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.

Soundcloud closure?

Turns out that was something we shouldn't worry about when it comes to Soundcloud. According to the latest news, it seemed that they had changed CEO with the founder taking on the role of the chairman overseeing the company as he is the founder. Having been the CEO for a long time, he decided to let the other person take over the company as the new CEO after the layoffs. The new CEO of Soundcloud is the one from Vimeo.
At first, when seeing the news about the layoff taking place at Soundcloud, people were worried about the company's closure at the end of summer in which the resourceful music would be gone for good that the artists would have to submit their music elsewhere. The website also includes a bunch of unofficial remixes, mashups, covers to say a few and indeed, I already had tons of unofficial remixes/mashups. Obviously, it is illegal to use them for public performance like the DJ gigs or something even if the ones who did them had given credits whatsoever. One of the tips for the source for legal public performance is the DJ record pools where DJs can take music from there and use them for the gig, provided that they pay the amount every month as part of monthly subscription.
I'm not into financing and investment stuffs but it seemed that the investors, The Raine Group and Temasek, had wrapped up the largest financing round with Soundcloud in its history. Through public pressure, the founder of Soundcloud says that the company is here to stay and that your musical work isn't going anywhere after the summer is over. They may have enough money to keep the company resources going for the time being but...

There might be workarounds from various DJ blogging sites like Digital DJ Tips, DJ Techtools, etc. in case of Soundcloud's closure like posting your remixes/mashups to YouTube, long mixes to Mixcloud, etc. Suffice to say, there are already tons of remixes/mashups/arrangements I made available in my blog, my YouTube account and my Soundcloud account. When it comes to music, the worry might be that big at first when it came to Soundcloud's closure but then, news about Soundcloud's closure isn't the only kind. There may be other things that will be obsolete for real in the future, unlike Soundcloud.

Disney sued for spying on kids through mobile apps

What was Disney thinking when making those apps suited for children? There may be tons of mobile apps that open doors to collecting too much information and especially that you're not able to adjust the permission in earlier Android OSes for instance.
According to Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by FTC, parents must give permission before information is collected by the apps aimed at kids but is Disney's violation of it such a case?
From the victim parent's claims, it appears that Disney and its partners didn't disclose the information about letting parents know about the data collection, in which the parent, Amanda Rushing, claims that it is a serious violation of the privacy and highly offensive. The lawsuit was already filed against Disney and they were ready to deal with the case in court.
It's not the first kind of news about the kids' privacy being violated through the products suited for them.

BLU smartphones banned in Amazon over spyware issues

Update: A recent news update had indicated that things were already safe for the sales of BLU smartphone to resume at Amazon as if it all turned out to be a false alarm.
A bigger lesson than the one for Windows 10 was learnt as the spyware technology was removed in the devices. However, from the deeper report from the researchers, the data collection is still there via the telemetry in which the data collected is stored in the servers in China. Furthermore, the researchers have fears and concerns of security risks for servers in China.
Another concern is that the BLU smartphones are banned from sales by Amazon as it may seem to be an offense to Amazon like selling a phone, tablet, set-top-box, a computer or any other computing device pre-loaded with spyware is an illegal act and an individual, group or a company can be in deep trouble for that sort of sale.
It is controversial ever since last year in which those smartphones were pre-loaded with spyware but until the illegal data collection is completely removed including the telemetry, there will be no point in getting them available according to Amazon.

House renovation update & Century Square renovation rumor

Well, it was a controversial time that my house was involved in the Home Improvement Program three months ago which would obviously lead to what happens now and what will happen in the future. It's more or less an urgent blog update this time as there are rumors of Century Square shopping complex being closed down next month for renovation which may probably mean the relocation of various arcade machines from there to other places. In addition, the location test is still on-going with the upcoming Beatmania IIDX 25.
I don't think that I have tons of energetic mood ever since four months ago in which I felt like suffering even worse than before from that point like the anxiety disorder, panic attack or something but the anxiety disorder is what I can guess a lot ever since being plagued with it like 9 years ago or some sort. Such life-threatening stuffs I discovered that will affect the global future were the ones that caused me to panic. Of course, to suffer from anxiety disorder or worse, panic attack non-stop everyday for no reason is like I may have to seek a doctor or something.
And in addition to that anxiety I have which is still on-going, I have other fears on what those ignorant idiots at home are going to do to me out of their stupidity during the renovation days. We thought that the renovation was over three months ago and that's that with the next phase involving the power source replacement or something in the future. I don't know when but I think that they are incapable of learning to respect and NOT GET TAKEN FOR FOOLS. I communicate to superior people, not those ignorant fools! It was how I got a good time with everyone else. The next renovation involved the kitchen table being replaced as we speak but temporary relocation wasn't needed this time as if I got saved from a bunch of seeds of troubles those idiots are going to cause upon me.
They've better admit and realize the disrespecting mistakes about what I do. The misbehavior and influence were already bad enough during the previous renovation days and the leftover pieces of troubles at Century Square will be like spread over to other places when it gets closed down next month. The weekends during that time were dusty and so were certain days of current renovation time. Perhaps, I swallowed something dusty while drinking something that I may have limited time left but that doesn't seem to be the point.
Furthermore, if Century Square is going to be renovated, the future arcade trips will be as costly as I went to Bugis Junction ever since 4 years ago. I don't know where those arcade machines will be relocated to but people probably guess the rumored new Bugis+ arcade center.