What We Can Learn From the Closure of Tango Gameworks

I was about to say “with the dust settling” on the situation with Microsoft and them closing down studios, but it isn’t settling anytime soon.  Because more are coming.  It has been released that a ton more people are about to lose their jobs and likely we will see more studio closures.  So the dust hasn’t settled.  Microsoft Gaming (not Xbox.  Not anymore.  Xbox is dead) is hoping that the Internet will move on and then they can quietly announce on a Thursday night when most gaming content creators are done for the day that they have ruined a fuck-ton of people’s careers again.

But one thing that has become apparent from the recent closure of studios by Microsoft Gaming is that it does NOT matter how successful you are as a gaming company.  It doesn’t matter how many acclaimed projects you make, or how much money you make from those projects, your position is not secure if you are a 1st-party company for a gaming megacorp.  That is the ultimate lesson from all this.

Tango Gameworks is the PERFECT example of this.  They have had some huge successes.  There was The Evil Within and The Evil Within 2, the former was a little bit divisive because of its camera system and the grainy aspect of it, but the sequel improved upon it immensely.  There was Tokyo Ghostwire, which was also a bit divisive, but there was room for improvement if they went forward with it as a franchise.  However, then there was Hi-Fi Rush, a game that was pretty, fun, and actually a nice AA surprise in the world of AAA gaming.

That game won awards.  LOTS of awards.  It was praised by critics across the board when it came out.  Gamers loved it too.  User reviews were just as positive as the critical ones.  Microsoft even came out and congratulated them on their success.  Phil Spencer himself went to Tokyo and was at a celebratory event talking about how proud they were of that studio and the people who worked there.  Guess those Tweets aged like milk.  Because all that success be damned, they were destroyed because anyway.

And WHY were they destroyed?  I couldn’t tell you!  By any metric, it makes no sense that this studio was destroyed.  As much as I disagree with it because one major failure shouldn’t damn a studio, I can at least see the corpo metric of what happened to Arkane Austin.  Redfall was a disaster (that they caused.  Arkane didn’t have the skills for this kind of game, but were forced to make it anyway), so they wanted to downsize.  But why Tango Gameworks?  A company that makes you money, that wins you awards.  What’s the metric behind destroying them?  What brain-dead corpo short-sighted idea (the only kind they have.  These companies are intellectually incapable of looking long-term) led to this closure?

It ultimately leads to one conclusion – selling your self to a major 1st-party gaming platform is a BAD idea!  That’s the thing to take away from all of this.  It is a terrible idea, and these smaller companies shouldn’t do it.  Because REGARDLESS of how much money they will offer you, how much they are able to offer in terms of bonus and budget for future projects, in the end, it doesn’t mean anything when they are able to destroy your future without a second thought.

That’s what Microsoft Gaming has done.  And now everyone is looking at Obsidian and Ninja Theory, thinking that they are the next to join their KD ratio.  Especially with Ninja Theory having a game coming out that Microsoft Gaming is not promoting at all.  Almost like they are expecting it to fail, and getting ready to screw over them next.  The vultures are circling, and everyone is worrying that they will be next.  A shame, because the next Hellblade game looks pretty dope.

The ultimate lesson in all of this is that selling your company to a major game company is a recipe for disaster.  We learned this with EA, now are are learning it with Microsoft.  If things keep going the way they do with Bungie, Sony will be doing it too.  It’s such an object lesson in why selling out to a major corporation is a bad idea.  The benefits it gives you is not worth what you stand to lose.  It’s better to maintain autonomy.  To go your own way.  Yeah, it means that things can be harder, but the creative freedom that it gives you is worth the risk that comes with it.

Because once you lose that, it’s gone forever.  There’s no getting it back.  A lesson to keep with you for the rest of your career, if you are a game dev who is tired of the AAA meat grinder machine and wants to strike out on the Indie path.

Until next time, a quote,

“And you pay for it.  You spend your lyrics layin’ waste to the big record corps, who’s going to sign you?  But give up your ideals, and no amount of eddies can buy ’em back.” – Johnny Silverhand, Cyberpunk 2077

Peace out,

Maverick

This Idea that Men Want to SA Women All the Time

Saw this guy with a microphone who was saying that he wished women could be men for five minutes.  His contention is that if they became men for five minutes, they wouldn’t be able to handle the sex drive of men and would SA the first woman they saw.  Because I guess they will suddenly be attracted to women if they are a man, regardless of how straight they were as women.  I find this mindset baffling.  I really do.  Yet versions of it come from these guys with microphones all the fucking time.  I hear this shit everywhere.

In my 20s, I went through a “nice guy” phase.  It was cringe as fuck.  I thought that I was such a good guy, and that women always choose jerks.  Turns out, I wasn’t all that nice.  I just wanted to believe that I was because I was upset at my lack of social graces that didn’t net me a partner.  I also had a bad habit of pursuing women who weren’t interested in me, or were outright spoken for.  It wasn’t a good look for me, and looking back on it now, it was so cringe.

However, at my worst, at my absolute worst in that point in my life, not one time, not ONCE, did I think to myself – “you know what, I should force myself on another woman!”  At no point, despite my potent sexual libido, did I think to myself that forcing myself on another woman was a good idea.  Because I thought about the women I was attracted to, and I thought to myself – why would I hurt this person?  Why would I force myself on this person who I want to be with?  Hurt them in a way that they could never recover from?  The very idea makes me physically ill.

Some people would be like “but Lucien, you are into the kink community, right?  Isn’t that kind of like forcing yourself on a woman?”  No, dumb-dumb!  See, in kink, if it is healthy, there are safewords, and agreed-upon boundaries.  You learn about your partner and are able to figure out what they are into, and what they aren’t, so you are able to be a better partner and get them where they want to go, sexually.  This is something that people whose only experience with kink is books like Fifty Shades of Grey don’t understand.

What really gets to me is how many men with microphones are out there talking about how much they could potentially violate a woman.  Are you sending a message, dudes?  It sounds like you are.  It sounds like you are quietly signalling that you have thought about or have fully completed SA-ing a woman, and that you’re comfortable just putting that thought out there.

The fact that more and more Gen Z men are taking people like these lunatics seriously is so disheartening, because this mindset about women is so incredibly toxic.  They reduce women to holes to stick their dick into.  They aren’t people, to men like this.  They aren’t human beings with thoughts and feelings and desires and aspirations.  Nope, just a living fleshlight.

I am 35 years old.  You know how many times I have thought about forcing myself on a woman?  Never.  Not once.  Because I don’t want that kind of pain weighing on my conscience, and potentially ruining another person’s life.  That’s not the kind of man I am.  It really kills me that for some guys, that is the kind of person they are.  And if you are the person who thinks about this and thinks that it is worth it to stick your dingus into a woman, I want NOTHING to do with you!  Ever!  Nor should anyone else!

If I knew a man who thought this way, and they decided to spout this bullshit to me in person, there would be a LONG conversation we would be having on why they are a fucking idiot and that if they decide to go down this path of thought, we can’t be friends anymore.  Because I refuse to associate myself with a sexual predator.

Until next time, a quote,

“I want men to be women for five minutes, surrounded by men who think like this.  You’re gonna learn very quickly why they’re choosing the bear.” – Will Hitchens

Peace out,

Maverick

What “High Value” Men Don’t Understand

I see so many videos where men talk about the attributes of a “high value man” and why women are lesser in value.  How they will depreciate in value over time.  It is an escalator when me go up, women go down.  Casual misogyny just bandied about by so many guys with microphones.  As I listen to this, there are some thoughts that occur to me.

See, the guys who think this way are ALWAYS trying to rationalize being a much older man and dating a much younger woman.  The truth is that they want a much younger woman to feel more impressive.  To give off the impression of greater virility.  Because they don’t see women as anything other than something to stick their dick into.  For real, women exist for sex, and nothing else.  NONE of the videos where they are rationalizing being with younger women do they even acknowledge that women are people.  That they have their own values and might not be interested in them to the same extent.  Women are just a series of holes, in their eyes.

Another thing that so many of these videos have is that men are talking about how women need to push out kids when they are younger, and that a high value man should be looking to get a young woman and knock her up.  This always baffles me.  Why?  Because I always think to myself – do the men in this exchange realize what they are entering into by knocking a woman up?

Not even talking about her not wanting to carry the fetus to term.  They don’t care what the woman wants anyway.  The men in these discourses see women as holes, so what they want doesn’t matter.  Just for the angle of being a man, they don’t seem to get what they are putting themselves into.

See, being a father is a HUGE commitment.  That’s what it is, fellas, a commitment.  One that carried a LOT of consequences if you aren’t ready for this responsibility.  For starters, the cost.  A new estimate has come out that shows that it costs over $18,000 per child to raise for one year.  That’s per child.  So these guys who post the wojack of a woman having five kids, that’s $90,000.  They can afford this?  With what job?

Let’s lay out some depressing facts for you.  Of millennials, over 70% of us are living paycheck to paycheck.  The cost of living keeps going up.  It is nigh-impossible for a millennial to buy a home.  As for Gen Z, the guys who are listening most to this stupid advice, your situation is even worse.  What’s more, it’s only going to get worse as things keep going.  So what job are you going to work where you are going to be able to afford $18,000 per child.  You want the woman to be a stay at home mom, right?  Well, that’s an additional cost.

To say nothing about the cost if you aren’t up to the challenge and can’t handle the responsibility.  If you decide to go out and get milk one day or go for a pack of cigarettes and never come back, then your problems have only gotten worse.  Because now you have to pay child support.  I worked for child support in the state of Alaska.  There, as with many other states, we had NO statute of limitations for child support.  Meaning that we will come after you for it for the rest of your life.  Your tax return?  Our tax return now.  If you come into winnings from the lotto?  Up to what you owe, our winnings now.  If you aren’t making any effort to pay on your own, we will come after your wages.  We will even come after your social security when you get old.

I cannot tell you how many guys in my alpha split when I was a caseworker would cry me a river about how they can’t handle the cost, and the whole time, I’m thinking – then you should have worn a condom, dude.  Having a kid is a commitment.  And if you aren’t ready to make good on that commitment, then you should be wrapping your meat.  Condoms are cheap.  Kids are not.

Speaking of financial commitment, it’s also an emotional commitment.  See, having a child means that you have to be a father.  The days of you chilling and gaming with your friends?  Best make peace with that being a less and less thing for the foreseeable future.  You have diapers to change, parenting to do, and other obligations that come with being a parent.  Don’t want to do that?  Want to have that be the sort of thing the woman who birthed the offspring deals with?  Well then, hope you have a woman who doesn’t decide to ditch your ass and find a man who will step up and be a parent.

To say nothing of the fact that there will be a child in your life who will look to you for guidance and leadership.  What does it tell a kid when dad essentially treats them like an inconvenience?  Having a kid means you have to be available and work to be a part of that child’s life.  This IS your life now.  And it will be for at least the next 18 years.  The alternative is you leaving and hopefully you have a good job, because now you have child support to deal with.  And a woman who probably hates your guts forever.

These guys with microphones talk about women like sex objects, to be knocked up by “high value” men, but don’t tell you of the insane obligation that comes with that.  But hey, if you wanna live that Andrew Taint life of thinking yourself super “alpha” and banging all the women you want, wait until you realize it has consequences.  Taint has kids, you know.  I can’t imagine what a deadbeat dad he is.

With so many of these voices in microphones and guys who take them seriously, do we really not understand why most women would rather take their chances with the bear instead?

Until next time, a quote,

“Like all men with microphones, they’re always continuously patronizing and condescending to women.” – Will Hitchens

Peace out,

Maverick

You Are So Boring (A response to Steve Shives)

This has to be the lowest of the low-hanging fruit.  The absolute peak of easy targets who are probably beneath me.  But dammit, this is just too fun!  I honestly thought that I was done with Steve Shives.  I thought this dude had reached the point that he wasn’t fun anymore and I would move on.  I left responses to social justice behind a long time ago, and I thought that Shives would be among them.  However, it seems that he realized that responses to pop culture stuff are more popular than diatribes yelling about how you are so much better than other people are more the rage on YouTube.  Except, he decided to basically have diatribes about how much better he is than other people, except it involves pop culture stuff.

Which brings me to today’s video.  You see, Shives has some thoughts about people who are big into hard games.  Games on the hardest difficulty or From Soft games.  This is such low-hanging fruit, but it is such fun all the same.  Let’s take a look.

I love how he opens with the statement that he isn’t a gamer.  Well, that was immediately obvious.  When you open not understanding why people like difficulty options and some people choose the hardest one, you definitely don’t need to tell me that you aren’t a gamer.  And yeah, as he says, that doesn’t stop him from having opinions.  But it does enable me to assume that whatever is about to leave your mouth is REALLY stupid.

As before, this guy has a bad habit of repeating himself.  In a long ramble making the same point over and over, he says “why are the difficulty settings even there?”  Because some people like a challenge.  Some people like to be put through their paces.  They get enjoyment out of conquering a difficult boss or a hard area.  Granted, there are people who take that shit a bit too seriously, and think that anyone who plays games on a lower difficulty setting are casuals, and they are annoying, but it’s good that these options exist for everyone who wants them.

Which always brings out the people who are like “well then, why can’t From Software games have an easy mode!?”  Simple, because it wouldn’t work.  From Software games are all about challenge in a way that is fair.  And by and large, it is.  An easy mode in their games would be next to impossible.  Would it be than enemies hit for less?  Then what about the enemies whose placement is meant to exploit ledges?  They can still potentially ice you in one hit by pushing you off.  Or enemies who you have to be smart about getting them away from the group and them finishing them individually.  If the whole group hits for less values, they are still going to mob you.  Now you just die slower instead of quicker.  The placement of enemies, traps, and challenges is part of the difficulty.  It helps you learn and area and be able to think on your feet.  Just take the enemies out?  Or have less?  That wouldn’t work.  Easier difficulties don’t take enemies away, they just make it not as difficult.  The logistics of making an easy mode for their games would break them. But I digress.

We then get Shives shitting on the people who like a challenge.  Because I guess someone or other explained to him the concept, and he finds it stupid.  Why?  ‘Cause everyday living is hard, so if he wants a challenge, he can do that.  Yeah, except here’s the thing, Steve – everyday living isn’t a video game.  Everyday living is something where you can’t get better at it by raising levels or leveling up skills or learning the boss’s attack pattern.  Real life can just suck shit no matter what you do.  Meanwhile, I can learn the pattern of Malenia, Blade of Miquella.  I can learn that unfair bitch’s way of fighting.  I can get my mimic tear to go at her from one side, while I come at her from behind and we katana that unfair bitch to death.  Moonveil Katana for the WIN!

He then makes the point, after a LONG-winded diatribe about how he isn’t shitting on games, that if a game is too hard, he won’t make it to the end.  Well then, Steve, play something else.  Or lower the difficulty.  See, that’s the thing about all of this – you can choose to git gud or not to git gud.  You can choose to be invested enough to take on higher difficulty, or to be more about the story and do that.  All of these things are within your power to choose.  Yet here you are, bemoaning people who pick the option of the path of more resistance.  Do you see the issue?

I love when he makes the comparison to watching a movie where you can’t get to the next scene.  So you basically treat games like interactive movies?  O-kay, I guess.  Man, don’t play Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth.  Even on the easier setting, some of that game’s minigames that give you the most interesting stuff with characters can be tricky.  And you don’t like a technical challenge.  Right?

It doesn’t shock me that most of the games this guy plays are mobile games.  He’s a casual gamer.  Someone who spends the bulk of his time gaming when he is taking a shit or sitting in the lobby at the doctor’s.  Okay.  That’s fine.  For real, if that’s the kind of games he is into, kudos.  But you do know that a lot of mobile games can get harder too, right?  Like if you play Angry Birds, it starts out pretty easy, but after a while it can get pretty mentally demanding.  Having you figure out where to send each bird against the enemy structures.  So even mobile games understand the idea of escalating difficulty.  Although, with the games he describes, it feels a lot more like the “game” that Jerry was playing in Rick and Morty where he is just pressing the screen and balloons pop.  Strikes me as a game Shives would like.

Why does it not surprise me that Shives was an English major?  Dude got his degree in English, and yet he doesn’t have literary analysis skills.  There’s some kind of irony to that.  Dude is media illiterate.  And he got his degree in something that is basically analyzing literature.  Kinda funny.

This video is like this look into the empty mind of Steve Shives and how dull of a person he is.  He plays Doom 2 and not only does he crank the difficulty down, but he then loads up a butt-load of cheat codes so there is no challenge at all.  And he says that he gets bored of the game after about a half hour.  No shit, dude!  Because you are basically just doing point-and-click victory.  Hell, with the right mods, you can literally make the game play itself.  And wouldn’t that be fun, Steve?  To make it so that the game plays itself?  You could do that with any game.  Then you don’t have to bother with the gameplay at all!  Or better yet, just watch the game cutscenes on YouTube.  I make compilations of my favorite characters in games.  Go check those out!  Then you don’t have to deal with any of the gameplay stuff at all.  Which seems to be what you want, since you have to make games so easy that they practically play themselves.

It’s so bizarre that he bemoans the idea of being challenged in a game so much, when he makes clear that he does everything in his power to make the game as simple as humanly possible.  Good for you!  For real, if you basically want to make gaming a brain-numb experience and don’t have a Steam account (he plays all his PC games on some Internet archives site), then you do that.  You should look into a Steam account.  There, you can find games you can mod that are so easy that the basically play themselves.  You don’t want difficulty, right?

He gets so annoyed at the concept of a game being hard.  Since the bulk of Shives’ content back in the day was him bitching about people not being nice to him, I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that people were shitting on him for playing games at the easiest setting.  Get trolled for being a casual, Shives?  Well, screw them.  You play games however you want.  Enjoy a game for not being super difficult.  If other people make fun of you for it, tune them out.  Not that you can.  Just like the last time I checked up on you, you make content to bitch about the people who aren’t nice to you.  And just like those days, you don’t name names or be specific about the people who are annoying you enough to make this content.

And that’s as far as I’m going to go on this.  It was a video that was just too easy and too low-hanging fruit for me to ignore, so I decided to make fun of it for my own easy content.  Sometimes I don’t like to play making posts on here on a higher difficulty, Steve.

Until next time, a quote,

“I think I figured something out, Beavis!”
“What?”
“This sucks.  This sucks more than anything has ever sucked before.” – Butthead, Beavis and Butthead Do America

Peace out,

Maverick

Phil Spencer Needs to Go from Xbox!

In case you didn’t know, Microsoft announced today that a couple game studios that were acquired along with Bethesda were shuttered.  I speak about Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin.  This industry is in trouble, with company after company destroying THOUSANDS of jobs, all to save a quick buck and to help the shareholders stock price.  Xbox themselves did a lot of this a year or so back, when they basically gutted a lot of their in-house studios like 343.  Though, in that case it is no worse for wear, given how badly they have ravaged the Halo IP.

Tango Gameworks released The Evil Within and its sequel.  Both of which were interesting games, though the first had its problems.  Arkane, meanwhile, released Dishonored and its sequel as well, both of which were criminally-underrated stealth masterpieces.  The former is so ironic, considering that they just announced how much of a huge success Hi Fi Rush was.  Guess it wasn’t enough of a success for them to Not shit-can everyone who works there.  Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, said that he was looking to grow their interest in Japan.  Well, they just closed the only Japanese studio they have.  So I guess that was a lie.

You know what else was a lie – the statement that there would be no more layoffs in the immediate future.  Guess they left that one by the wayside, huh?  I remember Phil saying that the situation being so unstable was unfortunate, and that he was hoping to be able to build up faith people have in the companies they work for again, because the lack of faith hurts production because it’s harder to find people who are invested, because they figure they are about to be shit-canned as soon as the project is over.  Well, Phil, I guess that thought process is out, isn’t it?!

Arkane has made some great games, and their only crime recently was Xbox forcing them to make a live service game that they CLEARLY didn’t have the know-how or drive to make.  They TOLD Phil and Xbox management that this isn’t their wheel-house, and they were forced to make it anyway.  When the game failed, which everyone with any finger on the pulse of gaming saw coming, they destroy the entire studio for it.  Hundreds of people out of a job, all because they didn’t do well on a game that they outright said they didn’t have the ability to make.  Real self-fulfilling prophecy, isn’t it?

Phil Spencer ABSOLUTELY should take the blame for all of this.  This man is a fucking idiot.  More studios have been shuttered this year than 1st-party games released on Xbox.  There is a rumor, which I admittedly take with a massive grain of salt, that Xbox’s finances are so bad that they are actually considering putting all of their 1st-party content on other platforms, namely the PS5.  Even Halo isn’t off the table.  Which admittedly would be awesome.  Not for the crap that 343 has produced, but the quality games from Bungie.  Being able to play Halo 3: ODST on my PS5 would be a dream come true.

Spencer tells lies to the gaming public, but then stabs the people who make their games in the back.  The product that Microsoft is desperately trying to take gaming to, the Game Pass, is not doing well.  Following the events of today, some YouTube gaming commentators are sharing links for how to close your GamePass account.  I don’t blame them.  Xbox needs to pay for this.  There needs to be a tangible loss for the way they have treated the people who work for them.

But hey, not everybody is mad at Phil Spencer.  Why, Mike Ybarra of Bethesda is actually an apologist for him.  Saying that Phil is hurt so much by all of this, and that he’s only human.  That he’s a good person and cares deeply for the developers and the “creative process.”  That everything at Xbox is better because of Phil’s leadership.  Damn, Mike, is there anymore of Phil’s cock you can suck?  Does he approve of the unrelenting ball-washing you’re giving him?  I should hope so.

All Phil Spencer is giving Xbox is failure, at this point.  I feel bad for people who are still big on their consoles.  How gypped they must feel.  Having essentially big paper-weights.  More studios have been shuttered this year than 1st-party games have been released.  That’s where Xbox is at this point.  They are trying to find ways to plug holes in their brand’s sinking ship.

When I first heard the rumors that Xbox was leaving the console market and going third party, I was actually pretty impressed.  It would be the smart play.  This company CLEARLY can’t handle this sort of thing anymore.  They buy up studios left and right, only to do fuck all with them.  All they wanted was Call of Duty.  That’s it. Everything else is window-dressing.  Between Todd Howard being an idiot, Phil Spencer being full of shit, and whoever is actually in charge of Activision Blizzard, the Xbox brand is a three-ring shit-show.

And you know what the response will be.  Phil will go on some podcast that kisses his ass and talk all about how hard it was for him and how he would love to work with the people he just screwed over again.  Lots of fluff and bullshit, so people don’t think about the horrible shit he has done.  As always, Phil will walk away from this unscathed.

But he shouldn’t.  The man should be fired.  The man should lost his job over this.  Every decision the guy makes is bad, and now he is shown to be nothing but a weasel and a liar.  Xbox needs a better class of leader.  The guy can’t even bankroll games that people want to play anymore.  Just look at their 1st-party lineup last year.  Hi-Fi Rush, and…that’s it.  Starfield?  Don’t be silly.  Only people who swallow everything that Bethesda puts out wanted that.  And just look at the road ahead for that game.  One major piece of story DLC, and all their quality of life patches have been lame as fuck.

This guy is an idiot and needs to go.

Until next time, a quote,

“This guy wants to tell me we’re living in a community?  Don’t make me laugh!  I’m living in America.  And in America, you’re on your own.  America’s not a country.  It’s just a business.  Now fucking pay me!” – Jackie Cogan, Killing Them Softly

Peace out,

Maverick

Lucien’s Gaming Clips: Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

For so long, I’ve had compilations that I want to make, but I haven’t had the drive to actually do it.  For two years, I’ve kind of been neglecting my YouTube channel.  Well no more!  My drive is back, though, with a game that I’ve been majorly obsessing over for the last month or so.  I know you all might be tired of it, but I’m not.  With how these games do New Game Plus, I have been able to go through and get all the cutscenes that I wanted to get for the best parts of the game.

First up, there is the complete compilation of Vincent Valentine’s cutscenes.  Having Marc Mercer as the voice of the character is such good casting.  The next game will let us use him in combat, and you better believe that he is going to be a central member of my party.  Him, Cloud, and Tifa.  My badass tri-fecta.  I’ll still play around with other characters and other groups so I can make sure to be ready for any situation, but those three are my favorite characters in this franchise, and that’s going I’m going to do.

With all that being said, here is my complete compilation of scenes of Vincent in this game.

It’s cool that we get to see his Beast form limit break in this game as a boss.  If the next game doesn’t have his badass Limit Break abilities with him turning into monsters, I’ll be sad and mildly upset.  That was part of the fun with Vincent.  His regular form wasn’t super tough, but his Limit Break forms were absolutely broken.  I will say that I hope they are able to make the whole deal with using Synergy Abilities to power up your Limit Break gauge more streamlined in the next game to assist with this.  Rebirth can be picky when it lets your characters level it up or not.  Which is a shame, because it meant that I wasn’t able to see certain characters best Limit Breaks.

I love the thumbnail I got for this.  Cait Sith is a lot of fun in this game, when he isn’t being a little turncoat.  I love how in Rebirth, you got time to interact with all the party members and build up your repore with them.  I am REALLY hoping the next game keeps that going.  Sure, I doubt we’ll be having dates at the Gold Saucer, but it would be cool to have it affect other things.  It’s just nice to have a good reason to get to know your team members and interact with them.  I would have anyway, because I love these people, but it’s rad to get an incentive.  Maybe have certain things in game that depend on what level your relationship is at with certain characters?  Just throwing that out there.

Next up, we have the relationship between Cloud and Tifa.  My favorite gaming couple in a LONG time.  What’s more, I got the best scenes of their relationship not just from Rebirth, but from Remake as well.  Granted, I wanted to have more scenes of it, but PS5’s editing app, ShareFactory, doesn’t let you have scenes over 60 minutes.  Which is bullshit, by the way!  They let you get 80 minutes of footage together, but you can’t make a video past 60 minutes.  Fuck that!  Deleted a lot of stuff to make this.  Nothing major.  I still got the meat and potatoes of the best scenes, but still.  It sucks I couldn’t go further with it.  Don’t know what I’m going to do for my next big compilation idea.

Anyway, here it is –

I know I’m a bit obsessive about this game, but I’m actually enjoying my inner child finding something to be passionate about again.  I hope you all enjoy this too, and are as excited as I am for the next game.  My next big compilation idea is the greatest bromance in all of gaming – Commander Shepard and Garrus Vakarian.  Stay tuned.

Until next time, a quote,

“Save it.  I’ve had a pretty shit day.”
“What a coincidence.  So have I.” – Vincent Valentine, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

Peace out,

Maverick

Top 10 Video Game Guns (2024 Edition)

A decade is a long time.  Almost a quarter of my life.  Getting older.  Feel older.  Emotionally, physically, mentally.  I feel like I’m an older man who doesn’t fit in in the modern world.  But that’s not what this post is about.  Video games have some pretty dope guns.  There are weapons that can blast things to bits, and ones that are just fun.  Ten years ago, I made a list of guns that I thought were pretty dope, but we’ve come a long way since then, and I’ve gotten to see a lot cooler weapons.  What’s more, I think my original list was a little rough.  So I made sure to pick weapons that I think are the coolest ones.  These are guns that stuck with me and I would love to have.  Let’s get to it.

10. Gae Bolg
The Last Remnant
This is one of the most criminally-overlooked games in Square Enix’s library.  This game had a lot of cool elements that fell by the wayside.  This was back when they were doing a TON of random games outside of the Final Fantasy franchise, trying out new things.  Of the trippy weapons in this game, there is the Gae Bolg.  This thing is a cannon that David can summon into battle.  And let me tell you, when this cannon comes out, whatever it is shooting at is either going to be dead, or injured in an insane way.  The weapon is insanely powerful, and always fun to use.  What’s not to love?

9. Fontech Pistols
Tales of the Abyss
It always bugged me that we never got a character who could use these weapons.  Instead, they are wielded by Legretta, one of my favorite bosses in this game, and an interesting character.  One of Van’s loyal lieutenants, she is behind him no matter how evil his plan is, and uses guns that channel fonons into them and use them instead of bullets.  They are cool to look at, powerful, and come with some crazy attacks that I wish I had been able to use with a character.  Alas, no such luck.  Tales of the Abyss is my favorite game in the Tales franchise.  Would LOVE to see what these weapons would do in high def.  Just throwing that out there.

8. Portal Gun
Portal franchise
These games are so fantastic.  Especially the second one.  The portal gun is a fantastic weapon because it isn’t really a weapon at all.  It’s a puzzle-solving tool.  An extension of the weapon from Valve’s dead franchise, Half Life, this weapon exists only to help you through the puzzles in the game.  It takes a bit of getting used to, but by the end of the game, using it is second nature.  Not the flashiest weapon on this list, but cool all the same.

7. Cerebral Bore
Turok II: The Seeds of Evil
This gun!  This fucking gun!  This weapon was so horrifically impractical, but it was so fun because of its gimmick.  See, this gun doesn’t fire normal bullets.  Instead, it fires a homing device that homes in on one thing – the head.  The weapon’s name is literal.  It fired a projectile that crashes into the target’s head and then bores its way inside, spewing blood and brains everywhere before then exploding and sending the rest of the head everywhere.  It’s such an impractical weapon in the heat of battle.  The lock-on mechanic wasn’t great.  It was slow.  But dammit, it was just too much fun!  I cannot tell you how amazing this would look with modern gaming.  Right behind the opening from Galerians, where everyone’s head is exploding, there is this.  Modern gore effects would make this weapon a gruesome masterpiece to watch.

6. Ebony and Ivory
Devil May Cry franchise
You really can’t get much more iconic than these two guns.  After his sword, these are the signature weapons of Dante, the protagonist of the franchise.  They never run out of bullets, which is good because you use them as part of the larger arsenal, to keep your combo chain going and raise that rank as you slice and dice and blast your way through the demon hordes.  They look cool, are fun to use, and are part of Dante’s fun arsenal.  What’s not to love?

5. BFG 9000
Doom franchise
The Big Fucking Gun!  Oh yeah, this weapon is just too much fun.  From when it debuted in the original Doom, to the latest entry.  Every time this weapon enters the fray, a lot of demons are going to get blasted to bits.  My favorite iteration of it was in the 2016 reboot.  That game let you hold the weapon choosing wheel, and it slowed down time.  This was fun because if you fired the BFG before doing this, the blast would incinerate demons at the same speed as if time was going faster, but it was slower so it would hurt enemies for longer.  Great way to cheese a hard area when you are running low on ammo and health.  This weapon is too much fun.

4. Composite Rifle
Final Fantasy VII: Remake and Rebirth
It’s kind of a shame that this weapon doesn’t have an actual name.  It feels like it deserves one.  The signature weapon of Rufus Shrina, I kind of love this gun.  It’s a weapon that was made as both pistol, automatic weapon, shotgun, energy blaster, and even a physical cudgel when Cloud gets in too close and he needs an out.  This weapon is kind of awesome.  It does it all!  The fights with Rufus are a standing refutation of the idea of getting greedy.  For real, you get greedy in that fight, you’re gonna die.  A lot.  You have to be cozy with dodging and hitting him when his guard is down.  It’s a battle of attrition, and one you can win if you are patient and quick.  How people can play that game at 30 fps is beyond me.  Still, this weapon is dope, and I’m sure it will make another appearance in the next game.

3. Arm Cannon
Metroid Prime
I’m excluding the sequels.  The first game, as far as I’m concerned, was the best in the franchise.  It never got better than the first one.  And the arm weapon additions never got better than in this one.  It genuinely blows my mind that no other developer has tried the metroidvania style of game with FPS combat outside of this franchise.  Did Nintendo copyright it or something?  And what made it all work is this weapon.  The arm cannon of the Varia Suit that Samus Aran wears into battle.  It can blast plasma balls, electric waves, slower ice rounds, and then badass fire lances.  Then, when Samus is juiced up w/ phazon, you can unleash hell on the titular bad guy.  This was an awesome weapon, in a game that I think was the best that its associated franchise would ever be.

2. Malorian 3160
Cyberpunk 2077
I love Johnny’s gun!  The signature weapon of Johnny Silverhand, this weapon was specially made for him by the company in the name.  He commissioned the creation of this weapon, and you can see why when you wield it.  This gun is so fucking bad-ass!  Anything it hits, it fucks up!  Heads pop like zits, limbs blow off, guts fall out if you kill them with a gut-shot.  Only enemies with some serious armor cyberwear are standing up to this weapon.  At least in V’s time.  In Johnny’s age, whatever this weapon hit, it killed.  If not in one shot, in two or three.  Save for a couple special examples of enemies that were ‘roided enough.  It looks cool, is fun, and the way that Johnny and V draw it from the holster is fucking dope.  This gun is too cool for school.

And my favorite video game gun, as of 2024, is…

1. Cerberus
Final Fantasy VII (franchise)
The signature weapon of Vincent Valentine!  It kind of bugged me that he didn’t have it in Rebirth, but I’m sure we will get our hands on it in the next game.  Or we fucking better, anyway.  This three-barreled death dealer is the weapon he is most known for, with the chain hanging off of it that has the dog’s head symbol.  This gun is cool, powerful, and so completes the look of Vincent.  You cannot imagine how excited I am to be handling this weapon in the next game.  It’s as iconic to me as the buster sword that Cloud wields.  Can’t have this weapon in my arsenal soon enough.

What are the guns you like most in gaming?  Let me know in the comments.  Lots of cool ones to choose from.

Until next time, a quote,

“The grand metropolis, where the Ancients once gathered to pray.  Thought lost to time.  Until today.” – Vincent Valentine, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

Peace out,

Maverick

The Insane Reaction to a Single Question – Man or Bear?

Recently, there was a question that has ignited some of the very worst of what my gender has to offer, and been a standing refutation of the idea that the women who feel this way are wrong.  See, someone asked a bunch of women in one of those ambush street interviews that some guys do and asked them a simple question – if you had a choice to be alone in the woods with a man or a bear, which would you choose?  The answer that was given ended up igniting the very worst of what men have to offer women, and validate so many’s disdain for them.

See, the overwhelming majority of these women chose the bear.  And rather than try to understand the reasoning behind this, men decided it was a golden opportunity to shit on women.  The amount of misogyny that came out of the floodgates following this video going viral was absolutely out of control.  The fragility of masculinity has been on display like never before, from men who feel affronted and have taken this point of view ENTIRELY too personally.  Boy howdy, have they ever taken it all personally.

For whatever reason, so many guys have taken this perspective women have, and think it is a statement about themselves, and now they are lashing out.  You learn a lot about a person when their pride is hurt, and we have learned that a lot of men who are self-proclaimed “nice guys” actually are ugly people inside, who will turn on women the SECOND that their precious ego is hurt because women don’t feel safe in the woods not with them, but with men in a general sense.

What they don’t realize is that this wasn’t a statement about any particular men.  It was a statement about one in general.  See, a bear is an animal.  Like most animals, they are generally predictable.  Like most animals, they see humans as a threat.  One to be avoided, if at all possible.  LOTS of generational trauma there.  Most attacks on people from bears come from mama bears who are protecting their cubs.  A mama bear is a VERY dangerous thing.  Or you have bears who are wanting to fatten up before the winter comes.  Just ask Timothy Treadwell how that goes.  Him and his girlfriend paid the price for his hubris, going into bear territory during the time when they are fattening up for the winter.  But overall, bears are fairly predictable, and if you avoid them, they will avoid you.

Men, on the other hand, are a whole other deal.  See, a man could be any number of things.  He could be a sane person, who will want to get out of the forest that he is alone with the woman in.  Or he could be a psychopath.  Or he could be someone who up until now has had no opportunity to get what he wanted from a woman, and now, all alone in a place that is remote and nobody around for help, a new side of them comes out.  The side the actually hates women.  That hates that they have no skill with women, nothing desirable about them that makes women want to pursue them.

There is a growing contingent of men, especially in Gen Z, who are becoming more and more conservative.  All while more and more women are becoming progressive.  These men are being poisoned by talking points about how women owe them sex if they are nice to them.  That women owe them sex if they go out on a date with them.  That if they treat them poorly, that will help them stay in a relationship longer.  It has gotten to the point that more and more women are done with trying to find the rational, sane men in the dating pool, and are instead choosing to enjoy being single or to seek companionship outside of a romantic way.  To have positive social networks or fur-babies that they can look after and bond with.  Because the alternative is wading into a sea of men who are so angry and bitter that you start to wonder why they are looking for love as well.

Except they aren’t looking for love.  They hate women, from the bottom of their little black hearts.  No.  What they are looking for is sex.  They see women are just a living fleshlight to wrap around their dick.  Everything a woman does entices them, because all women are nothing more than whores in their eyes.  It is these precise people who are now mad that women would take their chances with a bear than with a man.  Especially one in their own age group.  All of the gals queried were Gen Z women in their 20s.  Women who are seeing their options grow less and less because more and more guys are being inculcated into this mindset that women owe them, and they have to treat women like living sex toys if they want a relationship to last.

But I gotta admit, some of the salty butthurt from guys is a little hilarious.  You get things like this piece of incel AI artwork  –

This makes absolute sense to me.  Of course it does.  Men would rather spend time with monsters that were the manifestations of James’ infidelity.  His desire to get his rocks off and seeing the women around him as something to put his dick into.  Yeah, I am 100% understanding of the mindset at play here.  It fits in so well with the way the butthurt men see the world and the women in it.  If they don’t titillate them, what’s the purpose of them?

When I hear women talk about the minefield that is modern dating, and how many of them have decided it just isn’t worth it anymore.  The very men that they are tired of dealing with are the exact men who are now feeling slighted because women don’t trust being alone with some random guy than some random bear, and feel like it is an insult against them.

I get why women are choosing the bear.

Until next time, a quote,

“If men continue to only care about having sex with women, more than the humanity of the women they want to have sex with, are we starting to see why women choose the bear?” – Will Hitchens

Peace out,

Maverick

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth Does New Game Plus Right!

I’m FINALLY getting back into making compilations of some of my favorite moments in gaming, and one of the things that I really like is how Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth seems to be tailor-made for people like me.  When you get to the end of the game, it lets you play ANY chapter all over again.  What’s more, it gives you options!  So, say you are wanting to play just to get the story content.  You can play that chapter with all the side content stuff completed.  Or, say you missed something and you want to change things up.  You can then go into that chapter and make up what you missed.

The original game let you go back to chapters and finish stuff you hadn’t finished before, which always bugged me.  I want to go back and get some story stuff!  I have this idea for doing a compilation between Remake and Rebirth of the growth of the relationship w/ Cloud and Tifa.  But the idea of playing all the way through Remake all over again sounds…tedious.  That game had a LOT of filler content.  Like, a lot-a lot.  It was my biggest complaint about it.  There were whole sections of that game that existed just to pad out the time.  The trainyard being the biggest example.  Or the stuff where you’re fighting your way to Shrina HQ at the end of the game.

I’m loving this thing that a lot of modern games are doing where they break their content up into chapters or kind of pseudo-levels.  In Uncharted 4, you could also replay any chapter to get collectibles or to just enjoy the story.  It was great!  For real, I loved every minute of it.  Since I game for story, being able to replay chapters of a game is like being able to re-read my favorite chapters of my favorite books.  And since Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth has made its way into my heart as one of my favorite games, I can be able to savor the best parts over and over again.

As for which compilation I’m doing first, it will be a shorter one.  I’m doing the scenes with Vincent in them.  The lack of stuff you can do with Vincent in this game is fucking criminal.  They are saying he will be a playable character in the next game, but damn it all, I wish there would be some DLC or something for this game to play around with him a little.  Like they did for Intergrade with the first game.  That would be rad.  If Square Enix ever confirms they are doing DLC for him, I will hold off on making this.  Or I will keep the finished video and then just add onto it.  Ideas, right?

In the future, I am planning on doing a compilation of Johnny Silverhand from the Phantom Liberty DLC, and the stuff I missed from the base game, but we’ll get there when we get there.  Shorter post today.

Until next time, a quote,

“Can’t have you dying on me.  Not yet, anyway.” – Vincent Valentine, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

Peace out,

Maverick

Cool DLC Ideas for Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

Yes, I am doing another post about this game.  I’m not sorry about that.  It’s been so long since I’ve had something I’m looking forward to like the third act in this franchise.  And while the story for this game is done, it would be nice if we got some DLC content.  Nomura has already said that he is hip-deep in the process of getting through the next game, so part of me thinks that any major DLC like they did with Remake and the Intergrade expansion is too much to hope for, but I would REALLY like to hope for it.  And with that in mind, here are some fun things that I think would be great DLC ideas for this game so we can keep the happiness going until the next game comes out.

More Queens Blood Content

I included this one first because we have already confirmed that Square Enix is doing this.  And honestly, it makes sense.  This is a fun little card game that they have created, and there is just not enough of it.  Being able to do one tournament on the ship was fun, but there REALLY needs to be some late-game tournament content.  Have the game’s AI really crank it up a notch to put your and your deck-building skills to the test.

It would also be cool if we get some cards that are either Easter eggs to the last game or some crazy things like a Sephiroth card or a Jenova card.  Easter eggs to the first game would be fun!  Have cards for the old gang who now all dead, or maybe a Johnny card when, when you play it, you get his shadow clone jutsu cards?  An Elmyra card that you could play in tandem with the Aerith card and really do some crazy things.  That dancing kid in the first game that you got to get everyone else to dance with.  Or an Andrea card?  So many ideas.

Story DLC with Vincent Combat

The first game at least had you seeing Red XIII in action, even though you couldn’t control him.  It was a nice introduction to how combat was going to work with him.  Then there was the Intergrade DLC, which allowed you to control Yuffie and learn her combat system.  It was good stuff!  It also got us some insight into her character ahead of her coming into this game, which was nice.

This game DESPERATELY needs that with Vincent.  I want to know what controlling him in battle will look like!  I’m imagining some kind of gun-fu, like John Wick sorta thing.  Or maybe active shooting combat akin to what Rufus uses in battle.  Either way, it sounds fun.  In the next game, my dream party is going to be Cloud, Tifa, and Vincent.  But we need to see what his combat looks like.  See what his Limit Breaks are too.  In the original game, his limit breaks were becoming progressively cooler monsters that you would then control in battle.  That would be AWESOME to see in-game!

Another thing that would be nice about some story DLC for him would be to get a look into his past.  The original game did not do very well at telling us what his story was.  What got him from being a very powerful and respected Turk to becoming a vampire in a coffin in the floor of the abandoned manor in Nibelheim.  We could make up for lost time here.

For those of you wondering “what about Cid?  Why not some story DLC for him?”  I’m not against that, either.  He talks about how he used to know Aerith’s mom when he was working for Shinra.  Maybe have some stuff where Vincent and him cross paths?  Maybe the two of them end up fighting together?  I don’t know.  But while Cid is a fun guy, the character I’m most interested in getting to know is Vincent.  I want to know what controlling him in battle will look like, and just like with Yuffie, they have a golden opportunity to show it, while also potentially giving us some backstory to one of the most mysterious characters in the Square Enix library.

More Outfits for the Characters

You know what bugged me – that we couldn’t have everyone dress up for the date night!  For real, they’re going to a show.  Let’s see some pizzazz!  Plus, I was kinda bummed we couldn’t dress up Red XIII and Cait Sith for Costa Del Sol.  I think Red in an eye-patch and a pirate hat or maybe some Jack Sparrow bracelets would be fun.  Or Cait Sith in a pirate hat with a little skull and crossbones on his cape.  That would have been adorable.

But for real, dressing everyone up for date nights would have been great.  Seeing Cloud going to the show in a tux sounds like the hottest thing ever.  Have Tifa have the dress she was wearing in the last game?  That wound be a neat carry-over.  Would LOVE to see if Barrett can clean up nice.  I know that it will be a cold day in Hell before Vincent dresses up for anything, so I’ll make peace with that as I have to.  Red XIII in a little top hat or something.  Cait Sith is already dressed up as a jester, so that’s fine.  I get the feeling Aerith would be a super femme dress.  She likes the femme-y look.  As for Yuffie, I picture her in something mildly adorable.  A cute little outfit with a long skirt.  Although, part of me would dig getting to have Aerith and Tifa rocking the Turk business suit too.  All of it sounds awesome.

The Ability to Make Custom Chocobo Races

You know what was awesome?  The chocobo races.  They were fun!  Taking the mechanics of that minigame and putting it into a multiplayer arena could be a game unto itself!  The irony is that all the shitty live service games that Square Enix has made, and I bet you money that they could market the HELL out of a live service of this game with tons of little cosmetics to sell.

But that aside, I think it would be cool if we could be able to create our own custom races with our own custom tracks.  If the tools for making it are robust, we would see some gamers create the tracks from Hell, going all Super Mario Maker with it and doing racing that can’t be done anywhere else.

Fixing the Last Act’s Pacing Issues

The last act of this game moves at break-neck speed.  It REALLY needed some quiet time.  Or a break between certain things.  In the original game, the Forgotten Capital is an actual dungeon where you fight bad-guys.  I think it would be rad if they expanded that out for this game as well.  Maybe have this be where Vincent joins you in battle?  If we’re not going to get any story content for him, this would be a FANTASTIC location to bring him into the game’s combat.  Even if we can’t control him in battle, it would still be cool to see what he can do.  Something needed to be done to fix how fast the end of this game moves and give us some time to ratchet up the anticipation and fear of what will happen to Aerith.  I mean, anyone who played the original or who has seen videos about the original knows, but it still needed to be something that we are afraid of.

And those are my ideas.  Let me know if you have any ideas in the comments.

Until next time, a quote,

“Death doesn’t suit a Turk.” – Vincent Valentine, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

Peace out,

Maverick