MINI IWAI:
Mini Iwai, for those of you further behind, is a "sampler" show before the proper Anime Iwai in November. Other than a couple sound issues, the show went well! It was a really small event, and felt more like a party with vendor's tables set up as opposed to a proper con. No guests and a lot of panels that are interactive, like Discussions, Trivia and Game Shows. Still a fun time, though.
I'll get a table for the bigger event, since by then I should have some more, cooler stuff to sell by then.
I've finished playing VLR. It's a really good game if you liked Newgrounds Escape Rooms, and dumb pseduoscience. Next on my list is the final entry in the trilogy, Zero Time Dilema. Hopefully that provides a "happier" ending, because VLR ends on kind of an "Empire Strikes Back"-esque note.
Still, it makes me want to check out other visual novels and see what the genre has to offer. Of course, the pinnacle of the genre has been accomplished with "John Cena's Sexy High School Adventure"
FUTURE STUFF: Mizucon!
...Still don't know what time I'm playing....!
STATUS QUO STREAM:
Status Quo Streaming will come back... eventually. I think I'll go back to the old style of just playing whenever and uploading it on YouTube. I would like to make it a regular, planned thing, but my schedule is all nuts from my new job.
Lots
of interesting stuff in there, but that $30 price point without any
extra DLC is very hard to justify. I guess with the pre-order bonuses,
it's a little better, but imagine NOT being a Rock Band fanatic or
getting into it the first time and looking at that. The preorder DLC is
good, making for some great party times, so I can at least use that as
an excuse.
The problem is that I don't think the new features are worth $30 on
their own. Both are great modes, but I'll have to wait until we have
more details to see how deep they go.
Rockudrama looks stupid and ridiculous, which is exactly what I wanted from this.
The Rivals mode has me excited and if Pokemon Go is anything to go
by, people love being part of arbitrary teams. As long as the challenges
keep up like a Hearthstone or something, I can see people checking back
in daily to help out their crew.
-Fitbit: Are They The New Subject Of Numerous Thinkpieces?
Arcanon had a picture up on his instagram that showed he got 1337 steps
and I'm furious I can't embed those images into this website's CMS.
Either way, I'm glad this and Pokemon Go are helping people move around
more.
So, to make up for that, here's a picture of Fitbits and Vape Rigs:
-Echo Chamber Creepypasta: One secret episode that IU listened to at
6:66 PM it was really scary and Rhythm Bastard started screaming and
Jeff said how much he loves anime and Arcanon said how much he hated
anime and then hyperrealistic blood came out of my headphones.
-Miley Cyrus's "Can't Be Tamed"
Wow, where did all that shit come from? EDM has a habit of going from
0-60 in a matter of measures. It did chart the most interesting part of
the song, though.
It is possible to chart EDM, as evidence by Mr. Owen himself:
-Type Rider I was expecting to have a story like Braid or Limbo or
something where there was a greater story in the background, but it's
refreshing to see an edutainment game present differently than what
we're used to.
-Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing/Mario Teaches Typing were some of the
big games when I was a kid (at least that I could play while I'm in
school). Thought I question how much that really helped us with typing
since the whole "Home Row" thing never stuck. Like, as I type this it's
half muscle memory and half me looking at my keyboard and jamming shit
in as fast as I can and OH GOD I'M LOOKING AT MY HANDS WHILE TYPING I AM
NOW MANUALLY BREATHING SOMEONE HELP.
-The Daigo Parry Video we were talking about is impressive even without knowing all the mechanics:
This article as goes into detail on how this moment works, but what I
find fascinating is that Justin Wong could have won by DOING NOTHING.
In a game like Magic The Gathering, you can see the level of strategy
step by step. In Hearthstone, it also shows you the past few spells cast
so you can go back and see what happened.
But in fighting games, all of that happens at a way faster pace. If
you've ever had trouble pulling of a Shoryuoken consistently, imagine
having to not only be able to pull it off on demand, but also devote
mental energy to playing what is essentially MtG without the benefit of
stopping.
For me, this moment would be HBox's Bracket Reset at this past EVO:
No offense to Armada, who gave Hungrybox a HELL of a run for his
money and could have easily taken it, but he looks like someone or knows
someone who has unironically uttered the words "Cultural Marxism".
-Top tier meme:
-This is the Mew Card that was a promo for Pokemon The Movie 2000:
Translate: Mew w/ 30 HP 2 PSI Energy- Psychic: 40 Damage
-80's Overwatch Setlist has at least 2 not 80s songs on the playlist, but it's still got tons of fucking awesome jams: I'D RATHER NOT EPISODE 21 I see Mr. Robot all the time during WWE Raw, and the first episode got a little too close to home for me as far as his mental problems go. It's brilliant, but it got too real to me. Klingons wouldn't be that tough because of what's known as The Worf Effect.
For those of you further behind, Worf is a character on Star Trek: The Next Generation from the Klingon species. He's a warrior, but he always gets his ass kicked to show how tough the antagonist is as if to say "If they can be Worf, they must be the baddest mofo in the universe!" FUCK RONALD REAGAN The bit where we talk about Office Hours and the cafeteria sounds reasonable compared to the other shit talk about. I'D RATHER NOT EPISODE 22 60% of Twitter went with job security because, duh, millenials. 999 has 6 endings, and Virtue's Last Reward has 9. Though I think VLR has like 24 tracks. I've never read any HP Lovecraft shit, so my only "Cthulu God" knowledge comes from C'thun of Hearthstone, the Eldrazi in Magic The Gathering and Cthulu Saves The World. Benny's scenario in I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream's Good Ending, where this happens: This is article lays out all the things Finland does right in regards to schooling. Like alot of things the Scandinavian countries do, us Americans look at it and go "WHERE'S THE HARSH PENALTIES FOR FAILURE? HOW CAN WE FUCK OVER BROWN PEOPLE?" Me according to John and Andy:
Also, John is a fucking idiot, because I do not do leg day on a machine. SQUATS FOR DAYS, DEADLIFTS FOR EON, LOWER BODY GAME STRONG AS FUCK.
3:30 PM at the Double Tree by Hilton in Deerfield Beach, FL.I'll bre premireing a new song, and playing all the hits!
THIS WEEK'S JAM:
While at AFO, I finally got the second part of the Zero Escape series, "Virtue's Last Reward". I played the previous entry in the series, 999: Nine Persons, Nine Doors, Nine Hours. So far I haven't even seen an ending (of which there are AT LEAST 9), but from what I know of the previous entry, I love learning about the greater lore and the pseduoscientific bullshit that makes National Treasure plausible.
AFO RECAP:
AFO Rumble went really really well, all things considered. We didn't get enough people to do a proper royal rumble, but the matches we did have were OFF THE HOOK. Terrible Toad King was the Heel to my Face announcer, and
Ubers Cosplay put on a really good panel that served as a good Cosplay 101 class. Certainly a good primer for anyone wanting to learn a couple basic skills.
Got to particiapte in the Orlandia event this year, which is a card game that goes on every year at Anime Festival Orlando. This year I played some more of it, and it was really fun getting involved and going on the little quests they have laid out.
There were are also a couple raves over the weekend, one solely inspired by Undertale, where GameChops played some parts from their new Undertale Remix album. The other was just the general rave, but at 1:30 AM when I surfaced to catch some air (and because of my creak 28 year old man bones) I stumbled upon a group of 4 giving job interviews. It was fun, and reminded me of why I like cons in the first place.
-For those of you further behind, the "Nonary Game"
refers to an experiment from the Zero Escape game series where 9 people
are captured and and forced to play a game where they all try to escape
a harrowing situation.
While I've only played 999, the first game in the Zero Escape series,
the game is still worth a play, as it's filled with clever escape the
room puzzles, novel character development and enough junk science to
shake a stick at. In a way, it's very similar to the game version of "I
Have No Mouth And I Must Scream".
-MORPHOGENIC FIELDS!!!
-Resident Evil Outbreak
did exist, and I remember renting the game, but not progressing very
far, since the load times killed the thing. I'd like to see that take on
the game again. Left 4 Dead is a comparable game, but L4D is more
focused on combat, the early Resident Evil Series were focused on Puzzle
solving. Something like that (and my 999 game) is WAY too hard to
coordinate online, and AI opponents for something that would be way to
complicated.
-I was going to go line by line and show all the escape rooms by where each of us live, but there's a goddamn directory of these things.
-Potluck Simulator 2015 is yet another candidate for the Echo Chamber Game Jam. IMJUSTSAYING.
-There's an article here about the success of the room escape game as
a business. While it does address the concerns of a business, (repeat
customers, each game can only be played once) but doesn't address how
those problems are solved. The puzzles themselves are a great adrenaline
rush, and the 999 series add the intrigue and characters to get
attached to. But the Room Escape Businesses has all the former, but none
of the latter, so there's little reason to go back.
-Jeff, Game Show Addict would be curious to check out the YouTube Channel Buzzr:
Jeff isn't big on "YOUTUBERZ!!", but it's worth a watch and is the
closest thing us non-cable havers will have to some classic game shows.
-Also, the JackBox Party Pack is on Steam.
-Press Your Luck Scandal:
-Apperently the "Sonic Shitting In Tails' Mouth" thing is closer to science than we'd expect.
The "hedgehogs rub shit all over themselves" fact was mentioned no less than 100 time in the TBFP Sonic Adventure LP.
-RHYTHM BASTARD GON' GIVE IT TO YA!
-Game Dev Tycoon and Paolo has the right idea. Though I believe it needs an "Asset Flipping" option, and a Jim Sterling Expy.
I think I'm going to kick him a couple bucks for the Patreon, since his LPs keep me going at a long day of work.
-If there was a word to describe "Her Story", I'd say "Deliberate".
It's the same word I'd use to describe Silent Hill 2 as well. There is
no extra "stuff" for the sake of there being extra stuff, everything in
the game is place exactly how the "author" intended it to be. There are
queries you type down in Her Story where there's 6 videos, but you can
only see the first 5. That 6th video is the one you need to see, and
it's written in such a way that eventually you'll loop back there.
The logistics are mind boggling: Every word of dialogue had to be
planned out in advance, with the right words being said in the right
video, with every bit of dialogue matched to an exact point in the
story, and every response broken up in a way that serves both the
gameplay, but still feels natural. Damn.
I heard Gone Home is also in the same vein, a short, but well-crafted
experience, but Her Story has a biiiit more replay value in finding
all the videos.
