Python 2 to be demoted to universe repository

Perhaps, a few years later, Python 2 will be obsolete in favor of the later version of Python technology. I don't know which one uses Python 2 or 3 and I still find programming a major pain to do in terms of difficulty. However, the Python language is more or less the first step in learning programming and especially that Python courses are everywhere in MOOC websites like Coursera for instance. This still poses students the challenge like it already posed me one a few years ago.
The technology has been transitioning and especially that even Windows 7 will go out of extended support a few years later. For future Ubuntu releases, they have plans to demote Python 2 to 'universe' repository in favor of later versions but this is not easy as many of the packages still have yet to reach version 1.0 and especially that current components/packages used in Ubuntu today still make use of it.
So far, it seems that later images of Ubuntu 17.10 or something don't come with Python 2 and it will be the same for future releases. One of the programs is OpenStack which still uses Python 2 and the developers will need to support Python 3 ASAP in the future. According to Softpedia, there are about 35 issues detected by Ubuntu developers and it is unlikely that Python 2 will be demoted in time for Ubuntu 18.04 release. To get Python 2 removed from Ubuntu ISO images completely is the future story.

Net Neutrality in US

One full disclaimer is that I'm not from US nor do I live there but the first time I saw a bad bill that would happen there 5-6 years ago was from the video about it from Angry Joe's YouTube channel. By posting a video on YouTube, you're allowing anyone from around the globe to know it and that was how I first started knowing things like this that would cause negative damage to the freedom there. People opposed those bills for the sake for the freedom the fight is still on-going ever since. There are tons of petitions to sign although certain sites don't have international support. Even the tech news have articles about net neutrality and other stuffs that were happening there but there's one thing to keep in mind is that those news sites were more or less the western sites so most of the products and services being mentioned were the ones produced by US companies. Sometimes, they would mention the tech products and services from other countries as well.
One past discovery from me was that other countries already have net neutrality in place with nothing going against it or whatnot although the map wasn't sure about the rest.
Unfortunately, it looks like people have to think about the worse thing that will happen in the future. Without net neutrality in the US, the ISPs there can do whatever evil shit they want like throttling and blocking sites. I guess that the way to get around it will be to pay additional price. Not to mention that sites that have the real truth will be blocked as well although people from other countries know such evidences in existence there.
The freedom problem might have already existed in other countries like UK besides the US like the cyber-spying scandal, the bills that many people including tech companies opposed as well as the law enforcements' difficulty of accessing suspects' phones over how strong the encryption is. Maybe the data was assumed to be radicalized but useful as evidences.
Despite the large amount of people wanting something important intact, their voices were unfortunately outvoted as if the corporations were given mega power to do whatever they want to decrease their reputation even further.
For your YouTube channel for instance, if you're not from the US but most of your viewers are, they will have difficulty watching your videos. Not to mention that your momentum will be affected because of the above stated situation unless you have most of the viewers from other countries. For online gaming, expect a connection issue if you're playing with the US players, that is, if you're not from US in which you'll have smoother experience with other players from other countries. What about the western sites, then? Since most of the online services have multiple branches, there's no need to worry about crippled connection performance.
Lastly, even certain companies like Mozilla, Pinterest, Reddit and even Arc System Works USA have been concerned about this situation. I don't know if the US branch of other game companies were also concerned about it or not besides Arc System Works but the other branches like UK, Japan, Asia, etc. have nothing to worry about while trying to promote and release their games in corresponding regions.
Druaga1 had a video about putting SSD on the Playstation 4 console but it was taken down as he mis-mentioned the net neutrality stuff. He might have mentioned it in the other video but I guess that either some trolls or bots or whatever must be behind that takedown. The others had no problem mentioning it in their videos and especially when it comes to their rants about this situation.
One particular worry from me is that if no actions are taken against terrible bills for people's freedom, the same bad thing may happen to other countries as well. And by then, who knows what will happen to you in the future once you lose the fight?
Remember one thing that when it comes to video sharing sites like YouTube, anyone from the globe can see the video content regardless of where they live so how did I know things like S**A and the other stuffs in the first place even though I wouldn't be affected? When will those freedom advocating organizations like Fight For The Future, EFF, etc. offer international support as if anyone from the globe can join the fight for people's rights?
It's a difficult fight for people's freedom from last year onwards.

Adobe Flash Player 28

As Adobe Flash Player is quite notorious for being so much vulnerable in terms of security issues, it appears that it will be discontinued sometime 2 years later so we still have some time to make use of it.
The only reasons to make use of Adobe Flash Player again is probably Flash games as many of the web video players in video sharing sites like YouTube, Nico Nico Douga, etc. are going towards HTML5 for superior security although the NND video player in HTML5 lacks the foreign comments unless you choose a different region for your account.
Last year, I had a tons of gameplay videos of some of the Flash games released in recent times but the discontinuation of Flash Player is something we shouldn't worry about.

Aka to Blue (Red and Blue)

It was a notorious moment to find a bunch of Capcom's 194x and Raiden ripoff/clone games on Google Play store. Some of the games had stolen assets from those games or whatnot like the ship looking similar, the firepower being quite similar as well as the sound effects. That's not cloning at times if you're trying to take those kinds of assets like that. To find an original shmup game on mobile that gives you pure arcade experience is a rare story. Aka to Blue/Red and Blue is one game that requires later versions of IOS and Android as it provides arcade and console gaming experience.
The game consists of 5 levels as well as two ships to choose from as stated from the game's title. The red man is kind of cool and badass like he sort of reminds you of Sol Badguy from Guilty Gear while the blue lady is seen being formal at times. It is a famous game due to professional developers involved in it. Plus, the music is all rock-style.
The gameplay is interesting in a way that you get to replenish the bomb-like defense quickly without having to traditionally collect the bomb item. It supersedes Dodonpachi Maximum in a way that you have multiple levels of bomb-like special attack but be warned, it's a hard game like other bullet hell shooters on mobile.

RXN -Raijin- for Nintendo Switch

What's a year without brand new arcade shooters? This year has Nex Machina from Housemarque which demonstrates the same graphical power as Resogun does 4 years ago. Not to mention Raiden V Director's Cut for Playstation 4 and Steam although the game was released last year for Xbox One. The unforgiving thing is the late celebration of the franchise's 20th anniversary but if not for delays or whatnot, the game could have been released last year although there's one concern, would the game quality be that good?
There's not much to say about the upcoming game although things have been acceptable at best unlike the upcoming game by the creators of Ginga Force which has unacceptable explosions which are mockery of the Xbox One.

Street Fighter V Arcade Edition

The edition name is misleading so to speak as there doesn't seem to be the arcade version of Street Fighter V. Instead, it is an update to the original which has been milked to this day with regular free updates like additional characters via Seasons or something. This edition will have Arcade Mode which is the long-term promise to make things as common as ever similar to what other fighting games have. Even Marvel vs Capcom Infinite has the Arcade Mode although it is a mixed bag as if the story part is mainly focused on Story Mode. Those who buy games just for multiplayer modes are apparently the immature-ass people who waste their money and developers' efforts like that. What's an arcade-style game for if there's no Arcade Mode? Are you trying to make Capcom even more different than ever? It's pathetic to defend the absense of important common main modes like Arcade Mode. Perhaps, somebody should teach you what those modes are as well as large amount of maturity.
The Arcade Edition update will have changed UI as well as Season 3 characteres and is available as a free update for those who have owned the original version of the game. About upcoming stuffs that will be available in the game as free future updates, there's absolutely no reason to whine about them. If you find something unappealing, why use it in the first place?

Densha De Go Reboots

The reboot took place last year with the release of the game on IOS and Android while the arcade game being released this year. Obviously, the arcade game of the same name as part of the franchise reboot is the most anticipated one with the cabinet design being modeled after the driver car of the specific train. The screens may represent the windows of the train car but that doesn't seem to be the case. Also, the fourth monitor is used for the touchscreen giving you virtual controls of the train in addition to the main physical controls like setting the train to accelerate or brake. The pedal is for horning and you use it for incoming bridges, incoming workers as well as the part where someone freaks out while you arrive at the station. Other on-screen settings include some brightness, the wiper as well as the upcoming objectives to appreciate and adhere by sliding the bar to the right and then adhering to the next speed limit for the orange box or the exact speed for the blue box. There's also the button that should be toggled on only after the doors are closed before you start driving the train.
Like the previous games in the series, you're supposed to drive to the next stop in time while obeying the rules. For the previous games, you get the schedule time and the main time. If the main time is reduced to zero, it's game over although this doesn't seem to be present in the reboot. The schedule time is still in the reboot though. It's just that you're presented on how much time left in moving from one stop to another. Getting negative time left means that you're seconds late. Also, the distance left value can turn negative if you go over the end spot. Go over that too far and you may have missed the station which gives you serious consequences. You can also be penalized if you accelerate after the train halts completely while on the next station like trying to arrive as the exact spot. The exact spot at the end of the next station is indicated by the glowing exclamation sign.
In case of the arcade reboot, you get points for doing well but you get deducted of points for incompetence. Each mission consists of few train stations similar to previous games and higher difficulties mean lesser room for mistakes. Plus, the game will be updated with additional contents like additional train stations, missions with different weather conditions although I don't know if there will be missions where in the middle of the tracks, there will be traffic lights to keep a look out for. If there's something ahead in the traffic area, you'll be notified by the ATS alarm to stop the train immediately. Bumping into something results in an accident.
Other Densha De Go games may involve driving the train on road similar to western countries where train tracks take place on the road so the same rules apply there.
Needless to say, the rules are unspeakably strict for the first game and they are less strict for the later games but even then, high amount of guts and competence are required if you want to get through without any single trouble caused.
For the reboot, the game utilizes Unreal Engine 4, Taito Type X4, multiple monitors and next-gen graphics cards to provide realism in the graphics. The mascot character for the series is replaced with a new support character as if the characters look Square-Enix style or some kind. But this is a better game than say, Summer Lesson by Namco which also uses the same graphical style and same game engine. The only time the adviser says in the previous games is that if you do something bad or poor that you'll be nagged. In the reboot, the new adviser says out praises or criticisms depending on your performance. Not to mention that there will be text boxes on top popping up, saying that you have passed that point above the speed limit or you have to stop at 4m or below at the end of the next station as indicated by Distance Left. Getting negative values on Distance Left or Time Left is a bad idea.
Lastly, for the arcade reboot's target audience. It is suited for children, teenagers, adults and even those who are train drivers as well. Even the fans of public transports are included as well. This is a closer simulation to the train driver job than the previous games in the series over the cabinet design.

ASUS Cerberus gaming mechanical keyboard obtained

For whatever reason, I chose the ASUS-branded as if I had no other choice but to buy something from this year's SITEX event. The gaming mechanical keyboards look and feel cool but obviously, these kinds of keyboards can be as noisy as the traditional keyboards like those from IBM. The famous keyboards from IBM come from the ones with buckle spring mechanism and when used at work, they can be quite noisy most of the working time. To use those keyboards at home is one different story and question.
For this keyboard, it has six program functions. Function key 6 toggles Gaming Mode on or off while the first five are parts of Gaming Mode. When Gaming Mode is on, some of the keys will be disabled for smoother gaming like the Start Menu won't come up when you accidentally press the Windows key. It doesn't matter which genre of games you play on as the Windows key is one of the essential parts of the keyboard nowadays. To have a keyboard that doesn't have that is to buy the vintage one whose computers of the past don't happen to be using Windows anyway. Other features include the 6-key max mode or no limit mode like you can turn on or off the Anti-Ghosting. This is quite useful for some game genres when playing with gaming keyboards. Function Left and Right keys toggle the way the lights are lit and function up and down keys are for brightness or something.

Sony SRS-XB10 bluetooth speaker obtained

Using bluetooth speakers, you should be able to hook them up to your devices wirelessly although there may be delays just like the wireless connection equivalent for screen mirroring like the Chromecast technology for instance. Doing gaming with bluetooth speakers may or may not be a bad idea depending on the game genre you're playing. I currently have the technical problems for my Android tablet in which any cable hooked up to it may cause electornical interference with the touchscreen hardware as if it doesn't behave well. This may affect the way the games are being played on it.
One particular instance is that there is some kind of audio delay when playing rhythm games on smartphones/tablets hooked up to bluetooth speakers. The only way to predict will be visual prediction on incoming notes or something while the audio delay ruins the hearing prediction.
This series of bluetooth speakers as shown from this year's SITEX event has the ability to connect to other speakers wirelessly through the same technology as you use for the phones, tablets and other devices. This may be handy for parties or something and some of those speakers come with Party Chain feature which does whatever I just mentioned. This speaker on the other hand is a standalone in which you won't get the best experience unless you buy a pair. It cost $69 from the SITEX event and I guess that if you buy a pair, you will get twice the amount for better experience.
Perhaps, I can use this speaker for other mobile games although I may expect audio delay that some video editing is required.

SITEX 2017 Day 4

It's the final day of the event at Singapore Expo this year and needless to say, I discovered more stuffs there and bought something from that event. Various stuffs included the band and DJ performance taking place at the venue, karaoke booths, NES/Famicom clone booth and even the home theater venue from another brand.
About the band and DJ performance taking place there, the performance was bound to start sometime at night there and you need various knowledge if you wanted to register for it. Second is the karaoke booths which I forgot to blog about where you can buy the karaoke machine home. It's not the laserdisc player that has the karaoke mode I'm referring to ever since I had ones in my childhood. Various laserdisc players have their internal karaoke scoring system while the external karaoke scoring addons are just the addons for the existing physical media players. These from this year's SITEX event are more or less the home equivalent to Joysound public karaoke center. There's the Joysound addon for game consoles but again, it's just an external karaoke addon for an existing system. I don't do the karaoke thing but it was an interesting discovery at the IT event. Next is the home theater booth from Devialet and I saw a giant turntable which is so suited for home entertainment in the living room although I don't know if you can fit the existing vinyl records but as the purpose suggests, that turntable there wasn't DJ-suited as it is quite large like a table with spinnable center.
Lastly is the NES/Famicom clone booth where I saw two consoles that looked like the NES Classic Edition and the Famicom with its cartridge slot but they were clones like always with the cartridges being the multi-game carts. Why would they get involved in IT events like this? This is some technology that could be suited in China or something and I already got my childhood wasted due to non-genuine systems and cartridges. I bet Nintendo won't accept something like this. The PC-Engine and its games I had played in my childhood were genuine and so is the Game Boy Color that I have although the games I played on that console weren't genuine as they were in the multi-game cart. Perhaps, I could have bought the NES Classic Edition if I wanted to but the problem is that I might end up leaving other games unplayed and it may be the same for SNES Classic Edition that recently came out this year. At least those systems are genuine, so are the games stored in them internally and the emulation is official and superior. The Famicom clone being shown at the booth had the higher sound pitch for some reason but its controllers had additional buttons for turbo-fire.
In the end, I bought the Sony-branded bluetooth speaker and the ASUS-branded gaming mechanical keyboard.

SITEX 2017 Day 3

This year, the event took place at Halls 7 & 8 of Singapore Expo which was kind of far away unlike the previous IT roadshows I attended there. The Daikin company seemed to be involved in the event with tons of new air-conditioners being shown there as seen in the commercial and they even had a truck parked near the event venue on the outside with electrical appliances hooked up. There were also cars inside the venue in one of the halls but that was beyond the scope and none of my interest to look at. Somehow, I had a some new recent gadgets for some reasons like a new phone, a new computer, etc. before the days of the big event.
Mining Rig
What the unusual looking computer does is to make use of multiple GPUs to generate passive income and provide a simple inroad into cryptocurrency. It's basically making use of Bitcoin technology which is not regulated in Singapore according to MAS. MAS is the local agency that governs something financial. Those managing the rigs are being paid and the Mining Rig Club is so famous enough that they get interviewed on various newspapers and TV channels. I don't know if this is a legal business or not as I'm not sure if they have the license to do this. Sure, they won't get known by the government or something but...
Samsung Booth
There is a tour of various Samsung booths and at the end, you can complete a survey to win a Galaxy S8 phone or something but the thing is, I recently had the a new phone by the name of Galaxy A8 which is incompatible with some of the devices shown there like the VR and the Dex Station.
The Dex Station by Samsung is similar to Windows 10 Continuum feature and the one for Ubuntu phones. Obviously, it is suited for business even more but who's going to use this kind of technology at work? Gaming-wise, those with simple controls are as compatible with Dex Station as the Android Set-Top-Boxes or Android TVs as you cannot use the keyboard with the device in Dex Station mode. Another interesting thing is the VDI in which you use Citrix, Amazon or VMWare cloud service. What this does is to stream whatever server that runs Windows Server containing Windows apps that can be run on your Android device via cloud. It's basically RemoteApp on the cloud but you're virtualizing the technology due to different architecture. It's similar to using Remote Desktop apps on your Android/IOS device to connect to your computer remotely but that is the local scope and not the cloud scope. There might be a previous story about getting X86 apps to run on Windows 10 S devices thanks to Citrix technology but I don't know if this is going to happen for real and plus, you're streaming those apps off the server through virtualization anyway. Needless to say, the Dex Station is compatible with Galaxy S8, S8+ and Galaxy Note 8.
NTUC Learning Hub
This one's going to be a good opportunity although it is missing the Windows Client side of courses and going through the Windows Server side is not a good start as those courses can be really hard. The same difficulty can go for networking and cyber security which I'm not good at. However, with the Post-Secondary account or whatever as I was told, there will be discounts for whatever courses you've chosen.
Dreamcore
A local company that started business late last year. What they do is to customize the computers and make them sellable to the customers provided that the company like this has the license to do so.
Gaming keyboards
This is what's bothering me with many more companies being interested in inventing mechanical gaming keyboards probably due to the price range or something as if those keyboards are affordable. Companies like Fujitsu, Rangers and even Valore which is part of Challenger had started inventing those keyboards. Question is, where am I supposed to fit the keyboard on the bedroom workstation desk? It's outnumbering if you ask me but at least this is something I can appreciate.

Superbeat XONIC for Switch

Originally, the game was released on Playstation Vita being getting the Playstation 4 and Xbox One releases. The Switch version is the next version to happen as this is the second portable console version next to the Playstation Vita version. It will have all the songs along with the songs that are previous DLCs for the previous console releases. One bonus celebration is that the new DLC-songs will be free for Switch users. The same DLC-songs will be available in Playstation 4 and Xbox One versions. I don't know if the Playstation Vita version will have those DLCs as well.
Basically, the game originated from the arcades as Beatcraft Cyclon although the home console versions are closely based on the Playstation Vita release and even the Switch version will follow as well. It's a similar story to how DJ Max Technika Q has similar rows of notes to DJ Max Technika Tune in which you get three rows of notes on each side instead of four rows as used in DJ Max Technika series in the arcades. Maybe the size of the device is more or less an important factor and it may be same for the upcoming Switch version of Superbeat XONIC.
The release date for the Switch version in the US will be sometime late this year although there was already a delay from the intended release date which was sometime a month ago.

Beatmania IIDX 25 Cannon Ballers

OK, there may be positive impressions as well as the negative ones. One positive impression includes the change to the arcade hardware which no longer runs Windows XP Embedded along with the fact that it has better audio hardware and drivers. There's even the internal camera for top-down video recording of yourself playing the game like you're trying to show off the fingering or some kind but that is more or less an official addon for the machine unlike Maimai series where the entirely of you can be seen in the video playing the game although there's no official video capturing stuff of the game's screen. I'm not sure if the in-game audio will be recorded through the Stereo Mix or not just like Maimai series does although there won't be so much sound effects going on during the recording.
The location test took place 3 months ago but some trouble cropped up there that Konami had to pull back the machine off the arcades quickly probably due to some threat going on as stated on Twitter. The story according to Bemanistyle is that someone wanted to go to the arcades where the game was being location tested to harm the hell out of those people there. At least, he apologized but I don't know the reason on why did he do this.
My guesses for that person who made the threat were like:

• There were still nerds supporting the game or whatnot?
• Heavy obsession with Metal Gear/Castlevania/Silent Hill?
• It's probably due to something else

Perhaps, the third guess in the list is the more accurate one as the fans of those games stated in the second guess are already smart enough to drift away from Konami for good in favor of other stuffs. Even if Konami makes a comeback with various reboots like Super Bomberman R, Bishi Bashi Channel and of course, DDR in the west, there's still no guarantee that those fans will make a comeback as well.
Last thing is that the style name of Beatmania IIDX 25 refers to the illegal cross-country races organized in America in the 1970s. Illegal events are unforgivable and I bet that I had seen some before.
The game will be out sometime in December and with the new hardware, it should keep the series going like Gitadora does ever since 4 years ago. The others still have outdated arcade system to be frank like Jubeat, Pop'n Music, DDR, Sound Voltex, Reflec Beat, etc.

Million Arthur Arcana Blood by Square Enix & Examu

As we probably know, Million Arthur Arcana Blood is more or less the forth game to come out on Nesica X Live 2 service in the arcades. It is the second major one besides King of Fighters XIV. There might be releases of other games on that service like Ultra Street Fighter IV and Blazblue Central Fiction but that doesn't count as they were originally released on the previous-gen arcade system so to Playstation 4 and Xbox One, they are one-generation behind as if they can be ported to their predecessor consoles.
Originally, the Million Arthur series started off as the card battle game on mobile devices and the first one happened to be released outside Japan although the later ones had some Asian releases. The series is so popular that it has other media contents like the short-animated spinoffs which can be viewed on Square Enix's official account or something and especially the upcoming spinoff arcade fighting game. Similar to Nitroplus Blasterz and Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax, you can summon Knights through their corresponding commands in addition to using special and super moves belonging to the playable character. Some of the characters don't have the actual names and are therefore, named as the type of Arthurs. You'll rather want to go for the good type of Arthur although the Thief Arthur is somewhat one of the fan favorites.
There are several game modes so far like the Local Network Match, Online Match, Story Mode/Arcade Mode, Training Mode, Tutorial Mode and even the Friend Match which is something I don't know of. And since this is the first arcade-exclusive on Nesica X Live 2, it can be more a challenge for players going for Single-Player modes. I don't know if you'll get interrupted by other players jumping in during those modes or not.
From what I saw from Baba Game Center Mikado's official YouTube channel, the interface of Nesica X Live 2 game selection screen has some elements similar to the Steam game page. There may be videos and screenshots to preview of course. I'm not sure if Steam TV Mode or Steam OS has similar stuff like that like you can see videos and screenshots of whatever game you're looking at. Right now, the game still has yet to be released and hence, the location test progress according to the latest update. Normally, during game location testing, the game is still in prototype form and video filming and phototaking of those games are not allowed. Not even video capture is also allowed as well but somehow, that arcade center has the rights to show the location test version in action. There are other gameplay videos of the game prior to the release date in Square Enix's official YouTube channel. Even the opening video from that channel has a confirmation that Team Arcana of Examu is the actual developers of the game. Before that video existed, I already had a guess that Examu might have developed it with Square Enix being the publisher probably due to the fact that the game has the word, Arcana, in the game title and it's a fighting game. Other fun facts included the assets and elements taken from other Examu games as well like Nitroplus Blasterz, Arcana Heart, etc.
The graphics are more or less better and on par with Arc System Works fighting games with 3D backgrounds and 2D sprites although the overall mixture makes them one generation behind like the game could have been suited for Playstation 3 and Vita releases. Blazblue Cross Tag Battle is also guilty of having previous generation era graphical assets but from the recent character reveal video from Arc System Works' official YouTube channel, the Distortion Drive/Super background is changed. Like Arcana Heart 3 Love Max, pressing ABC activates something similar to Extend Force which changes background.
The release date for the game will be 21 November in Japan.

Sound Voltex Gameplay Report - November 3

I guess that was enough for the tracks from Sound Voltex III as I have a more current policy in seeking more decent music than before. Most of the music will be electronical kind, the kind of music that is played in nightclubs and it may be the same for Beatmania IIDX. Weird-ass ones, no, I'm not gonna waste anymore credits on those as some of the music genres are epic mistakes in the present time.
One interesting thing is that NOMA, one of the third-party DJ/producers for Bemani games, had terminated the contract with Konami that his songs would have to be taken down completely so that he would have the full rights to them as if Konami no longer holds the copyright to those songs. It would be funny if the other DJ/producers would do the same in favor of other music games. I guess that I was messed with by weird-ass tracks and especially for those produced by IOSYS, Cool & Create, etc. The professional DJ/producers had a good time producing songs for rhythm games but it seemed that certain of those like Naoki Maeda, NOMA, etc. had to part with Konami in favor of producing music for other rhythm games which might seem to be a good direction.
Then, I eventually attempted the ones from Sound Voltex IV and I got a triple A for one of the Level 12 tracks in Exhaust difficulty through Sound Voltex IV standard of course.
In the past time that I played Sound Voltex again, I made a big mistake in drawing out summer-themed character Appeal Cards and certain of those were outright disgusting from what I saw. Maybe I should focus more on attempting songs because grinding on games at the arcades is seriously expensive. I don't know which one is more dangerous to be frank like getting hundreds/thousands of runs in the same arcade game or maybe spending too much real money on premium currency for mobile games.
Needless to say on the day I went to the arcades at Bugis+, some of the machines were moved or whatnot and I couldn't see the Groove Coaster machines as they were moved out or some kind but I had some event to attend at night after this trip.

Tokimeki Idol (Same controversy as Metal Gear Survive?)

What the hell, ANOTHER IDOL-THEMED RHYTHM GAME? WHAT TIME IS KONAMI WASTING ON? HAS THIS POPULARITY FRIED THEIR BRAINS APART? STOP, THERE'S WAY TOO MANY OF THOSE GAMES EVER SINCE THE POPULARITY KICKED OFF A FEW YEARS AGO WITH UNORIGINAL CONCEPT! WHAT WAS THE LAWSUIT AGAINST DJ MAX DEVELOPERS FOR WHEN THIS UPCOMING IDOL-THEMED RHYTHM GAME IS BEING MADE?
It's an epic waste of time with this upcoming spinoff with similar looking concept like the interface design being the same, 2D and 3D graphics of idols performing on stage during gameplay and I don't know the amount of originality the gameplay has. Some of the games in the list according to Wikipedia have DIFFERENT CONCEPTS, like Taito's Idol Chronicle where you manage only ONE idol group with whatever outfits and accessories you can randomly draw for, Tokyo 7th Sisters has different and better gameplay concept with version 2.0 onwards although it uses FMVs behind the HUD and of course, Bang Dream Girls Band Party which has rock bands instead of idol groups although the kind of fanbase along with partially original interface design are the reasons on why the game falls on this list.
I don't know what caught the game developers like Square Enix, Taito and even Konami the attention into making such a copy-paste game like that with similar layout and template. This is like taking Street Fighter IV template and then making your own fighting game but this is too outnumbering.
Many of the nerds may regret the fictional idol stuffs due to being outnumbered by the endless amount of such games in existence for mobile and it can be a huge waste of battery and storage space in playing those anyway. You may look like a spoilt idiot if you have played all of those idol-themed rhythm games as stated in the on-going list in Wikipedia but a few of them should be enough as you have other things to do.
You know what Konami should do instead? Make a god damn campaign for Bemani games that is a tribute to Tokimeki Memorial franchise just like they did with Hina-Bitter campaign. Why would they waste such a god damn time ripping off the other rhythm games in existence?
It's an unlucky time for us and especially that Konami is coming up with Bombergirl which is a controversial spinoff of the Bomberman franchise. This, on the other hand, is the spinoff of Tokimeki Memorial franchise and they made a comeback with it? Perhaps, THIS and Bombergirl are what Metal Gear fans can talk shit about and I hope nobody as a gamer cares about them. It's a negative change and not what I want to see.
I don't know what is so DIFFICULT to make a new game in the classic series like the Tokimeki Memorial one so to speak. Even without the main and famous director behind the series, they could have made a new one without him under a new team just like what the other team at Konami comes up with Super Bomberman R. Like Metal Gear Survive, this upcoming spinoff is unacceptable as if some fool thinks that a few idol-themed rhythm games is not an enough amount.
The only appealing so far is that one of the characters from this upcoming spinoff is a retro-gaming freak as if Gradius is one of her favorite games or some kind. Another thing is that the prologue CD has some songs from the classic Konami games.

Sure, Love Live School Idol Festival on mobile is one popular and excellent rhythm game and it's fine for Bandai Namco to come up with their rival games from the Idolmaster franchise but THIS OVER-POPULARITY HAS TO STOP. It's getting out of control with the endless amount that it can be difficult to find the ones you can recognize and be interested in.
At this rate, it may look like Konami can do whatever sinister shit they want besides doing the right thing. The game is said to be coming out in late this year or something and there's nearly no way anyone can cause a reform of the incompetent game company we know of. Play the game by the time it comes out if you want, but that will mean you're pissing off Metal Gear fans regularly.

Cuphead

Talk about a positive change in this one as Cuphead uses the style of 1930s cartoon but with color and sharper visuals thanks to modern technology. Don't expect any shiny shaders like you see in modern cartoons nowadays in which the character's body is having gradient fills everywhere as if those things are done in 3D and then converted into 2D. Not even the smoky and explosion effects will have those shaders as well. Music back then is mostly jazz-like and the cartoon shows back then are probably suited for everyone to watch. Not to mention that the way the cartoon shows are produced in the past is analog-ish so it's not all digital like you produce a modern cartoon with a modern computer. Imagine a modern cartoon produced at this present time with the style of the past, will there be whiny complaints or something?
The gameplay is said to be a run-and-gun shooter similar to Contra or something. You can shoot enemies, slide and even air-dash like in Hard Corps Uprising. Certain games are mentioned as official references by the developers in their blog to proof the inspiration. I guess that the only originality is the modernization of the past cartoon style without drifting away from what the game looks like in visual style. Be warned, like other run-and-gun shooter games, this one is really hard as if my hard times in playing Hard Corps Uprising weren't hard enough due to how harsh the games of this genre are. Perhaps, it's something to do with the level design part with a bunch of harsh platforming elements. Not to mention that there may be some kind of concept conflict in Hard Corps Uprising when I played it like no matter how modern the gameplay concept is with additional action techniques, the game is still hard.
The story of the game occurs because the two main characters had caused trouble at the casino or some kind in which they lost to the devil and had to pay a huge debt. In fact, they shouldn't have gone there in the first place and that the story should be completely something else.
As this is an indie game with the graphical style of a 1930s cartoon, the game could have been ported to other platforms besides Xbox One and Steam as it doesn't take up so much resources that way, not like those anima-tic games produced by Arc System Works that take up more than what Cuphead does. In fact, even Animal/Kemono Friends should have the same character style as Mickey Mouse franchise as I find it a serious mistake of this year over childish behavior influence coming from some of the human-personified animal characters which reduces one person's IQ and maturity according to the critic. Also, a talking penguin with white gloves and shoes should be worth looking at like it is a style of cartoon character suited for everyone instead.

VirtualBox 5.2

To use virtual machines in the cloud may require that you have the bank account in existence as you'll be charged monthly for using the cloud VM services like Azure, Google Compute, etc. but it seems that Oracle has the integration feature of VirtualBox VMs to Oracle Cloud. Mostly, the cloud VM services may require that you fill in your personal particulars including the company name or some kind as if the consumption of electrical resources and data bandwidth is quite costly on both sides. There's no such thing as free plan for cloud VM service as if every plan is priced. There may be trial usage on Azure and Oracle Cloud when it comes to cloud VMs although it lasts for a month and that's it. I'm sure that cloud VM stuff is going to be quite handy for work use and to find a service just for personal use is not an easy find.
The next thing is the unattended guest OS installation similar to the 'Easy Install' feature found in commercialized version of VMWare Workstation. Normally, the setup interface poses a challenge when you install the OS yourself but the Easy Install-like feature makes things easier in which you have to fill in the stuffs yourself before starting the VM. Furthermore, certain pages of the setup wizards will be skipped but when it comes to Windows OOBE, there may be pages of the wizard that have the options of allowing things to be collected or some kind. I don't know if this new feature VirtualBox has will recognize this situation but that's how unattended OS install works and especially when you're test-deploying OSes to the virtual machines whether it's a personal, work or study stuff. Well, if you're studying the OS deployment stuff like I did, you can probably go for certified courses that have that practical topic as well. Be sure not to pick the wrong one of course. The last thing as of the Easy Install feature is the installation of the guest additions, something the deployment tools don't do by default as the guest addition stuff may count as an external desktop app you may want to add.
Needless to say, the Easy Install feature from VMWare Workstation is just for unattended installs so if you want to customize something prior to that, you may need some external deployment tools for it.

Top 10 IOS and Android apps banned by companies for security reasons

The majority of Android apps are probably banned by companies due to malware and anything that goes against cyber-security while the list for IOS mentions various famous apps like Whatsapp, Pokemon Go, WinZip, Facebook Messenger, Plex, WeChat and some unknown eBay app.
For Whatsapp on IOS, it can send Address Book while Facebook Messenger, WinZip and some unknown eBay app in the Top 10 list send SMS messages. Plex on the other hand, does something quite worse like exposing device name and location. Camera exposure through apps is another reason like you don't want other people in public areas in the photo or video or maybe private premises SHOULD NOT be photographed or filmed. Plex is supposed to be some kind of a home media center service but why would it expose camera like it's beyond me? This is something Plex should explain and media centers at home are for watching something like movies, dramas and other TV shows.
According to the firm however, it appears that companies are seriously concerned about those cyber-security flaws in the apps like they pay detailed attention to them. Most of the time, the information transmission isn't encrypted despite the fact that there are promises to get messages encrypted for apps like Whatsapp, for instance. Furthermore, Facebook, Pandora and Yelp are to be treated with extra care by administrators, that is for IOS and on Android, Uber, Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger may include things like data leaks and breaches.
Lastly, about Pokemon Go being in Top 10 IOS apps banned by companies, it may be due to the fact that:

• The players may be disturbing the workplace like trying to find and catch the Pokemon taking place in the company premises.
• The locations may be vulnerable to trepassing because of rare Pokemon, gym or any other stuffs taking place there.
• The game can be used by criminals for illegal activities which may make the players and non-players the victims. (Eg: Luring victims to such locations through illegal modification of the game)
• Even with policies, the cases can occur.

To use those apps in the workplace is equal to seeking serious trouble and the researchers at Appthority spent tons of effort in identifying the flaws of the apps for IOS & Android. Perhaps, the same policy should go for Windows Store apps as used in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. To make them exactly like Windows 7 in which every Modern UI stuffs and apps have to be removed completely isn't an easy task but the enterprise version of Modern UI apps should be a thing for business touch screen devices.

Radio connection feature controversy in IOS 11

One selfish example is that someone says to you in a cussing and childish way that privacy violation stuff as done by the company through their products is none of your concern and that you're whining like a baby over the lack of privacy. Simply taking us for fools, losers or even supporters of baddies just because we care for privacy is one sure way to proof that your comment is a selfish one.
Electronic Frontier Foundation, the group that CARES for people's privacy had criticized Apple Computer for the fact that the bizarre way of radio connections in IOS 11 is handled. It's a bizarre stuff and it should take you back to Windows 10 days like even if you turn off certain stuffs for privacy, there's still a chance that your privacy is being compromised. So, are the options fake or something, pretending to protect your privacy? It's not like I can imagine a scene where something pops up on the victim's computer presenting him the options for the sake of increasing the privacy but instead, that stuff does the opposite, nothing or even offers partial protection out of its pretense. To turn off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in Control Center will be not to disable them completely but instead, to disable them temporarily until the device discovers a new location whose settings are stored. So, if you turn off Wi-Fi for instance, it actually closes the existing connection, causing your device to be connected to some other Wi-Fi network. This is like applying a different action to the feature instead of the supposed one.
Compared to what Windows 10 does to people's privacy through various features, this on IOS 11 is done out of stupidity or something as if the feature does something else. Such mis-implementation like this can open doors to cyber-attacks.
Perhaps, this new feature on IOS 11 needs to be fixed from such stupid errors that open doors to cyber-attacks. The further the product goes in violating users' privacy, the more the consequences will be delivered to the company.

DJ Max Respect

It had been a few years since DJ Max Technika Q was released on mobile but there may be tons of things to blog about here.
Firstly, something cropped up at Pentavision that the Ex-DJ Max developers formed a new company called Nurijoy to develop Beatcraft Cyclon for the arcades and port it over to Playstation 4, Xbox One and Playstation Vita as Superbeat Xonic. The second thing was that Konami's reputation has been going from bad to a little bit worse I should say like the way they do to Beatmania IIDX ever since Beatmania IIDX Spada has been disrespectful to the visual purpose of DJing. The Club-DJ-Land is supposed to be about taking place in a nightclub with Disco Ball, tons of lights, dancefloor, non-stop music, a DJ booth and of course a counter for buying something to drink but to come up with out-of-place skins and weird-ass music defeats the purpose of club music and NOBODY AS A DJ plays that unless you're some DJ who gets other DJs and clubbers ostracized by playing that kind of weird music in your gig. Your clubbers can sense your fear of warning or contract termination for that choice and behavior of yours. Sure, the poster involving you and other DJs can have whatever visual theme of the gig as desired but it still means that the music has to be relevant in terms of genre according to the club rules if there are ones. Not to mention that the interior of the nightclub will STILL look like the nightclub so to ask for decoration of it is out of the question.
DJ Max Respect is said to be the reboot of the franchise and the classic series which refers to the DJ Max series on PC and Playstation Portable. It has tons of songs from various DJ Max games including the spinoffs like DJ Max Technika series. However, the initial songs that come with this game will be from DJ Max Portable 1 and 2 along with new songs exclusive to it. Others will be available as DLCs. BGAs of the songs from previous DJ Max games will be remastered with 1080p and 60fps. There may be rumors of choosing other UI skins than the default ones but as of this writing, the game is already released in Asia and Korea with Japanese release to follow in November. The western release has still yet to be announced.
There are other stuffs exclusive to DJ Max Respect, some of the missions from Mission Mode are making use of 10-keys as the complete maximum amount compared to 8-keys from previous DJ Max games on Playstation Portable. By adding additional bumper buttons, the game makes more potential use of the Playstation 4 controller and I can assume that even analog sticks will be used for their corresponding notes during gameplay. Auto-Fever doesn't have any effect on the score but I'm still fine with or without having to activate the Fever Mode manually. There's also the two-player battle feature similar to the one in Beatmania IIDX but the superseding thing is that the game also has the online two-player battle feature to see who can score better. This has been around in rhythm games in the arcades that have online multiplayer battle.
Like Superbeat Xonic, the Japanese release of DJ Max Respect will have additional songs taken from Arc System Works games like Guilty Gear Xrd and Guilty Gear 2: Overture under Early Purchase Bonus.
One present warning, your account and player names mustn't have DJ at the beginning or at the end UNLESS you're a real club DJ who has gotten in a gig before, whether it's a club, a festival, a bar, or even a wedding event. Mobile DJ on the other hand is a different story but the purpose is more or less the same. You're getting real club DJs ostracized that way with such account name of yours and you're vulnerable to be mocked out of their suspicions. My worse imagination is that you may be denied entry to the club/bar/pub if your account is found out like that along with your content and bio. There should be a technical trick on social media and video sharing sites that detects "DJ" in your account name and if found, it will check through DJ database to see if you've done a gig or not. But if there's no DJ contract whatsoever in your account and you keep that kind of account name in it like you continue this kind of claim and keep on posting rhythm game contents on that account, you will be suspected of being a filthy-gamer claiming to be a DJ through those games. You still can become a club-DJ in the future but only if you become genuine and mature enough and stop that filthy claim.

EDF 4.1 Wing Diver The Shooter

EDF series as published by D3 Publisher has been a fun franchise as if Mark from Classic Game Room sees it as one of his favorites like there are tons of potential in design throughout the series but the upcoming spinoff based on EDF 4.1 is more or less made by a different developer company and from what I saw in the game trailer, the game is lacking a large amount of graphical potential when shooting off invading insects, robots and other alien stuffs with a Wing Diver soldier. I'm not sure if the graphical engine is the same or not but it doesn't look like the giant insects are spewing out tons of blood effects when being shot or something. Another unacceptable thing is that remaining giant insects that are still on screen disappear on thin air without effects whatsoever by the time the bonus part ends. Plus, the effects when defeating giant insects are two-generations behind or some sort. I wonder if that is the same for the spider web thingy from the boss battle.
The trailer narration is repetitive at best but the in-game voice acting for the series should be decent as assumed since they are about elite global militants dealing with giant invaders and that things should be serious enough.
From the game announcement, there will be tons of weapons and missions to choose from and like the entire EDF series by D3 Publisher, you get the boost energy for weapon use and flight along with the armor. It's mission failure if you get killed in action but at least you have the option to restart the mission or retreat. It's a dangerous operation in the entire game series but leveling up the character classes is more or less important if you want to become more powerful. There will be items from the enemies you've defeated but another important thing about EDF game series is the strategy. The bonus part in every stage of the spinoff game involves shooting tons of giant invading enemies within the time limit for bonus but that doesn't seem to fit the story whatsoever and the amount of them is way too large if the weapon you use is quite weak.
The game will be released for Playstation 4 in fall this year and who knows if this will be as fun as the main games?

Virtualand at Bugis+

Century Square was being renovated starting this month after it was closed which required migration of the shop properties like some of the machines from that branch being moved to other Virtualand branches for instance but there's no way my goals will end in an incomplete way. There are still remaining tracks to complete as we speak. There might be Digital Hospital at the Bugis Junction part of Bugis+ where the laptop computers can be checked for repairs or what not as well as various computer and gaming shops. The main part of Bugis+ is located just opposite of Bugis Junction and to take the Link Bridge would be somewhere on the second floor.
There at Bugis+, there was the pool center, the bar cafe, Prize Station, cinema, video arcade and the list went on. It was a huge shopping complex that had up to seven floors compared to the Bugis Junction part which had like three when not counting the basement floors.
It was confusing at first when going to Bugis+ for the first time as I didn't prepare myself for that through Google Maps or some kind but there were hints like Link Bridge along with the interesting pictures of fun and entertainment indicating that I would have fun there if I took the Link Bridge from the Bugis Junction part.
Once inside the Virtualand arcade, I stumbled upon the new card reader device that was different than the one I was used to. Not to mention that I needed a new card that could be used exclusively there so I wanted to the previous one, I could have gone to the other Virtualand arcade branch. The way you start the game is different too. To do this, you slide in the card and press the left button on the device. There were three buttons on that thing but the only button you should press was the one on the left. By doing so, you were inserting coins by subtracting the amount of virtual coins you have in your card.
Other areas included the computer gaming room or some kind which is what I don't know of other than seeing the projector with Street Fighter V in action as well as the game shop which Toy Or Game is mainly all about.
If the rumors were true about some machines migrated from the Century Square arcade branch, then there were some machines that were proven to be migrated like the Beatmania IIDX machine with the HD* monitor and the better condition keys for instance. However, there was no way to know if the location information was changed for that machine by the time I started that game there again.

Apple IOS 11 & Iphone X

One of the features has already made Electronic Frontier Foundation proud is that you should be able to disable the Touch ID for security by five clicks. This is said to be useful for Iphones that make of this IOS version. Needless to say, not all IOS devices may work with this technique but this improvement is already a good thing Apple has done. Another cool thing is that the Iphone X doesn't have the TouchID feature whatsoever.
The new Files app is kind of similar to the File Manager/Explorer app for Android where you can browse through the files stored in the cloud and your device. The Dock feature for IOS is kind of the like one on Mac OS although the previous app list on previous versions of Apple IOS is sort of comparable to the one on Windows 10 where you can swipe to close the app or something. The Multitasking feature is another improvement with the addition of the Dock feature along with the Drag-and-Drop for IOS which is the same kind as you do on the computer.
Other improvements may include the improved App Store, Control Center, AirPlay 2, Maps that stay on course inside and outside and so on.
The new IOS version will be out in 19 September and it was announced alongside the Iphone 8 series and Iphone X. Speaking of Iphone X, there is an alternative to using Touch ID, the Face ID which is sort of like Windows Hello which came out on some Windows Phone devices two years ago before it was a real thing with Windows 10. The flaw as of this time according to Softpedia is that the Face ID is having the same bugs as Windows Hello as if the technical response isn't that good and the removal of the Home button is already turning certain people off. Will there be a way to return back to the Home screen without the Home button? The only way to do this will be to swipe up from the bottom of the screen similar to the one from Nokia N9 and WebOS. There's also the wireless charging and wireless earbuds for future IOS devices and I frowned upon the wireless earbuds in some past IT show or some sort, citing concerns that they wouldn't be easy to pick up if you lost them. Not to mention that nobody uses those for public performance like club DJs for instance.
When the Iphone X comes out next month or perhaps, November, I may expect those flaws to be fixed although I have no opinion about wireless charging feature as of this time lest I get dishonest or something.

Windows 10 Pro for Workstations

This one's quite suited for enterprise use like designing and rendering 3DCGIs for CADs, games, 3D animation and the list goes on as rendering a whole 3D animation stuff with so much professional detail is extremely time-consuming and it takes up so much computing resources. The same can go for rendering a video like for making movies and such but then, such kinds of intensive projects being done by the studios had been with the use of advanced computers and this edition is either unnecessary or optional enhancement.
Unless you're making something as intensive as the one stated above as an example, using this edition of Windows 10 for advanced gaming is a serious mockery among companies as it is extremely expensive. If you really want this edition that badly for your gaming computer, perhaps as an adult, you should plan things very carefully. If you're a pre-adult, it is way obvious that a standard computer should be enough.
A server-grade PC can act as a server or an advanced workstation but to find such a computer that advanced is going to be quite tough and you'll never find that kind of computer like that in the computer shops. Most of such computers are obviously for business use and the same can go for servers if you're going to buy one and besides, they're extremely expensive, even higher costs than the cost of gaming PCs you find in the shops.
This edition of Windows 10 has additional enhancements such as,

• Resilient File System
• Persistent Memory
• Faster File Sharing
• Expanded Hardware Support

This is quite useful for computers that use server-grade CPUs although you may end up using them as servers just because of those CPUs. In fact, there may as well be workstation edition of those CPUs so that they can fit those computers even better while keeping the client OS installed as intended.
The new edition of Windows 10 will be available as part of Fall Creators Update and what I previously knew about that update was that Powershell 2.0 would be obsolete in favor of newer version as well as SMB 1.0 which is what nobody should use for security safety.

Shikigami No Shiro/Castle of Shikigami on Steam

The external developers that made the IOS version two years ago ported the game to Steam this year but compared to IOS version which is decent in conversion as I saw the gameplay videos, the Steam version is a DIFFERENT DISASTER!
Presentation-wise, there isn't so much support for external controllers and the control customization isn't quite good. Not to mention that the conversion is bound to bring damage to people's ears during the boss destruction sequence from the way it sounds when compared to the arcade version. The sound effects are messed up, the glow and ring effects are messed up and it should be simple enough to base the previous PC release which obviously uses 640X480 resolution with new HUD. Another thing that's messed up is the Stage Clear text which obviously doesn't have the glow effect at all when compared to the previous releases. The last problem is the port's presentation in which the game uses HD resolutions for some reason instead of basing the previous PC release like Raiden III on Steam did. This causes the in-game graphics to be much more blurry than ever and there's no reason to enhance them like making them sharper or some kind since the game originally came out for the G-NET system in the arcades. XIIStag on Steam and Xbox 360 is more or less decent when it comes to conversion but it misses some of the graphical effects as a result. Maybe they are too hard to emulate or some kind.
Speaking of XIIStag, there's also XIIStag Limited on PC which uses 3D objects instead of 2D sprites but the game still looks exactly identical.
The plus side, you do get the decent translation and original voice acting as well as proper in-game presentation that matches the arcade original. The western Playstation 2 release known as Mobile Light Force 2 surely butches the translation, voice acting, scripts, presentation and various parts of game publishing like the title screen has nothing to do with the actual game for instance. So, both the Steam and western Playstation 2 releases are kind of mediocre at best and finding other versions released in Japan will be extremely tough. The IOS version is decent at best from what I saw but it's not the same for the Steam version. The sequel already improves things a little in the west with proper game title and title screen.

Rez Infinite

Perhaps, I find the release to be strange at first since the main graphics are not remade whatsoever and the effects are still blurry like they belong to the original Dreamcast-era. The only enhancement would be high-definition vector graphics and UIs for the previous release on XBLA as Rez HD. The Playstation 4 and PC releases add their own exclusive stuffs like Area X for instance which is actually new and makes full potential on what next generation can do as made with Unreal Engine 4.
In Area X, you get to see better effects and tons of particles all over like Child of Eden as well as the fact that the game supports VR optionally for both the main game and Area X.
There are also gaming events where VR is being tested through various projections with Rez Infinite being played by people that way. Those events might be technically experimental at the time although I don't know if you would still need the VR headset or not.
The famous man behind Rez, had already left Q Entertainment to form his own game company which is Enhance or something and he eventually worked on the Playstation 4 and Steam versions of Rez under Rez Infinite. The were other companies involved with him as well and especially that his other games like Lumines and Meteos no longer belonged to Q Entertainment anymore. There might be a modern mobile game of Lumines that famously collaborated with Ultra Music or something since the DJ festival event took place like last year or some kind in Japan. There's also some addon accessory for Rez Infinite for you to experience the music yourself and needless to say, VR is not required for it.

Ubuntu of this year

OK, at least there was a previous time where I mentioned stuffs like Ubuntu 17.04 along with the fact that Ubuntu will be switching to GNOME soon as Canonical had ceased development of Unity in favor of more cloud computing plans along with IOT stuffs so there won't be much to say here. But then, it seems that Ubuntu 17.10 will be the one to use GNOME by default although things won't be the same as in the past as I guess that it will be using GNOME Shell.
Ubuntu 17.04 ceases support for 32-Bit PowerPC architecture but that's not something you can worry about easily. One past worry instead was something to do with the Mir technology as part of the Wayland protocol which will replace the X11 in Ubuntu 17.10. I don't know if there are still improvements or not like this new technology was finalized and stable enough or what not but we shall see about what's happening in the future throughout the globe or something like that. Of course, there will still be blog posts about upcoming products, wrong things done by the corporations when it comes to privacy and other internet freedom although there isn't anything else to say about various apps, devices or services invading the customers' privacy or some sort because of one thing we already know, once the violation starts, customers start to complain or even worse, file a lawsuit against the company who did this, and then force the company to explain the technical situation on why are they doing this.
So, will Canonical gain additional users when Ubuntu 17.10 comes out with GNOME being used by default? Who knows but at least we already know that Canonical is doing the right thing this year. In the future like next year, Ubuntu 18.04 will be making use of GNOME 3 as they are already concentrating on desktops, servers, cloud computing and IOT stuffs since the Ubuntu phones and tablets didn't provide so much momentum whatsoever.

Raycrisis for mobile obtained!

One thing you should know before buying the game for your Android device, I recommend that you play it on a device that runs Android 4.2 and above but the thing is, some description says that the game can work on an Android 4.1 device but guess what, the game didn't work on my main tablet at all that I might have to switch to another one that actually runs Android 4.2.
It wasn't easy getting the game to work probably due to the limited specs and the worse thing was that the main app data is stored on the system storage which is quite limited compared to the data storage of the tablet device which has tons of capacity as advertised. Another unfortunate thing was that I made one part of the game unplayable after all such emergency maintenance about cleaning things up that I wasn't able to move the game app to the data storage that acts as the SD card. Another annoying experience was that some USB mouse caused that tablet to act up like a retard when hooked up to it that I switched to another USB mouse. It was troublesome and I don't know if this same technical problem may spread to other Android devices like the Set-Top-Box I have sitting in the living room.
Problems aside, I managed to get through the game in both modes. The Remix Mode is sort of like the Special Mode from Playstation/PC versions except that you can continue the game in case you run out of lives and that the game is closely based on the arcade version. The third ship, WR-03, is available at the start, unlike the arcade version where you have to unlock it. Note that the Remix Mode has multiple endings similar to the Arcade Mode but the conditions are obviously different of course and the information about this is scarce as of now. I managed to get through the Remix Mode with several continues, faced the True Last Boss and saw the True Ending but if you take too many continues, this is where you'll face a different ending. The Arcade Mode has slow ship movement when dragging it and this has been there on purpose throughout the series on mobile. Like Rayforce and Raystorm, only one of the stages is remixed when it comes to in-game music. To hear it, you will need to set the Area/Stage 1 Music to Arrange, that is for Rayforce and Raystorm. In Raycrisis, this is a different story as the stages are randomized in order. The track, Lavande Bleu, which is the theme for Intelligence and Consideration Parts, is the track that has both the original and arrangement versions. The improvement may be a little in Raycrisis I should say as adding one arrange track for other games is not enough for me. In fact, such plans like that should have been suited for Groove Coaster, not the existing games.

Raycrisis in Remix Mode

When you proceed to the main menu of the game, you get to hear an awesome medley of the entire series. This is something exclusive to the mobile version and I don't think it is listed in the upcoming album CD of the entire series that will be out next month. Speaking of that album, it consists of the soundtrack CDs of the entire series including the tracks taken from the console versions of the games. Bonus tracks are probably from some Superplay discs or whatnot and especially the mobile versions. Will there be Groove Coaster arrangements in those bonus CDs? I don't know. But I don't think that the medley is being previewed whatsoever. Even Neo-Penetration is there which is said to be from the prototype version of Raystorm that was being location tested back then as R-Gear 1.5 or something. There is a trailer video like that from Ray-Ray CD-ROM which contains Raystorm and Ray-Tracers.

Ray'z Music Chronology Preview (From Zuntata's Official YouTube Channel)

Raycrisis Mobile Version - Main Menu BGM

Flaws so far:

• The Arcade Mode's ship movement is wack on touchscreen but you can use the Bluetooth controller which is the only workaround/savior against control crappiness. (Flaw partially solved as it supports Bluetooth but not the other.)
• For increased replay value, only a few stages are playable between the first and last stage out of all available ones but the bad way is the amount of stage sets of randomized stages. About 40+ stage sets available to choose from. This repetitiveness is made even worse for Darius Burst Another Chronicle and Chronicle Saviours.
• Only one stage BGM is arranged for the entire series and Raycrisis makes things a little bit better or worse as if the arrangement shifts back to the original track after a while should you take too long to defeat the bosses. Before the patch, the music fades out after a while and the arrangement music is played on first two stages, Beginning-Intelligence/Beginning-Consideration.

Other improvements include the translucent laser effects from your ship, the improved suction effect from the final boss and translucent explosions. That may supersede the arcade version a little bit.

Ultra Street Fighter II

If Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix isn't enough, how about Ultra Street Fighter II? Unfortunately, the title is kind of misleading or some kind like there's a lack of Ultra Moves or some kind in addition to Super Moves. Not to mention that the game's Way of Hado has some kind of experimentation problem when it comes to game development like it acts out like a motion-control rail-shooter or some kind. To use analog sticks to move in any direction as well as to use motion controls for attacks is what a first-person action game should be and especially for VR gaming but for characters like Ryu, some of the moves are impossible to pull off in that kind of VR gaming unless the game makes use of the Kinect for full body usage in addition to using VR controllers for moving the character around.
Another problem is that in Classic Mode, not all things are in retro form like the Character Select Screen, VS Screen, Winner and Continue Screens, HUD and the game endings. Even the retro-style intro is missing in this remake as well. All you get is the modernized intro for the game and that's that. There's also the modern intro for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix but too bad it's not used as something's amiss with it. The last problem is the inaccurate stage design in Modern Mode when compared to the one in Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix which is more accurate. Sure, the Modern Mode uses more accurate arranged music and voices from Street Fighter IV but it doesn't mean that there can be inaccuracies in the modern remake. The Classic Mode retains the retro-style graphics, sound, music and voices via the CPS2 days.

Marvel vs Capcom Infinite

From what I saw about the gameplay in action from Angry Joe's YouTube channel, there were some impressions so far. The graphics were done with Unreal Engine 4 similar to Street Fighter V and King of Fighters XIV although people were already displeased with the way the graphics were done and especially for the character models and voices. The effects were fine for the engine alone but then, when it comes to cartoon-ish graphics done in Unreal Engine, there could be various shaders to make things cartoon-ish while retaining the coolness of the effects like what Arc System Works did with Guilty Gear Xrd and the upcoming Dragon Ball fighting game that uses Unreal Engine 4 itself.
Perhaps, it might be a mistake that way at first but the things is, the graphics of Marvel vs Capcom 3 are already in the same style as Street Fighter IV and Tatsunoko vs Capcom in which the cartoon-ish shaders are not used at all when it comes to 3D graphics. The only things that look comical are that certain screens like the Winner screen, Character Select Screen, Ending scenes, etc. look like something out of comic books. Perhaps, those aren't necessary for previous Marvel vs Capcom games but then, there should be comical feel in upcoming Marvel vs Capcom Infinite. Even the cinematic cutscenes are going in a different direction as well as if the game's not following the comic-style concept or some kind. Another problem is the art style in addition to how the characters are 3D modelled as stated above. I don't know if the criticism for this game is worse than the one for King of Fighters XIV or not but thankfully.
Also, the amount of characters is quite lower than in Marvel vs Capcom 3 but then, the game still has yet to be released sometime this month so we're not sure about the overall amount by the time of the game's release.
In fact, I don't even know if the game will have the Arcade Mode or not as the compensation for the incompetence Capcom has but to make Story Mode even more important like that than the Arcade Mode in terms of Capcom's game development is like they care less for the Arcade Mode like they do for Street Fighter V. Street Fighter V STILL doesn't have Arcade Mode as of the present time but to make it ABSENT for the consumer system versions isn't going to make any sense. In fact, that game also has the option to turn on or off the fight interruption when it comes to Single Player modes. That feature has been way to effective for fighting games in the arcades and it gets even more effective for fighting games on Nesica X Live 2 service with online matches as if going through various Single Player modes like Arcade Mode is not quite easy without getting interrupted. But taking out Arcade Mode for whatever reason is INEXCUSABLE! Not to mention that the arcade business part of Capcom has been doing well or something that it makes complaints about lack of finances obsolete after awhile as if the company has enough money to buy additional development kits for future main games.
Once again, it is INEXCUSABLE to take out Arcade Mode for fighting games like you and other players don't care for it! It is one COMMON AND STARTER GAME MODE for pretty much many of those arcade-style games regardless of the platforms! Furthermore, people expect sufficient content for Marvel vs Capcom Infinite when compared to the lackluster from Street Fighter V. Hell, even King of Fighters XIV has sufficient content like sufficient characters along with actual Arcade Mode which is called Story Mode. It is so successful that it also gets a proper arcade and Steam releases.

Nostalgia and Nostalgia Forte

As if Keyboardmania and Rocksmith are seriously hard enough, how about you try the REAL PIANO/GUITAR yourself? If real drums are manageable enough compared to Guitar, Bass or Piano which may seem to be harder, other challenges may probably include the cordination with other stuffs as part of the band. In fact, it may look like the DJ-simulation rhythm games have been going in the opposite direction even today compared to some of the dance games which actually make use of the entire body, pose and motion thanks to Kinect but the technology still isn't perfect as most of the dances are suited for individuals or duos depending on the song.
In fact, I should feel ostracized by how Beatmania IIDX series goes nowadays with irrelevant themes which don't belong to DJ land that well and especially that Nostalgia decreases the difficulty Keyboardmania series has. Sure, there may be tons of keys but to repair/replace them will be tough in case of hardware damage. That is one proper complaint, unlike the complaint about how hard the game is.
Nostalgia is trying to be like Deemo in terms of gameplay. Although the design of the controller may look like mini piano keys, the way you tap the keys to the corresponding notes is akin to Sega's Chunithm series. Sure, that also has the elements of Deemo but it has more than that like air notes which make use of sensors to see if your hand is in the air or not.
Well, at least Konami has rebooted Keyboardmania but in a weird but less difficult way. The game may be fun but extreme difficulty of playing a real piano is still there. One better thing is that Marasy has become more famous than before for being involved in Nostalgia due to his piano cover videos. He's also famous for playing Bemani songs on a piano as well. You can check out his YouTube channel if you're interested.

Skycurser

Said to be the indie arcade game, Skycurser is one of those commercialized indie games made with Game Maker Studio by Griffin AeroTech, if the name of that team is correct. In the prototype versions, the game consisted of three playable stages although there were plans to have several stages. The graphics are retro Neo-Geo style in a similar vain to Metal Slug series with creepy creatures that have taken over the whole globe that you have to fight them with the plane that is available in the garage. You get three attacks, the normal shot, sword and the shotgun as well as the bomb attack that is like a wannabe super attack taken from fighting games. I don't know if that is like an Overdrive/Max Mode or perhaps a real super move as it is not supposed to last much longer than usual. When attacking enemies, they splat out blood and they originate from some meteor with green glow and goo from space.
Basically, in the game of Skycurser, most of the places are infected with some plague or something after the meteor crash as indicated with green smoke in some of the stages and it's up to you to pilot the plane from the garage. Unfortunately, as the game is more or less incomplete even in final form, I don't know what the ending is like in terms of game story. All you see after completing the game is the simple game outro or some kind.
Of course, there are flaws. Firstly is the game's intro as if the whole thing is made out of meme GIF images or some kind like everything is quite choppy so to speak. Second is how the flashing HUD messages on top of the screen during the Continue session. Maybe it's a bug or something. Third, the game is more or less incomplete even as an indie arcade game as if the concept of bringing indie games to the arcades is experimental. There might be indie games ported to the arcades via Nesica X Live like Trouble Witches, Exception, etc.
The arcade system is the Linux-PC based hardware called Airframe. It has the 64-Bit CPU and games made using Game Maker Studio or Unity will need to be exported to HTML5, Linux or some other mentioned platform. So, I asked the team behind the game on Twitter about the CPU architecture as Game Maker Studio 2 came out that it wouldn't support 32-Bit CPUs anymore or something and I got the answer saying the the CPU is 64-Bit/X64. This means that games made using Game Maker Studio 2 can also be ported to Airframe as well. I don't know if Construct 2/3 games can be ported to that arcade system as well.
One interesting thing from the developers is that they made the live stream videos of various pure arcade features like the implementation of Arcade Operator Menu where you can adjust settings and perform specific tests, Coin Control System which tells you how many credits are as well as the Copyright Warning Screen for arcade games. I don't know if that looks like a stupid idea to implement those features in a game made using Game Maker Studio/Construct but for Unity, there are ACTUALLY arcade games made with it. I'm not even joking about that like one of Aikatsu games for the arcades is actually made with that. Problem is, the lessons about implementing pure arcade game features are industrial level, not indie-level. Who's going to teach me and others about that for Game Maker Studio then?
To get the game updated, the arcade operators make use of the USB stick or perhaps the wireless network connection to update the game to the newer version if available. Of course, for games made using Game Maker Studio, that may seem to be a problem when it comes to version update as if everything will be reset in the update although some features like external files for game settings, high score tables, will be imported if the game finds them after the update.
There are other arcade games made for the Airframe system as well but the information is scarce at the moment.

Sango Guardian Chaos Generation

The game may look like it's been in development for few to several years before getting finalized sometime this year. At the time the game was in prototype phase, there are mistakes spotted like the flashing messages on top of the screen throughout the game for instance. Those messages were asynchronous in terms of the way they flash if you ask me and that's not how things flow in fighting games nowadays for the arcades. The messages are supposed to change/flash every second at the same time no matter where you are in during the game.
The amount of characters isn't quite large but the interface may remind you of various fighting games. The same may probably go for the announcer. The game uses a different game engine and in terms of presentation, it goes towards the Street Fighter IV route.
As the game is made in some Chinese-speaking country, expect things to be in native Chinese although the announcer is using English throughout the game similar to KOF MI series like from the way the characters' names and the game title are being pronounced. Right now, I don't know where the game is exactly made in.
For the arcade system, I don't know the brand and the system specs although it is based on the Lenovo Thinkcentre computer system that powers this embedded arcade system. Not even the name of the hardware is revealed on the bootup screen that I don't know it either. It uses Windows Embedded Standard 2009 just like the Ringedge series and Ringwide arcade systems. At least, I saw the video of the machine booting up in action and stuff like that but it might seem that the video from Mikado game center's YouTube channel was about the game update. Apparently, the game was recently finalized and they mentioned things like Nesica X Live and All.NET P-Ras Multi along with Windows 10 when it comes to technical concerns. To upgrade the arcade machines to Windows 10 IOT through the forced Automatic OS Upgrade from Windows Embedded Standard 7 or 8 is asking for serious cussing and bashing from the arcade staffs. Not to mention the upgrades of the OS build-by-build. The only maintenances of the machines allowed are game-updates, necessary OS patches, driver updates, etc. This game on the other hand doesn't have the player card feature thingy which is the feature you'll see when you start the game. When starting the game while it's online, you have the option to start it with or without the card, this is way before the Nesica X Live and All.NET P-Ras Multi services existed. The earlier generation cards would be like VF.NET cards, E-Amusement Passes, Nesys cards, etc.
There's a chance that the arcade system this game is running on will have additional support for two more years before Windows Embedded Standard 2009 is out of life support. I guess that future updates will feature additional characters and stages but a guess like that doesn't seem to be turned into a rumor if false.
For consumer system release, I can probably guess that the graphics will be like one-era behind to the Playstation 4 and Xbox One as games that use DirectX11 technologies can be on par with those consoles already.

Senko No Ronde 2

I don't know if this is the sequel or not from what I saw of some earlier gameplay videos of the game in action. It seems that the game still looks like Senko No Ronde Duo from the look of the assets although the voice acting, HUD and Character Select screen are changed which are quite new as needed for the Playstation 4 and Steam releases. However, it doesn't seem to be the same for the in-game graphics like they're one era behind or something. Like what game is this, the remastered version of Senko No Ronde Duo? There must be new graphical assets or something along with new gameplay features.
The first Senko No Ronde already had mixed opinions from the critics due to how complex the gameplay is and especially for the amount of content the game may have and I don't know if this upcoming reboot of Senko No Ronde Duo will do things better for the global release.

Strikers 1945 for Switch

Strikers 1945 II and III were ported to IOS and Android and I already showed the gameplay videos of myself playing Strikers 1945 III in Master difficulty. It was incredibly difficult and I even consumed some of the in-game currency for extra bombs to survive. Normally, you get three bomb-attacks to begin with but if you run out, you will have to pay in-game currency for extra ones unless you get additional bomb items from the enemies. Obviously, the gameplay videos of Strikers 1945 III from my YouTube channel were incredible to look at although my Android tablet is already on life-support with some hardware defects or whatnot.
The original Strikers 1945 for Nintendo Switch is another decent conversion from what I saw although it misses the transparent boxes in the Scramble screen and the sound effects are different than the arcade version.
Another game besides this released on Switch is Gunbarich, from Psikyo. It appears that the external company, Zerodiv, has the assets to various Psikyo arcade games and it seems that Gunbarich has nicer decoration of the HUD and wallpaper than Strikers 1945 on Switch that you can't tell where the center portion of the game is in terms of layers. Obviously, the center layer is the arcade game layer, outside of it is where decoration takes place with new HUD and other information.

Raycrisis on IOS and Android

It had been years since Raystorm was released on IOS and Android and Raycrisis is the final addition to the series for mobile. Before the IOS and Android releases of Raycrisis, the mobile versions of Rayforce and Raystorm were updated again with widescreen support, bluetooth controller support and the arranged music for Stage 1 which may seem to be a strange and incomplete move for me. The same can go for Raycrisis in which one of the stages will have its track arranged although the original version is still there if you ask me.
Most of the gameplay videos of Raycrisis aim for the true ending so to find the ones with bad ending and good endings may be rare whether it's the arcade version or the Playstation/PC version. The mobile version is based on the arcade version minus the 2-player support similar to other shmup games ported from arcades.
The future plan will be to buy the game for my Android tablet from Google Play Store as my Ipod Touch had its screen damaged even worse. Maybe I used it while it was being charged and no wonder it took up so much power than ever. However, I don't know if Raycrisis is going to work well on my Android tablet as this is released this year but my guess is that it uses the same porting engine as Rayforce and Raystorm as indicated from the similar interface and walllpaper.
One thing to keep in mind is that the ending is different between the arcade and the Playstation/PC versions and the true ending leads to the beginning of Rayforce as Raycrisis is the prequel.

Nex Machina

From the creators of Resogun, Nex Machina uses the same voxel concept but the gameplay is akin of Smash TV and Robotron, the classic arcade games I have never played before. I might have seen review videos from Classic Game Room that have Robotron but not Smash TV although the concept may seem to be similar or something. The legendary game designer, Eugine Jarvis, had teamed up with Housemarque to work on the new arcade-style game.
There may be rumors about the arcade release in which Housemarque will have to team up with Raw Thrills and some of the rumors are in the form of the arcade cabinet concept. The game may feature Co-Op like always and the behavior seems to be better than the Local Co-Op in Resogun. The Online Co-Op in Resogun is already a better idea than Local Co-Op although Nex Machina can have both Local and Online Co-Ops just fine.
Like Resogun, the design is quite interesting. In Resogun, the surrounding areas caught in the blast get scattered away whether you boost, use Overdrive, get hit by the enemy or destroy the enemy. In Nex Machina, the same causes the area to produce the pixellated shockwave. The way the area produces the shockwave is that parts of the area get turned into cubes before returning back to normal. Even some of the different weapons you use cause the pixellated shockwave as well.
When destroying stuffs in Nex Machina, things get broken into voxels but unlike Resogun, they don't produce glows and particles when destroyed. There may be projectiles in some stages that actually cause real explosions in Nex Machina but that's pretty much that. When you lose a life, you are scattered into pieces with trails of glows. They cause particles when they collide with a wall or something. The same effect occurs when the boss is defeated. Unlike Resogun, what you'll see after defeating the boss is a bunch of tiny cubes acting as the sea objects. In Resogun, after defeating the boss, the whole place is being blasted where the ship escapes.
My point is that there should be explosions when the machines in Nex Machina get destroyed but instead, the machines are taken for deranged toys. Also, the game may be difficult with trial and error type gameplay in which every time you lose a life, the current phase you're in restarts.
Lastly, the soundtrack has a similar style to Resogun but it has three composers this time. Some of the songs already had given me the good and interesting impression. Not to mention that the game's soundtrack is available on ITunes and I already paid for the main vocalized theme. Indeed, you can either buy one track, or the entire album in the ITunes music store.

Dangun Feveron for Playstation 4

After the release of Battle Garegga on Playstation 4 last year, M2 had additional games announced such as Dangun Feveron, Ketsui and Sorcer Striker. The necessity of releasing Ketsui on Playstation 4 is kind of high for me as the modern release of it on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 doesn't seem to be quite enough as the Xbox series consoles were struggling in Japan and Xbox One took on a worse turn there. The Playstation 3 was slowly catching up like it's a good thing although the sales of the Playstation 3 release were quite low compared to the Xbox 360 release. There were interesting momentum and reasons to buy the Xbox 360 as of that time like tons of arcade-style games release on that system with the Playstation 3 taking turns next with tons of fighting games released for it as originated from the arcades.
Another problem is that games like Battle Garegga and Sorcer Striker were not quite easy to get for the Sega Saturn although the console succeeded in Japan at the time. Not to mention that Dangun Feveron NEVER got a console port until the Playstation 4 release and it seems that the Playstation 4 has been getting tons of arcade-style games and especially for those originated from the arcades.
As part of M2 Shooting Trigger project, the Playstation 4 release will have the similar M2 gadget interface design although the skin surely looks better than the one from Battle Garegga. Additional game modes will enhance the gameplay even further like Battle Garegga as well as the additional remix soundtracks, one for a club-style remix and the other is a retro-style which brings you back to the 1980s-90s arcade games. Another interesting thing is that the neon glow on the interface lights up to the music as if you're in the club. Not to mention that the M2-gadget interface isn't affected by the game's slowdown which is a smart programming from M2. It's nearly 20 years ever since the game not having a console release.

Blazblue Central Fiction Ver 2.0

As announced from this year's EVO, the update would have Jubei as the playable character in Version 2.0 onwards along with the new stage and new intro music. If my guess was right about the game's trailer's end part after the introduction of Jubei, that music turns out to be the new arcade opening of Blazblue Central Fiction. The new opening features characters that are not shown in the previous opening. Not to mention that the intro is redone as well and so is the title screen. Other changes include the different HUD along with the balancing changes.
As this has TWO arcade versions, there are things to take note of:

• The Nesica X Live 2 version has online matches similar to Tekken 7 arcade version in addition to local network matches where machines running this game can be linked around the game center. Online matches connect the current machine to the machine from another video arcades.
• The Nesica X Live 2 version has machine grouping similar to today's modern Namco arcade games including Tekken 7.
• Some of the modes are ABSENT in Nesica X Live 2 version.
• You get to customize the system voice in Nesica X Live 2 version similar to the console versions of the game provided that you have the Nesica card and account.
• The title screen will have the Nesica X Live 2 logo at the bottom right if the game is on Nesica X Live 2 service.
• Machines can be linked locally regardless of which Nesica X Live service the game is running on.
• When you lose the match, you have the option to retry or quit. However, retrying the match requires an additional credit and there's no Character Select option. This applies to Nesica X Live 2 version unlike the original Nesica X Live version where the game goes back to whichever mode the winning player was in or the game goes straight to Game Over screen depending on the operator settings.
• The network icon is smaller in Nesica X Live 2 version and the HUD message that displays player name/shop name changes every time during the match.

My point for fighting games in the arcades is that some of the Single Player game modes shouldn't be interruptible if the cabinet is Single Player mode in which the machine would be connected to another machine for local network match. That can be a problem if you get interrupted on the local network in the middle of the Single Player mode at anytime. The training mode is fine and the best way to wait for some random opponent to pop up. At least in Street Fighter V, you have the option to turn on or off the random player encounter although the Arcade Mode is still absent to this day which may be a shame like it is one of the main modes that should be present in the game for consumer systems. So, I don't know if there will be a way to get around the random encounter thing for Nesica X Live 2 fighting games in the arcades as you're going to be interrupted even worse. Thankfully, the consumer system version may come in handy if you want to go for various Single Player modes.
For Nesica X Live 2 version, when you start the game, you have the option to go for Online Match or Local Network Match. If there's a player in the encounter list, you can choose to deal with that or search for another player through List Refresh option. If there's no one in the list, you can safely go for the Single Player Mode.