Gravity Rush 2: Will be for the PS VITA!

     In some exceptional news for the day, I see someone questioned Sony's Yoshida on Ask Playstation:

Hello Mr. Yoshida :) I have a questions. You know something about Gravity Daze 2? Console? Release Date? Something? Thanks. @yosp #psvita
— Adherley Cruz Ortiz (@AdherleyCruzO) December 23, 2014

     His wonderful reply was:

@AdherleyCruzO Yes, it is designed for the PS Vita.
— Ask PlayStation (@AskPlayStation) December 23, 2014

     It is an excellent thing to hear that Gravity Daze (Gravity Rush in America) is getting a Playstation Vita specific sequel.  It has been over a year since the "Fall Again" teaser trailer was first put out and we get a late Christmas gift of a new update.  Gravity Rush still stands, to me at least, as the best game the Vita has available, and the system could definitely use a few more like it.  I think the Vita needs more amazing games developed specifically for it on its own.  So now we wait to see if there'll be another Uncharted or the like on the way.

     Source [ Niche Gamer ]

Guardians of the Galaxy: The Universal Weapon Game Review (Android)

I finally get to play as Quasar! (Lower right)

     After a couple months of being out, I have returned to this game because they've had multiple updates to expand the roster of playable characters and fix some bothersome bugs.  So now Guardians of the Galaxy: The Universal Weapon has finally added the character I originally wanted to play as - Quasar (also known as Captain Marvel, Phyla-Vell, and Martyr)- I am once again invested in playing.

     Honestly, with all the doomed movie tie-ins I'm fairly surprised that this one isn't too bad.  It is essentially a tap-based action game with some light RPG elements.  Thankfully there are no IAPs hindering the way to enjoyment either.
 What Guardians of the Galaxy: The Universal Weapon has going for it is a slew of characters and a fairly decent story.  There really isn't any need to know the history of the comics, or a need to have seen the film, as they've woven all the backstory you would need right into the game.  It starts with a couple limited characters in a prison break and ramps up to saving the galaxy.

Interesting that they added the newly Marvel character Angela, formerly from Image comics.

     Along the way through the Battle Mode (the story campaign) you can collect in game currency in the form of coins and shards for unlocking characters.  The items you can buy with coins increase various damage and defense stats.  Really simple stuff.  There are only so many characters you can us in the story mode, but everyone purchased with shards is accessible (after unlocking) to use in the second game mode: The Arena.  A combat arena of wave after wave of enemies.  So it is standard horde mode stuff.  But it is also a really nice time waster, as difficulty is gradually increasing while you level your characters up.

     Combat is simple, drag from character to enemy or tap to initiate attacks.  SPecial moves and combos can also be done through quick taps on characters and icons then onto an enemy.  Nothing as smooth as a true beat-'em-up, but entertaining no less.  The only issue I've found is when characters get bunched up there is a problem tapping the individual you want.  Often times you'll have to waste valuable battle seconds in a pinch to move someone out of the way to get the person you wanted in the first place.
     In addition there are a lot of small challenges to complete for bonuses.  Like surviving a number of waves with Gamora, or defeating so many guards with Drax, and heal so many points with Groot.  Very small little things to keep an eye out for during the 2 modes of play.

     During this you'll also be gathering ISO-8 to slowly add stats through play.  Like the equipment to boost damage and defense, ISO-8 does similar things with crystals, just on a much slower and smaller scale.  Nothing huge or game changing, but by the end of the game's tale, you'll likely be far under-powered for the last battle's onslaught.  This is the one place I felt the game failed miserably.
     The last battle is hundreds of times harder than any other level in the game- it would be safe to say it is more difficult than all the other levels combined.  For some reason if you don't have Mantis (best healer) and someone that can immediately drop a shield at the beginning of the match at least one of your characters will die within 2 seconds.  I am not joking about this, I played the level roughly 40 times.  Tried recombining crystals and creating much more powerful larger ones, and I still got crushed.  Over and over.  With numerous power ups that take forever to put together for defense- and I was still being obliterated in seconds.  
     In the end I lucked out with the team of fully leveled Star Lord, Mantis, Rocket, and Beta Ray Bill I managed to pull through with 3 of the 4 still standing.  A very frustrating battle more suggestive of a need to do weeks of grinding rather than the casual style the rest of the game led me to believe it would be.

     Overall, Guardians of the Galaxy: The Universal Weapon is a lot of fun and very worth the $4.99 price tag.  It is a little repetitive, but has enough variety to keep players engaged.  The fact I keep going back to it should be telling enough.

     I see it is at a discounted price currently:

     iTunes has it at $2.99, Windows for $1.99 (until Jan 1, 2015), and I can't see the Google Play price because I bought it already.

     And if you'd like to see my review of the [ Guardians of the Galaxy ] film.

The Last Guardian: Progress: Dec. 11, 2014 News Update

     It's a strange thing to still hold high hopes for The Last Guardian.  The production woes it has had since the original announcement at E3 in 2009 are huge.  In late 2011 both the executive producer (Yoshifusa Hayama) and the Team ICO founder and director Fumito Ueda left the project.  But the game is still progressing.

     Sony's worldwide President Shuhei Yoshida has confirmed many times that the game is still coming.  But it has been the slowest burn possible.  Today we get some decent news that makes the wait much more tolerable.  Well, at least a little bit easier.  I've always said I'd rather wait for a heavily delayed good game, than a rushed pile of crap.

     According to creator Fumito Ueda, The Last Guardian is not only still being developed, we get a curious new statement to explain the long years of delays.  He says that the progress is "under completely new conditions."

     Ueda had this to say to Kotaku Australia:

“Talks with Sony Computer Entertainment on The Last Guardian have been ironed out, and we’re making progress under completely new conditions. I’m also working on some other things that I’ll hopefully be able to show in time if progress is smooth.”

     I can only speculate here, but I've long thought they have been cranking the graphics up as far as possible and porting it to PS4, with perhaps a multiplayer function with the PS Vita.  I've mentioned it in plenty of other posts, I just wish we'd get a little more information.

     Some other posts [ The Last Guardian ]

     Source [  Dengeki PlayStation via Kotaku via IGN ]

Mad Max: Fury Road: New Official Full Trailer!

     I'm not quite sure what it is about this trailer that appeals to me.  It has got awesome actors, ludicrous stunts, and for some reason oil is being used up and water is being depleted- but they can drive vehicles constantly which makes no sense (yet- maybe they'll find a different fuel for automotives)- but it still looks amazing.

The Penguins of Madagascar: Dr. Blowhole Returns – Again! Review (PS3)

     Over the last two months, in preparation for the film release of The Penguins of Madagascar, I've been replaying their games.  I'll be starting with this game first, the PS3 version of The Penguins of Madagascar: Dr. Blowhole Returns - Again! because it's been the easily the best of the five games I've played through.

Terminator Genisys: Full Trailer and Thoughts

     A day after the initial Terminator Genisys teaser to the full trailer, the whole one arrives.  After my comments yesterday about being somewhat hopeful, I must say I'm pretty impressed so far.

     There could still be plenty of issues with the movie, as it looks like they've somehow altered the timelines to create a reboot.  The result is an old T-800 protecting Sarah Conner long before the one in 1984 arrives to kill her.  A genuine curiosity has fallen on me as to how they'll pull this off.  WIll John send Kyle Reese back, then send a T-800 further?  Will Sarah think to have her protector send the newer arrival back after defeating it?  That would also make me wonder when time travel is created in this universe.
     That being the case, how is it that Skynet ALWAYS comes to power?  It appears that some things are always destined to happen.

     My impressions after watching the full trailer are that the film stands a pretty good chance of being the true return of Terminator to blockbuster status.  It's awesome to see Sarah Conner be a badass, and Arnold looks good in both old and young forms.  The cast overall is pretty decent.  I'm pretty excited to see Byung-hun Lee as a new T-1000.  He was great in The Good, The Bad, and The Weird, and did a decent job of playing Storm Shadow in those abysmal G.I. Joe movies.

     Now the things that are a little irritating.  I'm bothered by some of the extremely absurd and over-the-top stunts, particularly the bus flipping, these things don't have to occur in every damn new Hollywood film.  You know why Terminator and T2: Judgement Day worked so well?  They kept it mostly small.  Tight stories in small areas.  The cast was small, the effects were fairly practical, and they didn't involve the entire world in the world-changing events.  The biggest, in the "now" times of the movies, shoot-out in the first two movies was the Cyberdyne showdown.  That wasn't even a large scale war- it was a small military group.

     Regardless, I'll be seeing this in hopes it'll be awesome.  I can only hope that it'll rejuvenate the series after the last couple films' ending up being flubs.
 

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel: Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack: The Holodome Onslaught

     Today 2K Australia and Gearbox have announced the 2nd DLC pack for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.  It will consist of two parts.  The first being the paid portion, The Holodome Onslaught, and a second free portion, the Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack (a free patch)- which adds 10 more levels (10 more skill points!!!) and a 3rd playthrough that scales all enemies to at least your level.  It also has the additional benefit of allowing players to reset the campaign progress at any time!

     Here's the official blurb about the Holodome DLC:

     This add-on pack features all-new narrative content including appearances from veteran Vault Hunters Gaige and Axton, who recently returned to the Crimson Raiders HQ. While they were gone on a mission, they missed out on the events of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and ask Athena to recount the story. Since they’re not the most patient badass Vault Hunters on Pandora, they just want an abbreviated version – only the juicy, violent stuff. 

     As Athena tells the tale, you’ll play through The Holodome Onslaught, a new challenge arena where you’ll fight wave after wave of foes, including some of The Pre-Sequel’s most memorable badasses as well as several new enemies. You’ll also be able to earn new weapons, new class mods, and some radical new heads and skins.

     This DLC will add a little more narrative and a lot more slaughter, mimicking most players' least favorite Borderlands DLC Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot.  This is still better than simply a new character, although I really enjoy the Handsome Jack Doppelganger, and it is adding a bit more story for all of us that are looking for more expansion of the Borderlands saga.
     It is a little disappointing for those of us that bought the Pre-Sequel Season Pass hoping for 4 campaign enhancing story-based DLCs and instead getting a character and a horde mode for the first two, but maybe they'll expand with extra DLCs like Borderlands 2 did with all the bite-sized Holiday add-on Headhunter Packs.

     The Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack: The Holodome Onslaught will be available Dec. 16th and will be available on PSN, Xbox Live, PC, Mac, and Linux.  If you have purchased the Season Pass it will be free, if not it will be $9.99.

     Source [ Borderlands Official ]

Terminator Genisys: Teaser Trailer

     When I first read about Terminator Genisys, my first thought was, "Genisys?  Are you effin' kidding me!?!  That sounds so f***ing dumb!"  It's an absolutely stupid spelling, and it immediately dashed my hopes of seeing a decent version of the franchise again.  Honestly, Terminator and T2: Judgement Day were tremendous films.  Since then we've gotten a couple more awful films and a decent television show with the Sarah Conner Chronicles.

     This teaser has renewed my hopes enough to have me slightly excited once again.  A reluctant hope, but it's there.  It also bothers me that we are getting trailers for trailers as a fairly common occurrence lately.  They regained my curiosity with these 15 seconds.  Maybe tomorrow, they catch my support.

     The cast seems a little odd, with a nearly 70 year old Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising his role as the killing machine.  Emilia Clarke, of Game of Thrones fame, as a young Sarah Conner, Jason Clarke from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes as John Conner, Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese, and a few others.  Nothing about this sounds too amazing yet.

     The premise sounds a bit more interesting though:

     On the verge of winning the war against Skynet, Connor sends his trusted lieutenant Kyle Reese back through time to save his mother's life and ensure his own existence. But what he finds on the other side is like nothing he ever expected. After being orphaned at age 9 by a Terminator, Sarah Connor has since been brought up by another Terminator, played by Schwarzenegger, programmed to protect her. This Terminator has then trained her to face her destiny, which she adamantly tries to reject. [ 1 ]

     Of course, I assume she'll be a lippy, headstrong portrayal of the mother of the future's salvation- Sarah Conner- like Edward Furlong's John Conner from T2 in an effort to appeal to the younger crowds.  It looks like they are trying to gain the hip and with it factor of younger individuals with each movie.  If this keeps up we might end up with toddler Sarah Conner and Kyle Reese at a Terminator Day Care.  If that is the case, it'll probably be animated.

     Terminator Genisys is set to release on July 1, 2015.

     Genisys is still a f***ing stupid name.

Game of Thrones: Iron From Ice: Launch Trailer (Telltale Games)

     After the embargoes have lifted, Telltale Games' 6 part Games of Thrones series based upon the show of the same name begins.  This trailer from Episode 1: Iron From Ice launch trailer looks pretty decent.  Some of the characters resemble their HBO counterparts, but not as much as I'd hoped.  That's all right, if the game is good it won't matter.

     This new story tells of House Forrester, a noble family from the north of Westeros, loyal to the Starks of Winterfell. Caught up in the events surrounding the War of the Five Kings, they are thrown into a maelstrom of bloody warfare, revenge, intrigue, and horror as they fight to survive while the seven kingdoms tear themselves apart.  

     You will take on the role of different members of the Forrester household, and determine their fate through the choices you make; your actions and decisions will change the story around you.

     Game of Thrones: Iron From Ice will be available tomorrow Dec. 2.

Official Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens Trailer!!!

     After long years of waiting we finally get to see some serious new Star Wars...

     It looks to have the patented Abrams direction of simple shots with crazy swirling ones, action, drama, and a Sith lightsaber complete with preposterous tiny bladed light-hilt.  I am not swayed off yet, it still looks much better than the Prequels, which did have a lot of merit despite the overall disappointment.  Then again, the first teaser for Episode One was damn amazing with the creatures coming out of the fog...

The Penguins of Madagascar Movie Review

Smile and Wave Boys

     With the first feature length film devoted to the best part of the Madagascar movies, the Penguins, we've been delivered a delightful treat.  The covert quartet of Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private are on the job- and their job is to keep us entertained, and I must say, they do it stupendously.
     Penguins is fully-loaded with jokes and visual gags from the moment the film starts and keeps it running all the way through.  Even the celebrity name drops that usually come across as eye-roll inducing, were handled here in a way that is strangely fitting and curiously hilarious even though it shouldn't be.  They even managed to slip in a few nods to the Madagascar movies and a couple cameos.

Jurassic World: First Official Trailer

     After the delightful teaser a couple days ago, we get the full trailer for Jurassic World and it looks quite good.  Hopefully, we get a couple nice cameos though.

      It's never a good idea to make dangerous dinosaurs smarter and then keep them as essentially prisoners.  Never.  And a Sea World like place with, what was that, a liopleurodon?  A kronosaur?  A mosasaur?  A pliosaur?  I don't know, but it was huge.  And far too close to the spectators.  Maybe this film should be called Liability World, because it can only result in disaster for the owners of the park.  Especially since if someone can make velociraptors team up with humans, one would think they'd also be able to instill the ability to not kill people at all.  Something like a genetic version of the Three Laws of Robotics. 

     Is it too early to pre-order tickets?

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin: For PS3 & PS4 April 7th, 2015.

     It appears as if our wonderful friends at FromSoftware and Bandai Namco have been hard at work on a really nice project- bringing us an expanded Dark Souls 2 pack coming to both PS3 and PS4.

     "Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin is coming to PS3 and PS4 next year! Not only that, but it will take advantage of the next generation capabilities of PS4, giving fans of the series and newcomers alike updated visuals, rebalanced gameplay, a higher maximum number of players for online play, new and deadlier enemies, a brand new NPC to discover, expanded lore, and new in-game events."

     What is even better is it also comes with the Crown of the Sunken King, Crown of the Old Iron King, and Crown of the Ivory King DLC all included.

     My only question is, if I upgrade from PS3 to PS4 will the game support transfer saves?


     Source [ PSN Blog ]

Escape Dead Island Review (PS3)

     When I began Escape Dead Island, I didn't want lean on the rumors about it.  The fact so many were talking about how terrible the game was doesn't always translate to I won't like it.  That is now a debatable subject now.  Heck, I actually enjoyed The Bureau.  I wanted to give this game the benefit of the doubt.  I really did.

Jurassic World Official Teaser Trailer

     This is both awesome and ridiculous- we are now getting trailers for our trailers.  Anyhow, Jurassic World is looking fairly good with all 10 seconds we get here.

     Of course it is starring Hollywood's current go-to guy Chris Pratt, and I wonder if he's playing an older version of Tim Murphy from the original Jurassic Park?  It is very doubtful, maybe he'll have no relation to any of the previous characters.  

     I just IMDB searched, and Pratt is playing a character named Owen, with no last name given, so maybe he's a son of one of the previous visitors to Isla Nublar...

Batman: Arkham City: NEW Easter Egg Found!!!

     After people searching for remaining Easter Eggs in Rocksteady Studio's masterpiece game Arkham City, a new one has been revealed.  This one involves the character of Calendar Man, who if you visited on specific days like Holidays had extra bits of dialogue giving people extra reason to swing through the game.  For players that didn't want to wait, they could set the console's clock backwards or forwards to trigger the same effect.

     Over three years since it released, there has still been hidden treats for us to find, and for this one, you must set the clock back to the date of Rocksteady Studio's founding, on December 13th 2004- almost a decade ago.  it gives a multi-layered meaning, and a hint towards the end of the Arkham trilogy with the release of Arkham Knight coming in June 2015.  Thanks to Batman Arkham Videos for this find/post.

     For other Dark Knight related posts [ Batman ]

     Easter Egg Humor [ Croc Blocked ]

Last Week Tonight: The Salmon Cannon

     If any of you readers out there know me, you know 95% of my news comes from The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Last Week Tonight.  Well, John Oliver proves once again he is a true master of satire and hilarity with his coverage of...  The Salmon Cannon.

     The sheer number of people he gets to go along with these skits is ludicrous.

Penguins of Madagascare: Official Trailer 3, The Cheezy Dibbles Room, and The Penguins Antarctic Documentary

     There's only a week and a few days until the release of The Penguins of Madagascar film hits theaters, so here is the 3rd trailer, a small clip of a glorious Cheezy Dibbles vending machine, and a small documentary.

Never Alone - Kisima Ingitchuna: Launch Trailer

      This game hasn't been getting the attention it deserves, so if you like what you see pick this up.  I'll be getting mine on this Tuesday.  Spread the word, this game looks wonderful.

     Built in partnership with the Alaska Native community, Never Alone is an atmospheric puzzle platformer that explores the harsh and vibrant world of Alaska Native stories. Delve deeply into the traditional lore of the Iñupiat people of the Arctic for a game experience like no other.

     Never Alone will be available Nov. 18th for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

     For more information [ Never Alone Game ]

Far Cry 3: Vaas: Reason in Sanity

"Did I ever tell you the definition of SPOILERS?"

     Since Far Cry 4 is arriving in a couple days and I realized that I never posted a review of Far Cry 3, I thought I'd do something a little different.  A small reflection on the game.  A bit more specifically, a little reflection on the show stealing star of the game Vaas and his relationship to Jason Brody.

"Did I ever tell you the definition of insanity?"

Escape Dead Island: Official Launch Trailer

   Deep Silver has put up a launch trailer and a handful of screenshots for the release of Escape Dead Island next Tuesday, Nov. 18th.  In this installment we play in a cell-shaded 3rd person game, giving it a much more distinct and unique visual style, greatly separating it from the main Dead Island and Riptide.  For me, at least, I believe I might enjoy this far more than I did the original.

     "Escape Dead Island is a single-player spin off in the Dead Island series. It is a survival mystery, where you follow the story of Cliff Calo as he attempts to uncover the truth about the zombie virus."

     Escape Dead Island will be available for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC for $40.

     The next gen game Dead Island 2 is also in the works, and will be out sometime in 2015 for Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Tales from the Borderlands: First Trailer!

     After months of waiting we finally get a glimpse into Telltale Games' take on the Gearbox Borderlands franchise.  Tales from the Borderlands has now gotten a full trailer!

     You’ll play as Rhys, a Hyperion ‘suit’ with dreams of being the next Handsome Jack, and Fiona, a Pandoran con artist looking to score her biggest ever swindle. Thrown together as unwilling partners in an adventure to recover cash they both think is theirs, their journey will take you on a wild ride where gangsters, bandit lords, and Vault Hunters are just some of the obstacles you’ll encounter, in this new take on the award-winning universe created by Gearbox Software.

     Tales from the Borderlands will be available before the end of 2014.
          Available on Playstation 3, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Mac and PC.
          It will be available a bit later on Android and iOS devices as well.

     Playstation and Xbox users can get Episodes 1-5 for $4.99 each or $19.99 for season pass.
     PC and Mac users can only buy the season pass for $24.99.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel: Handsome Jack Doppelganger Trailer and Playing Him Thoughts

     Well, the first chunck of Pre-Sequel DLC has dropped in the form of a sexy new playable character.  First, here's the launch trailer:

     Play as everyone’s favorite maniacal tyrant-in-training…or at least his body double. With the Handsome Jack Doppelganger Pack for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, use the power of your good looks and charm to distract your enemies into submission. Or, just cut them down to size with your witty banter. Or just shoot them. That works too.

     I've made it to level 16 with Jack's Doppelganger and I have been enjoying it immensely.  For this first run through I'm sticking with "The Hero of this Story" tree and it's been fairly decent.  It's mainly just a placeholder to keep me alive while I plow through the main campaign into True Vault Hunter mode so I can start trying the other 2 trees.
     What I've actually enjoyed much more is all the creepy Handsome Jack hitting on his doppelganger lines.  Every time you hear from him it's his adoration of himself and it is super hilarious to listen to.  It's almost as hilarious as all Wilhelm's dialogue.
     Almost, but not quite.

     Here's my previous post about this DLC Pack [ Jack's Body Double ]

     For more of my Borderlands Posts [ Click Here ]

TMNT: Danger of the Ooze: PS3 Review

     A Preface to the Review

It starts with such a great homage to the original NES TMNT.

     It's been years since we've had a truly great Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game.  The last one that made a lasting impact that I recall, and still play today, was TMNT the beat-em-up based on the 2007 movie with the same title on the Game Boy Advance (GBA).

     Recently we've gotten TMNT: Out of the Shadows, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Nickelodeon based show game, and the Michael Bay movie tie-in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game for the Nintendo 3DS.  None of them were noteworthy in any way, and they were all pretty terrible.  The only decent one is the Bay TMNT tie-in on iOS and Android mobile devices.  Honestly, even these two Nickelodeon web-based games are better than the lot that we've gotten- Donnie Saves a Princess and Ninja Turtle Tactics.

     To me it seemed to be games to keep a licensed franchise going for the sake of it and nothing else.  Sadly even WayForward Games couldn't live up to their name in making Danger of the Ooze.  Wayforward has a history of really good 2D platforming action games such as the Ducktales: Remastered, the Shantae series, and Thor: God of Thunder for the DS.  I'll actually also mention all their Spongebob Squarepants games as well, because they are all quite good, at least the GBA ones.
     So when I heard Activision was partnering with WayForward I was excited.  Then when I heard the game was going to be a "metroidvania" game I was a bit skeptical, but still held hope.

     The Game Review

Looking for pizza, late for training!

     The story is nestled between season 2 and 3, and the Shredder has somehow gotten hold of Super Mutagen.  That is as much as you would need to know about the story, and it gains no extra depth by the end.  This whole plot could've been squashed into a 22 minute episode, but they've managed to stretch it into 4 or 5 hours of tedium.  Even the other characters like Casey Jones, April O'Neil, and Slash appear to serve as nothing more than cameos to bestow a new ability upon you seem like a contractually forced obligation.  It lacks everything that makes the Nickelodeon show so great.  There isn't any heart or soul behind it.

     Taking the metroidvania style of 2D exploration, one might think this to be an interesting take on the TMNT.  With the metroidvania style of unlocking new skills that allow you to progress into new areas of the map over the course of the game.  Unfortunately, this type of game is severely hindered by poor hit detection, boring combat and enemies, and platforming that always feels just out of reach.  Every bit f backtracking felt like a huge chore instead of something to look forward to.  Having to destroy the same 3 enemies ad nauseam becomes a genuinely good reason to stop playing a game and I really wonder how many kids will make it to the halfway point of the game because of it.
     On the flip side of this, with each new skill, such as shuriken tossing, double jumping, or a dash, makes the combat slightly less cumbersome.  Near the 60% mark I decided it was much swifter and easier just to run and bypass all the enemies possible.  It saved a lot of annoyance during the running back and forth time.

Typical 2D platforming time.

     The only good thing is the fact you may choose any of the 4 turtles at will and swap them in or out as you please.  One problem with this is all 4 play nearly identical and offer no real difference other than choosing who you want to waste a life bar with on a boss fight.

     When I think about it, this game appears to have been aimed at kids, but the difficulty level seems much too high for them at times- notably the final boss fight.  Fighting the Shredder was challenging mainly because it takes a different form than anything else in the game.  You can only damage him indirectly when an extremely short prompt shows up once in a great while.  I had a 4 minute period where he just kept attacking and when the prompt finally came, he wasn't near only thing that could damage him, making me wait through the cycles again.  No explanation is given, there are no hints, nothing.  I actually feel bad for any kids that manage to make it here because it's preposterously hard compared to the rest of the game.

     What the game does right is a couple things.  Right away when you go to enter a name, Michelangelo steps up and gives you a random one.  A small, but nice touch.  Another thing I noticed was if you enter somewhere with a boss and the turtles speak, each turtle has different lines.  That is also nice, but it won't make me want to play any more than I have.  The animations are only OK, and the cutscenes have awful lip syncing issues.

The game was definitely a trap.

     Having said that, some of negative aspects of the game could've been overlooked had WayForward added more fan service and a lot more from the source material, but there wasn't.  While I applaud the fact WayForward took a chance in making a new type of TMNT game, it seems to empty.  Danger of the Ooze is not nearly the worst Turtles game around, but it isn't even remotely close to the best either.  I still look forward to a time when we get a game that takes the TMNT universe and gives us something 4 player, fun, and memorable.  As it is Danger of the Ooze is an empty shell and it feels like a simple cash grab.  Maybe if it was $15 instead of $40 it might not have felt like such a poor decision to buy.


     For more of my Turtles posts [ TMNT ]

Home: PS4: Game Review

     I'd heard about Home quite some time ago on the Playstation Blog, and it has finally arrived via the PSN.  I picked it up on a whim because it looked both interesting, and had the very reasonable price tag of $2.99 which includes cross buy so I can play it on my PS Vita.

A Definite Reference to Poe's A Cask of Amontillado

     Home claims to subtly change with your decisions throughout the game but after numerous plays the changes are fairly useless.  In this respect the ambiguity of storytelling is a hindrance, and the things hinted always led me to pretty much the same conclusion at the end.  But I must applaud the effort, and I really am curious if this concept can be made to work on a much larger scale for future games.

     Because of the game's brevity, taking only about an hour to make it through to the end of the game, I can't talk too much about what the plot is without possibly spoiling things.  It begins with a man waking up in a strange place, and him attempting to recall the series of events that led him to where he was.  He must pick up pieces and decide whether or not he picked something up or did he really do specific actions.  Each action you choose is how the character relates his story- "Did I pick up the gun?" or "Did I take the photo?"  The sum of your actions only really matter in a couple small changes at the end, and only one decision alters the meat of the story in any way.  One pivotal moment surrounded by a handful of fairly frivolous choices.

     I think my reason for not fully standing by Home as a revolutionary game is the fact that this is a murder mystery where you decide what to believe, so even if the evidence says one thing, you may choose to not believe it- and that can be a problem.  If all the signs point to one particular interpretation, you can still deny believing it, going contrary to all provided evidence.  To me it feels like the illusion of a shifting story.  There's a trail of bodies and a mystery, but if you are someone that truly explores there are enough hints to point you in the right direction.  Meaning the solution to this puzzle is interpreting it, not necessarily how the facts are shown.

     Because I don't want to be too harsh towards this game I must say that it's sound effects are great and add a tremendous layer to the atmosphere.  The simple pixelated graphics don't detract from the play at all, and it was a nice little experience, like playing an interactive version of the story that so clearly inspired Home, Edgar Allen Poe's A Cask of Amontillado.  This is a short and sweet game that can be played and enjoyed in one sitting.

     For a meager $3 Home is a decent game, and worth a playthrough.  Overall it is an interesting idea, it just wasn't executed as well as it could have been.  I still recommend giving this a try.  Put on some headphones and turn out the lights.  It's a neat little experience that might get you questioning what really happened.  With that being said, I genuinely believe both Lone Survivor and The Last Door have handled this type of game much better.  (Disclaimer, I played a free copy of The Last Door chapter 1, then donated/bought a full copy of the game.)

     As a very interesting side, the Official Home site has a place where you may post your thoughts and read others' posts about what they think really happened.  [ Home: What Happened ]
     Personally I think the story was made so vague that we could impose too much of anything we want over what was really going on.  There is enough to point fingers in a number of directions, and the more things you examine, the the closer to a concrete ending you can have, assuming you "choose" to believe it.
     When it comes down to it, I would very much like to see another game like this in a much larger production, and I hope Ben Rivers' next game, Alone With You, keeps up the good work.

Minions: Official Trailer (of Despicable Me)

     These guys have been the highlight of the Despicable Me films and it's about damn time they got their own film.  The fact the trailer sounds like a BBC Planet Earth or a National Geographic series makes it so much more hilarious.

     Coming Summer 2015.

     For more info check out [ minionsmovie.com ]

     And as a side note, this post I did about the Minion's Fart Blaster toy still gives me a chuckle.

          [ Best toy ever. ]

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel: Handsome Jack Doppelganger DLC Pack

     This announcement is something I've been waiting for since at least Nov. 15, 2012.  Almost exactly two full years after my post about potential future additional playable DLC characters for Borderlands 2, we get one of the ones I've been wanting.

     So the first DLC pack for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, we get a Jack Doppelganger that summons two Digi-Jacks to back him up.  As the official Borderlands website states:

     Jack has stood by for far too long watching the Vault Hunters go on exciting adventures, so he’s decided to join in on the fun…sort of.  With the Handsome Jack Doppelganger Pack, you’ll be able to play as everyone’s favorite maniacal tyrant-in-training, “Jack” the Doppelganger. As “Jack,” you’ll be able to summon multiple Digi-Jacks, which will join you in battle to mow down enemies and earn you more sweet, sweet loot.

     Depending on how you spec out your Skill Trees, these Digi-Jacks can earn you bonuses or even get you a Second Wind in Fight For Your Life. “Jack” can also shoot enemies with wrist lasers, get buffs every time he picks up money (in typical CEO fashion), or even get upgrades for using guns made by specific manufacturers.

     Additionally, there will always be 2 Digi-Jacks on the field.  If one dies, another digi-structs next to you!

     Out of curiosity I wonder if this particular Doppelganger will be Timothy, the one we hear about in the ECHO log recordings from Jack's Office?  Since the one we killed in Opportunity in Borderlands 2 didn't have the surgery, he used the pocketwatch tech to digi-struct a holographic look of Jack around an engineer, it is more than likely not Timothy, so we could see more of him in Borderlands 2's sequel.  It's a possibility.  I mean with the fact there were multiple body doubles, there could be a few more Jack's still out there...

     The Handsome Jack Doppelganger DLC Pack will be available on Nov. 11.
          It will be released on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. ($29.99 instead of $39.96- $10 off!)
          Price: Free for Season pass holders, $9.99 otherwise.

     Afterward notes.  From what I've read, the Pre-Sequel's DLC's are to be 2 characters (Jack's double, the Baroness, a level cap raise, and one campaign DLC.  This actually makes me a bit angry, I was looking for forward to a slew of small campaign add-ons, instead of two characters and a level cap boost.  Don't get me wrong, I will be playing all of it, but I just want more game.  Even if they are small like the Headhunter Packs it would be great to add more story.  I picked up the season pass under the impression we'd be getting more actual campaign material.

     Plus the fact that it's rumored that both bonus characters and the level cap were already on disc is a little bit aggravating.  (The data was data-mined on the disc by players.)  Granted, that could just be the base coding while they are fixing, patching, and prepping the stuff to add later.

     It just feels like a letdown that we aren't yet getting more story after the wealth of DLC Borderlands 2 got.  The official page above says "the current plans are to include another character, a level cap upgrade, a new campaign, and more!" so I shouldn't worry too much yet.  Perhaps we'll get more short DLC packs or a 2nd season pass.  Borderlands 2 had 4 campaign DLCs and then a ton extras, is it too much to hope for the same here?

     For more of my Borderlands posts [ Click Here ]

Josh News: WTF?!? Edition.

     So I put up a post yesterday about the Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and this was a comment that was left on it.

     Seriously!?!?  This is ridiculous.  Sure, I support their ability to say it, but please not on something meant for TMNT fans or kids.  So in response I will be deleting it, as it is probably just spam.  My apologies "anonymous" but this isn't the place for that.

     I am about equality regardless of a person's gender, race, or even just a crappy personality.  Everyone deserves the same rights and respect.

Nickelodeon: TMNT: Bebop & Rocksteady on the Show and Toys.

     The Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been a spectacular run, constantly adding things for fans of the original series and TMNT enthusiasts everywhere.  Now we will be getting old time fan-favorite goons Bebop and Rocksteady.

     By the looks of it, we already know who becomes Bebop!  I'm a little disappointed that I hadn't picked up on the clues that are so obvious- Anton Zeck.  Who is voiced by the amazing J.B. Smoove, who played my favorite character in Curb Your Enthusiasm- Leon Black.

     Update: We already actually know who both Bebop and Rocksteady are.
     After a little research, apparently Ivan Steranko will become Rocksteady.  He's the weapons dealer that Anton Zeck accidentally hurts causing the loss of an eye that he replaces with a diamond.  Interesting that the creators to thread these stories together into one nice plot.

     For more of my Turtles posts [ TMNT ]

Avengers: Age of Ultron: Extended Trailer: Lifting Thor's Hammer

     How'd I miss this posted yesterday?  The extended trailer showing the Avengers attempting to lift Thor's hammer, and I even saw Captain America budge it just a little.  Hopefully he'll fully pick it up at some point, as I've been complaining about forever.  He is worthy so when will it happen?

     Avengers: Age of Ultron arrives in theaters May 1, 2015.

TMNT: Danger of the Ooze: Launch Trailer!

     Today is the release of the newest Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles licensed game, subtitled Danger of the Ooze.  Sadly, it looks to be less impressive than the early still shots made it look, but I'm going to pick it up to play for review anyways because I am a lifelong TMNT fan.

     Once again we get a 2D game with no apparent multiplayer.  I mean the best part of this launch trailer is Michelangelo's dancing and the funny noises he makes during it.  There is always a chance Danger of the Ooze could be decent, but my hopes will remain low for now.

     TMNT: Danger of the Ooze is available now for PS3 and Xbox 360.
          ...and it will be available for the Nintendo 3DS on Nov. 11.

     For more of my Turtles posts [ TMNT ]

The Legend of Korra: PS3 Review

     I've been waiting for a decent Legend of Korra game for some time now, and well...  it looks like I'm really going to be waiting much longer, as this is only decent at best.  Platinum Games seems to have put in just enough effort to create a playable, but not really good game.  It's barely tolerable at points but has a lot of faults that take away what actual fun there could've been.

     Most of the game is spent being funneled through corridors towards groups of palette-swapped clones in one long repetitive motion.  I'm not even kidding, even the 3 generic mini-boss benders are all repeated multiple times.  It is a monotonous mess.  Korra gets boring long before you even unlock all 4 of the elements for her to use, which is just about at the 70% completion mark.  You get two attack types, a dodge, and a block/counter and that's about it.  There is nothing to the game.  This game feels empty.  Devoid of people and filler, the world here is as dull as it gets.

     Mechanically speaking, there's a lot of unfair things that happen- poorly handled and highly inconsistent platforming, the Naga running sequences are ultimately a test of frustration in trial-and-error, and the block/counter is the only thing that does damage to some bosses- making them a huge pain waiting for the few counterable moves they do.  I had one mech tank boss go nearly 5 minutes without giving me one creating a distaste for the gameplay.  The block-counters would be less of a problem if they worked consistently, but they don't and that is a problem.  For what could be considered a kids game, this is far too difficult for many kids, and just as annoying for adults.  The difficulty feels too high for a game of this kind.

     The dialogue is horrendous, repeating every minute or so if you don't do exactly what it says.  The story itself boils down to bad guy wants revenge for a previous Avatar's actions...  and that's it.  He somehow gets a whole bunch of followers and some chi blockers to stop Korra's bending.  It's like a poorly written single episode stretched into about a 4 hour game.

     Being a $15 downloadable game allows a measure of forgiveness for the issues this game suffers, but really- when will we get a game that puts to use the extremely wonderful source material?  Where are all the supporting characters?  Where is the drama?  Where is the humor?  Where is the depth of story and emotional impact that encompasses the The Legend of Korra television series itself?

     Perhaps if Platinum had focused on a purely beat-em-up game it might've been better, but they tried to cram in Temple Run copycat levels and some Pro Bending Tournaments which effectively eat up resources from the main draw of the action game.  Don't get me wrong here, the Pro Bending is fun, but should've been left as a side mini-game in the larger scheme of things, but the Naga levels shouldn't have been here at all.

     Since this seems to be purely a bashing review I want to throw in some good comments as well.  I think they've done very well with the cell-shaded art, keeping true to the television show.  The best playing moments were all in fighting horde waves.  They nailed the way the elements differ from each other, despite the lack of combo variance.  Water is weak but works long distance, earth is super slow but super strong, and so on.  The items are primarily useless, with the exception of the life regeneration item that makes the game a little less frustrating and much more tolerable.

     The Pro Bending is pretty fun on its own, and if Platinum would've added multiplayer to it, both team play and competitive, this could've easily become the highlight of the game.  The unused potential here was a great misstep on the creators' part.  This is a massive missed opportunity.
     There are also very short clips of animation that are exactly like the shows' style, but are so quick that I believe just watching the show might be a far better alternative to playing the game.

     Oddly enough my wishes for a good Korra game are the same as another Nickelodeon property, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I want a decent open world game.  Think of Lego Marvel Super Heroes' open New York City area.  Something like that but with multiple cities in large locales with a main story and various sub-missions and mini-games to fill out the world.  The Legend of Korra game we got was a mediocre foundation and mostly a shell of a game.  I sincerely hope that Platinum can really get behind another Korra game and make one worth the time to play it.  The Air Bender universe is ripe with stories to be told, so where are they?

     Being a huge fan of both Avatar: The Last Air Bender and The Legend of Korra can't help my displeasure at how terrible this game is.  It's a sore disappointment when this is so terrible, while their other release, Bayonetta 2, is so great in comparison.
     Dear creators, give us an Avatar game of the Platinum quality we've known so well, and definitely take the time and effort to make a game worthy of the Avatar legacy.

Comics: Wrecked Ship (by Valentin Seiche) Review

     I ordered this from Peow! Studios after seeing it listed on Cory Walker's Tumblr way back in May.  It looked very interesting so I took a chance.  When Wrecked Ship arrived I was more than surprised.  This small volume (roughly 5.5 x 4 inches) is such wonderful find collecting 5 issues.

     Wrecked Ship is a simple tale of a space scavenger named Andre Melchoir.  His job is to find oddities for people, a kind of deep space Private Investigator, but more specifically he finds missing bodies, ID or documents, and various other things to provide information on what happened to the person in shipwrecks- he's hired find answers and collect the dead.  It can be a lonely job, but he needs the money.

     Things get a bit more complex when his newest job is a lot more than it first appeared.  He is hired to find a robot's head.  Not just any robot, a lady robot that was made to assist the lonely men in space.  An outlet for all their emotions, from love to anger.  She was made to feel, it appears that she saw and experienced the worst type of things from the owner.  Andre doubts both the sanity and trustworthiness of his current client leaving him in a state of questioning the ethics of this particular job.  This is a hugely disturbing situation for him, and that makes Andre rethink his job.  He feels for the bot, and not for the cruel and abusive human.  It makes him question what the employer wants with the head.

    What Seiche has done with Wrecked Ship is make a good argument for the life of robots, and a good case for feelings that aren't necessarily human.  It makes a wonderful statement about what defines someone as a real person- and it doesn't simply mean being human.  Wrecked Ship is about what constitutes a life.
     The story really gets good when Andre decides to do some good to help the robot woman at the cost of more than his job.  I can't say anything more without potentially spoiling the story, but it takes a very heartfelt turn.  What Andre does and what happens is quite emotionally moving.  That being said, I would highly recommend this comic, Valentin Seiche has made a fan of me with Wrecked Ship, and I'll be buying all his future works that I can.

     Valentin Seiche's Tumblr [ AirFortress ]

     Post edited from 09/21/2014

Avengers: Age of Ultron First Official Teaser Trailer is Unbelievable

     Once this thing dropped online, it's been watched nearly 10 million times in less than a day.  Damn, that is very impressive.

     Avengers: Age of Ultron arrives in theaters May 1, 2015.

Josh News: Sociological Images Featured a Picture I Took!

     This morning The Lady informed me a picture I took of her was put up on Sociological Images.  It's about the ridiculous differences in men and women's Halloween costumes.  In fact, I was disappointed that I couldn't find Sexy Duck Dynasty Beard to go as this year.  I suppose I'll settle for something in Star Trek, maybe my old favorite Dr. McCoy... *Grumble grumble* ...doctor...   ... not an escalator...

     Source [ TheSocietyPages.org ]

#GamerGate: A Post I've Been Fearing for Weeks

     I have been off lately for this blog.  It's been a hellish last few weeks and I'm super tired from both work and homework all day so this post might be a bit lacking in quality.  Any long time readers will know that I make no effort to hide who I am, or what I like.  I am a liberal, equal rights individual, believing everyone deserves the same stand.  I am a comics loving, cinema fan, and lifelong gamer.  Also, of course, if you are reading this you've probably heard something of the GamerGate situation in the media.  It has been eating away at me for a long time, and I'm coming under fire for supporting a movement that is largely misunderstood in the media.  People I don't know have harassed me, thankfully it's been mild so far, and I'm just a nobody.  It's been bothering me a ton.  The general populous have blown up about this recently and I don't believe the Pro GamerGate side has even remotely gotten a fair word in.  Any time it gets mentioned someone has to throw in about Feminist Frequency and Anita Sarkeesian, which is NOT what it is about.  This is a very disturbing trend to have come about.

     What makes this better is the GamerGate supporters I've talked to are all nice.  I'm not going to say they all are, but plenty of the ones I've had the pleasure of conversing with have all been cordial, and I thank them for it.  Which oddly enough brings me to the few encounters with Anti-GamerGate people I've met.  They have all been hostile, tossing around terms of hate left and right.  Seriously people, calm down and we can discuss things.

     Honestly, this is the best comic representation that I've seen of it, being a GGer since the beginning (you may check my twitter feed if you like):

Pretty much #GamerGate pic.twitter.com/Mw1bgtZqUp
— LEOpirate (@theLEOpirate) October 17, 2014

    First off, I have been a supporter for GamerGate since it began.  It was NOT about misogyny then, it is still NOT about harassment or misogyny.  Sure, the inciting event was about Zoe Quinn (note- it wasn't about her actions per se, but the fact they MAY have been a factor in journalistic integrity for articles about her game and the people she might have had an influence upon them, much like the whole Phil Fish and Fez fiasco), and of course we have had the ever present Anita Sarkeesian and much more recently, Brianna Wu jumping in and pushing mass media to believe this is all about harassment.
     Here is a great bunch of coverage to show you that the major media outlets are lacking about these 3 ladies: Realgamernewz.  Another great link: The Males of Games.  And a Quinn post/article from yesterday I believe- questionable actions.  All the media seems to cover is all the "oppression" that is happening, despite having mass groups of minorities speaking up for and supporting GamerGate.
     Now, mind you, I firmly believe that any harassment these women have faced is wrong, and should the harassers be found, they should be dealt with appropriately through whatever means the legal system has.  Harassment is not to be tolerated.  Death threats are not to be tolerated.  Simple as that.  What I disagree with is the fact that they keep taking all their problems and saying GamerGate is the cause.

     This next part was the last straw for me, the one that spurned me to action.  As two of my nerd heroes, Patton Oswalt and John Scalzi, recently tweeted things that are absolutely astounding considering the subject matter.

Jesus. Brianna Wu is someone I consider a friend. Fuck everyone who thinks GamerGate is anything other than haters shitting on women.
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) October 11, 2014

.@assclit I'm not a gamer. The misogyny of "GamerGate" sickened me, which you could have learned with two clicks of research.
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) October 14, 2014

     Well, two clicks of the mouse would've brought this up:

     Even, before this video was made, looking through Ms. Wu's tweets shows that NONE of the threats were even tagged with GamerGate.  Seriously, neither of them bothered to actually look into it.  How disheartening is this- to have two very awesome people make a mass judgement and declaration about something they don't actually know anything about.  Talk about leading the public to false conclusions.  It's just perpetuated the hate going around.

     Because I am getting hate mail already (part of my reasons for not posting in a while) and I have a lot of other things on my plate, such as school, a full-time job in health care, and I've been super sick lately- I'll leave some links to people that are smarter and have far better information than I can provide at this time. I've been dealing with this for, what, something like 2 months now, and it is getting sickening to continually hear that all these problems are my fault because I'm a gamer.

     Wu accused GamerGate and has since, continually accused us of doing all manner of ridiculous things.  If Mr. Scalzi and Mr. Oswalt had taken the time to actually investigate this stuff a little further, they might have found some interesting information, such as Ms. Wu treating others with the same disrespect she hates.  Including a pretty derogatory tweet about autism, which she has since deleted.  Seems a bit one sided to me.  I'm sorry but it was unfair for either Scalzi or Oswalt to make those cruel statements without at least looking into the situation a little.

     It has become damn near impossible to actually discuss things with anyone now because any response or criticism gets automatically labelled as misogyny.  If anyone brings up anything in the way of criticism of any of these 3 women, regardless of what it might be, it is deflected with labels.  It halts the conversations that need to be had.  Without a dialogue this cannot be fixed.  We need to talk about this.  As people not constantly forced to defend ourselves on both sides- if you don't think the GamerGaters get harassed, here's a great compilation of some of them on GamerGate Harassed on Tumblr.  

     A call for civility and peace in GamerGate:

     Let me tell you something about myself.  I grew up a nerd.  In the 80's when getting beaten up for liking comics, cartoons and video games was the norm.  I got bullied all the time because I was a scrawny nerd.  But you know what- that doesn't matter.  What does is the fact that nerd culture is now embraced, so why is gamer culture being vilified?

     Out of GamerGate, I've found an amazing number of new friends.  Of all ages and backgrounds.  Before this started I had friends of all over the place- a 60 year old Irish friend that plays Pokemon Soul Silver with me, a group of Physicians that I play Diablo 3 with, and a bunch of co-workers kids that I give my games to .  Do you know what the common denominator here is?  Gaming.  It brings us all together.  

     It would be madness to think people don't want ladies in gaming because more gamers means more games, more games means more opportunity and fun.  Many of us GamerGaters welcome everyone- it's more people to meet and have fun with.  This is a way of socializing.

     Now I fully acknowledge that I am essentially a nobody blogger, but this is an issue that needs to get sorted out.  It is staggering how much hate is being slung in both directions, and yes, most of it are the internet trolls out to get riled up at the misery and suffering of others.  As a culture we have an amazing ability to talk about this and work it out.

     For a more thorough group of evidence that GamerGate is not about hate I will list a bunch of people that are great to follow on twitter for information.  I mean think of all the charities that we GamerGate supporters have donated to, I personally put my money towards ExtraLife.org as I have for the last few years.  The news won't tell you that, but harassers and doxxers on both sides are being reported by the GamerGate supporters.  Suicide prevention and bullying prevention is being aided.  #NotYourShield is proving that diversity is great among us.  #NotYourShield 

     Anyways, here's list of people that are far better informed and have a great base of information:

TotalBiscuit

Thunderfoot

Internet Aristocrat

FartToContinue

Liz F

Jemma Shuluumoo

Jennie Bharaj

King of Pol

Sargan of Akkad

MundaneMatt

Adam Baldwin

     Before commenting, please keep things at least decent.  No hateful or spiteful comments and no name calling.  This blog post is off the cuff.  I didn't plan it, just sat and cobbled this together.  If I get some more downtime I'll try and get a really good piece worked out for it.  And for the purposes of full disclosure- I do get "advertising money" on this site.  I put that in comments because after a couple hundred thousand views in the last 6 years I've made exactly $31.02 as of just now (I just checked).  Please, keep things peaceful.

This is the real #GamerGate . pic.twitter.com/IKeMi8BkCv
— Blocker (Mr. Fart) (@FartToContinue) October 15, 2014

    Then lastly, here's the extremely level-headed, kind-hearted Boogie2988 as seen above, with a call to #EndTheHate:

Josh News Update: Holidays, Horrible Sickness, and the Wasp-ocalypse!

Worst News First

     First off, to any frequent readers, I would like to apologize for my relatively lengthy absence.  It was a myriad of things all coming down at once.  I had a Family Emergency with some very serious consequences as a result, then I had an abnormally large amount of homework that same week.

      Following that I came down with a particularly nasty virus that knocked me out of school and work and right into some hospital care- out for roughly an entire week.  Oof.  It was no good at all, to the point of losing a whopping 10 lbs. in a mere 4 days  For my slight build, that's a problem.
     Anyways, I'm on the tail end of that and on the mend.  Still feel like crap, but I am now up and about, so that is some sweet optimistic news for me.  As I should be back to regular posting soon.  And I may even start putting up video reviews finally.

#IndigenousPeoplesDay

     On to some good news, I'm really appreciative of the fact that Minneapolis, of which I live in the suburbs of, has changed Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day!  That is an awesome start for some serious work towards helping the Native American/American Indian Movement.  I've been in an American Indian Lit class, covering a wide range of subjects from, thankfully, their point of view.  Getting some history from their side is both refreshing and horrifying at their poor treatment over the years, and having Columbus Day is one extra kick in the junk on top of a bad situation.  So thank you Minneapolis, I hope this trend continues.

#GamerGate

     Then we've got the highly volatile #GamerGate going on.  If you are a follower of this blog, I'll be putting up a post devoted to this singular topic most likely in the next couple days.  I've been involved in it on the periphery since it began, and it isn't what the mass media is making it out to be.  It is not a hate campaign, if you make a nice look through my twitter feed, you'll see plenty of evidence that it is not about hate or misogyny.  Please keep the comments peaceful. 

On to Wasp-ocalypse!

     Lastly.  This is possibly the most disgusting thing I've had to do in recent months.  A while ago, a roommate had heard some stuff in the ceiling of his room,  After some investigating we found there were wasps moving in.  Those freeloaders!  Or would they be "Beeloaders!?!"  I know I'm lame.  Whatever.
     Because the dropping temperatures of fall season, they were moving in at an alarming rate and flooding the house.  Hundreds of them a day.  Two weeks ago, we had a pest control come out and spray them.  Then a week ago, we did another spray ourselves, and then last night we (roommate and I) tackled the hive nest removal.  It turned out to be a much larger situation than we had originally anticipated it to be.  So here's are a couple disgusting pic I got.  To give you an idea of the size it turned out to be enough stuff to fill a 13 gallon garbage bag.  An added problem was the fact that at least a couple hundred of the things were still alive.  Sluggish, but still alive, so we bagged them and tossed them out.  The animal lover in me feels bad about it, but these things are dangerous to have in this quantity in my house.


     On a good note the Bumble Bee nest way over behind my shed is untouched and will remain as such.  They are always pleasant and offer a ton of entertainment for me to watch them fly around like happy drunkards.  Their big, fat, and round bodies continuously bumping into everything and swinging in funny circles.  Plus with all the honey bee deaths there is quite a plight for them, I would very much like to keep them alive for more than their honey.  They are nice company to have around.