6th KAC Live Stream

Thanks to Round 1 reviving some arcade scenes in the US in the modern way, it seems that DDR is back there with DDR A and DDR A is said to be the first DDR game to have the E-Amusement support. The success of the location testing of DDR 2014 in the US might have led to the official availability of the sequel, DDR A and it looks like the players from US were welcome to take part in 6th KAC.
At first, the competitors from Japan and Korea have been quite fierce that they had a higher chance of winning in 6th KAC but a surprising miracle came from the US KAC finalists for DDR in which one of the finalists had won the championship by surprise. Another interesting thing about that finalist from US, Chris, was that he had the legendary skills in Guitar Hero as well.
What I don't like about the live stream is the misbehaviors from the nerds in the chat session on YouTube. They had been spamming it with political, cursing and even other disgusting stuffs. And someone had the guts to comment about the characters from Sound Voltex at the *****graphical level. *Sigh* That person should be kicked out of YouTube or even better, the Internet for this. Such stuffs I saw were no jokes nor trolls. Another stupid thing people had been spamming the chat was the simulators of the official rhythm games. For me, I don't think such topics like that are pretty much allowed. Why the hell do you want to play those simulators when you're actually interested in the official and actual rhythm games, then?
Unfortunately, even if the KAC finalist from the US had won the first place along with DDR A being in the US thanks to Round 1, it is already too late to undo the damage for other parts of Konami when they announced Bombergirl for the arcades that was being location tested in this year's JAEPO. I already fear that there's no such thing as cancellation of such arcade games like Bombergirl which is the controversial spinoff of Bomberman. At first, the announcement of Super Bomberman R had people think that Konami is making a comeback but no, it's not a clean comeback all along when Bombergirl for the arcades was announced. It's so controversial because of unacceptable contents although Bomberman is the kids-friendly franchise. To explain this further damage Konami has done in detail is a different tale.
Also, Nostalgia, the spiritual successor to Keyboardmania, was shown at this year's JAEPO with improvements to the physical controller design in which the gameplay is made less difficult thanks to the controller's less realism. Things in Keyboardmania were realistic but as realistic they were, the game was extremely difficult and trying out a real piano is much tougher than that. I have also seen Marasy, the genius pianist involved in this year's JAEPO in which he played various songs from Bemani franchise in the real piano in front of the KAC attendees.
Lastly, besides KAC taking place, there's the similar competition involving rhythm games from multiple developers and it's not the first time crossover songs were made playable. Also, it marked the great end of the Lunar New Year celebration for Bemani fans.

Wikileaks - Vault7 leak

Again, the reports of the agency-related cybersecurity actions would take you back to the year 2013 when all the cyber-spying stuffs had been exposed by Edward Snowden. They were said to be illegal that it kept people and tech companies concerned that all those actions had been done ever since the past. We know the reason on why they did all this cyber surveillance on people in various countries through the victims' devices but then, we had also seen actions taken by the tech companies in which many of the vulnerabilities had been patched as stated by Apple and Google.
Unfortunately, even with the encryption intact for Telegram, Signal and Whatsapp, there's a chance that CIA can bypass it for data collection purposes. The Year Zero issue is not at the application level and it takes place in many devices and operating systems like routers, computers running Windows, Macintosh and Linux and even if the computers are offline, the data collection can still occur.
More and deep information can be found from the links below:

• From Wikileaks
• From Telegram

Unfortunately, for those using the outdated Android and IOS like me using Android 4.x series of OSes, chances are that not all vulnerabilities are patched and that the patches support the later OSes. Microsoft investigated this situation but may need more time and strategy to come up with more solutions.

Blazblue Central Fiction

Well, this is the latest in the series and said to be the final chapter released on the consoles a year after the arcade release. The console release is based on the recent arcade update which contained all the acts along with more characters being playable. It also featured additional characters as DLCs which were also playable in the arcade version as the update so they were no longer console-exclusives. What is still console-exclusive is the Story-Mode along with some other modes you won't find in the arcade version.
And somehow, if the console-release isn't quite enough, it seems that Arc System Works had the guts to re-release the game for the arcades, this time, for Nesica X Live 2 service which obviously has online-match support similar to console releases of fighting games with Network Mode. Plus, the games running on that service will be in 1080p similar to Playstation 4 version of the Blazblue Central Fiction although there won't be so much differences whatsoever. It might be a strange move but certain things had to be done as needed for newer platform releases. Not to mention that the re-release of Blazblue Central Fiction to a newer service for the arcades is a core reason to keep the series alive ever since FK Digital having released Chaos Code on Playstation 4 based on the recent update of Nesica X Live arcade version which already had two additional characters way before the Playstation 4 version was announced. Sure, the Taito Type X2, Nesica X Live 1 and Playstation 3 are already quite old and the support for Windows XP Embedded for that Type X2 system had ended last year in which migration of the games on Nesica X Live 2 service and console releases for both Playstation 3 and 4 might be the reasons to keep the game going.
My better point is that Arc System Works should be making and publishing new fighting games for the Nesica X Live 2 service for the arcades if we want to see them getting a console release in the future after that besides re-releasing Blazblue Central Fiction. Do you expect other developers to migrate their popular fighting games to newer arcade platforms like that ever since Ultra Street Fighter IV on Taito Type X3?

Future updates

Okay, it may seem that download links on my blogs and YouTube video descriptions will be changed to my Onedrive source when the Public folder is starting to become non-public for Dropbox in March. Not to mention that I already started posting arrangements on my Soundcloud account like last year onwards. The aim of these Deconstruction Remixes/Mashups is simply the replacement of the stuffs from the original songs from Bemani franchise with the melody from the other songs from other sources. Besides the Bemani songs, there are also songs from the S***c franchise that follow the same suit as well due to the fact that it's become a laughing stock to me after having discovered and gotten interested in playing S***c Runners on my Android. I managed to complete that although its Version 2.0 update screwed up that game in the stupidest way like decreased item usage duration for instance which might affect the progress in Story Mode.
The reason for coming up with those new kinds of arrangements is the amount of negative reputation Konami has caused among themselves ever since like 5 years ago or something like a bunch of Pachinko games based on the classic franchises we know of as well as the controversy that haunted Bemani franchise, like some crappy-ass remixes in some of the Bemani games we played, unoriginality in the cabinet design like Beatstream and Museca, as well as the controversial collaboration for music artists in standard parts of the games like those from IOSYS collaborating with those from Bemani for more weird-ass music I couldn't tolerate in the first place. And if you're a KAC finalist and you say that you cannot forgive Konami over all that shit stated above including the technical incompetences that haunted the event like they did with Sound Voltex for 4th KAC, I guess that you'll be disqualified and barred from taking part in future championships.
Development of the Global Game Jam game has been on-going and the gameplay concept is still in a terrible shape. I don't know if I can make an alternative gameplay like the racing platformer games like Angel Express, Kirby's Gourmet Race, S***c Rivals series, etc. It may solve the problem that way over limited sprite assets taken from my 2015 jam-mates. Also, the development of Project Egg Rush which is a fan-made S***c  game I've been making as my answer to S***c Runners, had been on hold until the present time. It might be due to the fact that I don't have the idea of the Endless Runner Stage Design on how things will be generated.
Lastly, while we went through the year 2016 successfully as if some of the calamity rumors that would take place were false, there will be lesser guarantees of living peacefully in the future probably due to political selfishness about the climate change which is more or less a man-made global threat as we know it but such selfishness about it takes it for a hoax or perhaps a complete nonsense that things are going for a downturn when it comes to future change. It had decreased by 30 seconds on the clock to 2 minutes 30 seconds left because of that and a huge trouble will come to us unless positive actions are taken to rewind that clock back. So the expectation for the future should involve more solar power although it will look like this kind of activity is done on daylight but balance is important.
One more thing, I might have gone back to being a gaming nerd as I should be after having discovered various game development-themed cartoon shows like New Game and Magic of Stella which aired last year. They might be what it takes to develop a new game although one of them is going towards indie-game development and it's not that great from the story point of view due to various bullshits that ruined it. Not to mention that the Japanese cartoon shows and gaming as we know them have gone way too far like representing other animals, man-made military stuffs, man-made home properties, man-made electronics, etc. as human characters. It already opened door to hell of animal personification and fictional idols like there's way too many shit going on. Not to mention that the behavior all because of those stuffs had been altered negatively and especially that people make up pretending/delusional relationship with fictional characters. I made a policy like that on my YouTube account against that bullshit and anyone caught doing it or regarding characters as wives/husbands/sisters/brothers/daughters/sons will be blocked. Even worse is that those kinds of filthy nerds don't care for their professional future like they may as well get shut-in with nothing to do which is kind already bad in the first place since you will need a paid job for food, new items and even a new house to survive. Go play Recettear or something similar and you will know this important tip of future and survival. Oh, and putting DJ followed by your account name on the social media that contains gameplay videos of Beatmania IIDX/DJ Max/O2Jam or similar may regard you as a weeb-DJ/filthy-as DJ that you don't deserve to play in a club although it's already rare to find those kinds of DJs like that. A REAL DJ is a DJ who mixes music on the DJ set which may consist of a DJ controller or perhaps, 2 CDJs+DJ Mixer or even better, 2 Vinyls+DJ Mixer. This is the kind of DJ I want to see in the present time. You may think that I played those rhythm games too much but it doesn't matter how much I played them, I never represent myself like that on my YouTube channel or social media unless you're like DARQ, who happened to put my Beatmania IIDX GUI concept for Lunatic Rave 2 I designed as a wallpaper in his gameplay videos. No joke. He didn't credit me for using that in his gameplay videos as a desktop wallpaper. So, NEVER INTRODUCE yourself using your DJ alias in your YouTube video UNLESS the video is about REAL DJing like you're teaching new DJs, vlogging about your DJ gig or even giving advises.

Sound Voltex IV Gameplay Report - February 5

To a surprise, the Skill Analyzer Mode is integrated into the Music Select screen in which you have to select Skill Analyzer folder and then the specific Skill Level. This is different than in SDVX II and III where you can select Skill Analyzer from the Game Mode Select screen. Like the previous Sound Voltex games, once you select a course from Skill Analyzer, that's it, you're already in Skill Analyzer Mode for sure. Unfortunately, while I was playing the game, the other machine on the right received an error before going into reboot mode. And by the way, I had already seen the bootup process of those machines running the Bemani arcade games and they're still using Windows XP Embedded to this day despite the loss of support. It might leave many of arcade machines running that OS vulnerable but then, Taito already had a solution all along like announcing Nesica X Live 2 service for instance. New Bemani games on the other hand like Nostalgia, Museca, Beatstream, Future Tom Tom, Dance Evolution Arcade, etc. for instance, are already using Windows Embedded Standard 7 although the shameful thing is that Dance Evolution Arcade already ended the E-Amusement support last year that it could be played offline.
Eventually, the player who encountered the problem told the staff but damn, the whole thing was spoken in Chinese like I couldn't even translate certain English words into that and it was embarrassing. Perhaps, I use English way too much or something. Or maybe, this year's Lunar New Year was a bad start for me and things were like getting worse probably due to those imbeciles at home who were obviously my former family being stupider than before in making false rumors about my actions. I was so pissed off during the celebration time that I unexpectedly got the edge of the bottom shelf smashed. Their chain of offenses is starting to get worse from what I fear with no signs of admittance and realization as if they can think that I have a problem. Not to mention that their presence already made things uncomfortable for me ever since.

Battle Garegga Rev. 2016

As part of the M2 STG Triggers, Battle Garegga was released on Playstation 4 with various customizations, presets and various soundtracks. You can choose between Super Easy, Arcade, Premium or perhaps Custom where you can adjust the game rules. On Premium Mode, the rank may change for every stage you clear compared to Arcade Mode where your actions change the rank like getting full powered for instance. It's a notorious game for dynamic difficulty where losing a life on purpose decreases the rank. Also on Premium Mode, the medals can be attracted to you in you're in range but it depends on the game rank and the medal level. Getting the game rank to 100% may mean that the game is extremely difficult that way. On Super Easy, you don't have to worry about the rank like it's a normal shmup game like always.
Presentation-wise, you get the M2 Gadget which represents the HUD or some other stuff. It is all customizable and so is the controls, game settings and the soundtrack. The soundtrack consists of the Original, Revised version, Saturn Arrange version and Supersweep Remix version. And of course, even the physical copy won't contain the game disc as this is more or less a game released in the 90s originally and that it doesn't take up so much capacity of a Blu-Ray disc so making the game available on the disc is basically a waste of unused space of the disc and it can be expensive to buy a bunch of blank Blu-Ray discs needed for burning the game to them. A digital copy is already a better reason as it weigh so much of file size.
Even a physical edition of Darius on PS4 is much stranger than this but at least you do get a bunch of soundtrack CDs of the earlier Darius games as part of the series' 30th Anniversary. However, that will be a tale of another time.
And before the game was released for Playstation 4, there was a public location test version taking place in the arcades via a PC-based arcade machine running the game. It has the special switches that allowed the operators to switch soundtrack along with enemy bullet color. By doing so, it might result in restarting the game and there was even some M2-branded chip to emulate the game's original feel.
Lastly, there were DJ shows that played the game's soundtrack on the Pioneer-branded DJ set. It was unusual from what I saw and especially that the songs composed by Manabu Namiki were divided into multiple stems. They probably weren't MP3 files at all and transitioning between the songs from a soundtrack was a strange feat. The song, Marginal Consciousness, contained different melody which could be heard in the DJ video. Nobody knows where that comes from but at least, the song has an end unlike the one in the game which keeps on increasing the pitch non-stop to no end.

The King of Fighters XIV

Well, it was really impressive to the fans of the genre when it was released with sufficient content to fill the goddamn Blu-Ray disc with the sufficient amount of playable characters, an Arcade Mode which is more or less the Story Mode along with other modes that increase the replay value.
Unfortunately, there may be flaws as well. The 3D background graphics are probably fine as well but the effects don't seem to cause the surrounding glow effects. Also, the character models are step backwards so to speak although the Ver 1.10 patch improves the shading with self-shadow effect. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be the same for the effects as they still don't cause surrounding glow effects. Even worse is that the effects are becoming a little bit blurry or something.
Plus, there may be an arcade version on the way coming in this year for Nesica X Live 2 which is the successor to the original for the Taito Type X2. The upcoming Nesica X Live 2 service runs on Taito Type X3 but unlike the original Nesica X Live, this one doesn't need connection to the local servers. Instead, the client machine gets a different setup for a different game. Plus, the Nesica X Live 2 service gets online match support for fighting games and its games will be running in 1080p. As The King of Fighters XIV uses Unreal Engine 4, obviously, a more powerful machine is required to meet the system requirements of that engine. Basically, a Core i5 along with 8GB RAM should be enough but the thing is, we NEED to know what the on-screen system specs are when booting up a Taito Type X3 game. On Type X2, you can see the graphics card model along with the amount of RAM but somewhere on the machine, you can see a sticker of the actual system specs. On Type X3 however, you can see the on-screen system specs whenever the game starts after going into desktop mode.
In the meantime, people can enjoy playing KOF XIV on Playstation 4 and it looks like SNK had done the right thing with it unlike Street Fighter V whose initial launch was missing tons of core stuffs and it already attracted disappointed fans along with those whiny gamers who don't care about those core stuffs like the Arcade Mode, Single Player Campaign Mode, etc. You've better jolly well be glad that King of Fighters XIV has Arcade Mode which is called the Story Mode. There isn't so much story contents going on in Story Mode like it may as well become an Arcade Mode which it already does to please the fans. The arcade version's existence is due to the success of the game on the console. So, let the Steam version exist one day based on the arcade version just like King of Fighters XIII Steam version and other Nesica X Live games posted to Steam.