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Decided to change the order, Sky Reign is Wednesday.
Ugh... this game. This abomination. This atrocity. This disgrace. What
better way to celebrate the 15th anniversary of a franchise then to almost single
handily kill it? Granted, it wasn't alone, Genesis and Secret Rings helped.
This game, is infamous in how bad, how broken, how glitchy it is. This game,
above all others, is the reason the franchise has the reputation it does. This
was one of the first games I got for my 360, due to a sale EB was doing, and
that my only other option was a 16-bit collection where the games I'd want to
play, I already had for the DS. I should note, I have not played the newest
contender to this throne, I don't have the game, but in the spirit of No Man's
Sky's release, let’s go back, to 2006, to a game that no longer had the
protection of the time. When DLC was starting to become a thing, but not
patches, to a game that had the franchise creator leave the company. If you
thought Assassins Creed Unity and No Man's Sky was bad, well, I envy you,
because dear, naive reader, you haven't seen anything yet. Welcome, to
"SONIC the Hedgehog", or to go by its more common name, Sonic '06.
THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING! THEY DO NOT MEAN THE SAME THING! I could end this post right there, but even then I know people will still keep interchanging the two, so let me explain why.
Right now, the current punching bag for this is Fire Emblem Fates, all three versions of the game (that part is something I want to save for if I review it or not), specifically, how parts of games are being changed in localization for a western audience. I will say that Fates isn't the only game I'm using for this example, I have a few more, but for now, let's start with the recent one, the petting mini game. Now I don't mind a petting mini game in games, I've played one in Nintendogs, in Pokemon Generation 6, and it's something common in anything that has some form of pet, so I don't see a problem in those examples. Petting an anime girl? That's creepy, and many in the west see it as disgusting and objectifying. Me? A cheep stunt as I hadn't herd of it before, and from what I've sen, it does absolutely nothing. I should say, all I've been able to find is articles saying "Why it should be removed" or "Why it should stay", which is why my knowledge of it is limited. I'm not here to come on a side, what I will say though is "If it has no purpose, why is it there in the first place?". Now as for the point I'm going to make, the reason why it's being removed is, in simplest terms, gender roles between the two demographics. The views of gender differ between Japan and the western world, in japan, something like that is seen as appropriate, normal (to an extent). In the west however, views on gender are very different, and are changing every day, even to the point where many can't agree on gender portrayal, most of it thanks to the portrayal of the genders over history. In a perfect world, this wouldn't be a factor, however we don't live in a perfect world, we live in a scrap world, where objectification of women in anyway is going to have negative repercussions. Now again, to state my personal view on the matter, if you can provide an in story valid explanation for a character looking the way they are, then I don't have an issue with it, as it is there to serve the story. This from what I've seen, is not serving the story, its a way of cashing in on the Japan Pop Idol culture, something that isn't a thing in the western world. So why would they keep it if
There's no reason cuturally to keep it in thanks to a lack of Pop idol culture.
There's no reason in terms of sales to keep it in because the moment obnoxiously loud people find out about it, your PR manager is going to be in tears because of all the abuse it would have gotten.
On that second point, let's bring out another game that isn't being sold in the west for that reason, Dead or Alive: Xtreme 3, I told you I'd be using a few examples. This one is a game not being sold in the west for a few reasons, but one that got the most attention was because they're afraid of the social backlash. What's the more realistic reason? The games probably haven't sold well here, as it is a very niche game made primarily for Japanese audiences because again, that's more acceptable there then it is here. The reason they gave, to put it in internet understanding terms, "they were afraid of Social Justice Warriors". I could probably go into a whole other rant on my views of that culture, but suffice to say, the one's I see get the most attention, don't deserve the attention as it comes off as more "doing this for personal gain". Most people, myself included, do see eye to eye with them on several points, however the culture has become so toxic, so overbearing that people stay away, see them as trolls, people just there to abuse people in the name of social justice. That community almost went to war with the companies involved by that statement, meanwhile all I could see was people who had no interest in getting the game or even caring about the game slamming it because of the game having girls in bikini's. My stance on that? "Wasn't going to get the game anyway, don't care, why bother getting angry about something like that?". Please note though its the same kind of people who got Target and K-Mart Australia to stop selling Grand Theft Auto 5, and in all the cases above, people called it censorship.
NONE OF THOSE ARE CENSORSHIP!!! And trust me, I can say that with a level of certainty as I live in a country THAT DOES CENSOR GAMES, its why I've been limiting my examples to games. Up until January 2013, three years ago, Australia didn't have an R18+ rating for games. For comparison, that means we didn't have an M or AO rating in comparison to the ESRB and a PEGI 18 for European readers. The most we had was MA15+, which as a base comparison would be about PEGI 12, maybe PEGI 16, and T by the ESRB. Anything higher was either censored, or not released here at all. Even games released after January 2013 were censored like Saint's Row 4 (which I think might be looking too deep but it was a simple change, changing drugs to caffeine) and South Park the Stick of Truth, yes there really are crying koala's. For more, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_video_games_in_Australia and this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Australia yes I use Wikipedia, but I cross reference. Censorship is a government body saying "Either change this, or you cannot sell it here, at all"
IT IS NOT a company changing aspects to help the product do better in other countries, which happens both ways, the only reason you don't hear it as much going from a western to eastern release is because the US can't stand not being the center of attention (that was a joke).
IT IS NOT a company not selling a product in a country by their choice.
IT IS NOT a store refusing to carry a specific product because some people signed a petition.
Before I close, there is actually a difference between censoring and censorship. I told you what censorship is, censoring is changing something by one's own accord in order to, basically protect themselves from people who are offended. For example, I do things like "f#!@%(%" that, that's me censoring myself, in order to not have to deal with parents sending me angry messages about how little Jimmy learned about words like that from my site. The bleep censor is another case of that. Nothing is stopping me from not using those, I choose to use those as the majority of my reviews are on child friendly things, and if something is for a more mature audience, I use more "mature" language as I'm assuming that little Jimmy wouldn't be reading my first impressions of the red band trailer for Deadpool, for example. I will always try to make the use of "mature" language obvious before it's used, to cover myself. Again, this ISN'T censorship, no one is making me do it, and right now, no one cares, people have actually been telling me not to do it. I do it of my own accord, its not being afraid of something, its saving me from a headache.
If you're going to call foul on censorship, MAKE SURE IT'S ACTUAL CENSORSHIP!!! Localization and censoring one's self is NOT CENSORSHIP. See you all on Wednesday, as I need to calm down after this.
Post release edit: the feature from Fire Emblem fates was not limited to female characters. I was unaware of this at the time of release as I have not been paying attention to spoilers, and the only information I could get was focused more on the objectifying women side of it. I am aware of this now.
Also, I am aware of times when localization and censorship are intertwined, and I should have brought that up. The reason I didn't was because I didn't have any solid examples that blured the two, instead of just either one or the other.
I was going to save this for when I actually reviewed the games but by that point, this ship would have sailed and sunk.
While I will say that I'm proud to be a Sonic fan, I've had my share of entertainment from the series, one of my biggest problems I have with the series is the fans and how they react to new games. When a new game comes out for the series, you either hear praise for it from the fans, or you get everyone saying "this is the end of Sonic games, the franchise is dead" and so on. That second one is the reaction to the two Sonic Boom games, and while I haven't played the games yet, from what I've seen of the games, the "critique" from the fandom is off by a mile.
Ever since I wrote the rant on the R18+ rating in Australia, I've been doing some more research in the matter, and to say that my findings disgust me is a understatement. I know I said that I'd never do this kind of rant again but this is something that truly deserves it. While I'll be focusing on one particular group, do note that this is also targeted towards any other similar group. The target for this is @MomsAgainstGam, A Twitter group of American and Canadian parents who are obsessed with the, at times, destruction of violent video games. I'm not going to go into all their points because when I read any post on their site, I feel like I'm loosing more and more brain cells that could be used on something that isn't atrocious. As usual, I'm not holding back any punches for this. If anyone wants to argue any of these points, feel free to get in contact with me. Anywhere you see a link to this site with the username of the person posting being some variation of my user name here "Liam Blaster Sanders" is normally me.
I'm pretty much going to be looking at each of the arguments that's being presented at time of writing (25/8/2014). If that's not something you want to read and your not associated with these kinds of groups, leave now.
1. Before I get into the overarching points: YouTube commentators. These people are attacking Youtube content producers such as JonTron and PewDiPie because "there's nothing sadder then watching someone play a video game". Do you people stop and think about what your typing? Seriously? Because I can ask the exact same question about professional sports players. What's the difference in watching people play a video game and people playing any sport? Its the same thing, the only difference is that one of them is becoming a common medium of entertainment and the other is currently a common medium of entertainment. Your attacking people who enjoy making people laugh, who make money off of their own content. These people are entrepreneurs and comedians. Lets plays are also a way of advertising for video games: If people enjoy watching someone play a game, they are more inclined to play that game as its a more reliable form of marketing then a normal review (hypocritical considering the content of this site but the point still stands). Are these people for everyone? No, everyone has different tastes, the same as TV shows.
2. Minecraft is a violent video game. I'm still recovering from the bruising on my forehead because of how hard I slammed my head on the nearest wall. With the amount of people playing Minecraft, you people should feel ashamed of this misconception. For the .01% of people who have never heard of the game, Minecraft is a open world sandbox game, where your free to build whatever you want to build. This is why I slammed my head against a wall several times because Minecraft has been given the nickname "THE VIRTUAL LEGO GAME". If your going after Minecraft, then your also going after other creative medium. Yes there are monsters in the game that you do need to kill (for the most part), but this is because of the game's survival mode, WHERE YOU NEED TO DO WHATEVER YOU CAN TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE. Are their guns in the game? If you mod the game, but its not in the vanilla game. Are their builds out their that are inappropriate? Yes because someone decided to build it. That's not the game's fault. I also want to bring attention to this post chain ( https://twitter.com/dankmtl/status/503750987837095936/photo/1 ) because this pretty much summaries the misconceptions about the game. Fans of the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic will also notice the error in the image. I looked up Tara Strong's career as a voice actor, and the funny thing is about this (almost certainly fake screen capture because it's easy to edit your name on a iPhone) photo, Tara Strong never voiced the character "Rainbow Dash" in the show. She is a voice actor, but of the character "Twilight Sparkle", something that took me all of 20 seconds to find. Want to know what also took me no time to look up? Minecraft being used in education, helping children learn skills that will help them in society, or how about Computercraft and qCraft? Mods that are raising the next generation of computer programers and Quantum physicists. How about all the marvelous, gorgeous builds that people have built in the game, from small shacks, to gigantic cities. From a simple target practice mini game to roller coasters and adventure maps. Or how about all the fan made mini games you can find on Minecraft Relms? Survival games, capture the wool, spleef.
3. The assault on "White male gamers" and gamers in general. While I will openly admit that the behavior of most of the people who reply to post and the account in general is disgusting, the people that their using to highlight their point is a small minority (that are unfortunately the loudest). Yes, the gaming community has people that I'd be ashamed of knowing personally. But that's not the community. Gamers are also (for the most part) nerds in general so these kinds of attacks are going after everyone who classifies themselves as geeks or nerds. I am personally insulted by these people because its people like this Twitter group that makes me not want to be apart of the real world. Its these kinds of people that have bullied me since I've gone to kindergarten. They say that they are "afraid of white male gamers", the last time I checked, the dictionary definition of fear wasn't "to provoke a particular audience to prove a point". I ask you, to the people who are afraid of gamers, to the ones who say that "Parents who spawn white male gamers are little different from producers of biological weapons.", go to a nerdy event. Go to a gaming convention, a tournament, even a small club and see what these "terrifying" white male gamers are really like. Anyone can be someone their not when their hiding behind a keyboard and monitor. Most gamers actually hate the kind of people your promoting, we're ashamed of those people because they give fuel to people like you. You want to know what "Gamers" are actually doing? They are the ones making games memorable, the Smooth McGrooves and the Glitch City's who make our favorite game songs even better, the Extra Credits and Game Theories who analyze games, to find out where they falter and where they thrive. They are the ones who help charities like Child's Play and TLC for kids who help make children's lives better when they are in hospitals thanks to video games. The Sonic-a-thon, a marathon of Sonic games, played by sonic fans, earned over $20,000 dollars for Child's play, none of the commentators got a cent of that money. they are the aspiring developers who, like the developers of today and in the past, will expand the medium. Gamers are not the people your promoting, what your promoting are nothing more the trolls and griefers.
4. Violent video games. From what I've read, you people define EVERY GAME AS VIOLENT (something that I know no one actually thinks because I'm willing to bet that you've played at least a game in your lives). You people think that "People who play Mario games are violent and are encouraged to take drugs", "That Pokemon and Sonic encourage animal cruelty", "That every person who plays racing games are reckless drivers", "That every gamer plays Call of Duty and GTA". Hell, why not go further: Kirby encourages cannibalism, Phoenix Wright is nothing but violence, Mass Effect promotes same sex relationships, Samus is oversexualised. Let me just rip all these arguments apart, shall I?
a. Mario games are violent and are promoting drug use: I DON'T KNOW ANYONE WHO THINKS THAT JUMPING ON PEOPLE, RUNING INTO THEM WITH THE POWER OF A STAR, THROWING BOUNCING FIREBALLS AND SHELLS ARE ACTUAL WAYS OF KILLING PEOPLE. No one can jump high enough to seriously hurt anyone and if they fall, they themselves are going to be just as hurt as the intended victim. The Starman power is impossible including the ability to throw bouncing fire. Shells might, at the most, break a bone but they can't die from one. As for the "drug use", the intended market for the games wouldn't know that a Mushroom could be a drug and the game actually promotes eating healthy mushrooms (trust me, it works).
b. Pokemon and Sonic encourage animal cruelty. I'll answer Sonic first as that's the shorter of the two. If your familiar with the early games in the series, then you'll know that YOU'RE FREEING ANIMALS FROM THE ROBOT, NOT SHOVING THEM IN, in fact, this promotes anything but animal cruelty. As for Pokemon, the intention of the games is to encourage a bond between you and your Pokemon. If people do think that it promotes animal cruelty, then their forgetting the core reason of the game. The game was based on bug catching, a hobby of the game's director Satoshi Tajiri, and with the latter features of the games (including Pokemon Amie which is literally putting Pokemon into Nintendogs, a game that if you say has any negative repercussions then you really need to rethink your life) helps encourage a bond between you and your Pokemon. I still have several Pokemon I caught in my original play through of the first Pokemon game I ever owned, Pokemon Emerald because I'm attached to them.
c. Every person who plays any form of racing/ driving game is a reckless driver. You're pathetic if you actually think this. I shouldn't have to rip this argument apart because if this was true, then the population wouldn't be anywhere near as big as it is. This is just stupidity talking rather then actual fact. People are more willing to take risks in a video game because their isn't any real danger when comparing video games to reality.
d. Every gamer loves GTA and Call of Duty. Two words. I don't. I've barely played GTA because I couldn't get Vice City to work on my previous laptop and I couldn't be bothered trying again. I might play 5 someday but it isn't on my priority list. As for Call of Duty, I hate it, I think its overrated and that there are better First Person Shooters out their because they don't try to hide the fact that they are retextures (this is based on my experiences with COD 4, Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops).
e. Kirby promotes Cannibalism. KIRBY HAS INFINITE FLIGHT, YOU CAN FLY OVER ALMOST EVERY "ENEMY" IN THE GAMES. And the same as Mario, unless people have developed the ability to inhale creatures like a vacuum cleaner and replace their stomach's with a Black Hole, no one should think this is a valid way of killing someone or something.
f. Phoenix Wright promotes murder. Yes, because its a murder mystery story. Your trying to figure out why they died and make sure that the person who actually did do it is sent to jail.
g. Mass Effect promotes same sex relationships. What I want to know is why people think this is a problem. Same sex couples shouldn't have to deal with what they have to deal with now. The only problem with this is that people think that same sex couples are the devil incarnate and the entire problem is because of what should realistically be nothing at all.
h. Samus is oversexualised. The actual statement is that Samus, without her power armor is oversexualised. Aside from spin off games, Metroid Zero Mission and Metroid Other M, when you see and play as Samus, she's in her armor, the armor that made every person who played the original Metroid game think she was a guy. The oversexualising of female characters is a actual issue with games, I will admit this, and the only reason why this is the case is because of the old ways of development and design. In my personal opinion, if your complaining about the main character, weather its because they are oversexualised or because they are a specific gender, then your not getting the point of the character. The point of the playable character is to be the link between the player and the game, the playable character should be designed based on what the rest of the game is and if it means that they are a specific gender, WHO CARES. I don't care what gender the character is, all that I care about is "does the design match the world" and if it does, great.
5. Violent video games. VIDEO GAMES ARE NOT TOYS, VIDEO GAME DEVELOPERS ARE NOT TOY MAKERS. Everything I would say in this I've already covered in my last rant so I'm not going to bring it up again. What I am going to do is show you this:
And say this to prove a point: going back to the sports example (using American Football and AFL as a example). Why is it that people think its fine for kids to watch grown men beet up fellow players for what is realistically pieces of rubber stitched together and filled with air and then encourage or make their kids play those games, but its suddenly a crime when they need to stab a rat to make it through a sewer? Why is it ok for people like Michael Bay to destroy Chicargo, complete with racial stereotypes, but wrong for me to build something in Minecraft, fill it with TNT and see it blow up? What is the difference? Why can films and TV shows bloom as a artistic medium but Video games must always be for kids? Is it just something that I'm missing, some core aspect of artistic mediums that Video games don't have. Oh wait, that's it, its RESPECT. Their are people that respect the medium, know its potential and want to see it bloom into something that no other mass medium can do. But its groups like these that hold us back because of that old stigma of "video games only being for kids", that's pathetic. As i said before, you could argue every game is violent or praises something negative to children, that's when you have to be actual parents and teach them.
Finally, Video games addiction. How insensitive can you people be. Aside from the fact that the actual term is Video Games Compulsion, you people are making it out to be the equivalent of drugs and alcohol and while that might be the case for some, for most people its, once again, thanks to people like you, along with gamers in several cases, that are the reason why it exists and for you to be stating that "You know the answer" is atrocious. These videos are probably the best summary of the actual situation.
I'm not going to do a final summary of this, I don't think I have to. All that I will say is this. If you read this, please spread this. I'm not saying that just for more views, in fact that's not even my priority for this. The reason why I say this is so that people who think the thoughts I've attacked can see these, so that people can actually learn. Its thoughts like this that have brought out the absolute worst in humanity before. To the people who think that the destruction of violent video games is the best way of stopping these problems. read these:
“The burning of a book is a sad, sad sight, for even though a book is
nothing but ink and paper, it feels as if the ideas contained in the
book are disappearing as the pages turn to ashes and the cover and
binding--which is the term for the stitching and glue that holds the
pages together--blacken and curl as the flames do their wicked work.
When someone is burning a book, they are showing utter contempt for all
of the thinking that produced its ideas, all of the labor that went into
its words and sentences, and all of the trouble that befell the author .
. .”
―
Lemony Snicket,
The Penultimate Peril
“Books can not be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No
man and no force can abolish memory... In this war, we know, books are
weapons. And it is a part of your dedication always to make them weapons
for man's freedom.”
―
Franklin D. Roosevelt
“If people wrote their reviews on paper and put them into a real,
physical library, I am sure that the Goodreads administrators would be
very reluctant to pull them down from shelves and burn them. When you
can get rid of a piece of writing just by clicking on a few links,
there’s a temptation to believe that it’s less serious. But it isn’t.
It’s just less clear what you’ve done.”
―
G.R. Reader,
Off-Topic: The Story of an Internet Revolt
"Once, long ago, A great man said this to his colleagues, to remind them that killing an idea was as much a sin as killing a man. 'for books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a
potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny
they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and
extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as
lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous dragon’s teeth:
and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. And yet,
on the other hand, unless wariness be used, as good almost kill a man as
kill a good book: who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s
image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the
image of God, as it were, in the eye.' If that's true of books, can it not be said ten fold regarding games?" -- Daniel Floyd, Extra Credits: Free Speach
Man has always been afraid of the unknown, of change. What man might see as negative, they will want to eradicate, to keep things the same, even if what they might think is change isn't change at all. I once saw a swastika in one of their posts, trying to connect it, the once symbol of peace that is now used to remind people of the horrors of war, of the men and woman killed because they were Jewish. How ironic that the symbol that they are trying to shove on a entire interactive medium actually better represents the people themselves and not their target. -- Myself, Liam "Blaster" Sanders, in this post
To the people who are, like me, just as angry at these kinds of people. If your going to attack them, don't give them the fuel they need. When you go after them cursing, swearing ect, your helping them prove their point. These people are like fires, give them the fuel they need and they'll keep doing this. Debate them though, fight them with intelligence and they won't have the fuel they need.
As a slight extension to my post the other day, I want to briefly explain what is going to become a constant type of post here and how I'm going to structure them. If you don't want to read it, then by all means don't, I'm not forcing you to do so (even though this will also go onto Blaster's Projects... hehehe...). But if you do, then feel free to yell at me when I don't meet these in a post going forward and I'll either remake the post or explain why i can't/ couldn't. With that underway
The reviews: The reason why this site is called "Blaster's Reviews". As I said in the very first post of this site, I'm going to review whatever I think I can, whether that be games, TV shows, movies ect. I will always be open to suggestions and I will get to any requests as soon as I can (bare in mind, some might take longer then others if i don't have the material in some way shape or form and can't find a way of reviewing it (for example, I'm not going to review a game until I can play it on its intended console, I'm also not going to review movies while they're at the cinema due to how I write the reviews). I keep a list of reviews that i'm going to do and the order I'm going to release them and any requests will get added to that list. The way I review content is that I have a series of dot points that I add to as a watch/ play, then I structure a review around that and any issues I find, I try and come up with a way to fix that or I leave it up to interpretation. I always review something within its entirety story wise. For a game, I'll review the main campaign and (something I'm going to do from now on) mention any post game content that isn't apart of the story or if its a new story entirely, I'll review that (or what I've gotten done up to the time of writing). I will always review a TV show by its season, as indicated by K-On and the Transformers Marathon. As for movies, I will review movies as a stand alone product but will look at how it fits in with the other films continuing that plot.
The impressions: These are literally just going to be my thoughts as a consumer, not as a reviewer. I'm not going to look at a product like Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire as a reviewer until I have my hands on the product released to the public. If I do a impression of something, then don't be surprised if my review says something completely different to the impression. Aside from the E3 impressions, don't expect these to come out at set times, it really just depends on releases and what catches my interest (in most cases), but I will do impressions on topics that I get enough requests for, though they might not have a lot of content in them.
The rants and opinion pieces: There isn't much distinguishing the difference between these. Opinion pieces like the conclusion to the Transformers Marathon are when I've put thought into how something is done whereas a rant is me expressing my views on a particular, current affair concerning the content I review. As with the impressions, don't expect these often but I'm willing to take requests (just assume that I take requests for anything in this post)
Top (Insert number here) lists: I hopefully shouldn't have to explain these.
Well, this isn't something I thought I'd write in any way shape or form, a post about Australian Politics... I don't like it either and I won't be making this a common type of subject like my reviews, impressions and rant/ opinion pieces, only if it still relates to the content I review on this site in some way shape or form. I'm also making this point here and now, the content of this post is going to be for mature readers as I will be expressing a lot of harsh opinions, nothing I say here is going to be aimed at any one person but a group as a whole and while I will be using Australian terms here (no, not "Australian Slang"), aspects of this can be used in any other country with similar issues.
For people both inside and outside Australia (assuming you have no idea about this country's classification system) the R18+ rating is one of the highest ratings in the Australian Classification system, our version of the ESRB for example. For any form of audio visual entertainment (including cinema, pieces of still art, video games ect) a grading system is put in place to provide a basic idea as to the content said piece of audio visual entertainment may or may not contain and a recommended age barrier to stop kids from viewing things they shouldn't be viewing at their age. The rating goes as follows:
E (Exempt from classification): Generally on educational material and artistic pieces as they don't need to go through the Classification beau before they can be given to the public in some way, shape or form.
G (General): In a nutshell, its for all ages. Any person can see this as it is intended for young kids
PG (Parental Guidance): This is for material that kids would be better off seeing it with some sort of parental figure as it might have content that said parental figure has to explain.
M (Mature): Recommended for a mature audience, need I say more?
MA 15+ (Mature audience fifteen and older): Not only should you be mature, but you should also be older then 15 to view this material.
R 18+ (Restricted to people eighteen and older): In Australia, 18 years old is the age where you are, according to the law, an adult and have access to adult privileges such as drinking alcohol (assuming you haven't before hand...), go to night clubs and get these types of material. people working at the checkouts of stores like EB games or JB Hifi, under law, cannot and will not sell R18+ games, movies and TV shows to kids (make note of this).
X 18+: Pornographic material get this, nothing else
RC (Refused classification): "IT AIN'T GETTING IN THE COUNTRY UNLESS IT'S CENSORED"
One final piece of backstory you should get about the following issue is this: Any change to the classification system must be a unanimous decision by all the representatives of each of the states of Australia.
So whats the issue? The article is here http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/27/5849098/western-australian-commitee-wants-r18-video-games-banned-in-the-state but i'll provide the basic synopsis of the issue. "The Western Australian Joint Standing Committee on the Commissioner for
Children and Young People recommends in its Sexualisation of Children
report that the Classification Enforcement Act should "prohibit the
sale, supply, demonstration, possession or advertisement" of R18+ video games in the state." the English version of this statement is that they want to ban R18+ games from being sold or shown in that state along with limiting the showing of sexually explicit music videos. As for games, the R18+ rating for games was released to the public the first day of 2013, we've only had this for a year.
So why am I, a reviewer in Victoria, a state on the other side of the country taking this as a issue? The reason being is because, as I said before, the classification and censorship of any material is a national issue. The committee in Western Australia isn't going to have any luck with this in the state itself simply because, its out of the states hands, they can't do much about it realistically as its a national "issue". As such, they are going to try and impose this on the other states or people in the other states are going to agree with their values and try and do the same things as they are in the other states, meaning that adults such as myself are going to suffer because they are ignoring the bigger issue at hand.
The people in this committee are, quite frankly, bad parents.
I'm not saying this to offend anyone, however, when I read articles like this, one thing stands out to me and its the reason why they're trying to pass this in the first place. "We're to lazy to parent so we're going to make everyone suffer so that we don't have to parent". So what do I mean by this statement?
Parents nowadays are using the TV, the computer, the games console, the phone and the tablet do the parenting for them, most of the time because they're to busy to parent themselves and that fine, I can respect the reasoning behind this but you have to understand that your actually doing more harm them good in the long term, and this is for every parent who does this, not just Australian parents. Because of this, and the fact that more times then not, parents don't enable the parental controls in these devices to help protect their kids (and even then, there are ways around them), children are being exposed to material they shouldn't be seeing at their age, at all. Kids shouldn't be playing Call of duty or Grand theft auto unless their parents think they are mature enough to be playing them and yet, thousands of parents are letting kids play these games even though they know they shouldn't be playing them. Parents should say "no" to their kids when it comes to these things, you wouldn't let your child watch a R18+ movie, so why would you let them play a R18+ game, or even MA15+ for that matter?
As a child, my parents didn't let me see things until they thought I was ready to see them (this included not watching the news at all while 9/11 was still making the front page of news papers). When they thought I was ready, they watched it with me and if they thought they were wrong, they stopped it. When I got into High school and I started getting games on my own, if it was something that I never was allowed to play before then, I'd tell them that "I've been playing (insert game here) for a while now and (continue conversation here)" and to them, if I was telling them about it, I was mature enough to play them and have either good or bad times with them. While its ok to let a child explore things at their own pace, you still have to usher them in the right way, share experiences with them and they should, in time, respect you enough to let you know what was happening, that's how to be a parent, not just letting the TV on its own occupy them. You can't protect a child forever, all you can do is hope their ready to see what the world has (in some way, shape or form...).
If you agree with these, show this to others and let them see this, if you don't agree: let me know. Contrary to popular belief (for some reason) I'm open to comments. Let me know what you think of this and other posts, it actually reassures me that there are actual people reading these posts and not bots just trying to collect data of me. If I offended anyone, please be assured that it wasn't the intention of this post, that was never the intention.Will I make this a common theme, NO, I actually hated doing this as I know that this is a topic that easily offends people and I hope I never do it again. As to why I'm doing this now? The same reason why I'm doing the impressions now, I wanted to finish the Transformers Marathon. As I said earlier today, the next post is going to be Hyrule Warriors.
My complaint stands with the Smash bros players, and tier lists in general. I learned how to play Brawl by playing as Meta Knight, did I know the tier lists existed? No, did I like being over powered? Yes, I'm power hungry in games like Smash bros, with my other main charactes being Luigi, Peach, Kirby, Samus (not Zero Suit), Captain Falcon and Sonic (with Lucario and R.O.B being the runners up). The reason why is because they fit my play style. Fast, can deal a hit, but also funny. I always laugh when I get the chance to yell "ZA WARLDO", when I get the chance to land a Falcon Punch, zipping around as Super Sonic and getting everyone into Kirby's Pot. I don't like people that take Smash bros seriously as it is intended to be fun. Smash bros isn't Street Fighter, its not Tekken. It shouldn't be taken seriously because of the source. How can you take a game that has Mario fighting Sonic in a Animal Crossing village? You can't, and the people who try are the reason why "Final Destination only, no items, Fox only" memes exist. I can play competitive and I do so every now and then, but I still like having fun in my games. For Fun or For Glory? For fun, but every now and then For Glory for me at least.
Check Blaster's Projects to find out what's coming up for Blaster's reviews throughout June.
So why do I hate Micro Transactions but like DLC? while I have explained my impressions on Micro Transactions in my post on iOS and Android games, I didn't cover DLC and here's why.
Downloadable content in games to me is a good thing... if done right. Costume packs: depends on the costumes within them that makes me want to purchase them. Added maps: Sure. Extra plot: YES PLEASE (but that depends on the game), but the one time I HATE DLC is if the developers have purposefully withheld content in the game just to have DLC, even if the content is still on the disk. I was at a JB-HiFi today and I saw a pamphlet for Call of Duty: Ghost's season pass, with 4 different DLC packs inside. Ghosts came out in November (exact date depends on system and country) and for there to be 4 different DLC's for the game tells me that they held back content for the game before releasing it (which is another reason why I hate the franchise (rant for another day)). If the content adds aspects to the game and is released after a decent duration of time has elapsed (like Harley Quinn's Revenge for Batman Arkham City), then I might pay for it. THOSE 4 PACKS SHOULD HAVE BEEN INCLUDED IN THE F*&!^$@ DISK!!! At the same time though, I want developers prioritize aspects of their projects, DLC should be a last aspect when the game is finished. WHY DID SONIC '06 GET DLC BUT WASN'T PATCHED?!?!?!
So what makes DLC better then Micro Transactions? There isn't anything forcing you to buy the DLC. Even if the reviews are good, the only one who can decide getting DLC is you. For Micro Transactions, to me it always feels like the developers are gently encouraging you to put money into this. "What's this, you want to keep playing for another 3 hours? Give us a bit of money and you can." "This character costs 2,000,000 points to unlock? Pay $2.50 and use them now". It really pisses me off to no end.
Ever since Zero Suit Samus was reviled, people have been furious about her design, saying that she is over sexualized because its the Other M design and the fact that the jet boots are heals. Is the internet really that pathetic?
I'll start with the fact that their using her Other M design. People have made the argument that is makes her as "weak" as she was in Other M. The first thing to realise is that this Samus doesn't follow the laws of the games but a Manga series where she has Post Traumatic Stress disorder when she sees Ridley, who she thought she killed so in that context, it makes sense. Her voice acting was just a result of poor localization so I'm not going to include that argument here.
Her "over sexualisation", IF YOU FINISH METROID 1 FAST ENOUGH, YOU SEE HER IN A BIKINI, HOW IS THIS WORSE? As for her bigger breasts, how can you tell the difference when comparing Smash 4 and Brawl? (but that depends on the screenshot). Another aspect to her over sexualisation was that this design was made by Team Ninja and when people saw the fact that her Power suit was her Other M design, was anyone really surprised that her Zero Suit would get the same treatment?
And now the Jet Boots. I actually like the design of them. Considering other Jet Boot Designs of the past, this design actually works for Samus. They look light, look like they have high mobility (considering the design and the function). To me, it also looks like they could have springs in the heal as well to boost her jumping ability. My only complaint is that it looks like the heals fuel storage looks likes it uses TARDIS Technology (bigger on the inside), but in its defence, there isn't a lot of places to store Rocket Fuel that keeps her mobility. It works for the character and actually makes her look playable. I'll try using her when the game is released.
This is more of a rant then it is a review, it should also be noted that these are just general terms and unless told otherwise, do not relate to any specific game.
iOS and Android gaming, oh how I hate thee so. Unlike most people nowadays, I couldn't give less of a crap about iOS and Android games even if I tried. To me, it is infuriating to see those games. I will admit that I have played a few and there are some I generally enjoy, but for the most part, unless its a port of a game, I don't play it.
And now for the reason why: iOS and Android apps are designed to be small, easily downloadable and easily be erased. Because of this, I feel that the games that are produced have little to no effort put into it. I want to divert your attention to Candy Crush and its developers. Candy Crush is just Bejewled with different textures. If it was just Candy Crush, I would live with it but the developers have released 2-3 other games that are, once again, BEJEWLED WITH DIFFERENT TEXTURES. All for a quick buck. If it was Candy Crush 2 or something similar then I wouldn't care as much but their claiming that its a new IP, that it is a completely new game when its anything but.
Another reason why I hate iOS and Android games, Ads and Micro Transactions. If you get a game for free off of the Apple App Store or Android App Store, then chances are, one of the two (if not both) are going to be in that version of the game. It frustrates me to no end this lame excuse for money. IF YOU WANT MONEY FOR THE GAME, THEN SELL THE GAME AND NOT PUT IT UP FOR FREE!!! I don't want to have to wait 24 hours to complete a game session, nor do I want to pay to complete said session. I don't want to pay for WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN INCLUDED IN THE F&!#^)! GAME TO BEGIN WITH (though I will pay for DLC, but I'll explain why at another time). I don't want to watch a add every 5 F&^$*(! minutes just to get s$%@ done.
And finally, the last nail in the coffin. The argument that iOS and Android systems are better then portable game systems. BULL@*!^. iOS and Android systems will never be able to keep up with portable consoles like the 3DS and PSVita. The reason: because their not designed to be gaming consoles, their designed to be PHONES AND MUSIC PLAYERS. They are phones and mp3 players first and games are thrown in second or at the last moment where as the 3DS and Vita, they are designed to be gaming systems. Are they more expensive? Yes. Are they worth the price? It depends on the library. Will they be going anytime soon? No, the reason: Because there will always be a market for portable gaming consoles, it might be a small market, but as long as there are the games that need the power of the portable consoles, there will be portables, even if its a laptop.
That is all that I'm going to say on the matter, I have finished my rant.
