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.

A bill in US that makes streaming copyrighted materials a felony

Man, as if the DMCA strikes targeting streams on Twitch over in-game background music or sound effects weren't disastrous enough, there's an upcoming bill in the US that makes streaming copyrighted material a felony which can spell a serious trouble for streamers and I get a feeling that this applies to other sites as well that offer the streaming feature.

Many games make use of professional sound effects although it seems that professional game developers may have to make such investments for professional use. I don't know if this seems ridiculous or not for Twitch to issue DMCA strikes over sound effects in games but to streamers, this seems unacceptable. Licensed music may seem like a different story as streamers don't have the rights to use it in their own gaming stream or something. I guess that permissions are needed for making a professional stream with such music included and that's the case with many professional Virtual YouTubers who are part of whatever company that specializes in content creation. Of course, those companies have the responsibility to obtain permission from game developers so that the professional content creators have the rights to make a stream like that. What about the professional YouTubers then? Do they need a similar permission as well?

One risky workaround will be to swap some sound effects with a mod but I suppose that's not the point. One of the AAA games, Cyberpunk 2077, has a Streamer Mode option in which you can make a stream of the game safely without involving licensed music. Unfortunately, the same option also reduces whatever that seems inappropriate to Twitch website when turned on so it draws mixed opinions from gaming streamers.

Also, when it comes to making a livestream of licensed console games using the console's streaming tool that comes with it, there's a chance that something like Streamer Mode is already there as part of the tool as if games like Cyberpunk 2077 will need to corporate with that tool or something in which turning on Streamer Mode unlocks access to that tool. It's a safer but questionable way. What's more questionable is the licensed rhythm games on consoles in which when people see the archived stream videos done using the console's livestream tool, the licensed music is completely absent. It's ridiculous to blame the developers or console manufacturers when that happens. It's also questionable to get around such absence by using some other streaming tool.

To the content creators like ReviewtechUSA, the upcoming bill like that is comparable to the SO** bill way back in 2011 when it was heavily opposed that it was scrapped. Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight For The Future, Access Now, etc. are already concerned about the Felony Streaming bill like it can be a disaster for the streamers' future if passed.

Google Analytics feature on Switch

Like the Playstation 5's controversial Party Voice Chat Recording feature which thankfully can be turned off, this can be the same for Google Analytics feature for the Switch. But there's one thing to take note, it is not available in European and Australian Nintendo accounts and Switch Eshops. I don't know the goddamn reason for even Nintendo to follow the controversy Sony caused with the Playstation 5's Party Voice Chat feature, as if the controversy regrading Xbox One Kinect wasn't big enough when it comes to privacy.

It's already a shame that there are people who don't care about privacy being compromised and I can recall someone taking privacy advocates for fools through his/her own idiotic comments at the time. Playstation 4 had tons of consumer respect when it was announced and released that it put the Xbox One to shame due to the controversy Microsoft caused at the time. Fast-forward to the release of the Switch and we can know that the amount of units of the Switch console is super-large as if Nintendo did the right thing with the console design idea in the 8th console generation. It's basically what the Wii U should have been in terms of innovation.

Well, privacy is still able to go on even this year and such features such as Party Voice Chat Recording for Playstation 5 or Google Analytics for Nintendo Switch can be turned off if you really value privacy. However, if you're still on Playstation 4, there's somewhat of a problem when it comes to joining a Party Voice Chat that involves the Playstation 5 users. There's no telling if the Recording feature is on or off. It's a little big of a deal when compared to turning off data collection features on Switch or even the Firefox web browser in which Mozilla always asks for permission.

PS5 Scalping Group snatches opportunity to order 1000 Xbox Series X but orders are cancelled due to "technical error"

Well, we're back at this scummy saga again with the part two involving the same group who got 3500 PS5 units. This Time, they tried to order 1000 Xbox Series X using the bots involved but their orders were cancelled due to "technical error". The same error affected the REAL customers who wanted to buy the next-gen consoles online. It left them disappointed but at the same time, they should be surprised about the fact that something like 1000 orders of Xbox Series X units backfired on the scalping group. It sort of angered the scalping group or something but the chaos like this regarding the next-gen console launch is still on-going and we don't know when will this scummy business stop.

About the part when the same scalping group said that they had "no regrets", as they claimed, they would continue to do such scummy things like ordering 1000 Xbox Series X units online. It's kind of like how "unusual activities" at the Golden Village cinemas are still allowed there in which anyone can book there just to do something else instead of watching movies with "no regrets". It's sickening that one of the idiot-bookers/Idiots-On-Facebook, got only positive reactions, articles and compliments like two weeks ago and that's that. Will those idiot-bookers do the same shit again in the future with "no regrets"? That is something I don't know. I also don't know if anyone else will be stupid enough to do the same thing as those idiot-bookers did or not.

If that's not scummy enough, the online stores have the units of Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles having an extremely high price with some Playstation 5 units costing a million bucks. This kind of action should be a crime to us! Another scummy problem is that the customers got something else instead of whatever next-gen console they ordered. Perhaps, some scalping group must have tempered with the customers' orders or something. What if the customers got a non-working console or even a console in a damaged state?

Then, there's another scummy practice someone had done according to one of ReviewtechUSA's videos regarding the on-going chaotic scalping saga for Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X, and that is to impersonate a professional YouTuber and doing what that YouTuber didn't do, selling next-gen consoles through impersonation. It's not just a YouTuber any scalper can impersonate like a scammer that they are. It can be any other professional occupation. However, that case is a different story of another time as it involved some individual scalper, not that same scalping group.

Armored Princess Battle Conductor

The robot-themed action figure franchise seems to be back with the upcoming mobile and arcade games from Konami as announced from this year's JAEPO. The arcade game by the name of Armored Princess Battle Conductor has some interesting cabinet design with the left extra monitor displaying the characters you're currently playing as during gameplay like it reminds me of the link animation from Arcana Heart 3 or something. Like Sega's Ongeki, there will be character card slots to insert character cards on. There's also the customization stuff along with in-game photo-taking and other stuffs although you'll be doing all that within the limited time since it's an arcade game.

The strange thing about the game is that, the gameplay takes place in the house's living room and the characters are all figure-sized like it's Toy Story version of a robot action game and that makes sense since the franchise started off with action figures in the 2000s but the previous games based on the franchise didn't seem like that as if the gameplay takes place in the actual battlefields. OK, it turns out that even this latest game entry will HAVE stages taking place elsewhere instead of the house. There are other things to rant about like CHARGING CREDITS/PASELIS TO DRAW ADDITIONAL CARDS and of course, the character doing something I can't describe once she's knocked out and then she disappears from the field after a while. Note that the armor that she has disappears first upon getting knocked out. The character should stay lying down upon defeat before disappearing. Normally, in a third-person team-vs-team action game for the arcades, the match doesn't end until one of various conditions is fulfiilled so if a character is defeated, it's not over yet. In the case of Gunslinger Stratos series, the match can actually end if one of the teams has emptied the team health gauge completely so one of the characters from the defeated team must have faced a final knock out of something.

Armed Princess Battle Conductor will have its Card Entry Terminal thingy where you can print the character cards. Sega's Ongeki has the terminal thingy and you're charged each credit or something for each card printed. Like most of Japanese mobile games, there will be character cards of multiple rarity levels so it looks like there will be PAID LOOT BOX feature in an arcade game like this and there's a purpose in drawing character cards for the sake of gameplay and more powerful characters by higher rarity levels.

If you're interested in a franchise like this from Konami, then maybe this latest arcade entry is what you'll try should it come out one day outside Japan. However, if you're trying to feel offended over anyone ranting about microtransactions and loot boxes being like gambling features in video games, don't bother making defensive comments on their content. You'll be scolded online for defending such a greedy practice like spending too much real money on buying in-game currency for the sake of using that currency to keep drawing character cards until you get the ones you want. Plus, a run of a modern arcade game already costs $1 or more in the local arcades and the addition of loot box feature that charges you additional credits may look like a worse story than other game modes charging you additional credits.

Armored Princess Battle Conductor will be out in the arcades next month and questions about console/PC releases may be difficult ones since the game looks next-gen compared to the previous game in the series.

Capcom Retro Station

Like Capcom Home Arcade, Capcom Retro Station is another expensive equipment with low amount of games, this time with Street Fighter and Megaman games and needless to say, this is like a lame way like that with an expensive gaming machine that doesn't look like a smaller arcade cabinet design along with lower amount of games and the inclusion of NON-ARCADE Megaman games.

Capcom Home Arcade has various arcade games and uses the arcade controller design although it is shaped like a Capcom logo which may seem unusual. The bigger controversy surrounding it was the Final Burn Alpha emulator used in it. That emulator is supposed to be for personal use and the team who worked on it wasn't happy about it. So what happened was that they made a new fork which is like Final Burn Alpha you know of, MINUS the offender who defended the controversial practice, saying that the emulator is licensed. Some updates later, a different emulator replaced the Final Burn Alpha although the price of the machine and the amount of games still make things questionable.

Speaking of questionable, this is a worse story for Capcom Retro Station. It's sort of like a mini-version of playing a console game on TV with the arcade controller. That method of playing has been around ever since the 80s. I happened to play the PC-Engine with the arcade controller in my childhood and that was that back then. I never used the original controller for that console for the games I played. On the Megaman side, it's a questionable choice with a mix of arcade and non-arcade Megaman games. The Street Fighter side is a complete joke like it's comparable to some Street Fighter compilation game on PS1 and Saturn that contains various revisions of Street Fighter II. Super Street Fighter II may seem like a remake to Street Fighter II with better music, voices and altered graphics but it's still Street Fighter II in general, not a different game, no matter how different it looks and sounds. The design is ridiculous like there's no telling who is that machine built for.

The Neo Geo Mini is fine with sufficient amount of games with a design that mimics the original arcade cabinet but the lack of clicky mechanism the arcade stick has may probably put people off. The upcoming Astro City Mini from Sega will have that for sure and the emulation is worked on by M2. But for Capcom Retro Station, who probably wants to buy that? Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection is already the best way to experience the Street Fighter series from Street Fighter 1-3, Alpha series included.

Like the Astro City Mini, Capcom Retro Station is getting a Japanese release sometime next month. Who knows if there will be an overseas release? Even with the western release, the amount of flaws already ruins Capcom Retro Station apart as listed below:

• Questionable choice of games on both sides
• Inclusion of non-arcade Megaman games and the lack of other Street Fighter games in the Street Fighter list
  
• Strange design
• Expensive price
• Low amount of games

Have five flaws like these listed above and you get one hell of an average machine.