Soulja Boy is the rapper, actor, record producer and so on although he was already quite irrelevant sometime later after his hit song, Crank That, which was a hit like in 2007. The recent attention that attracted many gaming people is that he's selling the game consoles which are actually the Chinese-made and manufactured consoles that look like the genuine consoles made by other companies. Unfortunately, the real trouble was already born due to the fact that he's been selling game consoles with inaccurate advertising and pirated Roms that even Nintendo wasn't happy about that ever since Nintendo going all Ninja-ish into shutting down the sites that offer Roms of Nintendo games like the company's over-protective of their IPs. In fact, the game consoles made by Nintendo or other companies have been cloned countless times when it comes to the design shell like the game device looking like a Xbox One except that it isn't that game console actually for instance. Not to mention the endless amount of NES-on-a-chip systems which are more or less NES/FC clones and even the unlicensed cartridges for whatever game console offer the similar amount of games. And speaking of products that look like Xbox One or Game Boy Advance in terms of design, it appears that Soulja Boy has been selling those pre-bundled with pirated games. At this rate, Nintendo is ready to go after him if preparations of taking legal actions are done correctly. There's a chance that he may face a long time in prison for copyright and trademark infringement. Not to mention the fraud through inaccurate advertising that is seen from his official website.
Chances are, the emulation may or may not be that great depending on the console made in China you've bought, that is, the consoles that offer emulation stuffs. The same can go for the unlicensed clones of NES or other game consoles. The consoles may be Android-powered, some other embedded devices, or perhaps the NES-on-a-chip systems or some sort. However, in the case of the same Chinese products that are sold by Soulja Boy, the price is even larger than what those products are priced originally. Not to mention that they aren't even branded by him at all when you open the product box containing them inside once you've bought them home. It's a total shame on him in terms of shady business practices. I already had an Android tablet that was said to be a locally branded clone of some Chinese Ipad-Mini-like tablet but from the company's website, that tablet wasn't there whatsoever. I might be wondering if something was amiss after having bought that thing years ago. But even then, this is NOT how you rebrand the existing product like that!
There was an article saying that Soulja Boy may face prison time but it seems that the article was inaccurately written as the lawsuit still has yet to happen. Nintendo was already aware of his actions and yet he still gets away with selling additional Chinese-made consoles as well as announcing that he's going to be involved in other stuffs like eSports for instance but I guess that this is not going to last any longer since he's abruptly ended his career by doing illegal shit like that. It's going way too far for money and somehow, he's going to use that money to establish his new studio or something.
He's fucked up his multimedia career with that shit that attracts negative attention from the gaming people. It's SCAM-ISH AS HELL and I gladly don't see anyone defending this shady practice. He NEEDS to STOP doing that bullshit that extends the trouble he's already in but I guess that it's already too late to say that. There may be Raspberry Pi based game consoles that contain emulators or whatnot but I suppose that they don't contain Roms whatsoever.
Soulja Boy got himself in legal troubles before like the time when he failed to make the payments to the promoter for the rescheduled concert 7 years ago for instance but those are the tales of the other times.
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Tuesday, December 18, 2018
King of Fighters XIV Steam Version First Play - Free Weekend
Like Street Fighter V, King of Fighters XIV was free as part of the Free Weekend campaign. However, the time trial was shorter than the one for Street Fighter V whose special reason has something to do with the upcoming Capcom Pro Tour of this year.
Experience-wise, I encountered some choppiness for some of the stages but the game still performed smoothly on my computer as if the game takes lesser resources than Street Fighter V or something. One confusing thing is the usage of traditional UI interactivity with the keyboard but it should take you time to get used to when compared to other fighting games on PC. The game's intro is like a mixture of 30FPS and 60FPS stuffs or something but I could be wrong. The opponent before Verse was like manageable but Verse was one challenging opponent for me and I'm still not good at the fighting game genre. The complex commands are difficult to pull off and this difficulty is going to be the same for other King of Fighters games.
If there are flaws or whatnot, it's something about the way things are rendered graphically due to inferior quality prior to the patch and the Arcade and Steam versions were based on the later update of the console version.
Other than the flaws, this was already a better game than Street Fighter V when it first came out and as time went on, Street Fighter V Arcade Edition was released with sufficient amount of characters and the inclusion of the Arcade Mode which is one of the core features of the fighting games ever since the past times. At the Game Awards of 2016, King of Fighters XIV was nominated for the "Best Fighting Game" award but lost to Street Fighter V. How could an incomplete and mediocre game like Street Fighter V win such an award like that at the time like it's beyond me? Even Pokemon Go was incomplete at the time but then again, it had more features than its initial launch. To defend Street Fighter V's incomplete-ness was like not to care for the main core features of the product that were absent.
Experience-wise, I encountered some choppiness for some of the stages but the game still performed smoothly on my computer as if the game takes lesser resources than Street Fighter V or something. One confusing thing is the usage of traditional UI interactivity with the keyboard but it should take you time to get used to when compared to other fighting games on PC. The game's intro is like a mixture of 30FPS and 60FPS stuffs or something but I could be wrong. The opponent before Verse was like manageable but Verse was one challenging opponent for me and I'm still not good at the fighting game genre. The complex commands are difficult to pull off and this difficulty is going to be the same for other King of Fighters games.
If there are flaws or whatnot, it's something about the way things are rendered graphically due to inferior quality prior to the patch and the Arcade and Steam versions were based on the later update of the console version.
Other than the flaws, this was already a better game than Street Fighter V when it first came out and as time went on, Street Fighter V Arcade Edition was released with sufficient amount of characters and the inclusion of the Arcade Mode which is one of the core features of the fighting games ever since the past times. At the Game Awards of 2016, King of Fighters XIV was nominated for the "Best Fighting Game" award but lost to Street Fighter V. How could an incomplete and mediocre game like Street Fighter V win such an award like that at the time like it's beyond me? Even Pokemon Go was incomplete at the time but then again, it had more features than its initial launch. To defend Street Fighter V's incomplete-ness was like not to care for the main core features of the product that were absent.
Street Fighter V Steam Version First Play - Free Weekend (Updated)
As part of the Free Weekend campaign organized by Valve, the game was free for a limited time and it could be handy for anyone to obtain it for free. However, the game would no longer be playable after the limited time so it has to be purchased. The other was King of Fighters XIV whose time-trial expired earlier.
Unfortunately, there is one minor controversy Capcom had done in which the logos of Capcom Pro Tour were pasted all over the place such as on characters, Versus screen background, some stages and even the pre-match advertisement screen which luckily displays things related to the game such as paid DLCs, not something else. Thankfully, such things can be turned off although you won't receive bonus in-game currency that way. The advertisement screen before the match could be annoying in my opinion. Another controversy is the unnecessary Loot Box feature. Seriously, is that even needed for a game like this? If I don't see anything coming out of Loot Box feature that enhances the characters or whatnot, what's really the point of the Loot Box feature in the first place? Not to mention that you can level up the characters the other ways WITHOUT even needing the Loot Box feature since the game's not like those mobile games I've played. Another problem is the characters that need to be unlocked via DLCs or in-game virtual currency even though they are playable by the AIs as complete characters. Since they're complete as in having all the moves and encountered as AI fighters, they can be unlocked with in-game virtual currency but to unlock them instantly with DLC feature is like buying the unlock code for buying special in-game items as if the code is like the virtual voucher.
Then, there's one extra problem that doesn't count as the actual flaw. The game slows down for no reason at times and rendering isn't perfect for some of the stages. My guess is that the computer's CPU isn't fast enough when comparing its specs to the specs of the Taito Type X3 arcade system. In theory, the computer is able to run Unreal Engine 4 games just fine as it has sufficient amount of RAM to follow the system requirements of Unreal Engine 4 itself.
At the beginning, I had to register, agree to various agreements and even got displayed a bunch of information boxes. *Sigh* This is unnecessary for me and the account registration thingy can be done later, like registering at the site and then logging to the account from somewhere in the Main Menu screen, not the Title Screen. What is this, an MMO game where you have to sign in to the account from the Title Screen and then connect to the server to proceed? The upcoming arcade version doesn't display those things like that although many of the modern arcade games I know of may still display the Information boxes whether you have an account or not. In fact, I don't even know if you can play Street Fighter V offline or some sort and to register an account for first play is ridiculous although you're going to need the Capcom ID for Capcom Fighters Network. Sure, there may be Terms of Use box when playing certain modern arcade games for the first time with the player Smartcard but that depends on the games of course.
Trials Mode seems to be tough for me and I'm not good in fighting games as far as I can realize. Some kinds of characters are not beginner-friendly as their moves are difficult to pull off and the same can go for the complex commands for the super moves in other fighting games but that's a topic for the other time. Not to mention that the game requires 20+GB but the pre-download prediction of the download time taken wasn't bad like it would take me estimated an hour and a half. Lastly, even the standard moves are changed in this game like you have to use both Light Punch and Light Kick for throwing the opponent for instance.
So, it looks like that's 5 flaws in total for Street Fighter V Arcade Edition as of this time and the original Street Fighter V had the lack of Arcade Mode, incomplete character roster as well as the conflicting features like DLCs vs in-game currency to unlock the same characters that are already playable by the AIs and even the performance issues for online matches, making 4 flaws in total. The improvement seemed to be a little for Street Fighter V Arcade Edition way before the bullshit features of this year were added and after playing it for the first time, I had the true realization and to change my opinion of it. It's a shame that Street Fighter V had recently become a mediocre game again ever since the initial launch of the original edition. In fact, I don't know if the upcoming arcade version, Type Arcade is going to carry over the same flaws or not. The nefarious thing about a modern fighting game in the arcades is using virtual currency from the player's portal site or in-game OR FULFILLING OTHER REQUIREMENTS to unlock the fighters provided that you have the player smartcard like the Nesica card for instance but I hope it's just an imagination to you and it should be to me because by default, all fighters including new ones from later updates should be playable in fighting games in the arcades in the first place regardless of whether you have that card or not. Oh, Street Fighter V is a paid-to-play game to begin with. You pay to buy it and enjoy it but the recent inclusion of the in-game ads is going to ruin the experience for everyone and from my average opinion of the game as of this time, the purchase of this game is or isn't going to be regretful.
Unfortunately, there is one minor controversy Capcom had done in which the logos of Capcom Pro Tour were pasted all over the place such as on characters, Versus screen background, some stages and even the pre-match advertisement screen which luckily displays things related to the game such as paid DLCs, not something else. Thankfully, such things can be turned off although you won't receive bonus in-game currency that way. The advertisement screen before the match could be annoying in my opinion. Another controversy is the unnecessary Loot Box feature. Seriously, is that even needed for a game like this? If I don't see anything coming out of Loot Box feature that enhances the characters or whatnot, what's really the point of the Loot Box feature in the first place? Not to mention that you can level up the characters the other ways WITHOUT even needing the Loot Box feature since the game's not like those mobile games I've played. Another problem is the characters that need to be unlocked via DLCs or in-game virtual currency even though they are playable by the AIs as complete characters. Since they're complete as in having all the moves and encountered as AI fighters, they can be unlocked with in-game virtual currency but to unlock them instantly with DLC feature is like buying the unlock code for buying special in-game items as if the code is like the virtual voucher.
Then, there's one extra problem that doesn't count as the actual flaw. The game slows down for no reason at times and rendering isn't perfect for some of the stages. My guess is that the computer's CPU isn't fast enough when comparing its specs to the specs of the Taito Type X3 arcade system. In theory, the computer is able to run Unreal Engine 4 games just fine as it has sufficient amount of RAM to follow the system requirements of Unreal Engine 4 itself.
At the beginning, I had to register, agree to various agreements and even got displayed a bunch of information boxes. *Sigh* This is unnecessary for me and the account registration thingy can be done later, like registering at the site and then logging to the account from somewhere in the Main Menu screen, not the Title Screen. What is this, an MMO game where you have to sign in to the account from the Title Screen and then connect to the server to proceed? The upcoming arcade version doesn't display those things like that although many of the modern arcade games I know of may still display the Information boxes whether you have an account or not. In fact, I don't even know if you can play Street Fighter V offline or some sort and to register an account for first play is ridiculous although you're going to need the Capcom ID for Capcom Fighters Network. Sure, there may be Terms of Use box when playing certain modern arcade games for the first time with the player Smartcard but that depends on the games of course.
Trials Mode seems to be tough for me and I'm not good in fighting games as far as I can realize. Some kinds of characters are not beginner-friendly as their moves are difficult to pull off and the same can go for the complex commands for the super moves in other fighting games but that's a topic for the other time. Not to mention that the game requires 20+GB but the pre-download prediction of the download time taken wasn't bad like it would take me estimated an hour and a half. Lastly, even the standard moves are changed in this game like you have to use both Light Punch and Light Kick for throwing the opponent for instance.
So, it looks like that's 5 flaws in total for Street Fighter V Arcade Edition as of this time and the original Street Fighter V had the lack of Arcade Mode, incomplete character roster as well as the conflicting features like DLCs vs in-game currency to unlock the same characters that are already playable by the AIs and even the performance issues for online matches, making 4 flaws in total. The improvement seemed to be a little for Street Fighter V Arcade Edition way before the bullshit features of this year were added and after playing it for the first time, I had the true realization and to change my opinion of it. It's a shame that Street Fighter V had recently become a mediocre game again ever since the initial launch of the original edition. In fact, I don't know if the upcoming arcade version, Type Arcade is going to carry over the same flaws or not. The nefarious thing about a modern fighting game in the arcades is using virtual currency from the player's portal site or in-game OR FULFILLING OTHER REQUIREMENTS to unlock the fighters provided that you have the player smartcard like the Nesica card for instance but I hope it's just an imagination to you and it should be to me because by default, all fighters including new ones from later updates should be playable in fighting games in the arcades in the first place regardless of whether you have that card or not. Oh, Street Fighter V is a paid-to-play game to begin with. You pay to buy it and enjoy it but the recent inclusion of the in-game ads is going to ruin the experience for everyone and from my average opinion of the game as of this time, the purchase of this game is or isn't going to be regretful.
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Fallout 76 Customer Support System Data Breach
I suppose that you should be fine if you have not bought Fallout 76 as it is plagued with many issues such as performance issues, bugs, low-res textures on some areas, conflicting ideas that defeat the objective of the story from the game's intro, pointless quests, poor execution and even the introduction of microtransactions in it. However, there are more controversies besides the negative opinions from the critics.
The main subject here is about the data breach of the customer support system due to the bug and if the game isn't bad enough, the data breach and the different item included for the Power Armor Special Edition had already pissed off the customers. Users were able to open and close tickets of other customers and view their personal information. It's a total shame on Besthesda that the data breach happened that they could face fines for breaching the GDPR but not all infringements will eventually lead to the fine. Thankfully, they started the investigation of the incident and will provide updates when possible.
The main subject here is about the data breach of the customer support system due to the bug and if the game isn't bad enough, the data breach and the different item included for the Power Armor Special Edition had already pissed off the customers. Users were able to open and close tickets of other customers and view their personal information. It's a total shame on Besthesda that the data breach happened that they could face fines for breaching the GDPR but not all infringements will eventually lead to the fine. Thankfully, they started the investigation of the incident and will provide updates when possible.
Sony's censorship policy in games
In the past, there was a serious controversy regarding the non-kid-friendly contents of the past games released on 16-Bit consoles and it looks like Night Trap and Mortal Kombat had become quite notorious for featuring various mature contents. At the time, Night Trap wouldn't be allowed on the Nintendo system because of that reason but somehow in the present time, it was released on Switch with Teenage rating on ESRB. How did Nintendo reverse this vow and allow Night Trap to be on Switch like it's beyond me? Even better, what's up with those CERO-D-ish Japanese-made games on Switch and Steam recently like Galgun series, Senran Kagura series, etc.?
At the time of the development of the original Galgun for Xbox 360, there were some concerns from Microsoft about those kinds of indecent contents being implemented. There's even the "Mum is here" feature that brings a still screen of the game in Megaman style which is handy for players who are playing such games like that at their parents' house. However, that feature isn't quite enough and it looks like things had the guts to go that far.
I don't know if the video sharing/streaming services may allow those kinds of games but it seems that Sony had the guts to come up with the revised policy that censors those mature stuffs on them.. Unfortunately, it appears that this policy is not going to work for some franchises. Not to mention that people who like this kind of stuff are not going to be pleased either. Also, it is highly questionable about those games released on PC, PS Vita and Switch but it doesn't matter which kind of eastern games those people play, there may or may not be a chance that some of their peers may get ostracized. And to blame the peers who get ostracized over those games is going to be wrong soon. One unacceptable attitude I don't want to see is anyone claiming those kind of games to be art when they are looking quite disturbing to the others. If you find those kind of games like Galgun for instance, disturbing and distasteful, then it's best to avoid them and look for something that is deemed decent enough for you. Sure, the fan-service stuff may have gone too far sometimes but not all game franchises may adhere to this new policy that easily. Even some AAA western games had different controversies that the developers eventually removed what made them controversial so that they could be released in specific countries.
In my opinion, the new policy is questionable. I don't know if this is a good move or not since those kinds of Japanese games had gone too far with higher level of fan-service stuff and Sony stood up too late to it. I also don't know if you have the option of going on a 'Good-person route" in those games or not. However, that doesn't seem to be quite the point for Galgun series for instance like there's one part where you have to increase the heart-beat bar that will allow the other female characters coming towards you in range to feel stunned or some sort. Sorry, but that kind of mature game isn't for you if you're looking for a mature game where you can make sure to do good deeds.
At the time of the development of the original Galgun for Xbox 360, there were some concerns from Microsoft about those kinds of indecent contents being implemented. There's even the "Mum is here" feature that brings a still screen of the game in Megaman style which is handy for players who are playing such games like that at their parents' house. However, that feature isn't quite enough and it looks like things had the guts to go that far.
I don't know if the video sharing/streaming services may allow those kinds of games but it seems that Sony had the guts to come up with the revised policy that censors those mature stuffs on them.. Unfortunately, it appears that this policy is not going to work for some franchises. Not to mention that people who like this kind of stuff are not going to be pleased either. Also, it is highly questionable about those games released on PC, PS Vita and Switch but it doesn't matter which kind of eastern games those people play, there may or may not be a chance that some of their peers may get ostracized. And to blame the peers who get ostracized over those games is going to be wrong soon. One unacceptable attitude I don't want to see is anyone claiming those kind of games to be art when they are looking quite disturbing to the others. If you find those kind of games like Galgun for instance, disturbing and distasteful, then it's best to avoid them and look for something that is deemed decent enough for you. Sure, the fan-service stuff may have gone too far sometimes but not all game franchises may adhere to this new policy that easily. Even some AAA western games had different controversies that the developers eventually removed what made them controversial so that they could be released in specific countries.
In my opinion, the new policy is questionable. I don't know if this is a good move or not since those kinds of Japanese games had gone too far with higher level of fan-service stuff and Sony stood up too late to it. I also don't know if you have the option of going on a 'Good-person route" in those games or not. However, that doesn't seem to be quite the point for Galgun series for instance like there's one part where you have to increase the heart-beat bar that will allow the other female characters coming towards you in range to feel stunned or some sort. Sorry, but that kind of mature game isn't for you if you're looking for a mature game where you can make sure to do good deeds.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)