[6bytes]

I’m by no means a writer, but I wrote

God forbid you run across this, I think some of the things I wrote were pretty okay. I think a lot of these opinions hold up, especially DayZ, and E3 wrap ups, it's a nice bounce back to that period in history.

[6bytes]

This Generation of Gamers only watches people playing video games, should we worry?

Video Game Streaming and Video game YouTube let's plays and communities are booming. Hundreds of thousands of Video Game enthusiasts are watching Streams and Minecraft Let's plays at any given time. They'd rather watch videos from the comfort of their cell phones or browsers than engaging themselves in a world, instead they cling onto an Internet personality and would rather the game be experienced through a linear uninteractive means than through the Game's interactive experience. What stimulation some of these viewers go through is a trivial social experience where they can live comment on the game and what's currently going on in the episode or the streamers session. But how far does that social experience go when they can be actually playing the game. I enjoy my share of YouTubers but I can't help but feeling why are people dumping so much time into videos of people playing games when they can be building relationships, progress and memories, and their own criticisms when they play that game themselves. I see a sort of hive mentality growing in these stream viewers, and it's gotten to the point where most 'gamers' can't create opinions for themselves, you have these 24 hour personalities that make opinions and experiences for them, and you can see that a lot in today's adolescents. This journal will always remain a space to talk about video games, and since video game culture has expanded in more ways than one, it's more than safe for me to be concerned about this topic. Video games are popular with todays youth. It's been a hot topic for them for the past 30+ years, but with these great outlets like YouTube and Twitch controlling their viewing habits instead of them actually wanting to play these games with their friends worries me. **One of today's greatest examples of a large audience following someone who is so wrong is Keemstar** I'm no threat to Keemstar at my size and he's no threat to me because his career's on his way out, but there's so much unrefutable evidence of his slanderous and sleazy ways and influence on large crowds of people, and you have this being shown with large scale twitch raids which are generally positive, have hoards of viewers flooding a stream and chat of another streamer at the post of one tweet or at any verbal notice. They don't have time for questioning, they just know there's a bird at the front of the flock and they have faith he's heading south. Now I'm bashing the YouTube Generation a lot, for being a sort of hive mind in a sense. I fear they will lose personality and struggle with building strong communities and moments for themselves because they invest so much of themselves and their time in someone else. BUT, if you talk to one of these guys you will know they know their shit. I played through 'Spec Ops: The Line' recently on twitch with the only knowledge of it being the developers, a friend told me it was gritty and had a story that was emotionally investing. I had a few friendly viewers tag along and tell me about the smaller details of the game, the multiple endings, the politics behind it, the strange metas, where the unlockables were, some of them never having played the game. They knew more about the game in the time I played the game then I would ever know just finishing the game, and that itself is pretty neat. My little brother takes parts in these cherades too. He watches video news on the new Pokémon, and information on games that he plays too. He has himself an Xbox One, and though he doesn't play games as much as he watches them, he sure is informed about them. It's interesting to see such a large community of gamers not actually playing games and with the uprising of these new media platforms, I have the fear that video games will lose relevancy as the viewership for these games rises.

[6bytes]

No Man's Sky is bad and I feel bad for missing it's launch

With the launch of the largely hyped 'No Man's Sky' on the PS4 and PC flopping, and me being about 4000+ Miles away from my computer in New Jersey, I've found myself less upset about the tragedy that people pre-ordered and more upset about not being able to be a part of it. Normally I keep up to date with all the latest games coming out over the year, be it watching E3, a gaming channel on YouTube, a cinematic trailer, or at most, a Gameplay trailer. [WIP games that I've invested in; being Star Citizen and DayZ are the only exceptions] I noticed as I got older, I liked getting surprised by a game and creating an opinion for myself, and by myself. It was hard to find anything to be interested in if I knew everything about the game before it came out [Grand Theft Auto 5]. So missing out on experiencing the game disappointed so many, was a bit of a shake up for me. During the slow parts of my vacation, I'd tune in on Twitter conversations or YouTube videos which all happened to thrashed the game. Which would be me if I were at home playing it for myself. If there was an upside to me missing out on the game it would have to be not spending 60 dollars on it. If I were back in my captain's chair I would've had 1 hour 59 minutes on my time praying that the overlords in charge of my refund request would be ever so merciful with my wallet. I guess that's an upside to not personally trying every game when you get the chance, you get to skimp out on the dough you've got to cough up. It brings me to another topic, YouTube gaming isn't for Gamers, which will be covered in another article for those who are interested.

[6bytes]

Let it sit: E3 2016 was nothing special

With Ubisoft killing any possible hype opportunities and building when they displayed Watch Dogs and the Division only to have them very sub par games years after they've been announced. Starting with EA's lovely E3 presentation, looking back it really wasn't that bad. It was really the script, the layout and the games that weren't good, like most of the E3 presentations, these were a bit harder to dig down into. Without going into too much political garble; EA Announced a charity fund for females, funded by the majority demographic that are playing shooters and Action adventure RPGs. They also had such a long boring stretch for some obsolete E-Sports for madden which stretched way too long. They also showed another shitty soccer trailer and gad some famous soccer player people weren't familiar with take us on a buzz word journey through the corporate realm. It really made me miss Pele personally, hum and his long senile ramblings about Brazilian ladies touching his hair really made the presentation for me. It was shitty marketing ploys and fake hype that really circulated the skeptical excitement that came from these presentations, until Ubisoft killed the hype. Everyone gives EA shit for their terrible, unconventional buisness practices. But what really is the problem with the industry isn't them EA, because aside from Battlefield Hardline, we've seen some decent games come from them consistently. The problem lies from an even smaller corporate Idol that panders and doesn't deliver on it's problem and that's UBISOFT: What have they successfully delivered on that was nothing short of mediocre the past 3 years? It's thought provoking really, and one of my favorite games Rainbow Six Siege happen to be one of those games that's growth was repressed and they downgraded it. The gameplay demo from e3 years ago only circulates the core ideas with the game and didn't accurately portray simular graphics or proper gunplay and team play at all. The ambiance was gut with the graphics and the lack of protection from hackers really kills the player base of the game. From that presentation there were a lot of different games that fell short or were mislabeled and changed *Cough* the Division. UBISOFT kicked off this wonderful fiscal year with a dance that starred some gay candy canes flamboyant lions that wiggled their butts all over the stage floor. I'm not saying that's the pandering, but it very well might be. They then showed us more of that fake lets play footage of the new not Ghost Recon game that starred no difficulty and empty cities where four players would kill a few militia men, drive around and explore the scenic scripted explosions that south America and it's Cartels have to offer. Initially, I was excited for this game. I saw the missions that seemed faster than Arma's (which I'm a huge fan of) and had fast cooperative gameplay, but after seeing the poorly played lets play and the bland jumpy shooting mechanics I really had my already cynical hopes drop down even lower. VR was also and occurrence throughout this Press Conference. They showed us a hyper realistic bird racing death match took the tone of a competetive E-Sport played by four people on stage that awkwardly twisted, bobbed and contorted their heads around in front of an uninterested crowd for 6 minutes. And even that seemed fake because their head movements in no way relayed the actions that were going off on the screen. I can't wait to see the player base for this game a month after launch with all these VR headsets in the households of gamers. There wasn't really too much else here either. For Honor showed us the brutality of another underwhelming Moba that feaures pampered Dark Souls combat. A few Swedish dudes came in talked about a blood dragon spinoff that released on that day! But absolutely bombed with reviews on steam. Watch Dogs 2 showed us a special ops solider that parkours, hacks, shoots like he was born with a rifle in his hand a main character that fills the diversity quota. I don't see too many people people hyping the game up, because the whole Ubisoft killing us with their games announced prior, but this game honestly looks the same as the old watch dogs. If not better, and that's speaking from a very honest angle as someone who hated the original game. We really didn't get too many new IP's to deal with this year. Which probably isn't such a bad thing, because as I see it, these guys are trying to win back our trust, it's just their line up that really sets us back because anyone who's hyped or excited for these games will be severely let down by the mediocrity and repetitive Ubisoft nature of these games.

[6bytes]

Is there Hype in the industry anymore?

I used to be a blind, innocent consumer who'd watch Machinima's Trailers and reactions to a game or spend hours on end droning about the mechanics or capabilities announced for an upcoming game with friend. The industry has hardened me for the better from the position I find my self in. I no longer settle for mediocrity in game announcements and upon seeing who the devs or publishers are for a game; It generally makes or breaks the possibility of me spending any time looking at the game. **The Buzz Surrounding Games Kills the Hype** Hype allows consumers to think less rationally when purchasing a game. I reassure you the fact that every single mainstream Game Site has a '100 Features You didn't know was In GTA5' probably killed the maximum potential for sales on part of Rockstar's PC launch. Aside from the point that these articles are horribly written, the fact that such menial or interesting details are being spewed out from these outlets kills hype in the form of the mystery and actual awareness of the game. Nowadays I'm more inclined to buy games I hear have positive reception instead of hearing the positive reception about it. The idea of being surprised and unpacking all the game has to offer myself is a real treat. Pulling GTA5 back into the story, I'll be taking you back 3-4 years before Grand Theft Auto 5's announcement trailer. I was scavenging the depths of the internet to see if there was any remote proof a new game was being developed for the series. And there was, there was a voice casting sheet that was leaked from Rockstar that revealed the characters they had. Of course it was vague at that point but going on and on, the more details I found out about the game through leaks or shady sources made me hyper aware of the game. I knew exactly what I was buying into, and that killed the fun I had in the game because right off the bat I knew how to interact with the environments in the game, the shooting which was ripped by Max Payne 3 was easy for me to snap into the flow of, there was a new game I had never been exposed to being played like I had owned the game for years. The current media's glorifying of each and every 'easter egg' or mechanic going out into the public sphere really tarnished the enjoyment I got out of the game, and soon I realized even from a 3 Min Mafia 3 Announcement Trailer I'd pick apart all the visible mechanics and characters, visuals and see that the company's past and blatant mistakes like letting information slip out affects my image of a game. Now that was a pretty big leap, disliking a game for a trailer? IGN's trailer deconstructions allow me to be ready for something that should interest the character, there's no exploration mechanics on launch of the game. You go into it knowing your limitations and knowing your dislikes in a game before you try it. **Companies Screw it up for themselves** With two HIGHLY anticipated Ubisoft games being released after many critiques and ridicules of their prior works, these games had a lingering cloud of suspicion over them. And guess what? They were reasonable complaints that those two games were actually subject to. Both The Division and Rainbow Six Siege were fuck ups in their own ways , be it optimization, net code, story, lack of content, cut content, graphical downgrade. These people create their future by having a notorious past. So no matter what these developers do to try and service us and appease our past criticisms of them with fancy game trailers and advertisements on bottles of soda there's a new group of cynics who know not to get their hopes up for a game. **Ignorance May be the best way to play a new game** With crowd funded games like Star Citizen, [a game I've impulsively bought into] I only allow a certain amount of knowledge actually get to me. I keep my thoughts on the game short and concise, 'A video game Cowboy Bebop'. A long with a few main draws and development focuses I keep information about games I'm potentially interested in down to a minimum so they can surprise me later down the line when I actually play it, so that I'm playing it for what it is and not what I've been told a out the game.

[6bytes]

VR Hype? Is it real? Is VR even real?

Over the past 4 months the launch of the Occulus Rift and HTC Vive have sparked the hopes that video games will reach a whole new level of immersion and fun were the goal. But on initial launch did the consumers get what they wanted from it? Do they see potential with their 600 +USD purchases? Well lets start out with the functionality of these VR Devices. And right off the bat, the HTC vive is bounds ahead because of it's scaling, remote, and movement capabilities (like controller less hand movement that is tracked by the front camera) . Spec wise the HTC has a front cam, but in terms of resolution and refresh rate both headsets are about equal. Now when it comes to plugging in both these headsets and playing, what will they be playing? At the launch of VIVE VR, Valve had put out a sick trailer showcasing the capabilities and software on the launch of the device. But to the untrained eye these might look like great launch games. But if anyone jumped into 'Giant Bombs' 10 hour game stream, they could tell most games are all cookie cutter and overly expensive. $40 USD is crazy for 'job simulator' a game with 4 jobs that max out about 1.5 - 2.5 hours total. Or 'Audio Shield' a 20 dollar game where the only mechanic is colorful blobs of colors coming at you and you have to use your two shields that are the same colors to match yourself against the globs. If you look at the VR section on steam you will be severely disappointed by the diversity of games lacking on the market. Maybe it's the fact these guys paid 800 dollars for a vive, the devs probably thought these suckers would pay 20-40 dollars on games to just try the new hardware they've broke bank on.

[6bytes]

Statement on quality

After writing 'Killing the Dead' from my phone and proof reading it after, I realize it's plagued with technical flaws in format, wording and spelling correctness. It will be fixed and I will work to improve this in the future.

[6bytes]

Killing the Dead

Zombie survival games have been very prevalent in my life since the release of the first Left 4 Dead. The adrenaline rush from hearing the distant screams of a massive hoard of brain dead goons heading your way with only you and three other of your friends to fend off against the unlikely odds was by far the best thing to happen in gaming at that time. The very aspect of looking for things to increase your odds of surviving that level was by far one of the highlights of the game. And the more you’d played the game, the more you were aware of a the new metas the game introduced, be it hiding in a specific corner while the hoard plowed in through one entrance as you lit them up or avoiding certain portions of a map by taking advantage of glitches. The game changed the more you played it.

And with time came more games, I took a brief hiatus from the zombie genocide to get into a more calm, collected, more punishing series of games; The military simulator. America’s Army online and Arma 2 were my top 3 most played games at a point in time. I’d spend hours playing Arma sniping terrorists or looking for caches that were tucked away and being defended by terrorist cells. It was all very time consuming. And then one day, the mod named DayZ popped up into vision, it boasted a health system, something I was very eager to see in a game and I wouldn’t have to stray very far to get into it, it was a free mod on a game I was very acquainted with already. I knew the map but much like Left 4 Dead, there was a whole new meta and world for me to discover.

Getting into DayZ was a social experience that really pushed interaction with strangers online to the max. Your life mattered in that game, it was the early stages, people were figuring the game out and figuring each other out. The big thing about DayZ that made it differ from a now ‘arcade’ shooter like Left 4 Dead was now not only did you have to worry about zombies, you have to worry about other players and your own body. If you were out in the rain too long you’d get hypothermia, you took a bit of a fall or slid down a hill you’d break your legs, you ran into a corner you’d break your legs, or you bled too much, so now you’re low on blood and you need some painkillers to ease the shaking and some more blood to get your vision back. Surviving zombies was a matter of running away from them and hoping you didn’t get cornered. Now, those weren’t the biggest things to worry about. You had to worry about other people, and this is probably what makes me a skeptic when talking to anyone new. You didn’t know who you could trust, in the early stages of the mod everyone was given a pistol and how you were going to use it was up to you. There was an eerie fear whenever you met up with someone, they’d talk to you but how they wanted it to end up could’ve been a few seconds away. They might come off as friendly but even after 4 hours in the game you know this father of four, church going minister could very well be a serial killer who was after some beans he’s been craving for. Now here was the hard part, would killing be worth it, you don’t know this guy!? You’ve got a nice rifle, he’s got a pistol, you can take this guy out in a shot, but you know if you do that that can come with other problems. That rifle you’ve got in your hands is the loudest piece of shit you’ve ever heard, your place will be swarmed by the walking dead in a matter of seconds. You didn’t even search the place! He could have a friend somewhere near you ready to end you. The possibilities were endless.

Later into the game, you had more responsibilities tacked onto you, and chances are you’ve got some newbie friends that need to learn the ropes because they haven’t heard a word from you since you started the game. You’re stacked up with a ghillie suit and have a sniper and a M4, that’s right you are the one who knocks. And now at this point you’ve probably got a camp set up with a few guns and food, somewhere west of Lopatino hidden under a tree. There’s threats of high rollers with a truck somewhere on the server trash talking you for running away from a fight the other day, you were out manned and outnumbered, what could you have done? So managing to find someone who won’t shoot you on site and making your way into a skype call with them and their besties is the best way to survive. And that’s exactly how I met the best friends I have today. Their plans were to kill us, but we made way into their heart and our forces grew. Me and my newbie pal joined a clan called IDEC(I dont even care). We learned all these different callouts and shared information with each other on a frontier that was still hardly known to us. We were a force to be reckoned with. Soon the baby weight we had on the game (50 hours) grew into 500 hours and then into 2000 and we were grizzled veterans getting into clan wars searching the tree lines for tents and camps, fighting and searching for the helicopters on the server. The war and feud was endless. And then after ages of it all, the server came to a halt. The owner had received a huge donation, took the money and ran. We tried rebooting the server by hosting it ourselves the sense of community we had and played with had died down.

Years later DayZ standalone had been announced. It was being produced by the studio that made the mod, and the company that made the game. The hype was alive, our group had been looking forward to this forever, the game we loved was going to be polished and updated by two of the best groups. We were announced promises of what this new game would hold and all well.

Fast forward even farther, we have DayZ standalone ‘alpha’. Is it really an alpha if it’s been like that for 3 years and has hardly made any progress whatsoever. And the problem is, it hardly makes any improvements over the mod. One of the main complaints is optimization, arma 2 was a shotily optimized game, and having loot spawns, zombies and clients, should have been priority number one.

COMMUNITY. Shit talking was the best part about DayZ, saying you found someones base, blowing up their car and being able to talk and get to know their names was what kept you coming back. You got attached to your enemies and you always had a sense of 'I’d buy that fucker a drink if I met him in a bar, we’ve got some story’s to tell’. Communicating easily made you aware of the people there, on Standalone it all feels so empty not having a side channel.

GAMEPLAY Its less arcade like than Arma 2’s mechanics and thats not a bad thing. Its the extent to which they push it that makes it a travesty. Arma 2’s movement was a real mess, but now in DayZ you can move around much better and the world’s easier to navigate through. Jogging is too damn slow. You can be run one side of the map to another in DayZ mod, here you can jog. Jog through all of Russia I dare you, you might see a cow, some trees, and a rock. Arma 2 wasn’t known for its landscape because what happened between cities wasn’t always important. Where everything went down was the hot zones and the cities. I don’t want to sit for 5 mins before entering a city because my guys fucking fatigued i need to be in and out and still be deadly while I’m on the move. I dont need spaghetti arms that sway in the wind after a jog. How can i defend myself?

Defence is the only offence. There’s hardly a reason , aside from me breaking their shit for why I’d ever not want to kill someone. Everyone’s always a threat. And that’s a problem. Killing the players that aren’t visibly armed or geared doesn’t mean they’re not threats. They can throw and punch. So while you’re being genuinely nice they’ve got a loaded pistol in their cargo shorts. They can pull out or while you access your inventory you get knocked out. This has happened to everyone, and i cant blame them for not taking any chances and just killing everyone and anyone. And thats what deters the experience, there’s little to no player interaction amongst the lines of communication and that’s what made the game interesting in the first place, not every conflict had to be a fight.

The game is plagued with so many other issues spanning from netcode to the UI. But what killed the game was execution. DayZ stunned the industry by coming off as the first and strongest contender to the new market, all they had to do was finish the game. And they didn’t do that. We are 3 years into the games early access with no feeling of the old DayZ and a good DayZ is far off. The industry zealots wanted to get a taste of the money that Bohemia was making by developing this game and that spurred games like Miscreated, WarZ, H1Z1, Dying Light, 7 Days to Die, and so many other games that have nothing on this DayZ as a title. Its a shame the devs of the game didn’t listen to the core fans who knew how the game could be balanced, mechanics should be treated and art could be done especially after recycling a map and its assets and copying and pasting it and calling them 'new cities’.

DayZ could’ve built itself up to be so much more than a video game but failed during it’s lifespan and hype to give the fans and supporters what it needed.

[6bytes]

Eventually I'm going to make a post talking about how the Survival Genre was killed by the company that made it.

[6bytes]

How can Day Break Studios make even MORE money?

After the success that was Planetside2 Daybreak studios felt the need to capitalize off a still young and vulnerable Zombie Survival Market, which would've made for competition for competing games like DayZ if DayZ were still in development. The game H1z1 was announced as a F2P MMORPG with an early access beta on steam that would harvest 20 Dollars from your wallet. We are now in 2016 and news is fresh off the Hotplate that not only do you not have to wait for the free to play release of h1z1, you shouldn't expect it at all! That's right, news is right off the boat from [email protected] That you, the sucker who wanted to buy into a game to support the planned development path will still be the only one playing it after your friends see what these developers did. These marketing gurus put out news that this game will go free to play but instead, now that you've paid money in hope to support and speed up the development of a rising in hopes you can play it with your friends for free one day, is just a misconstrued lie. After the success that was H1z1's Sales the devs have split the game into two. H1z1: Just Survive; 20.00 USD What a witty and endearing title for this game! Not only did you get this sweet deal for free, the boring and sometimes stiff mode will have to be purchased by anyone who didn't get into the game soon enough to get the FULL H1z1 experience. H1z1: King of the Hill; 20.00 USD To my surprise the modder of Arma 3's 'Survival Games' was behind this one. Arma 3's survival games remains a good past time, this'll drain 20 bucks from your wallet. Did DayBreak Wake up and realize 'Man we've got so many fucking people streaming one game mode in this game and YouTubers and making a killing on this exagerating a 20 second clip, maybe we can take back our promises and make people pay for both experiences that were originally going to be sold for 20 Dollars in total (Or 7.50 Like me if you snagged it off of GMG). I don't see these guys alienating two big communities like that and selling them off like that going to be a good thing for the longevity of this game either. I personally hated this game just stepping 15 mins into it. Gun play was fun and different but movement, animations, meta, and 3rd person view was big turn off for me (a big DayZ Mod Player, probably over 3,000 Hours cashed in on it) and seeing this title which has a pretty huge playerbase getting exposed to this shit is just hillarious. How someone can justify buying a small gamemode for 20 Dollars is beyond me. Now you can read this from them in their own words: https://www.h1z1.com/news/just-survive-king-of-the-kill-game-split-february-2016?cid=1066641

[6bytes]

Gaming Peripherals are too expensive?

As much as I love the click clacks from a noisey 170 Dollar Razer Chroma Black Widow, it really begs the question; Is it worth the price? Does the brand title and the marketing go as far to in price to supply you with an expensive keyboard that's not ripping you off? As a person who's only keyboards have been sketchy offbrand products straight off the darkest depths of Amazon I'd like to challenge that idea. First off, I'd like to state I'm a huge cheap ass. The most I've ever spent on a gaming peripheral had to be 60 Dollars and that's very recent. I normally cope with apple ear buds streamlined into my monitor, with a 4 year old Rockband mic taped from my ceiling supplies me with a source of communication with my teammates. I recently upgraded to a 'Rig 505 LAVA' From Plantronics and it gets the job done. I have never payed more than 30 for a mouse and my keyboard also boarders at 60 Dollars along with my headphones. Ever hear of a magic eagle keyboard? Nope? Nor have I but this keyboard took 60 dollars from me and holds a special place in my heart. [http://www.amazon.com/Lammergeier-HV-KB346L-Definable-Programmable-keyboard/dp/B00OUDAWKQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453746421&sr=8-1&keywords=Magic+Eagle+Keyboard] Amazon link This beast of a keyboard has assignable lights multiple assignable keys and a space bar that when pressed allows you to hear the cry of the magic eagle. Yes, you heard right, when pressing the keyboard's space bar you hear the spring launch itself around your proximity then land back into place. It's no mechanical keyboard but the quality of each keystroke's feedback makes you wonder why you'd ever upgrade. With the brushed steel plating and the programable colors on the keyboard how can a Razer product boast superiority? These products were both created in mass production lines in China (Possibly the same factory) they serve the same purpose, and they've both never been delivered in the finest fur pouches by a war torn vet who can Mongolian Throat sing? Now of course I've blown that out of proportion but the only reason I can ever see a razer product being priced that high isn't the software it's included with, has to be the quality of the product. I can't feel the Magic Eagle dieing any time soon, but how often do these razer products succumb to the rule of thumb and face a perilous death? It's almost like every other week my clannies can blame a their losses on a mouse that's lazer starts to die or a keyboard who's D key remains intact but continues to plow their character to the right mercilessly. I've never had these issues; and maybe that's because I'm a skeptic who's afraid to start expensive keyboard habits, but I'd like to actually see some real information into why these keyboards actually cost so much. I don't want to see any bullshit stating it's the software that controlls the lights on the board because I know that's false. This 60 Dollar keyboard I'm manning has a breathing pattern; reassignable lights; A HUGE variety of lights, keboard bindings and much much more that the Razer Keyboard does and probably better while that one poor chinese farmer jammed a beet into his disk tray prayed for 6 days and seven nights and got a product nearly identical to that. I want to hear your product testemonials on Razer items and tell me; are they really worth 100 dollars?

[6bytes]

FiveM’s back

Servers are up; just thought I'd say so.

[6bytes]

Star Citizen ALPHA 2.0 is Open to the Public*!

*To the public that payed for the game [Sorry] On that note, I've poured 200 Dollars into a Constellation Taurus and spent only about 30 MINS of my time trying to get through a door that won't open on my ship before closing out of the game. Graphically and mechanically speaking the 'Universe' portion of the game is a great chance to see the direction of the game and the budgeting put into great use. Looking at the ship and gun models blows me away and you should definitley look into investing into what could be the best game of our generation (Man I feel like a shill). And now's time for the ruthless plug, where if you actually choose to buy into the game you'll get 5000 UEC (In game Currency) to spend on whatever you'd like. Not only that, you get a cool gun to add onto your ship if you use the code STAR-BNTZ-QYFH when you register an account with the purchase of a ship priced at 40 Dollars or more.

[6bytes]

Rockstar is unfair! TakeTwo is in there! Standing at the concession. Plotting his oppression.

Rockstar seems to have pushed for a 'supposed' lawsuit against the previously mentioned 'FiveM' mod developers for the booming Grand Theft Auto V. Now, even that's JUST speculation. There's a lot of hub bub going on right now on their reddit /FiveM/ board. A lot of frequent board posters are saying the servers had to go down because TakeTwo's legal team backed them into a corner. Like I said it's all specualtion, and moderator of the board user icedream2k9 advizes you don't take 3rd party information that's not validated by a moderator. You can follow the mod and what's going on here: https://www.reddit.com/r/FiveM/

[6bytes]

Rockstar and Take Two Should spend more time on fixing their game then harassing modders fixing their game.

If you were to ask me 3 years ago who my favorite developer was, I'd be in an internal conflict between Bohemia Interactive and Rockstar. I have been let down very much so by the behaviour of both these companies and in this case specifically Rockstar.

On November 26, 2015; Two private investigators sent by game development company Take Two to the home of the developer of the 'Multiplayer Mod' "FiveM" threatened the Founder with legal action. The developer put a notice on his website that he will no longer be continuing development.

Today it is 12/9/15 and Development on the community powered mod is running strong. In fact you can support them here: https://www.reddit.com/r/FiveM/comments/3vrvhq/we_are_now_officially_in_alpha/ By downloading the mod and trying the Alpha that released on the 7th of December 2015. [Or donating] That's not the only thing that's happened. Take two has sent even MORE investigators to harrass and scare the developers of the game. I don't know about you, but Grand Theft Auto Online has felt... Empty. If Rockstar can't fix the hacker problem, the lack of content problems, and the ballancing issues, they shouldn't fucking spend even more shark card money on Investigators to harrass devs that are keeping their game alive and could potentially influence gamers to purchase Grand Theft Auto in the future.

In fact, have not seen one ban wave for exploiters. I've only seen the devs of FiveM get banned for creating and developing a mod. Come on Rockstar. We know Grand Theft Auto online was your longterm plan for cash, but it didn't have to come to this. If you didn't take years to create heists, add stupidly expensive low riders and customizations for them, it wouldn't discourage players who want to get into the online experience.

If I could tell Rockstar one thing it'd be; think about all the people that buy legal copies of GTA:SA on Steam. They brought it to play the game, or to play GTA:SAMP, the Multiplayer mod to the game. of course you didn't have shark cards or any of that, but you still have a VERY lively community there that's purchased your 10+ Year old game to get one of the best Grand Theft Auto experiences out there, created by the you and the community.

EXTRA You can see all the Grand Theft Auto San Andreas Multiplayer servers HERE:http://monitor.sacnr.com/. They're very much alive and well, infact I haven't played for a while and it seems to be thriving.

Patch Notes: (12/8/15)

Corrected Gramatical errors

Title Error

Nerfed Deagle

Added BS Revolver

(100% Moving Accuracy)

(Penetration is fucking absurd)

Patch Notes: (12/10/15)

Buffed R8 Revolver

(Added Higher Damage ratio to limbs)

(No More reloading, gun has 30 Rounds)

(Gun shoots exactly like a CZ when holding RMB)

[6bytes]

Rainbow 6 Siege; Worth 60 Dollars?

Well if I started off with 'Yes', I doubt you'd even consider it. I recently took up the chore of playing the Rainbow Six BETA(s) it was terrible. I did not like ANY of it. [The stars are there to magnify importance] It varied from teamplay, griefing, servers, length of matches, the sort of rigs playing the game, disconnects and tick rate, much of which still haunt the product's release to this date, but don't deter an improved product. Much of the problems still stick to the game as of '12/7/15' and until they are fixed I wouldn't suggest picking the game up. Cons include:

-Low Tickrate

-Poor Server Performance [Servers kick you out often]

-No real incentive to play to the competitive ranking -Price (60 Dollars is waaaay too much for a multiplayer oriented game when the franchise is known for it's functioning Career mode.)

-Uplay (I can't even begin to fucking muster my hatred for this service, just hand over the monopoly to Steam and GOG)

-Lack of Customization (Nothing feels completely fleshed out in the menu. 2 Guns for each character, it works for a while, but then you realize there's not much to put on the guns and adding anything aside from a scope and a surpressor really doesn't affect the gun's functionality)

-The grindy point system (This system works in two ways and I will get into that, not completely a con)

-Ubisoft will probably never fix any of this (Getting into this too.)

Don't get me wrong, the game is FUN. It's functionality blends together good team play where you can combine gadgets to create scenarios that couldn't otherwise be done in an enviornment that's very dynamic. There's many ways to tackle your opponent, either it's head on, baiting them or using your tools against them. That's where the game pretty much drops it all. I'm pretty sure I've played every map in the 10 hours I've played and if I wanted to I couldn't tell too much a difference from ANY of the maps layout wise. They're all pretty same design wise, with the same possibility of breach points, but that's not necissarily a bad thing. Allowing for the same attack points makes way for more competetive and predictable countering which can all be strategically planned in a proffesional or comepetive setting. It just seems all to familiar after a while and I don't feel like a game that costs 60 dollars should be doing that. Ubisoft also has two currencys in the game. They've got Renown and then some bullshit 'R6' Currency which can be used on "Exclusive Items", which happens to be purchased with cash. I wouldn't have a problem with cosmetics if these guys spent more time designing guns over shitty 10 dollar skins. Some classes are limited to 2 or 3 guns and 2 pistols (which are often shared between the factions and do not vary in many aspects) To get more currency you can either play 'Situations' which is there half assed 'Single player tutorial' where you complete extra objectives to get more of the primary and free currency which can be used to obtain skins and weapon modifications as well as new operators. There are 10 Assualt rifles, 3 Light machine guns (Ubisoft expects you to count the SMG-11 or my personal nickname for it [GENERIC] (picture here: http://puu.sh/lNw9g/ac562c751a.png) as a light machine gun. Take that as you will. There's 8 Pistols, 2 Marksman rifles (Honestly that's fine, there doesn't need to be too much variation, sniping's pointless in a sense, but the class isn't.) 5 Shotguns and 7 Sub Machine guns, most of which do not vary and have nearly as much customization as an older and more tactical game published by Ubisoft ; Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. I was really let down by the array of weapons, and attachments to guns. Not only did I have to kill a character I used often in a recyled MOBA like setting, but chances are they were using the same gun as me. Now there's a reason I'm okay with the grindy point system. Not everyone can have access to skins (chances are it's far from their priority list because they cost a butt-tonne) and it makes your choice a little more personal. It also makes you research and look into what sort of playstyle you're into. You can't just buy characters all willy nilly. I know for a fact I can't take it slow, so there's no way I'm going to lug around a riot shield and a pistol in some 120 Pound IED resistant armour that can be penetrated by 3 bullets, I don't have the patience for it, and if I did buy that character I'd be stuck to play and support my team around my playstyle. With characters on the deffence like 'Smoke' I can stray farther away from my party while they're holed up and rig explosives when I see them closing in while I pick those who aren't exposed to my teamates through the war torn wall. I can confidently say each character feels pretty unique, but when I'm behind any rifle it all feels the same to me.

Ubisoft will never fix these problems. Just prolong them with a few Patches Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 was where I saw this arise. The game didn't sell too well on all systems on release but sold a healthy amount over time. Selling only: 2.40 Million Copies on the Xbox 360 as of NOV 2015 [Source: http://www.vgchartz.com/game/15674/tom-clancys-rainbow-six-vegas-2/] a few game breaking bugs crippled the game and the community. Being a PC gamer owning this game was a real kick in the teeth. The resolution was a pain in the ass, the FoV was utter garbage I believe locked on 45 and if you were to change it the 9 year old game would VAC ban you on steam. There was also a Machine gun bug that rings in my ear to this date. With how sales are looking for Rainbow 6 Siege right now, I wouldn't get my hopes up for too much Season pass support (even though maps are free). You can read up more on the budgetting that doesn't go too far into the specifics HERE : http://www.gamerevolution.com/manifesto/rainbow-six-siege-isnt-selling-well-and-it-deserves-better-35665 By any means, don't act as the martyr I've been. It's fun game, but for the lacking visuals, poor optimization for those lacking visuals and an inevitable dying community there's no point in picking up this game unless you see some MAJOR improvements.

As always I'm thankfull for my followers and readers. Happy Holidays. -6Bytes

[6bytes]

Hideo Kojima will be directing the next Metal Gear Solid: V Trailer

Kojima said in a tweet earlier today; "As the launch is approaching I'm editing new trailer w/less spoiler. "The evolution & harmony of Metal Gear",if I name it in EXPO-ish theme." I've been a fan of the Metal Gear series since Twin Snakes. I've seen all of the Phantom Pain trailers since they've been announced and they've all grabbed at my heart strings. The cinematography Hideo Kojima brings to the trailer and his games, are just beyond my mortal comprehension. Though Kojima left the studio earlier this year, it's nice to see that he gets to make the last trailer for the game. There's been a lot of tomfoolery going on with Konami stripping his name from his game, but it's great to see him involved with the game again, even for a while.