Beat Arena VR

Beat Arena is the VR spinoff entry by Konami that is part of the Bemani franchise and the first in the franchise to be released in VR for both Oculus Quest 1 and 2 which require Facebook account authentication if you want to play it. Sure, the reputation of Facebook isn't that great nowadays when it comes to privacy and especially for the past controversies they had caused upon the users. One thing you should not worry is the fact that Beat Games, the developers of Beat Saber were acquired by Facebook via Oculus Studios as there will still be new content on multiple VR headsets including Oculus Quest series of headsets. For PS VR version, there's seems to be some technical limitation but that's not what we're here for.

What we're here for is the news regarding Beat Arena. It was recently released and contains tons of songs to choose from and play with other in-game band members in front of the crowd no matter which game mode you choose. There's also other instrument to choose, something Rock Band VR lacks. And what's a rhythm game without the playfield with notes coming at you? Both Beat Arena and Rock Band VR have that but Rock Band VR seems to be going steps backwards with Freestyle type gameplay for Story Mode while retaining the actual playfield in Classic Mode although the Classic Mode looks more like a practice mode since you're not playing in front of the in-game crowd.

For comparison below:

Rock Band VR

• Classic Mode: Traditional playfield present with blank background and there are tons of songs to play.
• Story Mode: Free-style gameplay with the band and crowd. Features several venues.
• Lack of other instruments and online multiplayers.

Beat Arena

• Multiple instruments to choose from.
• Tons of songs to play with other band members in front of the crowd.
• You get to wave your hand or something as a way of making a gratitude to other members before you start the song. I don't know if this is the case for real-life band performances or not as I'm no musician.
  
• You also get to do some feedback to other band members at the end of the song.
• Regardless of the game mode, you get to play in front of the crowd and the playfield is present on top of the live scene in the background.
  

It's basically Konami's answer to Rock Band VR and what Rock Band VR should have been. I'm glad that there's a display of sufficient competence from Konami but there's still no guarantee that this alone can restore Konami's reputation. There's even a Yu-Gi-Oh VR game but I have no interest in blogging about it whatsoever.

OK, it seems that I made a close comparison of Beat Arena to Rock Band VR as Rock Band VR came out a few years earlier which is the opposite of many Bemani rhythm game franchises coming out earlier like DDR, Beatmania, Guitarfreaks/Drummania and Pop'n Music coming out in the 90s for instance. Beat Arena seems new and is not part of whatever game series whatsoever. It's similar to other Bemani games that came out in the 2010s as standalones starting from Future Tom Tom, Beatstream, Dance Evolution, Dance Rush Stardom, Nostalgia and Museca although Museca had its own controversy for a lack of originality in which it had the layout similar to the one from Neon.FM arcade cabinet. Nostalgia series seems like an answer to Deemo and the same gameplay elements are in Beat Arena as well in addition to the gameplay from Guitarfreaks and Drummania series.

Region-wise, Beat Arena was recently released in Japan and Asia so the players in the western regions are out of luck as of this time.

Return of Soulja Boy's shady console saga

Man, as if Soulja Boy didn't learn his lessons after all the shady stuff he did two years ago, he had the audacity to return to selling knockoff consoles again this year. At the same time, there are STILL idiots out there defending the hell out of him and saying such defensive things to the content creators who made videos about this saga, telling them not to hate on him or diss him or telling them that the idiots trusted what he does.

About a few years ago, the content creators who bought the consoles from Soulja Boy were still not receiving any copy from him so it might seem like more than a scam. It's either similar to or different than what the scalpers will do if you buy anything from them. You may end up not getting something you want in return or even something else. Another audacity from him was that he claimed that he "researched on everything" and the games were "licensed" when in fact, the games were ILLEGALLY PRE-BUNDLED. How were they illegally pre-bundled? When it comes to clones of Famicom or Megadrive consoles that have hundreds-of-games-in-1 in the cartridge or in the consoles themselves internally, you can realize that something isn't quite right. They contain modified and duplicate copies of various NES/Genesis games as well as the games in the original form. Another problem is the emulation machines that contain hundreds of ROMS pre-bundled as well. In theory, you don't own those games whatsoever like that. Not to mention that the overall quality of those consoles sold by Soulja Boy. Certain of them have incompetent quality on both the hardware and software sides.

The recent return caught the attention of other content creators like Yongyea and Angry Joe and the C&D given to Soulja Boy didn't mean something to him that he did this shady shit again. Sure, it's the legal issues we've been concerned of ever since a few years ago, not the other types of issues the defensive idiots brought up when it comes to Soulja Boy consoles. We imagined the "Ninjas" from whatever game company being ready to take actions against him with a C&D order like he actually was sometime ago. It's like they got assigned and deployed to take down this shadiness.

Lastly, what other bad thing Soulja Boy did besides selling those knockoff consoles? It's taking the copyrighted illustration from some Disney animation for one of his song/album jackets and passing it off as his.

Beatmania IIDX 28 Bistrover's Controversial Video Saving Feature?

Really? Charging players a fee to video capture in video games? Is there a place where you can book a video filming session to get yourself filmed? Sure, holding a phone or camera alone will not look professional enough that such professional video filming equipment will be needed there and you'll need to pay a fee for a session like that and then you can do whatever you want there while you're being filmed.

Imagination-aside, there's a understanding that filming in the arcades is not allowed and prior to Konami planning this feature, many arcades in Japan and Korea have the opportunity to allow the players to screen capture whatever game they've played. I don't know if that will cost additional money or not. In case of Konami's new plan, this feature is useful for players to video capture the game in the arcades provided that they're playing the game on the Lightning Model cabinet running Beatmania IIDX 28. I do get the feeling that the E-Amusement Pass and E-Amusement account are needed for this and the video capture feature charges players a credit-per-song/quarter-per-song. It's basically a Pay-To-Showoff method besides the Pay-To-Print feature Konami had implemented in various modern arcade games.

Once the video is saved to the server at the price of another quarter, you can eventually download it to your computer or phone so you can post it to video sharing site or social media. The difference is that you won't see the Paseli and Credit counters when compared to standard video capture method that shows everything.

So it shows that Konami has regards for profits by charging players additional credits for various features in arcade games including paid loot-box features as if the Mobile and Pachinko businesses didn't anger people enough. Then again, there were recent comebacks starting with Super Bomberman R on consoles and PC but there were other controversies Konami stirred like charging players additional fees for the save slots in Metal Gear Survive, a new medal game that takes place in a casino with some Virtual YouTuber-like characters and of course, Armored Princess Battle Conductor which has the shady loot-box feature.

Man, imagine being a shill enough to put in additional quarters for such greedy features in arcade games today and especially if you want to show off your Beatmania IIDX skills. This is it, the first gaming controversy Konami stirred of this year!

Whatapp's New Controversial Privacy Policy Change (Part Two)

Many users had migrated to Telegram or Signal although those alternatives are likely to be different story when it comes to essential communication like you'll be told to use Whatsapp instead of the alternative text messaging tools as the other users don't know what they are or maybe one alternative tool isn't widely used in general. The same may go with Zoom video conferencing tool for both business and school and to use the alternative instead of Zoom for more secure video conferencing depends on whichever company you work at. If the company chooses other video conferencing tool instead of Zoom, that's the good thing. But what about personal communication through text messaging? Will you stick back to Whatsapp or use the alternative for that?

There were additional news like Telegram having a migration feature that allows you to import your Whatsapp chats to it. Even various organizations and groups have their Telegram channel you can join although some Telegram group channels may seem questionable to me. Also, the new Privacy Policy change is set to take effect in May after the backlash although it will affect businesses, not end users and even then, many users had already migrated to Telegram or Signal.

Misunderstanding or not, it will not be easy to get yourself convinced and believe that it's a misunderstanding when a controversy like this already occurred. Other controversies I had discovered with the word, misunderstanding, involved included the one regarding obscene Netflix movie, Cu***s, and the one regarding the Playstation 5 scalpers playing victim. How are THOSE controversies considered the misunderstandings when they are fishy stuffs? And there are still IDIOTS falling into the on-going shadiness by mis-believing that it's a misunderstanding! I'm not going to fall for that trick whether it's this controversy or the other.

Lastly, it's not the first time Facebook had caused a controversy like this. There were previous controversies when it comes to privacy violation by a tech company and especially that users were forced to make use of Facebook account for Oculus VR headsets. The worse thing is that Facebook had the recent audacity to lash out on the new privacy controls Apple implemented on IOS 14 as well as to announce the upcoming smartwatch that will come out next year to compete with Apple Watch. To Facebook, it's more about profit than privacy respect when it comes to IOS 14 with its new privacy controls.

Whatsapp's new controversial Privacy Policy change

Like how in the world were millions of users supposed to be truly convinced when Whatsapp tells us that the new change to the Privacy Policy affects business users only when it comes to data collection by Facebook? Business users only or not, the upcoming change had caused millions of users to migrate to the rival messaging apps like Telegram and Signal. One thing to keep in mind is that the privacy in Telegram isn't accurate as if the messages are not encrypted on the non-server-side but at least, it requires lesser permissions than what Whatsapp currently has.

Plus, I have no complete idea if even others related to me have made a switch to a secure alternative or not but I guess that according to the president of the tech company, Acronis, it is less likely for many locals to switch software. Perhaps, it's something to do with common popularity when it comes to the world of tech. Majority of the users are probably using Windows or Mac although there may be rare times you can see someone using some other OS like Linux for instance. From my experience in switching to Signal, it basically imports the contacts and messages from Truecaller app which is the one I made the default messaging app prior to installing Signal on my Android devices but I don't seem to have any way to import the group chats from Whatsapp.

Love Live School Idol Festival After School Activity on PS4

Like Project Diva Arcade receiving a console release on PS4 and Switch and being an arcade spinoff to the original Project Diva series, it seems that Love Live School Idol Festival After School Activity is following the same route as well via the upcoming PS4 release that will come out next year, featuring songs, costumes and stages from the arcade version. From the game's official website, you can see which song corresponds to which costume which may seem like a nice touch but there's a severe downside of the game.

The downside is that, you'll have to buy tons of packs of songs and costumes as DLCs and the initial amount of songs and costumes isn't that much when you get the game. Project Diva Future Tone on PS4 has two large DLCs with extra stuffs being later DLCs and the physical package version bundles the first two DLCs. However, in the case of Love Live School Idol Festival After School Activity PS4 version, it goes in the route of past mobile rhythm game days where newer packs of songs added to the game will be paid-DLCs via in-app purchases. Jubeat Plus, Reflec Beat Plus and even some of Rayark rhythm games are notorious for this practice but in case of Rayark rhythm games on mobile, the number of free songs seems to be larger.

As a console port of the arcade game based on the original game that started on mobile way back in 2013, the controls will be a bit different while the gameplay concept still mimics the mobile game original the arcade game uses. A Switch version may mimic the arcade version and the mobile game closer with the touchscreen method.

Like Project Diva Arcade series and its console counterpart, there will be Performance Viewing Mode where you can make your own live show set list and move the camera freely. You can even take screenshots of the live show if you will.

There's even the material collection for costume making and I don't know if this is like a good alternative to buying costume DLC or not. However, other costume materials may require purchasing their corresponding songs.

Overall, the plans like that from Square Enix from the upcoming console version of the arcade game had drawn mixed impressions from the fans. The practice of making paid small packs of songs and costumes while having small amount of free songs in the game has drawn disappointment but the upside is that, it is a console port of the arcade game with tons of songs to go through.

Last month, the arcade game received the final update and after that, there will be no new songs and character cards that the support for the arcade version ended by then.

Progress update

Sometime ago, I forgot to turn off the charging adapter for my main tablet after the battery's reached full capacity and when the tablet was turned off, it wouldn't be turned on again even with the cable plugged in so it looks like my progress on the mobile game of LLSIF came to a halt until recently when I migrated my progress to my phone thanks to having linked the game to my SIF ID. By then, people are already into the next-gen mobile sequel, Love Live School Idol Festival All Stars, which has 3D in-game graphics for gameplay although the gameplay goes on an easier route with the character card management being on a larger scale. At this time, it looks like there will be way too many unlocked songs to go through after the progress migration but I should have migrated way earlier than that.

Thieves pretended to be particular YouTubers and gangs broke into a truck over Playstation 5

Man, the scalping saga is likely to continue on and it sort of does according to the more recent videos about product scalping cases from ReviewtechUSA. It's one scummy business practice that still needs to be dealt with and taken for a crime. And about the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles that cost more than their own original and genuine prices on online stores, it may seem that the scalpers had already earned like a huge amount of money from such scamming actions of theirs. It's basically like a scam and the you may end up getting something else than whatever you've wanted so you need to be careful about buying online as a customer. Who knows what the said scammers are going to do with that amount of money they've got from those illegal online sales?

And to involve YouTubers by impersonation for this same scummy practice is going to make them look bad once they and their viewers find out about it. In fact, it's not even just YouTubers any scalper can pretend to be when it comes to selling products like the Playstation 5, Xbox Series X and even the recent NVIDIA graphics cards for Windows computers. Such products I just mentioned are really expensive but the hardcore-level NVIDIA graphics cards are serious show off of technical power. Such pretense from the scalper can draw negative attention and especially when they pretend to be whatever celebrity or superstar for the same nefarious purposes.

8-Bit Eric and viewers were more or less pissed when it happened but should piss you off more is that the scalpers removed and re-created their accounts to continue the same shady practice. Another problem is that the impersonation account of a YouTuber may have more or less momentum like the number of subscribers than the genuine one but the email account is something the companies may need to carefully determine to see if that email account truly belongs to that YouTuber or not.

From 8-Bit Eric's channel, there's a video of him telling you that he's not selling anything online and warns you that if there's an account that uses his name, a photo of him or both on those online store sites like Offerup, Craigslist, you name it. This kind of trolling as done by the scammer that was caught by 8-Bit Eric isn't anything funny. It didn't seem like an easy challenge for 8-Bit Eric as if the scammer/scalper could try to make misclaims that the genuine person that was 8-Bit Eric was impersonating the scalper when IT WAS ACTUALLY THE OPPOSITE which meant the scammer impersonating 8-Bit Eric, not the other way around. At the end of the video, 8-Bit Eric issued the viewers the stern warning against those scalpers who try to set him up as a scammer. Legal actions against scalpers won't be an easy feat for him as I guess a lawsuit from him against them may be quite costly.

Another different case involved some gangs breaking into a fast-moving truck to steal the Playstation 5 consoles out of it via a stunt. It's like something you'll see in an action movie like Fast and Furious series. I don't know if that kind of movie may cause bad influence or not but such stunts like that because of high demand are total criminal acts. There are various mature AAA games that offer multiple choices in which you can choose to do good things in those games as one of the choices and that is what you should go for. When you do good things in those games, the player character you're playing as eventually gets trusted like the reputation is currently in a good state. But to emulate a character doing a bunch of bad things like some kid driving away his parent's car without a license could cause a news like that to exist permanently.

Patience is a great key when it comes to buying a product online and what those gangs did to get the Playstation 5 console from inside the truck was a desperate act. Sure, a modern electronic device can be considered locked that there's no way to use it should it get stolen or something but that won't stop scalpers from doing such scummy practice as a bricked or stolen console can be a bigger advantage for them. Those who drive the fast-moving trucks should be aware of such acts and there should be some protection feature for the doors at the back of those trucks.