessions? Picked it up for my girlfriend's birthday and we're enjoying it so far.

Thanks dude. I'm sorry this undoubtedly came across personally and it wasn't intended to pick on you at all, I just happened to see the wrong thing at the wrong time.

I've been in a bad place… well, for the past five years or so, if I'm honest, and having gradually seen the people I care about and used to talk to on a daily basis slowly become people I find very difficult to talk to out of fear that I'll inadvertently say something "offensive"… well, that's kind of difficult.

This is at least partly my own problem, I know, and stepping away from Twitter and Facebook was just one means I'm trying to improve my mental state, but given that I still want to share my work, I can't exist in a complete vacuum, much as I'd like to sometimes.

I don't have anything against people wanting to be "better" with regard to social awareness — I pride myself on trying my hardest to live and let live whenever possible — but I've seen too many people (not counting you in this category) become completely insufferable shitbags in the name of "social justice" that it's hard for me not to react negatively to it. I don't want to lose any more friends.

I'm not sure what else to say really, it's kind of hard to express what I'm thinking. I am sorry if it felt like I was singing you out, though, and I want to thank you for being understanding and cool about it.

Cheers.

I feel bad that my tweets came off as a "tirade," or "outrage," or "slacktivism," or whatever. The last thing I want is to drive a wedge between anyone. These were personal thoughts I had, along with a conversation with my girlfriend that I wanted to share, because I thought the conversation might be valuable, and it felt important to me. If your contention is that sharing those sorts of thoughts has a necessarily negative effect…fair enough.

I tried to be aware of the middle ground you mention, to acknowledge the complexity of the matter and recognize that all involved are good people, not to say "I'm right and you're wrong." Apparently I failed at that. (My girlfriend, in fact, brought to my attention that I had veered closer to "public shaming" than she would have liked or than I intended, so you're not alone.)

I had an extremely sheltered upbringing, and I have a sincere desire to broaden my horizons, not just out of guilt but because I know there is so much I don't know, and I love to learn. So when I see people willfully choosing to remain ignorant, I do have a reaction. Perhaps that reaction is unjust — I don't necessarily know how ignorant the people at that party were, or what their true feelings are, though I could gather some impression from listening to their conversations — and perhaps I'm projecting my issues onto them. But I think there's always merit in examining the reasons why we do the things we do — not to judge but to improve, as individuals and as a society.

I know you've frequently been treated unfairly by internet folks, so I know this is a sensitive subject for you. (I don't say that to be condescending, but just to acknowledge that I'm aware of what you've been through.) But my "pointless, unnecessary handwringing and guilt" DID have a purpose for me: it helped me organize and express some of my complicated feelings on a matter I consider important, in a forum where I hoped I might receive feedback and learn more.

And if you deem that purpose unworthy…I guess I don't feel the same way.

I'll probably just keep belaboring things if I continue, so I'll leave it there. In any case: I still read and enjoy all your posts here, even when I disagree with them. I almost always learn something new, and that's never a bad thing.

Hope you're well.

— Shums

Yeah, I really like the sound of the whole Soul Blazer sort-of-series. Very interested to explore them.

Hi Pete – I wanted this to be private. I forwarded an email from OpNoobs to you – they are looking for staff especially including Japanese language skills. These are really great guys – I was doing an article for them ages ago, but my subject matter isn't quite their area, whereas your genres are. If I didn't send it to the right email address and you don't get anything from me in a day please resend your email address to me so I can forward it again. They asked at the bottom if I knew anyone who might be suitable to let them know, so if I haven't heard back from you in a day I'll pass on your websites to them so they can see what you do and contact you themselves. Hang in there dear friend.

I definitely agree with Fring too. No-screen time is VERY important. We don't realize how zap-fried out brains are living off screens from day to day. There is no TV in our bedroom, and my cell phone is always strategically placed out of reach of the bed.

Of course, I don't presume to prescribe these things to you as solutions – I know that everyone is different, but it's just some examples of things that have worked in my house.

Thanks Pete – add that to your blog as an update 😀 It makes it so clear.

No, setting it up involves installing some sensors to indicate where the boundaries of your "play area" will be. These "scan" your room with lasers or infra-red or faerie magic or something and "map" where obstacles like your sofa and stuff are. When you have the headset on, any time the sensors determine you're getting close to something you might bump into, you see a wireframe "wall" showing you that you shouldn't go any further that way. There's also the option to enable a camera view showing what's actually in front of you. It's all rather clever.

No, but I understand why you are doing this; if you are already anxious, social media is pure masochism.

I created a twitter account a year ago and deleted it two weeks later. That place is dreadful, and I ended "hating" even those I followed.

Lastly, Aonuma himself admitted that it would probably make more sense to just make Zelda playable… but ultimately they didn't because they wanted to maintain the status quo of the male Link essentially being the mascot of the franchise. I think Nintendo needs to figure out a multi-character single player Zelda game.

Doesn't seem like you can edit comments so I'll add: Sony's focusing on the games with Microsoft focusing a bit more on the OS and such because those are the advantages each one has. Sony leaned heavily on first party in that conference. Technically Microsoft did too I guess, but attached it to this ecosystem it's trying to build. The Xbox Live ecosystem is how Microsoft beat Sony last gen, and with fewer exclusives it's what Microsoft is trying to leverage now. Lastly, that's just what Microsoft is — an OS company. Windows is still a way bigger part of Microsoft's business than Xbox. Sony probably can't survive without PlayStation at this point.

On the flipside, it absolutely makes economic since for everybody else to be playing to the investors. That's what E3 was made for. The original audience was always retailers, investors, and the mainstream press that usually doesn't turn its attention toward video games.

Actually let me also say for a bit that the PC Gaming Show might have actually been just as much "for the gamers." A lot of it was updates for games that are already out, and a ton of it was basically a talk show with the developers.

But anyway, a more important thing to note is that Microsoft, Ubisoft, EA, and Bethesda at least showed off more stuff that we'll actually be able to play within the next nine months.

No, PC! 🙂

Yes! Scrapheap Challenge is great fun, even as it is self-consciously kind of also rubbish, no pun intended. I'm sure I watched a bunch of these online somewhere recently, now where was it… *thinks*

Ah yeah, the Channel 4 website. You probably need a proxy of some sort (something like unblock-us might work, don't know, haven't tried it for accessing UK content outside the UK but it works great for Netflix and Crunchyroll's US catalogues!) but you can find a whole ton of episodes here: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/scrapheap-challenge

I completely agree, it all comes off as very childish behavior. Most 'writers' who don't like a game will not only trash it, but the people who like it as well. Now why would I want to keep reading articles on a site that likes to insult their readers? It's just amazing to me that they think such a model is sustainable.

Hope you enjoy! It's a good time. Give it a little while to figure things out when you first start as it's initially a little confusing, but things will soon fall into place.

Anyway, Pete, I just wanted to drop in and say I enjoy your writing, even though I'm not always into the same types of games you are. I look forward to seeing your further impressions of the Ys series.

Overall Ys VI is my favorite too, and the PS2 version even has Japanese and English dubbing if you enjoy that.

Like I said with the pacing, I think sometimes it depends on what you're in the mood for. Some Ys games, especially Ys Origins, has a more arcade-like feel, where you can mostly just cruise through at a fast clip with constant combat. I know that sometimes I have to hop around to different games because it's just not clicking with the mood I'm in, and it'll feel more tedious to me than it normally would.

The older Zelda titles are closer to Ys' style I'd say, while the more recent ones have more questing and longer puzzles so the overall game has a different feel. Usually though, I'd say if you enjoy one series you'll like the other, as they have enough similarities most of the time.

I agree about the world building and characters too, Ys just has a ton of charm.

The thing I really, really liked about it is the difficulty of the bosses, and how fair it is about it. If you die against a boss (in every Ys game that I can recall playing), you can immediately retry without delay. No loading times, no hauling your butt back to the boss room from the last checkpoint halfway through the dungeon. Mere seconds later and you're able to give it another go. It makes it more satisfying to slowly work out the pattern on your own, and it's less likely to frustrate the player. Games that force longer periods between retries are the ones I just get sick of, and resort to checking out a Let's Play to just get past the damn thing.

You're really going to enjoy the other games in the series.

Sigh. After giving it all that, you go and betray me like this! 🙂

That' being said . . . I am buying it physically anyway because I'm a nerd and I want a box with Tracer on it on my PC games shelf.

Yes, you can only play it online. There are physical disc-based copies available for both PC and consoles, but in this case, since it's an online-only game, I use "pick up a copy" to mean "buy a digital version"; as my friend Chris pointed out, in a game like this, which is regularly updated and expanded over time, there's little point buying a disc-based version because it will be obsolete after the first major update.

Of course, if you are more interested in the girls than the dungeons, definitely go for Moe Chronicle, that game was surprisingly good.

I just finished the main story portion and it's really an awesome game, it's so cool to read you talk about it

Thank you for your work, and I'm really interested to read you about it on moe gamer

Ahh, that sounds more appealing, still a bit of a "ehh" but it does sound like a good womp. If I ever nab a Vita, might be a title I'll pick up. Thanks you.

Oh, there's no guesswork, it's all logical. There's just two colours: red and blue. Flip one and the blues open. Wander through and you might find a red one with no means to open, so you need to explore and find a way around. There's no real trial and error, there's only ever one "right" route, and it's always satisfying to figure it out!

My main issue with Star Fox Zero is that I'm not sure the focus on motion controls and the GamePad screen actually makes the game better. I don't think the motion controls really accomplish anything that couldn't really have been done with standard dual analog shooter controls.

Nintendo is a company that always likes to feel innovative, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. I feel like it's an extreme version of how so many Japanese games insist on having their own unique sets of rules. The reason that feels exacerbated with Star Fox is because it's at-heart a shooter — a genre with countless established examples of "good" control schemes. I'm just not in agreement that Star Fox Zero's version of "different" necessarily means "better" or even "as good."

Dark Souls has a learning curve, but the control scheme actually isn't part of that learning curve at all. It took me like a minute to get used to the control scheme the first time I played Demon's Souls. The learning curve has been pretty much everything else in the Souls games.

Aside from the motion controls Star Fox Zero feels like a very incremental iteration on Star Fox 64 (Lylat Wars), and I don't know if that's god enough for a lot of people nine years after that game came out. The seamless Arwing-walker transformation is a really good idea with some more potential, but that's about it. The motion controls soured me on doing any extra content or arcade mode after clearing the main game once. This is coming from someone who probably cleared Lylat Wars a hundred times back in the day.

Nintendo just hasn't figured out how to definitive evolve the Star Fox franchise.

As I say, they're really minor. The basic gameplay is still the same as Star Fox has ever been. Motion is just for fine-tuning, and there are relatively few instances where it's outright necessary to pay attention to them.

I'll consider it when I have some spare cash and time. The motion controls put me off, but touch controls put me off as well but I still enjoyed Severed (Drinkbox Sudio's new dungeon crawler, my review posts today). So maybe if a game can make me enjoy touch controls, another game can make me enjoy motion.

The way I approach games these days makes them challenging, too; I tend to want to get the Platinum trophy on games I particularly enjoy, and that can often be a challenge (or at least a test of endurance!).

The challenge factor of Star Fox didn't bother me because so much of the rest of the game feels like the old installments that it kicking my ass every so often was entirely in keeping with what it was going for.

Arthur Gies is a penis. So far as I'm concerned, him not being able to handle something is a ringing endorsement.

Are you playing Chaos Reborn? http://www.chaos-reborn.com/ Let me know if you fancy a game. 🙂

Outrigger! What an interesting game that was. One of the most "Sega" games of all time, by my reckoning. Don't think I ever played it online but I recall enjoying the arcadey single player.

I had a foundation in old Atari games too — but on the home computers rather than the 2600. Didn't get into consoles until the SNES.

Bugs me that there have been lots of Atari compilations over the years that have always included the 2600 version of Star Raiders rather than the considerably superior home computer version! PC MASTER RACE or something.

again, thank you.

dr. Darrell of Michigan.

Man . . . DQIX was choice. Such a charming world with so much to do.

You're partly right about the bonds thing — the thing that, in part, draws me to such experiences is the cast, and during/after playing it, the ability to enthuse about it with others. But it's more than that: I like the feeling I get from exploring a dungeon, fighting a boss, whatever — I enjoy how all the aesthetic elements come together to create an experience, particularly the music and art.

You seem to misunderstand my frustration, though. I don't give a toss about Zoe Quinn — in my limited experience of her on Twitter, she came across as someone I didn't want anything to do with, so I didn't have anything to do with her — and I haven't played the Baldur's Gate expansion and probably won't, because Infinity Engine games were never my favourite kind of RPG. What DOES bug me about both of these situations — and others like them — is seeing people deliberately spreading misinformation. No, let's call it what it is: lying. Lying in the name of advancing their "cause", whatever that might be. Zoe Quinn is not a blameless angel; gamers are not angry about Dragonspear because it has a trans character in it — both of these things and countless more are immediately apparent to anyone who does more than five minutes of looking into the situation rather than going by what the press tells you.

As I say, though, I'm not really interested in either of those issues enough to want to "fight" for them, but I *am* interested and concerned when this practice of lying shamelessly comes to the games that I enjoy, because it makes me worry that at some point developers and publishers are going to get tired of being berated based on misinformation and just stop doing their thing. That probably won't happen in such an extreme form, but we already see developers and publishers tiptoing around the increasingly delicate sensibilities of Western players with frankly unnecessary edits.

Where I also get concerned is when I, and people like me, are branded with unpleasant labels purely for the things we enjoy. In negative reviews of things I like, I've been called a degenerate, a sex pest, a paedophile and a terrible human being. In comment sections and NeoGAF threads I've been called even worse.

It's not about the lewd and the boobs, you see, though both of those are certainly appeal elements. No, it is about the story and characterisation, the nakama of the main cast — bonds, as you say. The fact that the games that are best for this tend to have a lewd aspect these days is a reflection of the market; they'd all work without the lewd, but the lewd is appealing and even usually serves a purpose for characterisation beyond titillation.

*This* is what I fight for and speak up about. I don't mind at all if someone tries Senran Kagura and bounces off it (no pun intended) so long as they 1) give it a fair shot and 2) remain appropriately respectful to those people who do enjoy it. Neither 1 nor 2 are happening in the business at the moment, and that makes me absolutely furious, particularly after the number of comments I've received via Twitter and privately thanking me for what I've written above, saying it puts into words what they, too, have been feeling. As I've always said, if you're not going to give something a chance, don't write about it. My brother used to insist EGM reviewers finish everything they play before writing about it — I have a strong suspicion that isn't particularly common practice any more, not when it's much easier to make animated GIFs from the first 15 minutes then never look back. THOSE are the people I have no time for, not just anyone who doesn't get on with something I like, and while I fully recognise it is immature to brand them a joyless wanker as a result, it makes me feel better, particularly as they probably called me a paedophile first.

These games are important to people, and the people who like them are good people. Unfortunately one of the lasting effects of this endless culture war is the rift that's been driven between people who feel they're morally superior to what they consider degenerate filth, and regular people who just want to enjoy the things they love without being branded sexist, racist, misogynist, a paedophile and anything else you'd care to mention.

Different people react to that in different ways. Some people attack others directly, and I condemn those people as being assholes, though frankly I understand the need to lash out when you feel powerless. Others retreat into isolation or small communities. I choose to express myself in the hope that others will find it relatable — and judging by the messages I've received, they do.

I hope that makes things clearer. I understand and appreciate your concerns, but some (not all!) are based a little on misinterpretation of the situation, I think.

I disagree (slightly) with the statement that video games saved your life. I think probably what you are describing might better be thought of in Persona terms – which is to say that I believe that what saved your life was what Durkheim was writing about so many years ago in his seminal essay on suicide amongst Catholics, Protestants and Jews back in the 1800s.

I don't want to put words into your mouth, but to my mind what you are describing are bonds, not games. The bonds of community, and inversely, isolation that go hand-in -hand with depression etc. The games that you love contain freeze dried rations of relationships – substitutes in the form of bonds – ties by proxy in the form of cheerful 'friends' who are prewritten to love you there for you inside Neptunia games and elsewehere.

These bonds in these games serve for a time, then give way to actual community inside and also outside games, They lead to social links of various kinds, diminish the sense of isolation, connect you to other arcana and what-have-you. You already get it – I don't need to mention MMOs or Twitter or whatever, Bonds. Different arcana. When you fall, these links are there to catch you in the same way they caught Yosuke and Naoto.

I bring it up because reading your blog, it is difficult to tell sometimes how aware you are of the (crucial) distinction between the form that worked for you (which is to say J-games) and the function these products provide, ie. community, relationships, social links and social ties which can be had in J-game communities, sure… but many other places too.

It's great that you had this specific medium there to catch you when you needed it, but you must realize that all these other things you describe (Sports, Community, Politics, The Church, etc.) of which you did not participate as an active member are just the same form under different names, and they provide the same role to different people as games do for you. J-games are a medium, but they are not THE medium. Different strokes for different folks, whether it be gangsta rap, eco-activism, golf, volunteerism or anything else.

J-Games worked for you, and that's great – but it does worry me when you get hardline and start talking about purity of the form and whatnot as if it were the games themselves and not the social links that were responsible for helping you out. When you start talking about staking everything, or at least your relationships, social capital and social links on the defense of said… it's… not great. What it says to me is that you need more types of bonds in your life. More arcana around town to develop and fuse with.

Watching this Baldur's Gate thing – another ridiculous non-troversy – just drives the point home further about how immature and insular certain communities inside gaming culture have become and I don't want you to become a martyr for this asshole cause. I think it's important to speak up when we see this kind of stupidity so that sane voices can prevail. You think Baldur's Gate is bad? You do know what the hate mob would do to Naoto in 2016 right?

It's not the boobs Pete, it's the social links. This medium happened to be right place right time for you and it's great that you could find that net to fall into – I'm glad you've gotten strength from your participation in the the community. The healing power of Lewd, if such a thing truly exists, explain it to me and make me believe. But Pete – it's really important to look past all the superficial bullshit of the form and concentrate on the deeper magic that existed beyond the dawn of time.

Falling on your sword over the phantasmal purity of gaming is the wrong move. We should not sanctify this stuff – placing gaming on a pillar as some sacred and untouchable icon puts it in a realm of holiness and ideology beyond critique or commentary where it was never meant to be.

I can perhaps say that Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance touched me deeply saved my life — mine, *specifically* but that is a much different, much more personal statement than saying that I will fight to the death anyone who besmirches the honor of Robert Persig.

The experience you had with these games is separate from the actuality of games themselves. It MUST be so if you are to maintain a sane, healthy relationship with your hobbies. It's fine to say that Dr. Dre saved your life, or Zoroastrianism or whatever, but if your life was in danger, the thing that really saved you were the bonds that formed from your relationship with these products hat bound you to this world and to other people, and these are not traits that are unique to JAST games or a specific console or tribe. They are just bonds, they could have been anywhere or anything. Keep this point in mind, if nothing else.

The people – these zealots and cultists on all sides who are so furious in defending their love of X miss this point completely, and this is why we are seeing bullshit everywhere. It's not the X, it is the bonds that X creates, and these are universal. It must be respected that bonding agent A worked for you, bonding agent B worked for me, it is OK if they are different.

Be careful of elevating anything to sacred status, lest you place something in a holy realm where it ought not to be – all this creates is idiots fighting idiots over doctrine.

J-games worked for you, but Pete, that doesn't make them sacred or holy or something worth falling on your sword over at a psychological level — they aren't special snowflakes dude… or perhaps they are special, but special to you specifically. This distinction is crucial and it must be addressed in your writing on the subject.

You often talk and write as if someone who comes from way outside your realm of experience should just look at these things you love – something like Senran Kagura and just "get" it. As if asking the question of whether or not the first 15 minutes of SK should make an ordinary civilian feel uncomfortable was somehow an absurd thing to ask. Dude. that is not by any means a weird question when normal cultural norms outside the hardest core of hardcore otaku are taken into account. The burden is on you to explain that specialness to a skeptical crowd (as you have done in the example above) and to not take it so damn personally each time you encounter someone who just hasn't walked that mile and has a hard trouble relating. It's not an easy sell.

J-games are something that worked for you, and that it is personally important, but don't confuse the personal importance with universal truth. Keep distance and perspective between the personal significance and the universal form which exists elsewhere.

Just because someone doesn't share my experience with Insane Clown Posse… it doesn't make them a… what is it you sometimes call people? Joyless twat? Flaming cunt? Whatever it is, it doesn't make them so. It just makes them someone who hasn't walked a mile in my shoes. Had things have been different, I hope you could have formed bonds with another group, another tribe and ended up in another getting-better (I hope) place.

It saddens and worries me greatly when I read your blog and I hear you say things like you "don't know" whether or not Zoe Quinn "deserved" what she got — as if anyone ever who was just minding their own business "deserves" to be pinned to a rack and tortured systemically and mercilessly for years and years by a distributed and unaccountable hatemob of infantile children. In case you are curious, the answer is, yes, that it is uneqivacobly wrong, just as it is wrong when it happens to Baldur's Gate people or to Alison Rapp or to Pete Davison who was also the victim of a distributed hate campaign. It was wrong then, it was wrong now.

When I hear you talk about not letting people 'corrupt' the 'purity' of gaming… or rage about people who are trying to transform gaming or choke it or whatever when all that is happening is really that gaming is growing and maturing and diversifying upwards and outwards to no great panic… it worries me.

Don't go to war for Bewbs and Lewds and rage about SJWs when what you are actually fighting for is not boobs and lewds but just the universal truth of social links and community and feeling loved and being loved and feeling like you are in the place where you belong – because that is the exact same thing as is being fought for on the so-called "other side". Say it in these terms and ditch the hyperbole and step back from the edge of ideology.

Like, seriously. So someone is trans in the world of Baldur's Gate. So fucking what? They're trans. In a single dialogue tree that you have to work to get and which is written pretty inoffensively and which makes contextual sense in the narrative of the game. Big fucking deal. People are half-orcs in this world. How is that sense of craving belonging and love and inclusion any more "wrong" than loving Oglaf? It's not. You ask me to accept big giggly jiggly breasts, ok. I am skeptical, but I am listening if you are listening to me. But I ask you in return to distance yourself from those who cause suffering either directly through their actions or indirectly via the act of turning a blind eye or passively refusing to confront people who stir the hate machine regardless of creed or side.

Even if you DID have a very personal transformative experience with J-games, just… recognize the deeply personal nature of this truth and just don't be that guy Pete. Don't aid that guy, don't abet that guy. Wrong is wrong. Don't make excuses or look the other way or rationalize when you see people are going way out of their way to cause suffering to other people, and don't fly into a violent rage at the concept of critique. That's not the Pete I know.

Write about the transformation. Write about the healing power. This is how you can bring the tribes together. You want to be a writer? THIS is where the common ground is, this is what needs to be written about. What is it they say in Persona? I am you and you are me?

Totally in love with the world and music and aesthetic of Final Fantasy XV but I'm not convinced on the combat yet. And I've played each version of the demo several times to try to get into it. I want to love it, but this combat system is not one that I particularly enjoy. I didn't enjoy it in Kingdom Hearts either. It's not like I'm tied to the ATB system, I've beaten every game with Final Fantasy in the title, even the ones that weren't true FF games. But maybe the main game will give me enough control with leveling up and builds that I will be able to work through my distaste for the combat that I've thus far been experiencing.

But I'm open to being convinced. I want to enjoy this game, even more than I want to enjoy any other game I'm playing. Final Fantasy is probably the most important series in gaming for me. I still remember popping in Final Fantasy I on NES and it changing my scope for what an rpg could be.

http://www.digitallydownloaded.net/2016/03/so-overwatchs-biggest-problem-is.html

Like . . . lady . . . if you're so worried about what your impressionable young daughter might take/learn from video games, why are you exposing her to footage of a "T" rated, violent competitive shooter in the first place? The double standard here is laughable. It's emblematic of the type of insanely perspective-free parenting that goes on these days. You're not responsible for policing the content that your kids are exposed to, oh no, it's the creator of the contents fault for putting something you don't want you kid seeing in a piece of media that wasn't designed for them in the first place. Instead of taking a step back and realizing a sacrifice is necessary, ie "maybe I need to not play this game or watch footage of this game with my kid around," you lobby to propose to change the content because the alternative is inconvenient for you? The world didn't used work that way. Get a grip folks.

If that's still something on your mind, I'd be interested to be part of it.

Thanks! I have actually done a few YouTube videos in the past but not for a while. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaUNt3XWVlWfslXbqM7_vkQ

I'd like to do more, but it's a case of finding the time (and the solitude!) required to do a decent job of it at the moment.

Well, the online is completely separate from the single-player, and much more friendly to short "dip in" sessions than the story-centric nature of single player. So if you like the mechanics but don't want to get too embroiled in the story and suchlike, online is a decent way to go.

My problem: I still haven't ever started GTA V. I'm afraid it'll take up all my time. It's actually the first GTA where the controls and UI are just good enough for me to like the game.

Honestly I think you should also be on YouTube. We need more people like you there.

If you need an editor I would gladly volunteer to this, but don't expect too much from me! lol

I don't know if you visit message boards where the fans discuss the game, but it never cease to surprise me how many people seemingly misses the point on Deep Crimson's plot, claiming that the story is terrible, ignores the development introduced in Burst (what) and generally being horrible at worst, mediocre at best. I mean, it seems like we played different games entirely.

I hope you enjoy Estival Versus and I hope you can make a through analysis on its plot since I've found it extremely lacking.

🙂 Thank you for your kind words. There's a lot of SK fans out there who feel passionately about this series, and it bums me out that there's so much lowbrow trolling from the press about it. Glad I could do my little bit to at least attempt to redress the balance.

Awesome read. I'm almost crying over this.

He's baiting the pubic with such a lame review. Preaching to those who judge such games and condemning those who like these sort of games. Imagine if there was a "sex-positive transgender game" and people complained how disturbing/sick the subject matter is and how it's sexual agenda is blatantly in one's face. They'd point fingers while ignoring the hypocrisy.

It's not real, it's fake. I hate
Steven Universe but you don't see me nitpicking every little thing about it or judge it's message.

I'm not interested in trolling. I actually like these games. Complaining about their reception really does no good though.

You mean 'become an unintelligent troll'. Thank God some people aren't interested in that.

Go hang out on 4/8chan for a while, get the empathy burned out of you. You'll feel better about the net.

Or, OR, maybe you could live and let live, not be a total cunt towards people who are into different things to you and just get on with your own thing.

I'm not saying people who like SK or Japanese games in general are special. Quite the opposite. We don't want to be picked out by people who are unwilling to even attempt to understand what it is we find meaning in. And likewise, we don't have any desire to do the same to people who are into different things to us.

Everyone has different tastes. Someone having different tastes to you doesn't make them a "freak show". However, if that is what you believe, that does make you an insensitive, intolerant asshole.

Good day to you.

Yes I sure do. Of course there are totally made up words by me – like yujjo instead of yukko instead of yucky, and words I've derived from Norfolk Island where they say yourly/yorely instead of you so I modified it to yourmies and on to mymies et al but there are quite a few that I type and then back out of due to uncertainty. Language has evolved so rapidly over the last few decades that it's hard to know what's acceptable and what isn't. 😀
I sent you a Tweet to ask if you'd had the interview now coz it's hard to keep track with the time differences. I hope it went well mate and that you become employed again. 😀

Also, this just occurred to me from my old Kotaku community days . . . I'm pretty sure Fahey's wife either is, or at some point was an actual burlesque dancer. So if there's anybody who should understand that explorations of sexuality can be presented for entertainment value without necessarily being dirty, pornographic, or prurient, you would think that it'd be Fahey.

Is fetishised not a word? I've certainly seen it used around the place a fair bit. Maybe it's one of those words that's kind of fallen into use but isn't technically "real". Oh well. You know what I mean. 🙂

Definitely we could do with less explicit clickbait though. Multiple page links to increase add revenue is absurd and I simply stop visiting those sites. And I definitely agree with you on some of the outrage articles that never should have existed in the first place. But, overall I'm not that fussed about it. If I get too tired of articles, I don't click on them. If a website has questionable ethics, I don't go there. I read too many real books (and visual novels) to involve myself much with reading what adolescent garbage the internet gets up to.

(from memory:)

I am the great mighty poo
And I'm going to throw my shit at you
A huge supply of tish
Comes from my chocolate starfish
How about some scat you little twat?

Do you really think you'll survive in here?
You don't seem to know which creek you're in
Sweetcorn is the only thing that makes it through my rear
How'd you think I keep this lovely grin?
(Have some more caviar!)

Now I'm really getting rather mad
You're like a niggly, tickly, shitty little tag nut
When I've knocked you out with all my bab
I'm going to take your head and ram it up my butt
(Your butt?)
My butt
(Your butt?)
That's right, my butt
(Ergh!)
My butt!
(Errrgh!)
My buuuuuuttttt!

^Seconded. Definitely play Etrian Odyssey.

I actually have a framed piece of Velocity art proudly displayed on my living room wall. It is lovely.

I think VR has a long way to go – as you mentioned, the prices aren't there to make the tech anything remotely close to consumer friendly. I'd say that's another 5 years to a decade away. I'm also not quite sure I actually want this tech for gaming – but that's mostly because the VR experience is more geared toward 1st person endeavors and various vehicle sims – the sorts of games I have no interest in. But after my brief experience, I know that I want to see and do more with modern VR . . . and that's not somewhere that I was a week ago. My brain went into overdrive cooking all sorts of cool visual, semi interactive applications. Imagine a high end resort hotel emailing a confirmation that includes a link to a VR video of your room. Or a car company accompanying the launch of their newest model with a video that allows you to sit in the vehicle and see its interior with head tracking. I'd eat that shit up. Is VR going to be a "revolution" of new media? No – no more than 3D TVs were. Is it far less stupid than I thought it was . . . yeah . . . yeah it is.

Hope you got my reply Pete. I sent it from my phone but since the update it's been playing up and I had trouble getting a keyboard to work from 🙁 And noone seems able to help me reset it it. I think I might have to resort to resetting default and hope I don't lose anything else by doing so. S i g h . . . Lost all my emoticons too.

thanks pete thats what i thought 😀

It's basically what I describe here: you reach the end of the story content, but the game itself keeps going, shifting the focus of your play from working your way through the narrative to mastering the mechanics. In the case of a hidden object game, it would be the point where you revisit past scenes to get better scores/times without worrying about the plot.

This is true. lol. I clicked on the link anyway, because I'll swallow my pride and go anywhere for fresh insight on FFXII . . . . but I forgot that I straight up blocked the site on my computer to prevent myself from giving them clicks in such moments of weakness.

Chris doesn't go there any more for much the same reasons as you 🙂

I don't even go to this website any more, Pete definitely knows why as we have discussed it a lot. But this article was one of the best they ever had there. http://www.usgamer.net/articles/a-voice-for-ivalice-the-localization-and-voice-acting-of-final-fantasy-xii

The English language translation of FFXII is one of the primary reasons why it's my favorite game in the series. So stylized. So gripping. I was hooked the moment the narrator first spoke. I wax nostalgic about alot of games, but FFXII is the only game wherein language is part of that.

If we were talking abut movies or books, usually there's no question. They're almost always brought over in the most authentic way possible unless we're talking about kung fu flicks from the 80's and 90's. And I guess foreign book translations were changed throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Today though, everyone recognizes appreciation of foreign media like that as a respected art house niche. Most of the time a Japanese film never even attempts to hit the American mainstream, just the niche that will reliably watch it.

Foreign video games don't usually get this treatment I think because of the roughly 25-year period when Japanese console games WERE the mainstream, and publishers didn't think of them as art. Nintendo probably still operates that way. Companies like NIS or XSEED are a bit closer to Janus Films or the Criterion Collection or something. Square Enix is more on the mainstream side. Like OyaTama said, it's really about the audience the localization company is targeting.

Let me put out some examples to contrast though to point out differences between translation and localization:

One franchise that shifted from one to the other is Metal Gear Solid. The PS1 version of MGS1 as I understand was heavily localized and later praised for that localization. All later entries had more authentic conversions of the original Japanese dialogue which in my opinion had the same effect a lot of anime dubs have of sounding like odd, stilted English. It simply doesn't sound like colloquial English despite being perfectly understandable. What's most odd is that in most of the settings in the games the characters are supposed to be speaking English anyway.

The Persona games are a weird mix in my opinion. The characters in the English versions of Persona 3 and 4 talk like believable American teenagers (they didn't even shy away from an M rating)… except their speech is peppered with Japanese honorifics. They still probably heavily localized the dialogue because it's filled with references western audiences would more easily understand, but the game still doesn't shy away from the fact that it's set in Japan. Personally I like the balance that game struck.

Here's what I think my ultimate preference is at right now, and it concerns a distinction I haven't seen many people make: If we're talking about a full dub, some degree of localization is probably better, but if we're talking subtitles to original Japanese voice acting then there's no reason not to go with the authentic translation. I don't know if any games (or anime) that actually have two different sets of subtitles (one for the hearing impaired) for that purpose. I think the Studio Ghibli movies do but that's it. If the audience chooses a dub, they probably want to hear standard English. If the audience chooses subs, they probably want a more authentic experience.

Agreed! Not saying that there should always be honorifics or indeed that I wouldn't have preferred Ace Attorney to still be Gyakuten Saiban (that's so much fun to say out loud) but it's something that needs to be taken on a case-by-case basis, I think.

Ultimately a lot of people defending the Fire Emblem localisation aren't as invested in the overall Japanese games landscape as, say, you and I. Does that make them wrong? Hard to say, but I'd be inclined to take the opinions of the people who are buying and playing the most Japanese games over attempts to appeal to the mainstream every time.

But then, I don't run a business, so. 🙂

– the use of honorifics in certain case, I really think that it's a bad localisation decision if you want to target mainstream media, or at least a larger audience. I can understand it If your targeted market is niche japanese game/anime enthousiast who is aware of this and how it works, but it won't help broaden the appeal of the game and you're retraining the audience by default. I know it's difficult in some case to translate or find adaptation since a japanese unique thing, but having a wiki in game that have to explain each specific terminology to you can kinda get you out of the game, and it's a shame.

– the ace attorney example, while I totally agree about the fact that it's well written, with funny puns and clever text, There's something that bugs me a lot with AA localization : the delocalization of the action, making the setup in america instead of japan. It's wrong, because an adaptation shouldn't decide that "people wouldn't get into a game that take place in a totally different cultural environment, let's make it that way", you shouldn't lose the cultural background or setting of a game, but make it understandable for foreigners.
Also, that bite them in the ass later on in the French version of AA3, because it take place in france, but then, there's a french restaurant which seems peculiar in this place, that makes sense if we're in japan, but not anymore in france, and they used a weird twist which I don't really remember.

But my point is, getting the point and the cultural background accross, which is a hard task (even more with japanese media which is a totally different culture), but that's why even more effort should be put into the localization of those games, and not having to warp it.

I really hate censorship and edit in game, but I can accept some minor change if it's necessary, like in Dungeon travelers 2 even if it makes me cringe. And to me, localization team and editor have to accept and take responsability for the game they decided to bring over to the western market. That's what to some extend, I really respect IFI decision to not bring over some games if they have to make change, it's sad and we might miss some fine games, But I find it even more sad that my only 2 options are to get a totally sugar coated/badly written/cut down version of a game I want, or the japanese edition.

I've got a large round space painting almost finished called GALAXIES GALORE which I'd earmarked for the Perth Royal Show later this year. However I now need it for a coming soon Art Awards show here and am preparing another large round space painting – possibly Solar System one for the Royal Show – unless GALAXIES GALORE doesn't sell at the awards show. I'll put a pic of it on my painting blog of wordpress asap.

Wow thanks Pete. I've clicked on the link n will explore it in a while. I was going to suggest something re some of your NaNoWriMo works. Do you think they might fit together, juxtaposed in sections or as 2 entities, that finally resolve with a coming together by fate moment – the works are esoteric enough for a possible merger – could be fun to try especially in light of this new planning mode you are exploring. Hope that makes sense!

Thought I hadn't seen you around for a while!

No, this is something I haven't put online before. I've started and stalled it lots of times, but this latest attempt is finally flowing the way I want it to.

As for Scrivener, it's $40 to buy. There is a free trial version you can download to give it a go and see if it suits your needs first though. https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php

Wow. I never quite understand the reasoning behind people who quite clearly hate something before they jump into it then spending time and effort writing something about how much they hate it.

Such is the way of the modern Internet, I guess.

Maybe VR would make that feeling possible again. I don't know.

Point Blank was amazing. Many drunken nights spent playing that on my 14-inch TV at university.

I didn't play HotD Overkill but I did get its Typing of the Dead counterpart on Steam… which I think actually also includes a mouse-driven version of HotD along with it.

Would love to see more of these make a comeback.

I also played the hell out of Ghost Squad for the Wii – so much to unlock in that one. Did you play that newer House of the Dead on Wii/PS3? Overkill I think it was called. That was great too.

Also . . . I really loved Time Crisis 4 on the PS3. It's curious how they worked around the LCD TV issue buy essentially making the Guncon 3 into a Wii remote, complete with an packed-in IR sensor that you had to put on your TV.

. . . oh no . . . I'm not at all bitter . . .

Excellent! Re;Birth 3 is going to have to wait until after V-II, though, since that will hopefully arrive tomorrow!

Thanks for sharing.

–Exploration is the slowest way to earn money in the game I hear. The most important tools for exploration are exorbitantly expensive for starting players. I also hear the economy is ridiculously balanced towards bounty hunting. I had to make the money for my first exploration ship through bounty hunting actually.
–Stick to white or orange main sequence stars if you want to find the best planets. That typically means F, G, and K-class stars. M-class stars — red dwarfs, can have good planets too, and they'll usually be closer to those stars since they're so cool, but the main sequence stars more commonly host good planets.
–The most worthwhile planets are obviously water worlds and Earth-like worlds. In 40 hours I haven't found a single Earth-like planet, but I've found a few water worlds. Water worlds can be worth like 20,000 credits. High metal content worlds are good too, and are what you'll make most of your money from. Gas giants can be good too if they're not too far away, but their moons are almost never worth scanning. "Rocky bodies" or "ice worlds" are basically worthless. Those will show up as relatively featureless small disks on the system map. Generally, if a planet on the system map looks like it has a lot of features (or looks like a blue ball), scan it. Don't forget to scan the star too.
–You want your ship to have a long jump range. I think that means making it as light as possible. Eventually you'll have to sacrifice cargo space and possibly weapons or shields too. My Hauler has a jump range of just under 25 light years but I still have basic shields and a basic pea shooter.
–The Advanced Discovery Scanner is almost an imperative. If you don't know yet, it instantly tells you what's in a system (but won't do detailed scans). The Detailed Discovery Scanner too. It increases the amount of money you get from close-up scans.
–If you don't have the Advanced Scanner, there's a trick to spotting planets out of scanning range: speed up to around 30c (you'll have to get really far away from the star to do this), and look for any dots that are moving in relation to the stars in the background. Those are planets. Though, you'll have to be coming up on a planet's dayside to see it like this, as its nightside will be almost invisible on the cosmic background. Turn on orbit lines when you do this this so you can see the system's orbital plane — that's where the planets will be hiding. Just keep pinging the Basic or Intermediate Scanner when doing this. The Basic Scanner has a range of 500 light seconds which roughly corresponds to one Astronomical Unit. You'll typically find all the inner, rocky planets of a main sequence system in that range. The Intermediate scanner has twice that range.
–I personally stayed out of multiple-star systems until I got the Advanced Scanner. Multiple systems are usually not multiple stars with planets orbiting them, but actual multiple systems of planets orbiting each other. The stars in each of these systems are usually ridiculously far away from each other. It can take several minutes to fly between them.

But yeah, one thing I like about this game is how free-form it is. It's basically a "true sandbox game." This is what a lot of people seem to be confused about whenever No Man's Sky comes up in conversations. They keep asking "but what do you do?" thinking it's a walking simulator. That in my opinion is going to be its biggest obstacle when it actually comes out. In these kinds of games you pretty much have to set your own goals.

Btw, wrote up an article on Seinarukana on operationrainfall, seems right up your alley.

Unlike when this shit happened in the 90s and 00s when we just took it because we were glad to get the game in any state, though, there's now a vocal segment of gamers that raises a shitstorm any time this kind of thing happens. Ideally this will push publishers to a point where they go "well, we're going to piss a bunch of people off no matter what we do, so fuck it, let's actually consider what our real customers want."

Fire Emblem wasn't even localized for the west until 2001 — roughly coinciding with the western anime boom, when anime and manga started to seem like they could break into the mainstream. Today anime has kind of receded back into being something mostly niche, mostly due to macroeconomic factors. In its home territory of Japan, Fire Emblem seems to have been forced to follow the trends of the broader anime and Japanese game market with stuff like touching minigames along with some of the character archetypes. These are things Nintendo thinks might turn off the western audience it's going for with Fire Emblem. Xenoblade and Fatal Frame are in the same position — Nintendo didn't even want to localize the predecessors to those games at first simply because of how niche their tropes and other elements are today. They're seen as games largely for the otaku audience and no one else. It's not even about people being offended. It's about how a lot of people might see some of the things in these games as juvenile and childish, or at least very low-brow.

I feel like if any other publisher was handling these games: NIS, XSEED, or whoever, they'd just let that content come through and only care about selling to the dedicated fans. Nintendo isn't like that. Nintendo doesn't want what the general American and European audiences might think of touching minigames and gay conversion to muddle their image of being the Mario and Pokemon company. To be honest I still see Xenoblade and Fatal Frame as outliers that Nintendo is only publishing and localizing to pad out the Wii U's barren library.

It's a C-15; apparently the highest in the series, and one which often converts to an M rating under ESRB.

The thing is, though, is that the petting sequences have been made into something they're not. They're not sexual; they're a reflection of the common anime head-patting trope; a demonstration of affection rather than lust.

It's exactly the same in the Hatsune Miku games, which were also branded "creepy" (despite being adorable and entirely non-sexual) for having a head-patting minigame.

As I say, I don't really feel strongly one way or another about Fire Emblem at the moment as it's not a series I have a great deal of experience with. I'm mostly displeased with features being cut for no real reason on the grounds of "appropriateness", and the more this happens the more localisers get the message it's okay, despite extremely widespread censure of NoA's decisions by fans.

I feel like Patrick does a great (and moreover evenhanded) job of breaking down the arguments on both sides of the localization / censorship debate. Worth a read, for sure — very interesting to hear from both the trenches of the XSEED and Treehouse camps. Even Senran Kagura is treated fairly and given its due by the Press. Shocking!

Speaking as a HUGE Fire Emblem fan with more than 10 years of deep love for the franchise, I'm inclined to disagree with your position vis-a-vis petting.

I can't speak to the magic powder — nobody's actually played that scene in English — but I do know a few things about FE. Despite its unquestionable grounding in anime tropes and lots of fluffy hair flying around, Fire Emblem is in fact notable for the way the series has been able to consistently pull off both a sense of narrative gravitas and a sense of knightly dignity in their storylines.

There's silly stuff all over the place as well, naturally – but Fire Emblem feels… Mature? In a very authentic way, despite counting characters like a sword weilding chuunibyo amongst its ranks (I'm looking at you Owain). The games have a 'grownup fairytale' sensibility about them that makes them easy to champion and easy to extol and love, especially in the non-J-game-aware broader world of gaming, and I believe this factor directly contributes to the series enduring popularity.

What I'm saying is that I'm OK with not having tickling and poking and petting digital waifus in my Fire Emblem — and this is from the most diehard FE fan around. FE is a series with all-ages pixar-style lasting appeal and a history of whip-smart localization choices backing it up. And it has broad responsibilities – I just don't think the niche treatment is appropriate for the brand.

I personally don't want to see a series with so much proud history proceed down the somewhat embarrassing road of Witch Touching. I have no prudishness at sexuality – I just personally feel like the tone of the whole thing is a little sophomoric and probably out of step with the larger FE brand. There are Witch Touching games for those who wish to touch witches. Go there and be free in your niche, godspeed – but leave Chrom and Lucina out of it.

I'm not saying that Nintendo isn't super quick to censor for the most meaningless reasons (there was never any problem with Tharja's butt) but honestly, my reaction to the removal of petting was one of mild relief. I suspect I am a microcosm of the debate that Nintendo was probably well aware of and likely influenced their decision.

Now… should there be outright sex in Fire Emblem? Much more interesting question. Treated respectfully? Probably via some kind of fade-to-black PG-13 way? It's a game about relationships after all, half the game is spent building up UST between characters. You do the math.

Thanks so much. I'll try it 😏

Try this link: https://judsgamereviews.wordpress.com/wp-admin/ — the "https" at the beginning instead of the usual "http" is important, if you've missed that off. If that doesn't work, I'm not sure what the problem is!

As for themes, yes, this is the Twenty Fifteen theme. Whenever you switch themes, you'll probably have to set up sidebars and widgets to your liking again — some themes pick up your previous settings but can look odd, but some deactivate (rather than delete) everything. Fortunately, WordPress does at least save your settings for things like Menus (clickable links to pages/categories — the black bar at the top of your site) and Widgets (sidebar items) so usually all you need to do is go into the relevant pages in the dashboard and re-add them; you shouldn't have to put their contents in again.

sorry that was the Reader page. I tried it on the My Site page too and got same results. Bugga!

I also just tried it on the aforementioned URL but it just went to original/same page. FF (Frustration Factor) high!

I just tried changing my judsgamereviews to judsgamereviews.wordpress.com/wp-admin but it refused to open stating Error. That was in the Sign In window
Is that where you meant me to put it? When I've signed in the URL at the top is just wordpress.com – my specific one doesn't show any more. Another streamling change no doubt.

Thanks so much – you are a darling. It's weird how you just don't seem to mind helping me out like this. And it's good to know that you too feel the same way. have you checked out my site lately? I am still using the 2010 theme. When I check out new themes including the 20.. series they don't show all my side bars etc as they used to when I first started. So I don't trust that they will be there if I change. Is this the case? You are on 2014 I think – something like that. Or have you changed to another. Can you advise me if I would be better off on one of the newer sites to gain the newer facilities because the things that work on my site seem to have shrunk aka been modified or deleted.

No, it's fine, I prefer the old admin page too. Worth noting: you can go straight to the old admin page by typing in the address of your site and adding /wp-admin to the end, so for example my site would be angryjedi.WordPress.com/wp-admin

Hopefully they won't remove the old admin panel altogether, it's still much better for almost everything! The new stuff is style over substance, though it is better than it was.

But yeah, much like in real-life relationships, sexiness can draw people in, but in order to keep them around you need to be someone who they'd like even if you didn't have that. I'd wager that the overwhelming majority of the fanbase for series like Senran Kagura and Neptunia would still like them even if the fanservice had never existed in the first place. Meanwhile, game/anime series that have tits and not much else tend to have much shorter legs.

Thank you! The world would be a boring place indeed if everyone agreed on everything relating to games — the important thing to do, however, is to respect one another's opinions and agree to differ. This is something a lot of people seem to struggle with these days, so I'm grateful to hear you say that.

I hope I can figure something out, too. I'm contemplating options at the moment; more details to come soon!

Thanks; your support is appreciated. I'm currently looking into options to be able to cover niche games on a more regular basis, so watch this space. I would love to be able to make it something I can support myself doing, but whether that's a viable option or not remains to be seen!

I hope you can keep covering games in some way. Your Hyperdimension Neptunia Producing Perfection review was what got me into the Neptunia series and a few months ago I bought Dungeon Travelers 2 because of your blog posts. Games I would have never noticed otherwise.

The way games journalism is currently, I think it's far better to be unattached to anything that demands horrid conditions.

I didn't even see their coverage of RB3. Their horrendous review of Fairy Fencer F was enough to put me off ever reading them again.

I have some stuff in the pipeline. Considering starting a Patreon to see if I can make a more serious job of MoeGamer, both articles and videos. Don't know if it's a good idea or not yet, but won't find out unless I try, I guess!

They added some good Nepgear moments in the remake. But most of the post game content that was added is about free to play and social phone games. It is a lot more added content than the previous two with some never seen before dungeon layouts. Also a couple max level 999 dungeons that aren't required for the Platinum. I was about level 700 last night when I finished off the trophies. But there is still even more story content that I haven't reached.

Agreed! I loved Victory. Took me over a hundred hours to finish it to my satisfaction. I anticipate Re;Birth3 will be similar. Looking forward to Re;Birth2, though; of the PS3 originals, I actually think mk2 was my favourite, if not mechanically (Victory refined that battle system beautifully) then certainly in terms of narrative and characterisation.

Basically I'm just a sucker for Nepgear.

What I describe here accounts for why I still count Blur and Split Second as possibly my favourite racing games of all time. Oh, for true successors to both.

It's been done, I think. Or maybe I'm thinking of that documentary "From Bedrooms to Billions". Given that a lot of people don't seem to be all that aware of many of these companies' long histories, it might be something worth thinking about.

I do get a break. I'm off from my main job from dec 23rd through 'til jan 4th. So even if we don't have a day off that syncs up, my being home means that the time difference that usually makes it tough for us to do multiplayer should be a non issue. We definitely gotta do it!

Yes, we should! Let's try and do so over the Christmas break. Not that I have a "break", working retail, but you know what I mean.

I forget the specifics of the book, but I *think* it was this one: http://shoryuken.com/2014/07/07/learn-how-to-play-fighting-games-with-our-free-beginners-guide-ebook/

Honestly the whole Playasia issue isnt going to be seen as western fans wanting the game from the suits at KTJ but proof of a desperate fandom who is only in it for the fanservice. Its more like an addicted mob who was rioting over how the government is clamping down on drug abuse and Japan fearful of being an enabler closes their stores to foreigners while an inside man opens the back door to the addicts who then takes pictures telling the government to suck it.

As for me, I am going to respect your decision but disagree with the methods involved.

Games journalism also needs people to stop being bastard coated bastards with bastard filling, but that battle appears to be long lost.

I do wonder about the stories you could tell about your brief foray into that murky world, but I doubt telling them would be a good idea.

Merry Christmas.

Exactly. I played it early after it's original release (before the DX upgrade), and I was impressed with how big and involved it was for a handheld game at the time, so you're right that it's harder to appreciate that years after the fact. You really got your money's worth with this game, compared to many others at the time.

In any case I eventually came to respect and appreciate Link's Awakening for what it accomplished on the simplistic Game Boy. Nintendo managed to design not only a full Zelda, but a complex, deep adventure game for an 8-bit handheld with monochrome graphics and two buttons. If you look back, full-fledged adventure games and RPGs weren't common on handhelds before the GBA. Most games I remember for it were either puzzle games (a standard likely set by Tetris) and relatively simple action platformers. Link's Awakening set the mold for a few deeper adventure games during the original Game Boy's lifespan. A really underrated one in my opinion was the 1997 Game Boy 007 game. Pokemon was a major achievement in that regard too — it was pretty much the first really successful portable RPG. The Game Boy Color Metal Gear Ghost Babel is also an achievement in Game Boy software design. It's just really impressive when developers do more with less.

I haven't been impressed to that degree with handheld gaming that often since. Those kinds of deep adventures became normalized on the GBA and DS. I think the next time I was that impressed was when I played Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker on the PSP. It ended up having not only full-fledged third person shooter gameplay, but probably the most content of any Metal Gear game up to that point. I think something that would impress me to a similar degree today would be if someone made a full-blown Elder Scrolls-type game for the Vita, and I think it really would be possible.

Yeah just think of it like most Final Fantasy titles; some common themes and elements, but otherwise completely different universe and characters. Same as Xenogears vs Xenosaga trilogy vs Xenoblade Chronicles. Each is a separate entity but shares some minor elements, Xenoblade Chronicles X is a brand new thing. You should still try and get around to playing XC at some point though, as it's a great game in itself.

Thanks for your reply!

Although I *do* want to play the first one, I've seen myself never getting around to playing games because of those self imposed restrictions.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is on my giftmas list, so we'll see 🙂

You're safe to play X first if you want, since the two aren't directly related. At least, I've seen no indication of that yet, anyway. No knowledge of the Wii game is needed to appreciate X from scratch, anyway — though it is well worth your time!

I have Xenoblade chronicles on Wii ever since Operation Rainfall succeeded, but I have to admit it has sat on my pile of shame ever since.

I really want to play X, but I'm wondering if I should wait until I've played the first one. I know it's a classical question, but I don't want the newer game to "spoil" the first one, and don't want to miss on details because I'm not aware of some lore elements.

Are they closely related?

It's a bit discouraging seeing how many RPGs I want to play, haha. From finishing Zestiria, to Xenoblade, Trails in the sky FC/SC/Cold Steel, plus tons of visual novels!

I'll see you on Mira my friend!

Oddly, I didn't think I was a big fan of Zelda prior to this recent binge, but I might be changing my tune. It may be coming to the series with more mature eyes that's done it, I don't know. Whatever the reason, I'm enjoying them all a lot more than I have done in the past, and I'm excited to try the ones I've never even touched before.

Unless you don't already own a 3DS, I'd definitely play the 3DS versions of OoT and MM. They're the definitive versions, all others are ports of the original N64 releases. Better colors, better framerate, touch screen for map and fast inventory switching (which is a big deal for these games), and you can even use the gyroscope for aiming too, which makes some of the shooting challenges a lot less stressful.

They're very well done ports, not a quick cash in on a game from yesteryear. Check out some comparison videos on youtube also.

Mostly Virtual Console on Wii U and 3DS. Will play the HD remake of Wind Waker when I get there, and haven't decided if I'm going to play the Virtual Console or 3DS native versions of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask yet.

Link to the Past is still genuinely brilliant.

I’m very hesitant to write “reviews” as such because I don’t feel like I have enough context and perspective to give a proper critique. That obviously doesn’t stop New Games Journalists, but that’s a pretty low standard.

Maybe I’m splitting hairs with the distinction, but I’m more inclined to write from a place of “here’s my personal take,” rather than “here’s the final word.” Scores are weird in that context, though I suppose a 5-star system is cut-and-dry enough that I’d feel more comfortable with it. Steam’s “recommended”/“not recommended” system also seems good, though it’s not clear who the recommendation is supposed to be for. I’d recommend Project Mirai DX to people who are into the subgenre, but I wouldn’t unqualifiedly recommend it to more than a couple people I know in real life.

The way I see it, reviewer preference and context tend to be missing in reviews. Fallout 4 is sitting at 87 on Metacritic and I’m almost positive I wouldn’t enjoy it at all. The Witcher 3 is at 92 and I’m coming off of a weekend of banging my head against it, unsuccessfully trying to like it. I don’t really know what the solution is. Maybe open reviews with a paragraph of the reviewer going over their relevant preferences and history? Basically a disclosure statement for subjectivity? Seems like an idea fraught with pitfalls.

Sorry for the tangent!

That sounds weird coming from someone who supposedly grew up in the British computer gaming world. Didn't you just grab Elite Dangerous?

I tend to gravitate between both styles as long as they stay true to themselves. A big problem with western console games these days is they try to be both but end up delivering on neither. Oddly when the Japanese developers try to take the simulation route the results can often deliver the best of both worlds. They can sometimes achieve the freedom of a simulator and combine it with the fine-tuned balance and handling of an arcade game. MGSV has a tight combat system within a world of tactical options. Dark Souls (stemming from some Ultima DNA) offers combat and worlds that are simultaneously fine-tuned and quite accommodating to the player's choices.

Yes, I've often made the board game connection. I think that's why I tend to gravitate towards Japanese games; I much prefer abstracted yet (usually) easily understandable mechanics than the relative chaos of more "realistic" systems.

Bethesda with Fallout 4 probably represents the epitome of the western way in today's market. Nintendo's games represent the epitome of the polar opposite. Maybe a relative few mobile games have merged Japanese-style simplicity with western-style iteration.

Everybody goes through periods of doubt – I believe it's a symptom of the modern age. I don't think I know a single person – myself included – who doesn't struggle regularly with problems of identity, pressure and the nagging feeling that they're not doing enough or realizing enough potential — that they're stalled somehow. I think it's important to remember (as media often reinforces) that life ought to be what happens in the margins of these activites. Regardless of whether you work in retail or service or are unemployed or NEET or whatever. My grandmother's recent passing and the experience of seeing the dozens and dozens of people coming out commemorate and remember a person who was, superficially, never more than a 'common housewife' reinforced my belief that life isn't about having the biggest bank account or the requisite 2.5 kids or whatever, it's about connections with other people.

Do you know the Rat Park experiment? It's an interesting investigation into addiction, but it's also an important meditation into the effects of isolation and the feeling of helplessness and powerlessness that being cut off from our social links can have on the soul. I think you can swap the cocaine water in this experiment in for a lot things. More info here if you aren't familiar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg

My suggestion is to try and take up some activities or interests that get you out and about in the living world, in direct connection with more people. As the rats (and many anime and VNs prove) the worst thing you can do for your own health is to try and go it alone.

Xillia 2 was a delightful sequel. I must go back and New Game Plus it sometime, if only to actually see what effect having the protagonist actually saying stuff has on the overall "feel" of it. 🙂

Also, if you haven't already, I strongly recommend checking out Oh, Deer! by Necrosoft games. It's a humorous take on the faux 3D 90's racing genre wherein' you have to smash into deer to keep going. It's great. Music by Motohiro Kawashima, who composed for Streets of Rage 3. It's a fun lil' distraction for oldschool Outrun fans.

http://necrosoftgames.com/oh-deer/

I also think people like you didn't grow up on Zelda simply because Nintendo wasn't as big a deal in Europe back then.

I haven’t read the Polygon article (mostly because I’m not interested in Rise of Tomb Raider or AC Syndicate), but personally if I had to make a list I’d omit fighting games and anything with a character creator. Instead I’d focus on games the developers had to write around a singular established female protagonist, and you could probably still get a bunch in the time frame between the 80’s and today.
That said, the real issue is of course that proportionally speaking, deliberately written playable game characters probably skew overwhelmingly male (and white). Hollywood right now has a problem where producers will literally throw out most scripts with female leads except in certain genres. In light of this, you have to admit it’s still kind of a big deal when a woman is in the spotlight of a major AAA release.

I feel the games press in its traditional structure is kind of declining anyway. More and more people are turning to word of mouth — either from friends or things like streamers — rather than supposed "experts". I'm interested to see what happens; I feel we're due a big upheaval of some description.

Big in comparison to what? Its readership seems fairly inactive, gauging from the numerical average and nature of comments per post. The most active topics appear to be editorials, and the responses seem to be predominantly negative in subject and tone. I get the impression the people most invested in the site are the people who dislike it.

In a sense, the people who would rather it not exist continue to perpetuate its existence.

As for your personal slight, I cannot comment as I have no information on the matter. However, as an outside observer, anyone interested in making a successful career out of this hobby would almost be advised to avoid employment at sites like Polygon. More lucrative and influential opportunities exist outside the 'traditional' structure.

I don't actually actively read Polygon, because I know it's not very good. It does, however, get brought up a lot on social media, since it is, for some reason, one of the bigger sites out there.

The reason I bring it up is primarily frustration that the games press of 2015 can't do any better — and bitterness that I was muscled out of the business for being enthusiastic and passionate about games, while those who still have a job writing about them just post cynical bullshit that often isn't true in the first place. It doesn't actually cause me stress and anxiety as such, but it provides convenient writing prompts 🙂

For what it's worth I agree with you about the pointlessness of the VG247 article, even if I don't share your enmity towards the modern state of the Garmez Jurnlzm. For every clickbaity BS website out there there is a counterpoint of someone doing an insightful feature like an Extra Credits or a VatiVidya. The wilderness is simply broader, which will bring more highs and lows across the board.

My suggestion is to stay off social media. Only sorrow and pointless controversy lies there. Being in a constantly activated state of rage isn't conducive to your well-being. Let it go man.

Thanks, chum. Not unexpected, but still sad.

Huh…