Facebook alerts users of state-sponsored attack

Illegal state-sponsored attacks may come from companies or perhaps some government agencies that tech giants and their consumers are really concerned. If a company does that on their own accord with their product or service, the reputation is obviously super worse that it makes government agencies more respectful when it comes to the on-going situation on the outside. Such illegal actions can be exposed and found out by the privacy advocates. The on-going cyber-surveillance may be a good time to detect the place for further illegal activities taking place but what makes it really illegal in itself is the privacy violation of the civilians' as if such ideas are not always perfect.
Google might have planned this notification system for the users years ago before Facebook comes up with one but having to make things over-protective can open doors to undetected illegal activities and especially for those controversial bills that extend the illegal cyber-surveillance are always coming back that we have to fight them. What about those illegal activities done by the baddies then? Who's going to tackle those illegal activities for us?
The notification works like this. Basically, the victim is notified of the cyber-attack conducted by some attacker working on behalf of nation-state. In addition, the victim is also warned of the suspected unidentified malware as part of the attack that will likely infect his/her system. Turning on Login Approvals will keep this kind of cyber-attack from coming in.

Taiko No Tatsujin V Version

Taiko No Tatsujin reboot is in the arcades in Japan and Asia starting from four years ago with the Japanese release with the Asian version being released last year but it appears that my country is not getting the latest Taiko No Tatsujin game which is the one in HD widescreen and that's a shame. Thankfully, the upcoming Taiko No Tatsujin game for the PS Vita might have popped up in the Asian PSN and I tried out the demo like it's the first Taiko No Tatsujin game I have ever played. I can assume that the PS Vita version should be out in the local retail stores in this present time. The PS Vita game of Taiko No Tatsujin is similar to the one on the PSP where you press on the corresponding buttons on time to the music. I guess that physical buttons are much more preferred as the screen is somewhat too small to incorporate the touch screen elements like the IOS and Wii U versions have.

Strikers 1945 III on IOS and Android

This one's a special treat to show as I had one-credit-cleared this game on my Android device in the highest difficulty as shown in the screenshot below. Unfortunately, unlike that screenshot, my gameplay videos on YouTube took more than a credit to clear but it seemed that I was able to tolerate things quite well as if the game on IOS and Android is less difficult than the arcade version in which the enemy bullets are much faster in the arcade version. Another thing to talk about is the lesser amount of grinding in this one unlike the prequel on IOS and Android which is much more tedious. You should be able to get more virtual coins throughout the game than spending the overall amount of virtual coins in starting the game. What this means is that you can pay virtual coins in randomizing the choice of the fighter for full power as well as to enable a partner fighter to help you out before starting the game but by the time you have gone through the entire game, you may have gotten more virtual coins from some missions than consumed those virtual coins from random fighter choice + partner. This reduces the amount of grinding or some sort but another improvement is the inclusion of additional goals as different ways of unlocking fighters. For instance, you need to upgrade the fighters by spending virtual coins on getting full power, shield and higher charge weapon level so that you can get that amount of power the next time you start the game. Of course, you may need to do the required amount of upgrades to unlock that fighter.

Beast Busters featuring KOF DX

It has been a year since I played the original Beast Busters featuring KOF on my Android device and surely, it took tons of resources that there were choppy framerates as well as delays in the buffer. In fact, it may look like new contents are on the DX version with additional stages, removal of some social gaming elements like you can play it at anytime as many times as you like. Needless to say, some of the bosses of the last areas of last missions/area-sets are really tough. There might be gameplay videos of the original on my YouTube channel but like I mentioned in the previous blog post about Beast Busters featuring KOF, each area is really short compared to the standard rail-shooter games where each stage is really long due to multiple areas to take place in.

Synchronica by Bandai Namco

Taiko No Tatsujin franchise is highly popular in Japan and besides that, there's also the spinoff rhythm game from Bandai Namco for the arcades which is Synchronica. It's sort of like Osu/Elite Beat Agents but there are differences in the gameplay. There are notes where you have to drag from start to end point. You don't have to follow the path directly but you must make sure that you reach the end point in time and reaching there too late will result in breaking the combo. You can reach the end point as fast you wish and stay there but sometimes, portions of the path notes will be shown that you may have to follow along from start to end like one of the beatmaps of Namco Original songs. Also, the game makes use of multiple touch points that you may have to tap on two or more notes that appear at the same time to the beat. Other notes like normal and hold notes are self-explanatory.
I don't know if anyone may port those beatmaps from this game to Osu! simulator on PC or perhaps mobile devices but let me warn you that it is pretty much illegal to port them to simulators like that just because of similar game play. We have already seen a warning elsewhere stating that it is kind of illegal to port Bemani songs and their notecharts directly to LR2 or something as a way to avoid getting the simulator developers getting sued or something but who cares.
There are also songs from other Bandai Namco games like always such as the ones from Idolmaster series, Taiko No Tatsujin as well as the songs from other rhythm games not made by Bandai Namco as part of the rhythm game crossover festival or something and right now, that crossover is going second round where songs from other games were already available recently.

Idolmaster Cinderella Girls Starlight Stage

Well, this one may be the answer to Love Live School Idol Festival which was released two years ago and the interface during gameplay is somewhat similar except that everything else is different such as the gameplay, the room management which is unnecessarily social-ish, 2D and 3D graphics modes and so on. Idol Chronicle by Taito already has the 3D graphics which may render non-current Android devices incompatible with it as it takes up more resources that way but it should be able to catch up with Playstation Vita rhythm games made in Japan like Project Diva series, Persona 4 Dancing All Night, Utakumi 575, etc. This may have superseded other idol themed rhythm games on IOS and Android with so much exclusive features like multiple graphics modes, room management, multiple technical workarounds, etc.
Unlike Idolmaster Shiny Festa which has mini OVA animations included in the game, this one is based on the TV animated series which is based on the mobage of the same name. Like the Idolmaster TV animation series which is closely related to the Idolmaster games, the concept is the same for this one although the idol characters that will be in both this game and the TV animation counterpart are based on the popularity as like Starlight Stage, the original Idolmaster Cinderella Girls surely has tons of characters represented by cards.
The Communication Mode is sort of like the Story Mode which contains both the Main Story and the Side Story known as Story and Idol respectively, the Idol Mode is obviously the card management mode where you can level up various cards in your collection and the Room Mode is going all Farmville-ish indoor where you can decorate the producer's office in the enterprise of 346 production. Who thought the Room Mode was a good idea for this game? You can't decorate the offices like that. Unlike Love Live School Idol Festival, the story modes will sometimes give you multiple options similar to the main Idolmaster games. So be warned, making a bad choice will result in a bad communication. There's also the affection stuff but I don't know if that is similar to or different than the bond bonus from Love Live School Idol Festival.
Other factors in unlocking the songs include the Panel Mission which is kind of like the mini-quest, upping the producer rank, buying additional songs through the Jukebox and so on.

Lastly, like Love Live School Idol Festival, there will be plans to arrange the songs that are available in this game although I don't know if the songs from this game will have the same copyright level as Love Live School Idol Festival songs as not all songs are necessarily from the TV animation. There may be cases where gameplay videos of some songs are completely muted not because they are from the TV animated series or something. Also, like other idol-themed rhythm games on IOS and Android, this one remains in Japan for some reason so don't expect a global release.

Love Live School Idol Paradise

I don't know what went wrong with Dingo when developing a music game based on the multimedia animated franchise, Love Live School Idol Project. The overall graphics are equivalent to the graphical style of MMD or a PSP music game with 3D graphics. It's an epic disappointment when we saw the game in action before its release last year even when the game was finalized. We expected the graphics to be the same as the ones in Project Diva series just because the game was developed by Dingo, right? When a music game like this is developed by Dingo, you expect the graphical level to be as equal as Project Diva series level. The gameplay doesn't have to be exactly the same though.
Another disappointing impression was that the total amount of songs. Getting at least 30-40 songs should be an acceptable requirement for me but this is not supposed to be an exception because there should be tons of songs available to choose from and by the time you've reached the game's end, you might have chosen the same song, few songs or maybe several songs. I guess this is what the flow of the Idolmaster franchise is about like choosing costumes, accessories, idols to manage and of course, the songs but what increases the replay value is the large amount of choices. Like the Idolmaster PSP games, Love Live School Idol Paradise is split up into three and you can choose various costumes, stages and the songs as well as to adjust the stage settings. I guess that Love Live School Idol Paradise is the closer answer to Idolmaster Shiny Festa as it is more of a rhythm game with storyline than the idol management simulation game.
Perhaps, there should be game called School Idol Producer or something but Love Live related or not , that will break the originality and rip off the former competing franchise that there will be lawsuits from Bandai Namco because its existence can cause a serious war over these two franchises despite their differences in concept even when the awesome collaboration of these two franchises took place this year. Hell, even one of the songs from Love Live School Idol Project franchise is playable in Taiko No Tatsujin but that's pretty much it as if Bandai Namco has no plans to put in additional songs from the that franchise at this moment and it's already a limited opportunity.
And of course, what's up with the part where you have to draw the on-screen symbol for a boost? That is unnecessary and it should belong to some kids game on the DS or 3DS. Sure, the game itself may be suited for teenagers and above and especially for the fans of the franchise but that feature is a strange move to me.
The game overall is pretty much a disappointment to the fans as if they may stick on to playing School Idol Festival on IOS and Android due to sufficient contents and replay value. As of this time, there are already songs in School Idol Festival taken from the animated movie that was already in theaters months ago in Japan and it was also in theaters outside Japan recently. I imagine that when the music starts, the fans at the cinema theaters may end up turning the whole place into a concert which may be strange to those who watch tons of movies but not the Japanese animated ones but be warned, there will be spoilers and I don't know the entire plot of the movie at this time. I guess that a huge amount of sadness awaits those who watch it provided that they know the plot of the TV animated series season 2. Again, you won't find information here about what went on in that show but there should be references to both seasons 1 and 2 in School Idol Festival game which is still on-going and I'm still lagging behind the latest chapters due to painful grinding that I have to face.

Groove Coaster 2 for Arcade, IOS and Android

For Groove Coaster 2 Heavenly Festival, there are changes to the game-end system in which you use the Groove Coins to buy songs, items and other stuffs, replacing the Level Up system that has been present in the original Groove Coaster including its EX variation. The Level Up system is still intact in Groove Coaster 2 Original Style and there's a new control method where you can make noise near your device while the device mustn't make any sound to get a beat which is unspeakably strange and replaces various types of notes with normal notes. Worse thing for using that method is that your scores will not be saved as if things don't count. In addition, the Original Style version has difficulties from the arcade version of Groove Coaster series although the song level range between these two versions is different that it kind of confuses me to determine which level number is the highest for each version. Heavenly Festival has some changes done to the versus multiplayer mode as well as you will notice in the results screen and Original Style has included the Ad-Lib in the results screen as well. Getting 100% of Ad-Lib what you'll want to get that should boost your scores even higher for better grades but it's not easy to get one unless you can memorize where all the Ad-Lib notes are for each song. You can try using Visible item to reveal those notes as the assist item.
To be frank, I might have gotten the No-Miss in certain songs which is the standard full combo. For a true full combo, a Standard Full Combo and 100% Ad-Lib combination is a must which is more difficult for me in the first place. Starting from today, I have already set up the same goal of attempting the new songs from Groove Coaster 2 Heavenly Festival.

Project Mirai Deluxe for 3DS

The second game features additional songs, mini-games and even the item events similar the ones in Project Diva series' Diva Room. There's also the editor although it doesn't seem to be as big as the one in Project Diva series where you can use the MP3 files along with custom scene, dance movements and custom notecharts for a custom song. That is the biggest feature that increases the replay value. In addition, there are multiple vocals for the same song but that depends if the song supports that. Last major change is the gameplay. It's sort of like the 2D variant of Groove Coaster the way it approaches the notes and depending on the control method, you have to press the corresponding physical buttons or tap on the corresponding on-screen ones. For the touchscreen gameplay, there's also the flick feature in addition to having to tap on the pink or blue one.
For the Deluxe version which has additional changes from the second game, the music videos are changed and there is one more song exclusive to it as well as the change of the charts for certain songs. This is the first Project Mirai game to be released outside Japan and people should be glad when buying this on their own 3DS besides buying the Project Diva series on their Playstation 3 or Vita. Some of the songs from Project Mirai series are already available in Project Diva Arcade and Maimai in which there are major graphical differences between Project Mirai series and Project Diva Arcade.

Prismatic Solid for Playstation 4

Originally an Xbox Live Indie game developed using XNA by some former Squaresoft programmer, Prismatic Solid pushes the limits of the Xbox 360 console without any lag by having tons of particles, bullets and shards at the same time. If you thought that bullet hell shmups today take up tons of resources with bullets only, this one has more than that without any slowdown whatsoever. Resogun surely has tons of particles and voxels as well as superior graphics to this but as least, it is a test of technical capability of XNA and Xbox 360 themselves. There's the glow effect below the ship similar to the one in R-Type Dimensions and like the R-Type series, the options protect you from enemy bullets. Each shot has its own formation and each option has its own smartbomb that decreases the power everytime you activate it. There are power orbs in three different colors that increase the power and the tentacle arms of the corresponding options.
On the Playstation 4 version, there's really not much to say other than the smooth gameplay in 1080p at 60fps with no graphical differences whatsoever. I might have seen some changes in programming that make the game more challenging in this version or maybe my witnessing is somewhat wrong as the game itself is so underrated not because it's an indie game or something. The only special thing about the Playstation 4 version is that even the Playstation 4 is put to the technical test on how well the system can handle the game the same way the Xbox 360 does.

Persona 4 Dancing All Night

*Sigh* More rhythm games on Playstation Vita are coming in and even IA/VT Colorful is released this year after some delays and the announcement from last year. This one to a surprise is developed by Altus with Dingo being excluded due to the reshuffling of the game development staff. I don't know why did they exclude Dingo like that but the gameplay should look and feel familiar to you if you have played Project Diva games. Somehow, the gameplay concept to me is sort of like Project Diva mixed with Maimai/Samba De Amigo because the notes appear from the center of the screen and the on-screen keys such as the buttons/arrows at the end are placed in circles.
Another surprise is the fact even DJ Dolce has played the game in the official live stream and somehow, he's like the master of the genre, able to manage every rhythm game he can show off and especially that he's played other rhythm games like Chunithm, Drummania, etc.
As a spinoff of the Persona series, there are songs taken from other Persona games as well as the songs exclusively new to this one. I don't know if I'll get some time to arrange any of these as well as to buy the game itself. Needless to say, there are way so many songs, costumes, accessories and other stuffs available as DLC and I guess that it may have outnumbered the number of DLCs from Project Diva games due to to tons of fan requests or something.

Chunithm

At first glance, people in Japan probably dismissed Chunithm as the ripoff of Sound Voltex but after sometime, the close comparison to Chunithm is Deemo in which the gameplay is somewhat similar. Unlike Deemo, Chunithm has multiple lengths of the notes which range from tiny to large and they are positioned anywhere in the playfield. The playfield is obviously divided into more than several note panes as if they represent the corresponding piano keys. In addition to the notes in various sizes, there are also notes where you have to raise your hand above the keys while being at the corresponding positions those notes are on. The laser notes in Chunithm have the starting and ending points anywhere similar to what Sound Voltex III has. Prior to the third game, the starting points for the laser notes are left for blue and right for pink but unlike Sound Voltex, there are no horizontal paths (Whoosh parts) where you instantly shift to the other side and Chunithm has more than two laser notes on the field. The major challenge is the fact that the virtual keys are kind of crammed that you may need to find other ways to ensure that both hands don't collide when sliding from one side to another but obviously for zig-zag like laser note patterns, you can split up the group of virtual keys into two that easily.
The keys are not physical and I guess that Sega might have used the same technology for the controls as the one for Project Diva Arcade Future Tone. It should support like multiple touch points and Chunithm has the sensor technology for the air notes. The strange addition to the cabinet is the large black & green LED display on top of the main monitor like it tries to act like the VMU or some sort during gameplay. And of course, there are elements where you have to choose one of the cards representing whichever character as the assist items for gameplay.
To compensate for the un-originality of the gameplay, there was some collaboration between Chunithm and Deemo which was a promising stumble that some of the songs will be commonly playable. Of course, expect some differences between these two games and it looks like Sega's finally doing right this time. Other rhythm game collaborations include some Bemani songs as well as the ones from Paca Paca Passion, Persona 4 Dancing All Night, etc.

Gensou no Ronde for Playstation 4

This one's a special discovery as G.Rev was already aware of what that game is all about when it was announced for Playstation 4. The game itself is basically Senko No Ronde with Touhou and for the original version on PC, it uses the 4:3 resolution for whatever reason and that the only shiny thing about the graphics is the amount of glowing bullets on screen. The gameplay is so similar but there are some differences to reflect the purpose of the Touhou Project franchise.
The Playstation 4 version was announced with licenses obtained from G.Rev to allow the release of the game. It features HD graphics as well as online matches and other stuffs available as DLCs. The PC version was taken down but I guess that the developers of this Senko No Ronde clone are improving it to make it on par with the Playstation 4 version. Of course, they still need to obtain the license from G.Rev if they are to release the PC version in the future.
Needless to say, I'm not a goodie at Senko No Ronde as the gameplay concept is unspeakably complicated and it looks like there's no way we can try out the PC demo version as of this time if there's one of course to see how things go.

Astebreed for Playstation 4

This one's an indie game and as you can know, it is originally on PC that showcases the next generation graphical power for the genre. At that time, it is another game that tries to supersede Under Defeat and puts Strania on XBLA and Nesica X Live to shame in terms of the amount of content and graphical level. Astebreed has cutscenes with voices which Strania has cutscenes but with insufficient content. Unfortunately, the 2D cutscenes are not animated at all and it may be a disappointment for people expecting full animated 2D cutscenes in both Arrange and Original Modes of the Playstation 4 version. The Playstation 4 version has additional stuffs done in terms of programming as shown in the official version comparison video as well as better modelling and textures. Even the Arrange Mode has improved gameplay as well and on Chapter 5, the mode has additional BGM as heard in some game trailer for the Playstation 4 version. Not to mention that you get improved firepower in the Arrange Mode. Unfortunately, the story doesn't have enough extension in the Arrange Mode to call the mode Story Mode but I think that the full story should be in Story Mode with no gameplay differences whatsoever. The Arrange Mode shouldn't have story difference or extension either.
On the PC version, there's also the opportunity to play the game at 4K or even 8K HD but that is too unnecessary since most of the games are up to 1080p and trying to make the game support 4K or 8K may require a more powerful system, electrical power and higher resolution textures. What the hell? Nobody knows what future gaming generation era is like and not even Mid-End machines can handle 4K gaming like that let alone 4K videos and 4K or 8K monitors or TVs are not the right times to buy right now.

Super Stardust Ultra

To be frank, I've never played any of Housemarque games before. The interesting discovery of Housemarque games started with Resogun for Playstation 4 which is one of the launch games. It is also available on Playstation 3 and Vita with downgraded visuals. It was seriously interesting from what I saw like tons of vowels and particles scattered on screen that it takes up the most amount of hardware resources of Playstation 4 system. The Playstation 3 and Vita versions are having those things reduced while leaving various graphical effects intact. However, the Playstation 4 has additional game modes that other versions don't have like those DLC exclusive modes that inlcude Protector Mode, Demolition Mode, Challenge, Commando Mode and so on.
For Super Stardust Ultra, the planets look different and so are the spacey backgrounds. Even the soundtrack is different as well and the Playstation 4 version features cinematic cutscene for every stage. A new mode exclusive to Playstation 4 version is the live stream mode in which like other gaming live streams, there may be people trying to deliver some help or cause some disturbance to the player. Of course, there are controversies taking place in live streams like those naughty idiots pulling those criminal level pranks like getting the player or someone else s***ted or something. These kinds of behaviors are really offensive and can land those idiots into trouble like what already happened last year so you'll need some security when planning out your gaming live stream.
Gameplay in Super Stardust HD is like Asteroids and Geometry Wars mixed together. In the original, it's more or less an Asteroids clone but the original has the 3D stages that are kind of like Galaxy Force II or Space Harrier and that version has rendered CGI graphics for both 2D and 3D gameplay. It surely pushes the limits of the later Amiga hardware and there's also the DOS version in existence to the test. Unlike the original version, you get full controls of the ship with two analog sticks and each stage has all phases taking place on each planet with no interruptions. The original version has phases scattered throughout each stage, sort of like Galaga 88 on versions excluding PC-Engine and Game Gear versions. If you want a giant map representing a stage in Super Stardust, that will require warping from one phase to another for a short time. Super Stardust HD removes all those time-wasting elements from the original.
There are other ports of Super Stardust HD such as PSP version, PS Vita version and of course, the PS4 version. Each version has different name, soundtrack and other differences as well.

Phantom Breaker Battlegrounds Overdrive

The Playstation 4 version that was released this year has the additional skills, 16-bit BGM as well as higher amount of enemies to deal with. There are also special magic spells that cause lots of money or other items, summon various attacks or do the recovery. It surely makes things overall intense with lots of enemies on the battlefield but it can mean the increase of difficulty overall like you're going to have a hard time in higher difficulty even at the highest power. In addition, there are other changes in this version as well such as different announcer, the way the enemy disappears or takes damage and the real fog effects. These changes may be strange to be frank and they still don't increase the Playstation 4 usage level much further and especially for the insane amount of enemies and items on screen which are the only major resource usages of the system. Also, the retroness level is getting that less due to the fog, lighting effects and other effects the retro game systems are not able to handle. Even certain sound effects are not retro at all.
Having to level up and unlock skills is a tedious task and that concept to me should not be in the game. Also, another strange thing is that other characters are completely powerless that they are seriously weak in the first place and the worse thing about Arcade Mode is that there's no way you can strengthen the characters after every stage. Lastly, the Playstation 4 version worsens things a little bit with the decrease of retroness level by adding real fog and lighting effects which are way beyond many retro game systems can do.
These enhancements mentioned above can also be in other versions of the game as well but I don't think that will happen at anytime.

Gothic wa Mahou Otome

As of last year or two years ago, Cave was already going mobile due to the serious financial issues from making so much of arcade shmup games for the arcades and Xbox 360 with some of them on other systems like PS2, PS3, DS and even the 32-bit ones and the genre is already overwhelmed by other genres which are more popular. There are also non-shmup games developed by Cave in which not all reviewers even know of and certain reviewers put the blame on the publishers as if the reviewers are like what the publishers are thinking without even knowing that Cave is the culprit behind those games.
Two years ago, there was Donpachin for IOS and Android which was already discontinued after some time in favor of Gothic wa Mahou Otome and people already gave an initial negative impression upon seeing the game trailer on why was the game going quite opposite. It's the same for Gothic wa Mahou Otome but unlike Donpachin which goes by the endless level concept via Candy Crush, Gothic wa Mahou Otome uses the chapter by chapter concept where each chapter is divided into various stages and has the virtual card management just like other social games made in Japan. Each card has its own purpose and attack but getting those SRs and URs are more recommended for higher score and power. Of course, it will take you days to level up SRs and URs to the max like I already had the tedious time in various smartphone games I already played.
The gameplay is an improvement over Donpachin in which you can move anywhere and make use of the cards you selected for special attacks as well as to choose the cards for character switching/shot switching. That's one major difference than the one in Donpachin when it comes to your cards ready during gameplay. For boss battle, there's another major difference. Unlike Donpachin where you attack enemies to power up your cards for stronger attack on the boss for Attack Mode, the boss in Gothic wa Mahou Otome has those multi-colored stuffs where shooting the specified color causes major damage to the boss. You can also use the attacking cards to summon those special attacks. Last thing to mention in the gameplay is the Love Max feature which is kind of like Hyper feature but I think that applies to the cards that are not at the highest level or something.
As the game is popular or some sort, there's the mini website of some toothbrush simulator or something where you have to tap rapidly to fill up the Doki-Doki meter. Somehow, I see that as a weird and strange way of promoting the game and I don't think I'll ever get in to it because that's for highly spoilt nerds.
Lastly, as there's also the event stage which may be a special stage, or perhaps a score attack stage. A special stage may have its own BGM and there are some Deathsmiles cameo appearances whether it's an in-game event or not.