Xbox One: Penello - PS4 specs are "meaningless", games are more important...

"Here's what you care about," he said. "You bought a system to play great games and have great experiences."

     This is actually something I 100% agree with Mr. Albert Penello, but...

"Speaking to OXM at Microsoft's Xbox One reveal last month, Xbox product planning boss Albert Penello has downplayed technical comparisons between Xbox One and PS4, arguing that hardware analysis is "meaningless" when "our games and experiences are going to be every bit as good as, if not better" than those you'll find on competing consoles."

     Considering this is a statement from someone at a company that's top selling IPs are Kinect Adventures, Halo, Gears of War, and Minecraft I am not impressed.  Should I mention the focus at E3 appeared to be "TV!" and not on the games that are so important to gaming consoles.  The reason I am going with Sony's PS4 is the wonderful selection of games.  Now I am not saying Playstation is better, Xbox sucks.  What I am saying, however, is that until they create a selection of games I find interesting, I will not be purchasing their Xbox One.

     There seems to be a marketing phenomena with the Xbox that leans towards herds of teens with anger management issues focussed on first person shooters as the reason Xbox is superior.  That's pretty repetitive gameplay, and I need a little depth in my games.  Think of games like Shadow of the Colossus, The Last of Us, Journey, Metal Gear, and the Little Big Planet games.  These are what keep me playing.  If Xbox can start landing titles like this, I might buy their system.

     I have owned 2 Xbox 360's, one got the red ring of doom, and I sold the 2nd because there wasn't enough games I liked.  In truth, I primarily purchased it for Bioshock.  Just for Bioshock.  But I gave it time, and there wasn't anything to keep me with them.  Playstation, on the other hand, has kept me entertained with a huge variety of games I have fully enjoyed since PS1.

     It is also worth noting that Penello mentions that the numbers don't matter but makes sure to mention "Instant Switching" and "the power of the cloud."  Nice. 

     Besides, if power and specs mattered, Nintendo wouldn't have sold a bazillion Wii's.

Source [ OXM ]

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Extended Edition

     My worst Middle-Earth fears are coming true.  The Dark Lord Sauron has deemed turning a 300 page book into 3 movies not enough!  Now he has used his evil arts to add more footage to a bloated movie.  I can't wait until he decree's that Peter Jackson is to pull a George Lucas in 20 years and add entire new CG characters and splice in Tom Bombadil's story.

     I CANNOT be the only person to feel like this when hearing about the extended edition:

     I love the Lord of the Rings films, but The Hobbit is stretching things out too much.  Jackson was right to axe a ton of material, so what happened?  I've said it in plenty of other blog posts- there needs to be an edit to crop all the extra fat off the film. 

     Anyways- we'll be getting more dickish Dwarves in Rivendell, more Goblin Town, Hobbiton, and a Goblin King song.  As well as...

"We are putting things in the extended cut that are going to play straight into the second film," explains Jackson, "like this character Girion, who is defending [the city of] Dale using black arrows against Smaug. And the black arrows play a part in an ongoing story, for they are the one thing that can pierce the dragon's hide." 

"There are also issues with [king of the elves] Thranduil (Lee Pace)," Jackson adds. "We get some of the reason why he and the dwarves had a falling out - to do with these white gems..."

     It sounds like some Silmarillion material to me...

     The extended edition of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be released about a month before The Desolation of Smaug's December 13th release date.

Source [Empire Online]

Metal Gear Solid: A Just Add Water (JAW) HD remake

     Could this be happening?  Kojima posted this on Twitter:

Well, if there's some creator or team in this world who has love and passion to remake "MGS1", I would love to ask for it.
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) June 27, 2013

       The Just Add Water (J.A.W.) company put out an "Open Letter to Mr. Kojima" on their site, here's what it reads:

Dear Mr Kojima,We read with great excitement on VG247 that you were looking for a studio to work with to develop a Metal Gear Solid remake using the Fox Engine, that your team has been hard at work creating.
We at Just Add Water feel ideally positioned to do the remake justice for several reasons:

1.We have experience working with legendary IP (Oddworld Inhabitants) and treating the subject matter with the respect it deserves.

2.Many members of our team are huge Metal Gear fans, with very good knowledge of the source material.

3.We really, really want to do it.

For evidence of our abilities, please check out not only the HD treatment of Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath, released on PlayStation3, VITA and PC, but the current re-creation of Abe’s Oddysee, titled Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty.

We eagerly await your response.

Love and cuddles,
     The JAW Team.

     As a LONG time fan, I've been playing since the wonderful NES Metal Gear, I would absolutely help back this with Kickstarter funds if necessary.  Kojima, let this happen.  JAW, where do I send my money?

     Here's some of my previous thoughts on the HD remake.

Borderlands 2: Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep: The Moment We've All Been Waiting for...

***SPOILER AHEAD!!!***

     In the 4th DLC we get something that, while I can't really speak for others, I would like to believe everyone has been waiting for.  Handsome Jack mentioned this wonderous creature in his ECHO communications with players during the time on the Southern Shelf.

     Can you guess it? 

     Yes, the majestic diamond-pony named Butt Stallion has arrived.

Borderlands 2: PS3 Tiny Tina's EARLY Assault on Dragon Keep

     In unbelievably amazing news- due to Playstation's horrible timing for PS maintenance ALWAYS occurring on Tuesdays (release days)- they are offering the stuff that should be out tomorrow... TONIGHT!!! 

     Which means...
     TINY TINA'S WILL BE PLAYABLE TONIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!  MUTHA LICKAS!!!

Source [Playstation Blog]

Borderlands 2: Interview with Tiny Tina (Ashley Burch)

     Only one day until the 4th Borderlands 2 DLC- Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep is available.  Being the last story expansion and season pass DLC, I am super excited.

     As I don't have anything else to post- here's an interview that Ashley Burch had with Connected Digital World at E3:

Video Games and Violence: John Stossel vs. Franklin Graham

     Billy Graham's son, Franklin Graham, went on tv to talk about how horrible video games are for society, and in a wonderful turn of events, Fox Business's John Stossel makes a couple amazing replies. It's not often that I agree with Mr. Stossel, but thank you sir, as this was an informed respose to Graham's ridiculous ideas. 
     Once again- Blogger will NOT allow me to embed the video, so here is the link:

Stossel Vs Graham

I'm Ron Burgundy?

      Has anyone asked Graham if he'd appreciate the Bible being taxed, because of all the violence it has caused? Not only is the Holy Writ loaded with violence, it has been the source and inspiration of violence on the largest scales possible. 

      I absolutely love how Stossel refers to the same argument made about comics, specifically against Superman in the 1950's. Seriously, Superman- the most moral, upstanding American ideal- was cited as causing violence. Absurd.

Bay's Ninja Turtles Gets a Shredder: William Fichtner... Wait, What?!?

     Once again, Michael Bay's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is making headlines.  And once again, it's for questionable casting decisions.  In an interview with Huffington Post TV Canada William Fichtner (Sons of Anarchy, and the villain in the upcoming Lone Ranger) revealed he'll be playing the Shredder.

What are you doing in "Ninja Turtles"? I play Shredder. It is cool. It's one of those things that came along where I thought, "Really? Let me think about this for a minute." [Laughs] Then I was like, "Yeah, OK, this sounds like a journey." I'm very glad that it worked out, I'm really glad that I'm doing it.

     Now, I like Fichtner, especially in my favorite terrible movie Drive Angry, but really, what the hell are they thinking!?!  It's hard to picture the Shredder, a Japanese man whose name is Oroku Saki, as not Asian.  No matter how good of an actor he is, this is another problem with the film.  Good lord, every new piece of news on this film makes me less appreciative of Hollywood's recent decision making skills.
     I've read that in the leaked script he'll be Col. Schrader working with a renegade black ops Foot military division.  What happened to the ultimate badass Samurai Shredder and the Foot ninja clan?  I suppose this will open the doors for more alien talk, and Bebop & Rocksteady will be his henchmen soldiers, and they'll all be working for Krang.
     The TMNT are looking awful, and I don't have much optimism left for it.  Dammit Mr. Bay, stop this madness!

Borderlands 2: Only 5 Days Until Tina's Assault

     Only 5 days until Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep is released.  Gearbox put the first 5 minutes up on Youtube, but plenty of people have already seen it from the IGN article with the first 24 minutes.
     Here's my favorite part (aside from the game changing when Tina changes the story):


"Siren. Dibs. My Siren's name is Brick, and she is the prettiest."



Valiant Comics: Now on Amazon Kindle Worlds

     As I've said in many blog posts previously, I love the new Valiant comics universe.  This morning it was released that they have now licensed their current characters to be used with Amazon's Kindle Worlds.  So any characters Valiant used to have such as Magnus the Robot Fighter, Solar, or Turok would be unauthorized and make the works ineligible. 
     Due to this recent Valiant announcement, I may reconsider my stance on Amazon's fan fiction portal.  Honestly, it could be a nice jumping into comics point, but it would be a long shot at best. 

     Any writer can soon publish fan fiction inspired by Valiant comic book heroes Bloodshot, X-O Manowar, Archer & Armstrong, Harbinger and Shadowman.

 

     Writers can also create new stories based on Howey’s Silo Saga, Eisler’s John Rain novels, Crouch’s Wayward Pines Series, and the Foreworld Saga by Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Mark Teppo and more

     While it is a great start, I wonder how many awful stories we'll have to wade through to find the real gems.  This could be a hell of an opportunity that I may actually take. 
     And there would be a small amount of pay.  Not much, mind you, but something- the standard author royalty rate of 35% of net revenue for over 10k words.  There is a new "experimental program" for shorter works (between 5k and 10k words) that would get 20% of net, although they'd also be priced under $1. 
     While it isn't much it is tempting...