gaming Elena And Her Joystick

[Elena Ichinomiya]

I never been one who pull the trigger when there's something going on. If there's something viral be it good or bad, i normally wait for at least week to month to get the correct resource regarding the issue. However i can't help but think that this is the time i voice my concern about gaming community these days who seems either never get enough, or in worst case, didn't get what they deserve. Many games has become a running cult while some of them try to get their footing and manage to do so. And no, we're not only talking about developer but also the community that make the game float and relevant. If there's nobody give a dang about FF7, bet Square won't bother remaster it for example. Include RE2 from Capcom. But at least those two example are the good one where developer shows their affection toward the feedback and give it justice...though Square Enix need to stop with Nostalgia pander and continue their IP because apparently, i'm not alone who point this out. Anyway!

What make me concerned is...

"Well here's the joke. Rose are red, fix it later. Congrats loser, you ARE the fixer!"

GTA Trilogy : How To Not Remaster
I can't really shake the feeling when GTA Trilogy HD release their teaser. I know the graphic at the trailer also something to write home about but i had guts that what we see at the time, won't be as good as we think. Sure they keep the cartoonish design but i guess that might won the charm. I mean, we had many pixelated game include basic side scroller action but nobody complain so why not? But turn out, it wasn't the case after the release as there's buggy mess of a graphic running on every corner. I won't lie, graphical stretch and other wonky character isn't really damp my will to play the game. But the broken environment element such as rain is the one that stop me from the get go. Ugly character can easily be tossed aside at the cost of immersion value but environment isn't something that people can ignore as it dampen the game mechanic. Its okay if your game is shallow but if it doesn't work as intended, you are truly dip yourself in hot water.

Now come another concern that will become double edge. The modder. I can tell by the time GTA messing up and become sack of disappointment, Modder will make their move. Either because they really want to make the game great or because its their chance to show people they have modding skill by fixing popular game even though they don't give a damn about the game as a whole is up to anybody guess. But my theory is, TT (Take Two, screw it, let's call them that) know how big GTA community is and decide to release it anyway, because the KNEW people will fix it themselves. The only thing they need to get their hands dirty is to limit source code such as Hot Coffee because i'm pretty sure people won't let that feature go so R* had to get it out themselves. This is my theory but as you can tell by now...there's already LOT of fix. Now you know why i'm concerned because this might push the game publisher about this poor business behavior. Not to mention that GTA modding community is being witch hunted when they're the one who make the game aged well over the course of decade. 

So yeah, i can't really say the mod fix is blessing for those who already purchase this mistake. Or a curse since it drive Publisher to put shitty deadline on developer so they can release the game when its not ready even though the developer already warning them this won't end well...though for R* case, they ALWAYS make piss poor decision so i can't take side.

BETHESDA : That's Not How It Work
I can't really shake this feeling that mod is the one that drive such early release unless its an online only game. You won't believe me when i said Skyrim was pretty much wonky on their first release. Some mission didn't launch, or some refuse to be completed due to being soft locked, and wasn't visually appealing before the Legendary edition came out. But the kick on the shin is how they thought they can enforce price on the mod in which community frown at because putting price on mod in a game that already cost a fortune if they bought special edition etc, its not real charming deal. They know mod and gaming is inseparable and tearing them apart like TT and R* did is a spell for disaster. But thanks to Skyrim successful release, people concern about how the game was developed was muffled down easy. That is until it really shows its ugly head on Fallout 76. Again like i said, this is where the developer ugly head shows its ugly face because the game can't be fixed by modder thanks for it being online game or else you'll be banned for tampering the game internal file which would count as exploiting/cheating, Bethesda realize how screwed they are without outside help. 

That alone should give a clue that your product wasn't so great at all without people who care and this is what happen if you losing touch to the community. And Bethesda learn it hard way and they know if they pull Fallout 76, it cause even more damage hence they relent and fix the game and compensate those that feel scammed. Sure its disastrous, but at least they give an apology and fixes days or weeks later after the backlash, unlike TT and R* who still radio silent about the total game breaking issue when its clear they being pot head...

Wait hold on...

"Well...that sure age very well...NOT"

Genshin : How To Not Having Finger On Your First Birthday
This case is ridiculous and i might said worst ever mishandling of player base. While it has nothing to do with the modding community, they clearly went out their way to say "Dear Player, LMAO" in anniversary event. This one is a fine example of how a big company always find it good idea to downplay an issue and think people will follow because they had no choice. Turn out they gonna learn it hard way when they launch their anniversary event. You might read it before on previous post why the event is so bad, this game won record for being cancelled many times on twitter in gaming topic.

To be fair, the issue itself been started on the lantern event months ago before the anniversary. Not only it push people toward the purchase but also how stingy the reward is for those who participate. But at the time, Genshin still nobody so not much people cover the issue. It was until anniversary that it exposed to the element how the company use their playerbase as nothing more than a billboard. A free ads for them to spread the game existence. That only turn into crap-fest real quick. Keep in mind the event involving an fanart and cosplay only to be rewarded with stingy 100 gem (which later i found out its easy to get that much from doing daily and finishing BP) as if its prize worth dying for. Well, the game developer end up to be the one who died as they cave in and give proper reward.

If you have that much to give in the first place, why holding back? I mean, fanart and cosplay competition in online game been a thing since World Of Warcraft days and never once they messed up. And when they think they can run away, sorry not sorry to say, they failed this time and lambasted by both fanbase and now journalist. Seriously, what were they thinking? Is cosplay really that cheap on their region or perhaps nothing more but a daily clothing? It fail me in every aspect. If i had company, the last thing i do is corruptly manipulate fanbase because even if you're good at it, people will sniff you out one way another and it will always give you hell of a day. Keep in mind had people didn't speak out against this anniversary sting, Mihoyo would slip away and might do this again. Sucks to be popular kid ain't it? I don't envy them.

Now then...

I already run my mouth around the obviously bad example of how to not abuse those who give you stage to perform because not only its bad idea, it give you certain hellish day to went through. I mean, have doxxing on your inbox is already headache so why adding another? So let's talk about certain game that doing their best to crawl from the ground as of late...

"Wake the fuck up Samurai, we got city traffic to render! Or so help me!"

Cyberpunk : A Trainwreck That Wake Us
I know this game back in the 2013, a year when i'm still run around in twitter. First thing first, Cyberpunk isn't my turn on so when the game was teased, i easily ignore it. Heck i don't even know there's game called Cyberpunk 2077 until its release! And we all know the story goes from there. But i'm gonna skip that.

This game manage to capture everybody attention and even more so after the success of Witcher 3. Cyberpunk surpassed Witcher 3 pre-order as it manage to earn 8 million pre-order compared to 1 Million pre-order of Witcher 3. Its clear that many people expect great things when your company was in good grace and deserve that grace.

However things going downhill real quick as we know it. But as i promised, i'll skip that part.

What make me think Cyberpunk doing good among fanbase after the bombardment unlike those i listed above is how they choose to remain transparent without any BS excuse or radio silent. Its contrast compared to No Man Sky method but it work either way. Not only they decide to admit their guilt, compensating those who feel scammed on first day rather than delaying it with piss poor excuse when they already met the requirement for refund, promising focus on fixing the game completely (which is true at this point of this writing), reshuffle the staff management, issuing new roadmap and stick to it rather than forcing the impossible using the old roadmap. This is where i commend them because like i said before, if the core game isn't work as intended, even DLC wouldn't save you. They might lose much by doing this but they do it anyway and if fortune really favor them, i would bet this game would age well as much as Skyrim standard or maybe, GTA. If it were EA, we can tell what they gonna told us in attempt for damage control...

"You don't say"

The game manage to earn some ire from gamer but the moment they regret their mistake, they were genuine and not just by the BS twitter post but an actual action. I mean, look at those patch note! If this game managed by other developer, i don't think it would be that long and its pretty much well received. If they choose to downplay the issue, bet my arse the game has release a dang game pass just for the sake of the roadmap that doesn't work. So yes, i applaud CD Projekt in executing their retribution. And perhaps if Cyberpunk truly fixed, i might pick it up to my wishlist. Hey, i know this game is a greatest disappointment but when the company who make it really shows how sorry they are and showing effort to fix the mistake they made in the way that didn't offend anybody, its worth a praise regardless. Doesn't mean i support the idea of release first patch later though!

And there you have it. My concern regarding modder presence over a bad game that might push publisher even more toward bad release and how a company always downplay their player base feedback only to get bitten on the arse for everyone to see how bad you are on PR department. 

I won't judge those who choose to fix the GTA Trilogy, i won't judge you. I mean i always run to modder if my favorite game doesn't work so i can't say "let's purge modder so the game will be forever bad so the developer stop being lazy bum!" which would be hypocritic of me though i wish i could do so but i find it tedious to run a mob so i won't bother. This is just my opinion regarding why the game that so bad always been produced because the publisher aware how big the ecosystem is and know that the community will fix it for them sooner or later. Of course you can dismiss this theory but ever since Fallout 76 exposed, i can't help but think this is what running through publisher mind. They give us the sandbox without anything worth a note, because they know we will built a sandcastle (mod) out of whim and show it off (share) to the world. Meaning its a free fix for publisher part = less budget cost in game testing team.

That's so evil creative of you publisher!

...

...

Lazy mother humper...

Elena shutting off~

Edited November 16, 2021 by Elena Ichinomiya

[Elena Ichinomiya]

*Ahem*

Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun! Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun! Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun! Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun! Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun! Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun! Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun! Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun! Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun! Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun! Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun! Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun! Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun! 

"Well some people only know that part where the game said "welcome to duty commander" instead the actual theme actually"

Battlefield 2, released on 2005 for Windows and MacOS. The game is an FPS that focus more on hold the flag instead the casual shoot'em up at its time which make the game is not only distinguish themselves from other FPS, but also earning a longtime fans. The game provide the gameplay both online and offline mode which is basic standard for its time...unless we talk about THAT battlefield. And unlike the other FPS in 2005, Battlefield didn't rely solely on boots on the ground but littered with arsenal that you can use to gain advantage from a HUMVEE, Tank, and depends on the map, also has Aircraft unit.

The thing that make this installment stand out however, is a specialist feature. While in Counter-Strike you can be anything as long as you got guns, in BF2, you had specific role and weapons at disposal. However this restriction doesn't deter my experience at all as you had to adjust the role depending on the situation. When Tank raining in, you had to switch to Anti-tank. Enemy camp? Snipe them as, well, sniper! Think you had what it take to caught enemy in surprise? Take role as special forces which armed with C4 to sabotage the ride and battle point at any time! Think you want to stay in the back but want to be useful in a way? Take Engineer role! 

How Was It?
I play the game around its prime release though late by a year which mean at 2006. I wasn't sure what kind of game is this as i only know Counter-Strike as the only FPS in the world. And when i thought this was another shoot people silly, it turn out its more than that. Driving tank, cars, helicopter, jet, boat, buggy, van, carrier, APC, you name it. That's when i decide to give this game a try...and stuck as your favorite role ever; MEDIC!

I'm not kidding, i never for the love of myself ever survive long if i take other role than medic. But of course taking such role mean i had to revive RUSH B maniac...then get shot myself before manage to do so. But of course i had other preference, namely the anti-tank. Whenever i play that role, i always quote "I like big target" knowing i'll probably blasted first before firing my SRAW (Anti-tank weapon).

As matter of fact, i was confused about the gameplay mechanic because unlike CS, BF2 use respawn point. In CS, you'll respawn when match end but in BF2, the game respawn you after brief seconds and in order to win is reducing the enemy ticket to 0 or lower than your team before times run out. This is where BF2 coin the term "infinite warfare" before COD take that as their title on their installment. And no, i'm not say i swallow the system easy. It take me good five minute to figure out to start the game. No joke. All i did was pressing ENTER like moron before the tutorial slap me with another lesson that i had to click white node before entering the fight. Now at this point you know that CS is my first FPS game i played instead DOOM or Goldeneye.

Yup, i'm on the game now! Let's shoot something! And...i lost...because i didn't know the objective is to reduce enemy ticket by taking them out or taking more capture point than enemy. Well, trial and error right?

There's also one ingenuity in this game that is the soundtrack. Keep in mind gaming rig at 2005 wasn't really so hot back then so some of you might heard about 62% Geometric meme about this game. However, the long load wasn't that torture unlike ANTHEM and not just that, it was backed up with great BGM that still ringing in my brain until today. Depends on the map though, different song will played instead the usual one. MEC load BGM is my favorite as it reflect original BF2 song perfectly. And when i thought the game just end there, turn out there's an expansion. Not much use but its nice that the game got attention...and treated right.

Special Force EP
Special force Expansion is addition to the game that installed as different program. You can change the game mode in "community" tab i think. In SF, you were given more arsenal that far more suited to those who prefer sneaky and outwit opposing force through other mean rather than rush in with tanks. You have smoke bomb, grappling hook, and gas mask to counter the smoke bomb. Trust me, you don't want to get caught in smoke bomb in BF2. Especially if you had motion sickness. If you persist, i suggest put the gas mask on all the time. It hinder your vision but not much.

The thing it also offer is new map. But i find it very lacking in general and sad to say, if you play with bot, the AI just bad at routing as you can find them walk in perfect line which make the game easy to exploit and win over. Though it only apply on the map shown in the game intro, the rest is alright.

The game also offer another addition of Europe Forces which add British, Russian, and the Rebel Force (which is Russian rival judged from their speech). I can't say much as the game just goes without much change except new map, new force, but same specialist list and different weapon. Guess this game foreshadowing the future release huh? Didn't mean i don't like it thought, but British speech pattern somehow try to imitate Winston Churchill at one point. Not sure if the VA is actual British or its just VA with poor accent imitation.

The Online Play
EA don't have any control over the online server like it is today. They rely on GameSpy account if you want to play online. The game boast maximum number of 64 players in one map which is 32-32 on each team. It seems petty compared to BF 2042 which boast 128 players (and barebone player active for now), but it work as intended. In fact, some people made independent server to play online with alternative way to join even after GameSpy closing. I'm not kidding, the last time i play BF2 is on 2013 and the forum for its online thread is still active.

But like what i'm experienced, most people think BF2 is another shoot people silly FPS instead hold the point as the main objective. Thanks to that, newcomer always express their confusion about why they kill a ton but still losing the game. That's what happen if you skip TUTORIAL private! Keep in mind such gameplay system doesn't implement much at the time so people just think BF2 is EA attempt to tumble down Counter-Strike. When we know CS is SWAT spoof while BF2 is an what-if open warfare which is obvious none of them would trip each other.

A Hint Maybe?
I don't know if people still play BF2 when there's already a perfection of the series that is BF4 that deemed as success albeit the rocky launch (compared to BFV, this one is salvageable). But let me tell you what do and don't...though keep in mind that i'm not PRO.

• BF2 has feature called burst/automatic fire. In order to trigger it, you had to press the respective button for the said weapon TWICE. So in case you wonder why your AR shoot one bullet at a time, you might accidently hit the button for primary weapon TWICE. Just hit the button again to restore your automatic  burst. Don't worry, you can tell if you activate by seeing the animation.
   
• If you play as Specialist: They're basically glorified Assault class but their weapon is far more accurate than them. They also had C4 which mean you had to place it strategically, mainly on the main road where enemy tank/vehicle come across. C4 can also stick to walls and vehicle. You had 5 of it. If you want to detonate the C4 right away, just right click to pull out the detonator. Be warned that C4 radius is larger than anti-tank rocket so keep in mind about friendlies. Unless the game start with friendly fire turned off which is NOT the default settings.
   
• If you play as Support: you had big weapon and LOTS of ammo. But your main role is not to kill but to suppress the enemy with your MG. To add more kick is you hold ammo bag so if you run out of ammo, just pull it out and hold it until your weapon replenish. Keep in mind depend on weapon type, the replenish time might varied. As far as i remember, Grenade take their sweet time to be replenished. When you fire your MG, always shoot it while prone or at least crouching. Because MG has big spread, you don't want to shot your friend by accident.
   
• If you play as Assault: Honestly this is the right class if you don't know which class that suit you. They're your basic class that has basic rifle without much flair other than grenade launcher to their rifle. In SF expansion however, they were provided with smoke grenade. Their rifle perform poorly if you put automatic fire so better stick to burst-fire instead.
   
• If you play as Sniper: Enough said. Keep distance, shoot from distance, but keep moving forward. The game will punish you for being idle in one place for too long...by BOMBARDING you. So yep, move to other spot if you've stuck too long at one place.
   
• If you play as Engineer: You might find it troublesome stuck with Shotgun on open battlefield. But that's not your role as your actual role is to do what you're best at; fixing. My strategy is basically stick behind vehicle or tank so the enemy didn't hit you while fixing the vehicle unless they throw grenade. Depends on the vehicle type, fixing might take longer. And you can't fix for long either as the wrench has time to cooldown. Ridiculous i know, but its to prevent game breaking by make player rely on vehicle x engineer strategy. Engineer also has something called Vehicle Mine which is self explanatory. Unlike C4, this mine can't stick to the walls and ONLY trigger if a vehicle ride on it so place it accordingly because this nasty stuff can kill a tank in one shot while C4 need two of it to blow a fully health tank. Also, Engineer is the only one that can defuse such contraption with their wrench so keep your eyes on the ground.
   
• If you play as medic: Your job is to revive and heal. You might don't win much kill but your team would be thankful for it. After all, only medic class can revive fallen team. Any fallen comrade would reduce the ticket but if you revive them before they respawn, it will deny the deduction.
   
• If you play as Anti-tank: I like the big target! Yep, that's your motto if you play this role. Your job is to destroy vehicle and tanks. By luck however, you might shot jet in mid-flight. The anti-tank weapon itself take long time to reload (or switch judged from its animation). In order to use it properly, once you fire the anti-tank gun, DO NOT LEAVE THE SCOPE, but instead keep the weapon focused on target because the rocket trajectory rely on where your scope aiming at.
   
• Switching weapon: Its possible to take others weapon dropped by your fallen comrade. Just find the bag, get close to it, and press G button to take it. The bag has icon what kind of class it is so if you found a bag on the ground with wrench icon on it, and then you proceed to take it, you change your class to Engineer. HOWEVER! You'll stuck again as your previous class if you died. You can only change class by switching it on team menu (press ENTER) when dying.
   
• What Vehicle is best? And how to use it?: Suffice to say, none of the vehicle here would break the game. Tank can be destroyed with two anti-tank if they fired at the helm (count it like headshot). And carrier such as APC might end up as buffet if you and whole team blown up inside, resulting multi-kill score for opponent so its safe to say there's no best vehicle.
  
  If i ride a tank, i give suppression so my team can rush safely to capture point. If i ride carrier like HUMVEE or boat, i escort my teammate from one point to another because that's what they made for. If i ride APC, i treat it same as carrier. Keep in mind APC is still weak compared to a tank so don't push your luck. If i ride carrier helicopter, i only escort them and drop them at certain point before heading back to get another load of soldier since i don't have any mean to fight back. If i ride assault helicopter, i focused on suppression, same as Tank. If i ride jet, i crash into palm trees...i can't ride that scrap of metal properly dammit, don't judge me! Though i might stick as co-pilot instead. The AI surprisingly good at controlling jet

In Conclusion
I think you know by this point that i like this installment before BF4. I can't stress how much time i spent in this game when i got nothing else to play. Even now i had it in my PC although pirated since i lost the legit copy somewhere (and i doubt its in pristine condition since i bought it in 2006!). But it doesn't reduce my opinion about the game over time. Though the later release seems kick me on the shin on how the great has fallen, i'm glad i stuck with the good one way back then so i know why the franchise still going onward. If you find this game at the store, i suggest you to buy it in case BF4 was too much for your system. Even on Win10, it run no problem...on my end. I don't know about you who might own ultra wide screen since this game didn't support such wide-arse resolution unless you bought it legit (i think?) from EA store.

This game and C&C Generals is great companion for me in 2006. And boy, the 2008 give me another when Red Alert 3 released! On that note, i'm glad EA decide to put this franchise to a brief halt after the BFV fiasco because, well, i can't say they can go any lower if they treat Battlefield franchise like how COD was treated...

I rather play Rule of Survival than COD at this point honestly...

Elena Shutting off~

Edited November 19, 2021 by Elena Ichinomiya

[Elena Ichinomiya]

When you run business, make sure that you do it some justice. When you offer a product to a customer, make sure it deliver as it promise. When the product was defect than it advertised, it is your responsibility to compensate. When there's haggle between transaction, you don't put yourself as first priority when it come to deal or no deal. And certainly, you don't piss off your customer by telling them to not buy it when you hate it. Because in video gaming, dismissing product is far easier than dismissing a tax-free mansion. But boy, some miracle do give birth a crappy moment that not only lead to bad sales, bad rep, and bad footing, it also destroy company presence AND someone job...though this one is their own damn fault...

What am i talking about? An old news. This game. Since we talk about Battlefield, why not stick another one; a generic at best one among all, and disastrous among them...even BF 2042 are still fare better than this one. Sure its buggy but its salvageable since not much damage done inside out because seriously...

"History is not a fairy tale that you can just revision like a fanfic you pothead!"

The Hell Happen Back There?
I heard this news back then before putting it here. I remember i was browsing my phone while waiting for seminar and the google suggest a trend topic about BFV. Now before i jump the gun, i honestly, bloody confused. When i saw the cover (see above) i thought, "Isn't this BF1?" and so i thought this was an expansion. But no, its different installment after i found out. And turn out i'm not the only person in the wagon who share similar reaction. When the trailer come out, people were confused about this game. But unlike me, they outcry about the game direction; is it historical or fictional? That's when i decide to delve a bit about the news.

So i watch the trailer, and boy, i sit in the same boat as audience. "What the hell was that?" is what i muttered when the trailer end. I mean when i saw trailer BF4, i hype about the game modern warfare to the next level of destruction (and they deliver!). And when i saw BF1, i marvel at how EA and Dice take deep further into WW1 which is setting that not much FPS game bother to use (though the lack of history about it might play the part but i might be wrong). BFV however, step onto WW2 setup once again. However the twist and turn about it is really apparent; gamer are confused instead excited after the trailer. What were EA getting themselves to? How can they mess up WW2 when they used to make game set in such setting for so long with Medal Of Honor?

Curiosity Begin
So i dug a little bit more and bump into forbidden territory. SJW. Now i know what you thinking but i believe some SJW justify their mean about their cause and some of them use their sense to think about the consequence rather than squeal for attention for no reason only to put more damage than it is helping their cause. But this one is the bad one so i suggest you to take deep breath before continue. Because my thought about this news might ruin your day.

When the game make it clear about the direction, i am absolutely baffled. A man was asked by his daughter why there's no woman on frontline. And decide to make BFV with such thought in mind and think that he's on "good grace of history". 

Good. Grace. Of. History. By averting the game actual history from reality and adding nonsense in it. Which is red flag.

When the game claim they're historically accurate, gamer would expect it to stick to source material. Sure there would be missing pieces here and there but as long as the majority was there, people won't mind that. But BFV stick their arse in the wrong direction. Some even said this BF installment are made by a fanfic writer who didn't read history book. While gamer might never stick their nose to history, some of people are! And that's where the core start to crumble. EA and Dice just disrespect the WW2 history by injecting their agenda. And thought people was okay with it since they said "Wolfenstein did this too and gamer was okay with it". But Wolfenstein was different case because their universe are what-if Hitler won the war which is pretty much fiction since Hitler historically died after numerous defeat and they steer away from glorifying Hitler past as they focus on the what-if only so they didn't get the burn from gaming x historian. But BFV case is they claim to be "following history of WW2". That alone should be the one that set off every gamer. Because BFV didn't bring ANY factor indicating WW2 as it should...

• Prosthetic arm: petty issue but since the game claim to be "following history of WW2", its pretty much inaccurate since prosthetic arm wasn't THAT mobile, making this game a complete shows of what-if rather than "following history"
   
• Katana?: You'll see in one scene at the trailer a British soldier bring Katana. This is somehow feel like trailer for Fortnite where everything just mixed without care about the concept. "FoLoWiNg HiStOrY Of Ww2" they said.
   
• King Tiger Tank: This bad news belong to German. Somehow, it end up on British side. We can cast this off as if the tank were stolen but since it represented as if it was theirs, its worth noting regardless. "FoLoWiNg HiStOrY Of Ww2"!!
   
• In single battlefield, there's British, American, German, and for some reason, Japan. Is there any history where these country butt head each other in one place? No? Then why this game claim that they "FoLoWiNg HiStOrY Of Ww2"?

Now you confused as me. Because i can't even describe how much wrong in this game direction. Is this really worth the risk of skewing one history just to please one daughter? Now you know why some work demand no involvement of the outside influence. This is one of it. And to think that fellow had a nerve to skew history that not only grisly but also heroic to some, this man claim we're all uneducated for not accepting his ideal...

Was that your ideal or your daughter? I can only say you had bad sense of judgement.

Reaction
Of course everyone was pissed! WW2 is vital history and sensitive matter where many men and woman and maybe children died in those incident. Some even lose their country as a whole! And this game had audacity to point out that "historical progress won't matter as long as there's guns and Hitler" in it really burst people off in wrong way! Do you find it okay if your grandfather who happen to be involved in actual WW2 were put as villain? No! Do you find it okay if the founding father was pictured as people with necrophiles kink? No! That's what this game crime is! You don't skew history, just because you can or your daughter want to! Getting good grace of history is as simple as remembering the fallen who fight bravely for the country you step on right now, and hope that such war won't happen ever again. THAT is how you earn good grace in history! 

"But Elena! This game support woman presence in ww2 history!" Yes there is really woman in WW2 outside of the hospital and soup tent, whole garrison of it which is consist of resistance and soviets and they fight in frontline though not every region has those luxury. And if BFV really that desperate to put woman in the game as hero material that bad, British write history record for sending woman in group of motorcyclist in blitz raid against Nazi. See? That's far more heroic than being immortal katana wielding prosthetic lady ain't it? 

Quote

"Why they decide punk-ass design for their own excuse of historically accurate is beyond me. It felt like Horizon Zero Dawn with MG42 you know. Its out of place, its weird, and it doesn't feel like i'm playing battlefield. Felt like playing Farcry instead but less fun and disrespectful"

-Me when saw EVERY design character in BFV

I'll be vocal here. I appreciate the thought about the developer try to approach woman who fight in ww2 and bring spotlight to it. But not by dissing the actual history just for the sake of it. Those history are not to be messed with since it shape the world today and we know better than to tamper it in any form include video games. That's a real disrespect toward the fallen. Heck, even i who didn't live on Europe/America find it insulting when i found out what this game turn out to be. A disgrace.

The Damage
Then another news hit me with either good laugh or shake on my head. The developer, the creator design to be precise, not only call gamer uneducated (how ironic) just because they can't accept woman in the game. Hey, i'm not men, but i bet they up for it having woman on this game if it were carried out with proper respect in mind. BF1 known for its gritty gameplay and also try to keep actual history in mind. Sure there's hit and miss but they didn't put random fellow with katana so its clear that they tried. And somehow this installment end up as adult Fortnite and full of BS historical event. This is NOT how i prefer to represent my gender in gaming at all. Dissing important part of history just to make one specific entity superior? That screaming a bad news from the get go.

As result, the fans even more angry knowing the developer dissing on them and completely obey his suggestion. "Don't like our game? Don't buy it" he said. This dude completely forgot that EA been fall from grace after Battlefront 2 and think gamer would submit. Jokes on you, they didn't. BFV were nominated as total flop among the BF franchise, earning paltry sum of income and UK sales even more worse compared to BF1 sales as many people cancel their pre-order knowing this game will not be what its promised. To add more kick to the shin, EA went damage control by offering free one week trial, and discount the game ONE WEEK after the wonky release. One. Week. We know EA and discount never been a good mix and this one manage to put them to their knees. Gamer opt to play previous release than wasting good for nothing hour in the game that barely complete (at a time). Or just hop back to Black Ops, some source said. 

That's when the dude got kick right up his arse on August as the news said he resign from the company. Either for what he did to cause poor sales or he can't take the burnt anymore from people make a clown out of him is anyone guess. And i can't believe i said this but, good riddance. Who knows what kind of history this dude try to skew just for a wonky agenda.

All Being Said
Come to think of it, i didn't even know this game exist until google suggest it for me. Not at all. Remember when i said at the intro that i didn't even know this game was actual installment instead an expansion? Yeah, even BF1 manage to reach my ears but not this. Just like Anthem and Cyberpunk, i only heard this game when the game already released. Well, guess big boss turn me away so i didn't hype this ride of hypocrisy and fiction. Not every fantasy are worth reality you know. This is one of it...

And there you have it. My personal thought about this old news back then when it was hot topic among gaming community until its conclusion. Lesson here is, whoever you are, no matter what idea you had, never ever forget history or think to mess it up. That topic is as sacred as bible at this point. Mess it up, it'll cost you dearly. And if you really want to use WW2 setup but can't say if you gonna follow historical event that transpire, just write it up as "Setting in WW2" instead  "FoLoWiNg HiStOrY Of Ww2" because you'll do yourself favor from getting burnt unnecessarily. 

Also, i'm glad i bought BF4 instead this disastrous wake up call. Captain Price will be so proud of me for siding with historical grace! Wait...

Elena shutting off~

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

They had to make the game impressive for the dudebros XD. Some of the stuff in that game require some pretty strong suspension of disbelief. The katana could have the same justification as the King Tiger Tnak, as it could have been taken off a defeated japanese officer, as they were required to carry a sword. I think the british fought the japanese in Burma, where the sword could've been taken. As for women on the frontline, they were mostly unheard of although many did jobs that brought them close to the frontline. they were all important to the war effort but to call a WW2 "historically accurate" and have women being commonly on the frontline goes contrary to that claim

That said, the game's "historical accuracy" was there but not enough to more or less justify that bullshit claim. We're pretty far from the first few Call of Duty games that actually tried to recreate WW2 in a believable way. BF5's inacurracies wouldn't seem so out of place if EA had been honest enough to admit the game wasn't entirely faithful to history with their advanced prosthetics and such.

Excellent review and though I'm not a Battlefield player, I agree with it. Are you going to review Battlefield 1942 sometime?

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Elena and her joystick here, ho~ ho~ ho~ ho~ boyo~

https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/genshin-impact-finally-reveals-kfc-wind-glider-global-fans-aren-t-happy

I'm so there! I'm so gonna there to talk about it! I might sounds like yellow banana right now but the thing is MIHOYO seems don't get their situation after the first anniversary, lack of content until future update and now this! I don't get what the heck they thinking for doing this. Basically this palette-swap wing used to be China exclusive but finally it can be obtained in global server, without need to use code from buying exclusive purchase in KFC. But the thing is Mihoyo was too dick on giving it to us, that they...

• Ask us to watch listed twitch streamer to know how we obtain that wing which is a drag
• They gonna give us the code to obtain it...
• ...by paying subscription to the said streamer channel for TWO MONTHS (TIer one is fine they said...)

Goodie two shoes in banana boat! Seems they really don't want to let go don't they? I mean teasing the PC player with PlayStation exclusive wing is a tease enough but god dang they so bitter about this.

It seems nice of them to release region exclusive wing and while you might said "But Elena! They should use similar method they use in their region instead of this!" now i'm afraid i can't agree. You see, licensing is very demanding and even one month license could take a lot of it include the profit share thereafter. We don't know how much profit share back when this wing is China exclusive only so i understand that they don't want to give this wing for free because it has history. However! They also know if they give this for free would anger their fanbase in their homeland...

But to think they had gall to ask us to subscribe on channel that people don't seems take interest at all...what were they thinking!? Were they really want to let go this thing or not? If i had to please which devil, i would rather not please any side at all and i bet their player base won't make much fuss of this since they had other headache in this game. But Mihoyo, decide to give another with this!

This is the wing you probably had right now...

Here's the chicken wing that cost you as much as chicken bucket with a taste of defeat!

I told you, i told you the wing is just palette-swap! Sure it would suit many character but if i were them, i would put it as in-game purchase than treating it like golden john! That's why i laughing at it right now, thanks to all this! Does that wing really worth $5-$25? "But Elena! I'm a collector!" look i won't stop you from getting it or judge you, if you get it, i hope you happy with what you get, if not, i applaud you. Why this become concern is because this crappy practice of increasing player base and interest in the game is so abysmal and dang lacking in rewarding their loyal fans it almost felt like scam. I would told my friend to spent their time buying chessboard than this miserable item that you probably forget its value next week. Keep in mind this game has swipe the best MMO in 2020 thought we can blame Blizzard for botching Diablo 2 and WoW servers which give this confused mess of a game a 1st place and pandemic but i doubt the latter play the part. Does this game really? 2020? 

Want another kick?

I'm not sure those streamer wouldn't get their arse handed to them in their DM just for doing their job. Genshin community is as dogshit when they angry and would lash out on anything like what happen on 1st anniversary including review bombing the mobile version from 4.0 down to 2.3 ratings. So yeah, this is a real kick to those streamer who accept the contract even though they're not at fault; Mihoyo told them to do it.

Also, Mihoyo forgot that there's disgruntled community called Discord, who spread this code to everyone so they don't need to subscribe! Tell your marketing team to never show up again next Monday Mihoyo! This sucks.

Elene, shutting off yo~

On 20/11/2021 at 14:40, DragonneRPG said:

Excellent review and though I'm not a Battlefield player, I agree with it. Are you going to review Battlefield 1942 sometime?

I have to experience the said game to make a proper review. I can rely on gameplay footage and playthrough, but the review would end up too bias since i didn't play the game (and cannot review how the game control is since i have to experience it physically). But who knows~ i might end up testing the water someday and make review about it

Edited November 22, 2021 by Elena Ichinomiya

[Warning]

It's so amazing to see someone this passionate about gaming such as you. As you could guess, I don't really wander forums very often but I decided to take a look in hope of trying to find some positivity out there. Most of your take on games are so detailed that it's fun to read the different angles of approach you take to describe a game. I find myself seeing games I never knew existed and I will not lie, Radiata Stories is my favorite among them (so far, because it's one among them I finished completely at 100%). Oh and I tried Avalon code too and let me tell you that I could never finish that. It's a fun game but it gets so exhausting at the end. Too much too do and it gave me headaches.

Thank you for taking the time to be this thorough since it also helps me figure what I'll try someday. Old games are not out of my reach, thanks to emulators and all that. Playing old games is great. Besides, I really enjoy reading your posts. Just in this thread alone, I learned more than I ever did in many other article websites. The fact you even include pictures is wonderful. Have you ever thought about being an actual game reviewer? (Unless you are and I don't know x.x) You do well enough to actually be paid for your reviews. Just saying, anyway.

Edited November 22, 2021 by Seraphina

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Let's see. Its 1st spring, the plot were messy, filled with wild grass, branch, tree stump, boulder, pebble. Pull the grass off, cut the branch, leave the stump and boulder for now, crush the pebble. Then get the tool and tile the land in 3x3 form. Then dance around with the seeds in hand and make sure its the right one. Splash it with water...

And then go outside to talk with people, fishing, cook it as sashimi, all of them, put it in the shipping bin...

Then go to a cave to smack monster silly...

"That time when NATSUME realize they had to put a kick to their franchise at least once"

What's this?
Rune Factory is a game made for NDS console and developed by Natsume and Marvelous as a form of experiment. Rune Factory, or RF, was the first entry of the series which combine farming simulation-though-not-really with fantasy which involve monsters and various element include leveling and crafting. While popular, you might find it common for people to refer RF Frontier was the first installment when its this one was supposed to be the first. There's no issue or drama thankfully, its just that not much people took notice of this release as Wii one was taking the spotlight.

But that's what make it better ain't it? So play the game and would say its good to spend your time into. But i need to remind you that this game is the 1st installment so if you happen to play the latest release (at least 4), you might baffled how dumbed down this one because, duh! This is the first release! Experiment feature still lacking so don't expect much. Doesn't mean i won't recommend it, on contrary in fact, this is good start for anyone who's new to franchise because the later installment wasn't very beginner friendly. 

Sure RF Frontier was fun but the rune management system is NOT fun! You may end up can't plant anything and harvest the crop way too late if you ignore it. But if you tend the rune, it cost you some time when you can spend it on the gameplay core. You know, the EXPLORATION!

Sure RF2 was easy to begin with but when 2nd generation kick in, you'll realize the game bamboozle you with false comfort

Sure RF3 was easy to play but their concept of riddle and transform might find the fight unnecessarily tedious and the Ai Companion was mediocre to bad

Sure RF4 was perfection until it come to marriage as Female protagonist...if it were THAT easy, i won't put it here. The thing is, marriage play part in main story. The real beef? You had to trigger the event before they propose to you. And boy, they VERY vague to give you a clue how to do it unless you find it on internet.

Quote

The hardest part of getting married in Rune Factory 4 is getting the right events to trigger. Each person you can date in the game has one or more events that center around them and reveal more about their character and backstory. Until you see these events, you won’t be able to trigger the marriage event. -GamerRevolution

Please tell me i don't have to deal with this nonsense on RF5. At least give us a clear hint what we missed.

So! Still think RF1 is not beginner friendly~? Now you agree...

The Story So Far...
The game might start of with a cliche of amnesia protagonist. But this is made when the trope wasn't oversaturated so bad or used as way to end the game plot. You play as Raguna, a guy who collapse in the town called Kardia. Somehow those name ring a bell. Anyway! The game will set some sort of tutorial session before you can wander around. The game didn't limit your access except some dungeon. Though you can unlock those once the dungeon was cleared. 

Oh before i forgot, this is the only Rune Factory that feature game over if you died on the dungeon. RF3 and above will throw you back to hospital if you died a la GTA.

"Yeah but it pays a LOT!"

The thing that i find it funny however, is how you get the pass. Sure it make sense if you clear a dungeon and people trust you that you can take care of yourself just fine. But When you earn the pass, people seems like eager for you to clear another right away. Sure some people say "be careful!" or borderline "Its not safe to go there alone! Take This!" line. But mostly just gone "Huzzah! Raguna gonna kick another monster!". Seriously! They just eager to throw you to your own death!

Since this game is first installment, you might expect the lack of visual and creation of the dungeon. Almost all of it were inside cave except the mountain summit which lead you to a boss fight at the end of the line. At least they try to make sense out of it compared to what Dark Rose Valkyrie did to dungeon visual. A mall inside a school? Cave inside an airport? What's next, Jupiter landing in my backyard?

There's various of weapon to try, but heed my words. Stick to 1H sword. Don't bother with spear, 2H sword, hammer, or farming tool. The game combat control is stiff though not that bad. At least its not as slippery as RF4. Its not like every monster has specific weakness anyway so the bigger the weapon only shorten the boss fight; and your own survival chance if you're too crappy when using wrong weapon.

The game mechanic feature the basic but downright confusing. For a spell, you can learn it on library but they only sell more if you clear more dungeon. The thing is, they didn't sell it at counter but rather on the bookshelf. And since this is a 1st installment (boy i said this a lot do i?), there's no indicator that you can interact with it. You have to get close to every bookshelf to inspect a thing. Believe me, this would be problem when we gonna talk about marriage system.

Oh right, the system introduce HP and RP but if you play the latest release before you play this, then take my advice..

"See that on the top left?"

HP is basically a health. If it fall to zero, you'll faint. Faint inside dungeon mean game over. The only way to replenish it is by eating or using healing spell. But there's a catch...

• You can't eat again and again. You have to wait until the "red apple" icon disappear. This is actually intended because eating can recover some RP depend on the food and the developer think this would break the game mechanic
• You can use healing spell but it cost a LOT of RP
• No matter how high level you are, RP capacity won't increase - only your HP did
• Every action take RP. Include using farm tool which is why i recommend you to not bother with RP, just focus on HP!

How am i overcome this? Well, let the RP run out of course. Sure i can't cast a spell but as long as you're not affected with "seal", you can teleport your way out at no cost when things get too hot except boss fight since you can't run away. Seriously, i always spent my RP on farm than on dungeon. This however break the purpose of spell because the game didn't increase RP capacity, it always run out unless you visit dungeon first time in the morning instead tending the farm but i daresay that move won't help anybody case either because i bet you'll run out after going through 3 section of the map. This later addressed on later release. Not every spell are helpful save the healing and teleport IMO.

Of course the weapon also as element attached. I remember to own flaming sword. But the thing is, the material drop in this game is abysmally little. I won't blame you if you don't craft any meaningful weapon until final boss...because that's what i do. I'm alright grinding for material but not with this abysmal drop rate either!

While every dungeon is always the same with every pass given by mayor, one cave stood out. And this is also warning from me if you play this game to NEVER ENTER when its last day of winter - Misty Bloom Cave. 

Unlike other cave, this one is surrounded by water and can only be accessed on winter so the water around it were freezing for you to walk across. The reason why i want you to avoid this cave previously is because you might end up trapped in there once the spring hit the calendar while you foolishly choose to stay. If you did got trapped, hope you have sleeping bag with you and sleep all the way until next winter. I'm not kidding, this is the only way and keep in mind, you can't rely on respawn since it'll be game over if you died in a dungeon. So don't ever enter this cave unless its 1st or at least middle of winter season!

Who are we fighting against? Oh there's antagonist alright. Its a Sech Empire. They conspire to attack Norad by using you as the bait. Eventually it was revealed that every monster you defeat only empower the unstable energy that protect the kingdom from the earth dragon. One of the commander, Lynette, will pester you for it until the end. Though as you can expect, the assault were halted at the end of the game when the REAL earth dragon Terrable, make its appearance and root every machinery in place, denying Empire assault.

I'm still curious though, you can actually bump into border of the town and Raguna claim "Its the Empire border, i shouldn't go there". Yep, its out of bound thing. I was thinking there might be way to go there either with NDS connected to network or something. Oh who am i dreaming, that border is just there to tease you and give you sense that one day there will be another attack.

That's what i experience so far, now let's talk about the gameplay mechanic

The Farming
Unlike traditional Harvest Moon at its time, you can plant inside the cave. The profit by doing so, is every cave has permanent climate. Torros cave for example, has summer climate. So if you plant the summer seed inside the said cave, the plant won't expire even if the actual season said otherwise. There's small trick to get rich and long time investment however. Is by planting pineapple on the summer cave. Since the cave won't change its climate, you don't need to worry about expiration and all you need to do is watering them and voila! Longtime investment for buying double bed and renovation!

Unlike later installment, RF1 don't have winter seeds so you're pretty much free from doing farming in your place when its winter...

Anyway, you don't find cow and chicken here. In order to get one, you have to tame the said creature aka the monster. There's egg, milk, and honey. You'll get your tool to harvest the resource from the villager; all you had to do is get the said monster first. If you had enough, you can get yourself a wolf which you can ride on, and strong mini-golem or wyvern to make your journey easy! More affection mean more durable they are so keep them fed and pet them every single day...just once would do!

Kardia Resident
Befriending the resident in the game is pretty much the same as Harvest Moon. Some have favorite, some has dislike. It is also noted that some people dialogue is different when their affection and how much further you go on your adventure. In the town, you can purchase the farming needs include barn and the monster food (which is a hay no matter who you tame). There's also hot spring in case you want to jump back in action right off the bat. It also have unique dialogue if you pay for the bath but didn't take one right away instead going there tomorrow, the girl will remind you that you already paid. Just soak yourself silly if you want to put another 10g for her.

The resident itself...i would say they might not aged well since some of them are barely referred in later release save Cecilia which make appearance as bachelorette in RF2. Mai which is one of marriage candidate make her cameo on RF3 as NPC but not as marriage candidate like previous release. Majority of them make reappearance on Frontier but then again that game was connected to this release so i can't say it count. If you play Frontier and find someone named Tori on the mailbox, she's one of the bachelorette in this installment.

That aside, you can get starter equipment from the resident. I remember i got an axe from a rich girl...man, i don't want to think what she doing with that axe. You also get monster brush from her maid to tame the monster and head pat purpose. Fishing rod also given by the fishing shack owner so do yourself favor and get to know each villager.

The Festival
Much like Harvest Moon, there's also festival you can get yourself involved too. Either you win or lose, its a good way to increase people affection so don't chicken yourself out and participate! Unless its cooking competition and the judge asking for a food you can't make. If that's the case, you can chicken out...like me...

 

The Marriage Candidate

"Been waiting for this session aren't you?"

Oh i bet you are you sleazebag with a sword for a third leg! You can get married here, as expected from the series. Luckily, most of them didn't give you headache though at this point, you might not be able to married certain girl due to hardware limitation. Confused? Just read this until finished. Unlike Harvest Moon, some girls has their own criteria to propose. Some are way too easy you might ask yourself if you did that right, some are decent, some are tedious, and one of it is impossible feat...

Mist

The very first girl you'll meet at the start of the game after saving you. I honestly thought she would be the female protagonist since the game always cover Raguna with her on board. Turn out she just act like potential sidekick. She might give you a VERY strong impression how genius she is deep down on intro scene. You could say she's like Patrick Star in a way except she wear clothes of course.

Mist always act on her own accord in strange manner to the point whole Kardia can't really say much about her. The only clue i got is she's been staying long, own a farm which you will manage, and lives alone near a cave for some reason. She's not archeologist nor farmer by the look but she love gardening in some aspect. Her quirk really shows when she shows her obsession with turnip (in RF Frontier, she really expose it to ther world in form of a mask). While odd, Mist is kindhearted and considerate but also has mysterious side. She always being observant when you least expect it which come naturally (thanks to the good story writing) and when Raguna point that out, she become her bubbly self again which make player speculate that she's more than meet the eye and might held more knowledge about what actually happen. World can only guess. But perhaps that's the charming point for this girl.

She's an "intended" love interest for Raguna as most of developer note said. But you don't have to since there's no additional story post marriage so go chase after your true love. You can marry other girl of course but she will tell you with open arm at your wedding that you're welcome to stay in her farm as long as you want, giving you unintentional guilt trip for ignoring the main girl who save your skin and give you reason to live. Shame on YOU jerk! Just kidding.

Mist is probably the easiest one to propose. Here's the following step:

• Finish the storyline (which you'll do it anyway)
• Literally tile ALL your farmland. No need to plant, just tile it and plant grass on it so it won't generate rubbish
• Raise her affection to max
• Go visit her when she's in her home and talk to her

To be fair, when you tending your farm, you raised her affection unconditionally which is why i said this is one of the easy bachelorette to married. If you marry her, she'll give you a "heartful" meal every morning. Mind the quotation, because you're marrying an airheaded girl.

Rosetta

This girl is perhaps what you refer as tumble tomboy if you want to. Rosetta IMO, is your typical village girl who want to make hit the jackpot. But she isn't stupid or rash in her decision as it later shown that she's capable to tend the store her father owned. One thing i also noted is she's Mist childhood friend, but claim that an old mishap make them keep their distance (although Mist herself still call her a friend one way another regardless of her thought which is comical). 

Anyway, Rosetta is a daughter of the general store owner. Feisty as she can be, she's a mean business type so she won't give you much a glance at the first encounter. However you might uncover later how she actually has crush on Raguna but you still need to raise her affection point even when she won't admit it directly. I told you, this girl is your restless resident.

Thing is, if you think she's lovely, you're not alone. Because she's been "harassed" by a poet (which is an NPC too) and she keep shoving him away, comically if i might add since both of them are like a cat and mouse when they met each other.

In order to propose to her, here's the step and my thought about it...

• First off, go to library and read a book called "white stone" (its easy to miss unless you check it out first time you enter library)
• Fill her affection point (either give her strawberry or baked potato, your call. She's not that picky)
• Find the stone at Toros cave at the pile of snow (just find a pile of snow area and keep hitting interact button. I remember it wasn't that deep)
• Give it to her

However, if you are THAT evil...

• Give the white stone to the poet instead. He would happily buy it.

Well there's no additional screen whatsoever but then again you don't need to hoard that much of proposal item so why not give it to someone? Right? Man, you're total bonehead...

Lara (Or Lapis in JP version)

Well every Harvest Moon need their own Elli isn't it? Well this girl will fill that gap! Lara IMO, is...more like sister of the church than a nurse honestly. Though she fulfill that bill on RF Frontier. Anyway! She's a daughter of a priest...wait, i thought Priest wasn't allowed to married? Eh nevermind, game logic. Anyway! I find her decent character though she might give you a snicker when she said she concern over your health, only to lose her mind when you give her a chocolate cake....

Lara is a nurse in Edward clinic. She mostly spend her time there so you won't miss her. You can also find her in the church on weekend morning. Think of it as sermon. Lara is one of the few who don't have dislike item so it can be said its easy to raise her affection point. The only thing that reduce her affection is if you keep fainting doing farm work which i assume was rare unless you really didn't pay attention.

In order to marry Elli- i mean, Lara...

• Save Cecilia in Clemen cave (Which is story progression so you don't have to worry about missing it)
• Go talk to Cecilia later (I remember i talk to her in her house) to get Lapis Lazuli
• Give the rock to her (anytime is fine)

Nothing special worth nothing. She probably give you most useful meal if you marry her. She's a nurse, duh!

Felicity (Fia in JP version)

This sickly girl...though i can't really say by the look, IMO is a typical sick wife who always wait and cheer you on while trying her best not to dying while doing it. Crude humor, i know. Felicity is also decent character who seems to know the town rather well. If anything, her charm might be her sickly presence. I might sounds like monster but when you cure her in order to marry her, she lost that charm and turn nothing more than grateful girl. But hey, less charm shouldn't reduce your love for your wife!

Ever kind and gentle, Felicity used to be energetic and full of idea to make Kardia the best town it ever be. However terminal and mysterious sickness hit her hard time and almost put her bedridden ever since. Its up to you if you want to cure her illness. You can heal her before/after ending the storyline. You can also heal her even though you already married!

Felicity might a bit complex since there's some condition required to propose to her so hang tight...

• Raise her affection high enough until she mention about her sickness
• On rainy day, go to library and talk to Cecilia who were scared about book about cursed stone (which later found out one of the actual cursed stone was given to Felicity)
• Talk to her when she's at home (only at home!)
• Go to Dr. Edward clinic and talk to him as usual before handing him the stone
• Talk to Felicity again (and her father if you want)
• Find her at the town square on holiday around noon and talk to her

So...a kid almost killed a mayor daughter thanks to a damn pebble? Who would've thought!

Bianca

And you thought you're done with Bianca from DQ aren't you? Anyway, no, this one can't fight. Bianca IMO is...brat. Yeah, that. You might agree with me right of the bat. Typical rich brat, she won't be impressed with gift at all, meaning there's only one way to reach her heart; talking to her every day.

Bianca live in a mansion with her maid Tabatha and her father. Always had everything since she was a child make it hard for her to understand people below her standard. But she is actually just another girl who try to fit in really. She just like Rosetta but this one is far more "talkative" and blunt. Bear with her okay? Even though she just call your house stink...

In order to gold dig this girl...

• Raise her affection level to max (10)
• Raise her father...ahem...friendship level to at least 3
• Go talk to her in plaza if you want to propose to her

Keep in mind this girl is a bit of a drag since no gift would satisfy her so don't forget to visit her mansion if your going after her! Seriously, she still don't apologize after calling your home stink even after marry you! What a [REDACTED]!

Sharron

This pale girl might be a mirror image of Mist in characteristic. Sharron is serious character and IMO, might satisfy those who prefer a girl who expose their mysterious trait to the open rather than vague one (Mist). She's decent but unfortunately she wasn't given enough screen time even though her role was important. And not to mention she stay far away from Kardia unless you can enter the inn at night to visit her...wait, she wasn't a ghost?

Sharron is a mysterious Oracle who wander the Kashmir cave. She seek some answer beneath the ruin in which Raguna will encounter her. It might be hard to communicate with her since she only available near the cave and inside. Unless you have the pass to enter Kashmir ruin, you might need to wait until she come out at evening or at inn (again, if you manage to befriend inn owner to enter the place at night).

In order to marry this Ghost of Adonia...

• Raise her affection to max (Just give every element crystal you got, she's loving that!)
• Beat the Grimoire (Final boss) Get the Grimoire scale
• Bring it to blacksmith and obtain Grimoire sword
• Give that to her

Much like Mist, Sharron is one easy bachelorette to marry. Bianca might be easy to woo but her proposal wasn't so difficult compared to her.

Tori

Every Harvest Moon game need their Mary! And Tori will fill that gap. Tori is a bookworm and never stay away from there most of the time. Shy to the extreme, she might act like she don't like men but turn out she wasn't. Just being her shy self. You might don't believe such shy girl live with a lively mother and hyperactive brother. Yeah, i don't expect that. Poor girl can't read in peace at home. Same with us when we pull our phone in thanksgiving.

Tori work at the Russel Library and almost never leave there. Always appreciate the book and more so toward those who read them. Which mean if you want to raise her affection other than gift, go to library and read the book; any book! Even the one you already read! Oh and she also appreciate anything related to love festival so there's that.

Much to my surprise, aside from how easy it is to obtain her proposal item, the process was rather complicated...

• Get some fresh large milk from your Buffamoo (cow)...just read until the end dang it!
• Read "confession of love" on library...which i find it strange as if Tori herself writing it
• You can propose to her on weekend at 9PM to 10PM on mountain summit...BUT!
• You need to take a bath first before you give the proposal item (Large Milk)
• Once you take a bath and its on weekend at 9PM or so, visit the summit and give the milk to her

Boy, this girl grow a spurt eh? Anyway she make cameo appearance on RF Frontier as pen pal but unfortunately you can't marry her since she just cameo and nothing more.

Tabatha

Possibly everyone favorite elf in RF franchise. Tabatha IMO is possibly the most mature character among all bachelorette without any flair other than her actual race. I mean sure Felicity can top her but Tabatha is more down to earth as she don't have any title to begin with nor she was known among community like Bianca. Not to mention she wasn't the typical maid who flair their uniform around because they could so i understand why fans prefer her over any elf in the franchise.

Tabatha is servant at Bianca house. Overly gentle even to stranger like Raguna, she seems adore monsters and believe there's way to communicate to it. Don't let her look fool you, she hide ear actual appearance with her hat. At one point of the conversation, she admit that she's an elf, but had to hide it since the society seems look at her race with cynical except her mistress and her father which is Bianca herself. Oh now you regret judging Bianca eh?

In order to marry her...i can't give her a nickname, she don't deserve it. She isn't challenging but might feel as much if you don't have interest in taming monster...

• Build a LOT of monster barn. Each of it cost 1000G and 100 wood. You can build max to 7 barn and you have to built it all
• Fill the barn with the monsters...you need to catch 50 of it. The real torture isn't stop there...
• Because you need to make sure they're liking you or this requirement won't fulfilled
• Once the torture- i mean, the requirement was met, go talk to Tabatha on Kashmir ruin on weekend at 9AM and talk to her

...

...

LIKE SERVANT LIKE MISTRESS WITH THEIR RIDICULOUS STANDARD!!

That aside, Tabatha and Bianca make their apperance on RF Frontier...with similar requirement!

Melody

To say she's not witch might be understatement. But i like her style regardless. Why every witch has to look like [REDACTED] anyway? No wonder those kind of witches had boyfriend but never married and bitter. Anyway~ Melody is a bit spoof of classic witch because you see, she own a hotspring which basically...ahem, make it look like you pay her to boil them. Yep, witch and their brew. But this one i hotspring.

Similar to Mist but with a common sense, Melody is aspiring witch but doing some business on a side which is a hot spring. Even in Frontier, she also run her business same as usual. While it wasn't shown much, her bio said she's a talkative person.

In order for you to boil your egg for her sake...

• Raise her affection to max and learn about her past
• Talk to Sharron while Melody is in ruin around 9AM
• Talk to Sharron again on 9PM at inn (make sure you already befriend the inn owner so she allow you to come at closed hours)
• Go talk to melody at the inn when she wasn't open her business yet (which mean you have to befriend her to let you in at closed hours)

I do check out about her past...umm...i give her some slack. No comment.

Lynette

If you play RF1 like me, bet you would scream "WHERE THE HELL IS SHE!?" most of the time. Lynette honestly wasn't challenging to married compared to other but the requirement to make your enemy into your honey is why i put her down here. She's strict and rather haughty. Typical villain who love to make evil laugh here and there.

Lynette is a commander of sech empire. She also responsible for Raguna amnesia which sadly revealed that she don't know how to reverse it, meaning Raguna will be forever forgot who he was before. But after she had change of heart, you can marry her. The thing is, she's tough one to impress but at least she has favorite gift. 

In order to marry her without "Omae wa..."

• Finish the storyline
• Every single people of Kardia has 7 friendship point with you (Not challenging unless you always sleep at festival...)
• Raise her affection to 10
• Find her and KEEP TALKING UNTIL THE PROPOSAL PROMPT APPEAR!
• No seriously, its thanks to a glitch, the proposal dialogue refuse to appear. If you already fulfill the condition but she didn't say anything other than usual chat, keep talking to her until it appear.

Well, we've reach here. Now finally...that girl...

Mei

To be honest i always forgot there's girl named Mei. She has love and hate item, you can talk with her, ask her out, anything. But the marriage requirement are deemed too much. Added the fact that marry her when there's other better candidate make it look like that marrying her is just for trophy sake...

Mei is a foreign ninja who also an adventurer as she claim that she has pass for Toros cave. Mai might be mysterious but only her origin. Nothing much need to be said other than she's from foreign region. Oh and she also older than Raguna despite her look. But still, people don't find her personality interesting when there's other similar character and more accessible than this princess...

Why? Well, you had your job cut out for you. Prepare, because you might tear your hair off. In order to marry this dream girl...

• Raise her affection until max
• Catch a Love Snapper on Misty bloom cave, which you can only visit at winter
• You have to increase that fish to LVL 80
• In order to do so, you have to trade it over and over through NDS trade server. Each success trade increase the level by 1 which mean you have to do it 80 times!
• Since the NDS/Wii Server been long dead at this point, the only way for you to do this is using another NDS who also has this game, trade it locally for 80 times, just to get this proposal item!
• Finally, give it to her. Plain and simple. The end. You've waste your time and money buying another NDS just to propose to her which i deem not worth the time since she isn't that much of a character IMO!

...i told you, there's one impossible bachelorette even with emulator! Developer seems to learn about this and doesn't include such system knowing that the game won't age well if there's such thing. Oh boy, they better don't!

At The End of The Day
RF1 is real experiment field for Maverlous and Natsume to test the water of NDS and their formula for fantasy harvest moon. I said its gone quite well. Too well in fact since we have RF5 at this point. You can tell how much feature that was left untapped as if it were left on purpose. But the developer picking it up later and make sure it deliver. So far i didn't find any installment that i deem crappy that make me feel insulted by emulating it. Though if i had to list them, RF2 would be the last tier for me since its rather tiring to play compared to RF1.

If anything, i like Raguna as protagonist compared to everyone in each installment. Maybe his character or attitude or because he's voiced by the same VA as Nero from Devil May Cry series (RF Frontier only), who knows. I just find him bearable than the rest.

Well...i didn't test RF5 yet so who knows. I might have something to say about that. BUT! I need N-Switch to play that thing.

Also...wow, this is the longest post i ever made after Sims Bustin Out and Dark Rose Valkyrie! Let me play some music to celebrate...

Elena shutting off~

Edited November 24, 2021 by Elena Ichinomiya

[Minorikawa]

I've only played Rune Factory 2 and never got around to finishing it, but I liked the concept. In regards to the first one... holy buffamoo, that's a lot of romantic love interests. Every time I thought I was on the last there was one more. I don't recall any Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons game having so many. It does, however, seem like they wanted to imitate the typical JRPG tactic of creating super "secret" things to get or fight that required insane grinding to achieve just for the sake of completionists wanting to wear those things like a badge. Odd to do that with marriage candidates.

My only issue, and it sounds like this game was much the same, is that nothing interesting really happens after marriage in these games. No events or anything. I always felt that there should be just as many events post-marriage as there are leading up, but that's sort of a video game problem in general. See: BioWare, where all the courtship is over once you sleep with someone. Achievement Unlocked! Now get on with the story.

[Elena Ichinomiya]

On 22/11/2021 at 11:17, Seraphina said:

Have you ever thought about being an actual game reviewer? (Unless you are and I don't know x.x) You do well enough to actually be paid for your reviews. Just saying, anyway.

I wish i am. But i wasn't sure if my kind of review is really that cool honestly. And gaming review was surprisingly hard because you really have to test the water to fully understand why they good/bad. Up to this point, i still never talk about Megaten or Pokemon even though there's been lot of it because i never play the series. Oh and Final Fantasy case too where i find myself got zero interest to play it. I would love to be actual reviewer; but i can't distinguish if i am a real deal, or just another people who love to talk about game. Much appreciate the thought though ^^

11 hours ago, Minorikawa said:

My only issue, and it sounds like this game was much the same, is that nothing interesting really happens after marriage in these games

So far, only RF2 and above has post marriage event; can't say about Ocean since i don't get into that much. Oh and i stuck with Cecilia on RF2, just for nostalgia sake since i played RF1.

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

I think you could make it as a game reviewer because these are really good reads. I can tell english is not your native language but overall, I'm enjoying these.

[Minorikawa]

I think expecting reviewers to play everything is unrealistic as well. Most reviewers have specialties, and even these days finding a reviewer that plays sports games is one of those super in-demand thing since most people aiming to become reviewers don't really play such games.

In the end, it's not really about what you play, but what insight you bring to the table or what it is you wish to share by discussing games.

[Elena Ichinomiya]

To say i never touch fighting game would be a big lie. I do play once in a while. Just to flex my thumb muscle a bit if you want to call it. Mind you, i never had consistent calling of gaming. Sometime i crave for RPG, Sometime i crave for action game, sometime i crave for stealth game (either its assassin theme or just plain thief), sometime i crave for horror game, sometime i crave for 2D side scroller, sometime i even goes as far craving for visual novel. The highest peak of all? Well, playing simulation games be it SimCity or with a hint of warfare such as Stronghold.

If i crave a fighting game...

I'm absolutely NOT GONNA play this...

"This game suffer The Sims 3 misery; the previous release was close to perfection. Only to be frown upon for the next release"

As i mention on my very first post of this thread, KOEI never shy away to say their price in their DLC etc. Not to mention they didn't pull stunt with "surprise mechanic" which is nice. But what player tend to forgot is KOEI is shy monkey with discount and tend to forgot that they have other competitor in which they encourage their player base to play that one instead of this. And believe me when i said i still play DOA5 Along with Soulcalibur 6 and Tekken 7. Might consider Mortal Kombat but i didn't touch it yet.

What Is This?
DOA 6 is a sequel release made by Team Ninja and published by KOEI TECMO. While the game was okay, the stigma and burnt to those who play the game end up causing this game fall into category of "game for pass time" and not in good way. Some summarize their experience that they only play this to test the water and never take it seriously. This also not helping the case that there's not much challenge with the new character which one would say just recycled. 

Speaking of which, the game also lost its story feature like most modern fighting game these days. Although DOA 5 was decent enough to make everything make sense, turn out DOA6 giving the confusion to player base who follow the storyline. 

Toss that feature aside, KOEI seems to forgot that people will never like a pushover as the game cosmetic and season pass truly make them deserve their place among game company. At least they're not idiot like KONAMI who lost their final source code for silent hill or full of BS like EA. Though they're a bad cow like activisision for milking a series.

How It Goes?
I play the game...pirated. And believe me even with the pirated version, you'll still feel better off with DOA5 legit version. The game story were carried about as if we're new to the series. The thing is, even though i also new to the DOA story, DOA6 not helping my case to get to know who is who, why that guy is bad, why that lady is so important, and why they did this and that. At least in Tekken, everybody got fair share of explanation on their own story rather than bundle them up in one go on story mode (though i can't say Tekken 7 did it some justice either). 

Had enough for story, i decide to going arcade mode. I never play above hard by the way. One thing i notice is how cranked up the FPS can be. I thought because i pirate it, the DRM shoot the performance down. But no, pretty much after, the news caught a sniff of it and say the game is so buggy, it hog EVERY CPU process unnecessarily and make it gaining heat to the point the game would run in 25 FPS for some people even when run on dual-core. Perhaps its already addressed by now.

I know KOEI never been having smooth ride on PC port but do they really had to do this kind of stunt? The game isn't half-baked in my opinion, everything was there. But they always clogged on the performance. Warrior Orochi 4 had black screen issue, DOA had FPS issue, and beside a decent review, Ninja Gaiden on PC also has issue with graphic. Keep in mind these game i mention is not riddled with cash-grab even though its standard edition which is why i think KOEI always bump their knees on PC. Why? I can only wonder.

What's The Problem

Quote

BEFORE YOU PROCEED! I DO NOT CONDONE ACT OF PIRACY! IF YOU END UP LIKE THE GAME AFTERWARD, BUY IT LEGITIMATELY TO SUPPORT THE DEVELOPER! 

Now we're entering the main topic. I do my best to remember my experience in this game. Even though i pirate the game, like i said, i still feel like want to punch my face wasting bandwidth for torrent this.

• FPS issue which is unacceptable when they had enough time to optimize the console version which make KOEI look like playing favorite about which release that they should take seriously
• CPU hogger. It felt like playing unoptimized Unity game sometime.
• The roster character is pretty much okay until i play DOA 5 and notice the character roster is nothing to write home about save Diego and NiCO as the new character.
• The main reason is because the previous character make their appearance again as DLC but this only shows that the character roster is lacking in original value, with exception of NiCO and Diego (again), making this release felt like glorified DOA5, similar to FIFA controversy
• The DLC character mostly a crossover which add another issue to original value
• Since i pirate the game, i manage to experience the 1.0 version. There's no lobby match feature and tag team mode 
• English dub was inconsistence and plain bad (talk when lips were shut is the main hilarity most of the time)
• Story mode is jumbled mess, you can't tell if you play the scene in right order since the game just laid it out in very confusing way possible

That's the issue i had. What about the actual fans who bought the game? Well...

• Unlike DOA5, in order to unlock costume, you have to play quest mode which can be way too difficult and grindy. Even when you manage to clear it, you got random pieces and got the costume for the character you don't care about which is a pain.
• Costume also suffer original value as most of it just recolor
• The Quest is KOEI way to punish the player so they bought the DLC costume which is scummy
• While its alright to purchase the costume, the price is not alright. Added the fact the costume itself is just recolor of each type is already an insult.
• KOEI really overestimate player budget
  • The game cost $60
  • Some season pass cost $100 
  • There's total 456 DLC at this point include costume and character and 4 season pass in short amount of time span which make the player base got no time to pursue the latest release and make KOEI look in a hurry to get profit fast from this release
  • Some gamer calculate every single DLC and season pass that in order to experience the game to the fullest, you have to spent $2,068 which is way too much just for a game experience though the price might vary depend on region but its still reach 4 digit regardless. 
  • In case you forgot, see the #1 again then see #4. Let. That. Sink. In!
• While oversexualize is common term in their fandom, DOA also has male character. But in DOA6, they're pretty much dismissed in favor of the rest of the female cast from DOA5 to make their appearance. While its common practice to dismiss a character on future release, DOA dismiss them for a character that already appear on previous release rather than original character, making it sounds like excuse and doesn't justify
• It also issue because the game end up lacking fighting style as the dismissed character fighting style has no replacement character to take the helm of their style
• Break blow and Break hold system is breaking the game and make the game way too easy
• The plot hole is a big kick to the fans and game lore
• Most people agree that the "new" character is not worth their price and NiCO had the most burnt thanks to this (mainly her design but i dismiss this issue after seeing developer note about her character look)

See? Not just sports game, even some other genre that seems harmless didn't manage to dodge the monetization issue. And keep in mind KOEI are never fond of discount and even when they did, best bet they only goes for 10% discount. The game is still work as intended so that might be a comfort for you in case you plan to buy it. Luckily, KOEI also give new moveset for each character even the returning one. Still...

I ain't gonna drop a kidney for season pass just to play as Nyotengu...

Does It Worth Playing?
I would say it is. If you set aside the spending for full experience that is. I suggest you to play smart in this because you really better off spending your lottery cash somewhere than this. Thankfully, the game didn't riddled with bug and the control was okay in my opinion. The character design are...unique and DOA also the only fighting game that put ninja/shinobi/kunoichi as the main spotlight. Until you realize this game is basically a spin-off project for Ninja Gaiden series only to get themselves a good grace in the community!

Look, i don't have beef with the game as a whole, but i really don't condone this kind of practice either. Sure a weeb would swipe those 2000 dollars deal no problem but being manipulative (be it) intentionally or not, is still scummy regardless. Some said DOA6 port is actually good than DOA5 but its up to everyone opinion but then again...

I still prefer DOA 5 who reward you for a time spent there than how much i'm gonna spent playing the game...

Elena, shutting off~

Edited November 26, 2021 by Elena Ichinomiya

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

Good review, as usual. As a matter of fact, I did play DOA6 and even bought for a piece of DLC or two (my wallet still isn't talking to me as of yet). From a technical standpoint, I have had no issues with the game, running on a 3.6 Core i7-9700KF with an Nvidia Geforce 1080. I can't quite remember the graphics settings I used but the framerate was fine, even though it wasn'T a constant 60 FPS. I wouldn't exclude that a pirated version might have this kind of problem but I also don't exclude the idea that a PC port of a japanese game might also tend to chug.

I found the game mostly okay though I found the Break moves annoying. It was like a button to engage EASY MODE to allow those casuals to net a small victory or two (although it stops being useful once you know how to counter it). The gameplay is about what I remember from back when I played DOA2 Ultimate on the classic Xbox but although I played for about 20 hours, it didn't hook me like the aforementioned DOA2U did. And, as you explained it, it's because of DOA Quest. These challenges were grindy and not fun and the few costumes that could actually be unlocked through gameplay weren't anything special. I wish I could just spend hours doing Arcade or Survival mode to unlock these costumes. I'D rather unlock that cute bikini for Hitomi by beating Arcade over and over than by forking over 25 dollars.

I'd say it's worth playing if you just want an accessible fighting game to pass the time, long as you get the base game on sale. If you get hooked, the character DLCs are worth it, especially for King of Fighter fans, maybe get a costume DLC for your favorite character. But just like The Sims, pirating the game sounds like a more attractive option that paying a fortune for a complete game.

[Minorikawa]

DOA is a franchise I've wanted to get back into for a long time, but, unfortunately, like Dragonne, most of my fondness comes from DOA2 Ultimate on Xbox original. I think I spent a lot of afternoons just playing the survival mode, putting a surprising amount of hours into it. I tried DOA4, but it just lacked the same staying power. I think, overall, after Itagaki was given the boot from Team Ninja, they've just struggled to get back into form. Itagaki was huge on mocking players that weren't hardcore enough to get through his game, particularly by speaking through his game design. When people call Dark Souls "tough but fair", it's an accurate statement. Ninja Gaiden is tough and knows it's being unfair while doing so, because if you really want to beat it you must prove your merit as a gamer.

Once he was booted out, Team Ninja immediately (and possibly from demand of the bosses) started trying to make their games easier. Ninja Gaiden 3 is forgettable for multiple reasons, one of them being how much less challenging it is. Dead or Alive 4... well, frankly, I don't actually remember enough of it.

Granted, I was never really good at DoA as it was. DoA2Ultimate was particularly infuriating with my inability to do those grab-counters effectively while the A.I. seemed to be reading my button inputs unfairly.

In regards to DOA6, it's actually on decent discount right now, but it depends on which package you're looking at. Because, as your post suggests, DOA6 is where Koei Tecmo decided to try and treat their fighting game like a mobile game, and I think at this point the franchise's reputation is deeply tarnished. I mean, really, why bother with Dead or Alive when you can play Dragon Ball FighterZ, Blaz Blue, Guilty Gear, Soul Calibur 6, or the myriad other fighting games that exist and don't have the same awful monetization practices? Cripes, even Street Fighter V has earned community good will back.

Such a shame. Honestly, I was super delighted to see Microsoft announce that they've updated their Xbox backwards compatibility to include Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate. I think I still own the disc, which means I could just go back and replay that instead.

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Zombie games! That surely give you idea in your head what you used to play with that regard. Resident Evil, Left 4 Dead, Dead Island, Dead Rising, Zombie Army, CoD Zombie, World War Z, Back 4 Blood (Do your wallet favor, just stick to other zombie games but this). Those groaning sounds inspired from classic zombies, eager to snack on your brain, heart, kidney which has stone in it. You can tell this kind of genre would lead into grotesque imagery. Blasted head, splattered brain, exposed organ, knives stuck on the throat, steel pipe stuck on the guts, but still walking like a champ until you shot them dead for good!

We can say Resident Evil might pioneering it before anyone try their hands on the genre in their own way. But i never thought that the one who pioneer it is the one who screw up like this...

"Does L4D rub you the wrong way Capcom? You are their inspiration and this is what you got as mean to fight back?"

Resident Evil Operation Racoon City is a third person shooter released for PS3, XBOX 360, and PC. While the game has similar theme and settings that is Racoon city, and connected somehow to a RE2 timeline, the game seems promising on the paper. However as player and critic dictate, this game almost fell short on same level as RE: Survivor, another crap load release on PS1. It is also noted that the game has scandal in it which i'll explain later. Whatever it is, in the end of the day, this game was deemed so bad, Capcom decide to kick it from RE main timeline, leading it to become a Spin-off everyone wish to forgot...unless you're me who play this for whatever awful reason...

How Is It?
If you buy the game legit, you might bump into crappy Windows Game Live service which dictate you to be online...EVEN THOUGH YOU PLAY SINGLE PLAYER GAME. While REORC itself has multiplayer in it, player still scrutinize Microsoft decision to keep the game license to themselves which is not helping this game at all. So~ as you can guess, i pirate it because believe it or not, Windows game service was so bad, most of their game are not available on my region. 

"But Elena! You still pirate game that available in your region!" Yeah i won't deny that. But if i had to do complicated procedure just to play a single player mode and not to mention, register an account just to play it and had to login every single time along while sync it with my phone, no thanks. Now you know why Windows Game Live Service is dead and they run away to basic Microsoft Store.

As GarryMod creator once said...

Quote

"It is the lack of accessibility that make gamer to, well, pirating. This is why my game has not much DRM protection whatsoever because i don't want to encourage them to pirate my game even more than already is"

And also quotes from every engineering...

Quote

"Never underestimate efficiency in technology. Even a small invention as remote who has helpful function, it still count as flawed due to how easy it is to lost them between the couch"

By all mean, the complicated access for playing this game is enough to lost one star review from me. Though this isn't Capcom fault so lets leave it at that.

Moving on, when i play the game, i swear to god i don't know who are these people. Sure there's this HUNK guy who run around in RE series few times. But we're not him nor going with him. We go separate ways after stage one. Now then, let's get the shows on the road...

What Happen?
The control was wonky and weapon spread was terrible! I'm not kidding! If you ever play this then play BF 2042, bet you'll have PTSD due to how horrible the weapon spread is. Keep in mind this game didn't put much horror in favor to full-action TPS game. Which is red flag because the poor aiming. And when you think the gun except sniper was horrible, wait until you notice how many times you run out of ammo. Seriously, my cause of death was thanks to run out of ammo, not because i play too bad or the shitty accuracy. I bet you having hard time aiming even with KB+M. If that wasn't your worst case...

Your companion is outrageously bad! You're not always fighting horde of undead and T-Virus mutant but also soldier. And when there's gun fight, you bet you'll see one of your companion stand in open, being swiss cheesed at! When you think its to make the game easier for you so you have high survivability, keep in mind how crappy the weapon spread is which doesn't help anyone case! Or worst, being shotgun main! At least they know how to heal...which is also issue.

Health and antidote spray was scarce as ammo! I'm not kidding, you probably died way too much because there's so lack of herb and health spray. Keep in mind health spray was working in AoE range so if your friend was using it, pray they were close to you. Because it was very rare to find unless you play as Bertha who had extra stock for it (or just bring her along in every stage). luckily, they were placed at fixed spawn point. But the fact that it was so rare you had to rely on it too much due to artificial difficulty, this gonna be trouble. And speaking of trouble...

T-Virus zombies is way too powerful! Look, i know how licker can be such issue but they're far too agile when we stuck with crappy aiming! And there's a dumb level design where you had to fend off against hunters on gas station. This thing is bullet sponge, you're lucky if you shot grenade launcher (if you find one) right on their face because other than their face, they're pretty much tanker. Which is not fun. To add more crappy moment, this thing come in air drop. If their air drop land on YOU, you got damage. The crappy part? They were dropped too quick, you had no time to dodge!

Stick in a mud, your character will always take cover whenever they feel like it! Seriously, if you find any barricade, fence, or torn down walls, your character would stick to it even though you don't want to. This is why every TPS games has certain button for you to press if you want to take cover or not...which REORC don't have. So expect your character hug the walls most of the time, denying you to vault over it and end up covering on the wrong side!

Did you use skill? I don't! For whatever the reason, other than passive skills, the active skill can be such hassle to use. Not to mention limited when the game chapter was way longer, leaving those special skill to be used only when the situation calls for it. While its bad, i still deem it decent enough because i always rely on Specter ability to scan over area and Four Eyes ability to infect dying soldier to become zombies (and turn normal zombies into red head zombies) and make them your ally (until there's no enemy left to bite). The real beef and laugh i had is the guy with hood skills. Even NPC always abuse those skill and turn out to be unhelpful except for first strike. Because keep in mind that skills only useful at certain degree of enemy. When you fighting against T-Virus, that ability render that guy useless for the rest of the game.

Reviving teammate is such grotesque humor! If your friend is killed, you might find them mangled at strange angle because of the ragdoll. But the real humor is if they become infected and you blast their head or body clean off...you can still revive them to their full form glory! Even if the piece of their body is just torso, you can still revive them! What kind of medication did they bring to regenerate brain, skull, spine and eyeballs!? Who need Umbrella if they have this magical cure already!

You can ignore (some) enemy to proceed! Yeah, self-explanatory. This game either too challenging or has no challenge at all in certain chapter.

Its just bad for RE lore fans! While i personally didn't follow RE as i am more of Silent Hill player, i'm well aware that Leon never met these trigger happy guys at any point. Nikolai blew up a hospital on RE2 ending but in this game, he blow it before Leon even arrived! Keep in mind Capcom almost consider it a canon before canning the idea. Because the real cream on the top is...

**The game has Star Wars Battlefront 3 Data in it**
I am NOT kidding. The data miner find this oddity among the game release and since i get the game pirated, i got that version which had Star Wars data in it. This scandal cause Capcom not only reprimand Slant Six (the developer) which followed with the studio closing down, but also ban any sequel for this game (thankfully since its bad anyway). Its not Capcom fault in this one but what were developer thinking? Making side project is fine, but making it as hidden ads? Without upstairs permission? And on a bad game at that? That's a bad mix for disaster alright...

In case you play RE and know the lore very well, here's the point i manage to obtain regarding the game inconsistency to be considered as canon. I say it again, Capcom ALMOST consider this into canon lore!

• The NEST lab where Birkin works is guarded by UBCS. How did Birkin even manage to fool or buy that amount of soldiers without them staying at Umbrella's side? And if he had that amount of money to buy them, then what was the point of selling the G-virus to the US government?
• The way Wolfpack team acquires NE-alpha parasite and uses it on Nemesis. First of all, the parasite isn't an activator that's used for on and off switch; when used on a T-103, that Tyrant becomes Nemesis forever. Second of all, Nemesis not obeying Umbrella's commands make no sense. Third of all, Nemesis has cyborg vision which makes no sense, NE-alpha parasite doesn't give a T-103 cyborg vision. If anything, the T-103 which contains the parasite that's acquired by Wolfpack team should have been Nemesis. Most of these can be explained by the fact that Slant Six made Nemesis closer to his movie version from one of Anderson's Resident Evil movie, Apocalypse, but not only this decision is questionable at best, movie Nemesis' features seriously collide with his original version from the third game.
• NE-beta parasite that can control zombies which is impractical since it attacks any human and can't be controlled.
• Crimson Heads in Raccoon City, which doesn't make any sense. The T-virus strain that infected the water supply isn't the same strain as the one that was leaked by Queen Leech in Spencer Mansion. If anything, those zombies should have been Lickers.
• Nikolai decides to kill Wolfpack team for no reason before deciding to leave them alone for the rest of the campaign (Wolfpack is a USS team, not a UBCS team).

Imagine this thing taken as canon in the end. If i were the storywriter, i would call it a day, write fanfic, and make sure it stays as fanfic. Lucky for them, i didn't know RE lore well. But if you shake your head while saying "what were they thinking" after reading the point above, then you know how messed the game story is. Even if this end up as spin off, it still not a good excuse for poor timing appearance and other nonsensical approach. Nikolai is probably the one who got the most burnt since that guy is rather merciless, yet here, he left us be because he had enough like a salty person. Not a good way to show man villainy ain't it? It doesn't feel like spin-off, its parallel universe!

Now for the real kick in the guts goes to...

NEMESIS and Tyrant is so nonsensical, they pose no threat...unless you run out of ammo! Again! And yep, there's Nemesis and Tyrant. But if you're sharpshooter and keeping the headshot roll, these guys pose not much threat. I did proving it by making sure every shot count and hit the head. They're not that much of a threat when you got bullet. At first, i thought they would require specific step to take down but no, shoot them silly on the head, call it a day. Mission complete. Yes, the almighty NEMESIS can be taken down by a mere lead to the head!

L4D vs This mistake
If i want to compare, this game is pretty much striking in resemblance, only different in setting and the people. But by any standard, i pick L4D over this. I'm gonna stay vanilla in this so i won't bring mod into conversation.

• L4D put you in the shoes of 4 survivor and must finish each chapter until reaching the finale. There's 5 campaign for each group of survivor with each chapter has checkpoint. In REORC, this game run on checkpoint system and only has sliced chapter for a campaign a la common FPS single player campaign. The content in comparison alone is giving you enough clue what REORC lack
• L4D put you in fast pace FPS shooting whereas REORC make you stuck doing some task that mostly defend, survive, and kill the boss, making it obvious it was a way to stretch the gameplay hour. While gamer enjoy action shooter, REORC proven to be way too taxing for finishing one chapter alone. I won't be surprised if you take break playing other game after finishing a chapter. Or just finish the game once and never touch it again.
• in L4D, you were put into many situation with simple resolve and could easily reach point A to B provided you get the good weapon. The real challenge was lie on difficulty level so it didn't kill much of your fun making your way through final. In REORC, enemy such as hunter still a bullet sponge even on easy.
• In normal mode, you can finish ALL of campaign in 5 hours at best. REORC also share similar play hour but not without break here and there due to frustrating level design. This is the main factor why i never recommend this for zombie genre.
• Because L4D has way to finish campaign without putting much hassle on one campaign, it didn't burden their player base to play the game over and over because there's no horrible campaign level that scare them unless they set the difficulty on expert. Meanwhile, when you finally fight T-Virus mutant, your day is probably ruined at that moment due to unbalanced the fight gonna be. Hunter can even pounce you from far distance and will always hit!
• In L4D, you can do much action other than shooting. Namely shoving and melee weapon. But in REORC, melee is useless and while their execution animation is cool, it has cooldown. It also has limited range so if you're surrounded, hope you're not too far from others to save you
• This one is not much to note but in REORC VS mode, you can play as Nemesis...but only for XBOX release, not even PC has it! Perhaps due to Windows Game Live exclusivity but keep in mind XBOX 360 was frowned upon back then due to Kinect and always online gaming, making it not worth it. Whereas L4D, you can play whoever the heck you want.

At The End Of The Day...
Don't. Don't buy it unless its on sale or whatever. This game manage to hurt me just to finish it. I lost count how many time i died due to lack of health item, overpower infected, annoying Nikolai and his stupid sniper, auto-aim hunter, and obnoxious lore. This game didn't get any sequel but it do have successor called Umbrella Corps...which is also bad! If you're shooter aficionado, you would notice the game aiming was worse even when you take aim by zooming in. I also had small case of motion sickness while playing which is strange since i had no such issue on L4D so far which is FPS.

I do know Capcom love experimenting things like Megaman RPG genre, Arcade shooter Resident Evil, but this is clearly a half-efforted project. This is really unfortunate outcome really. Why? Because they made RE that inspire L4D itself, namely RE: Outbreak! They inspire Valve to make L4D and when they try those element which they can just refine, they sunk knee deep in their own foot. What the hell? Its like seeing a crazy taxi driver found himself can't ride a normal car when its still same stuff regardless. 

And this isn't a ride anyone can enjoy easily. Thankfully, Capcom knows what best for the fans than giving kick on the shin with this nonsense spin-off to be put as canon.

Elena, shutting off~

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

I made the mistake of buying it and although it was playable with mouse and keyboard, it's still a very, very bad game. I gave up on the second campaign, after dying over and over at the same point. This game is an atrocious affront to the name Resident Evil. I wish Capcom would stop trying to cash in on the online shooter craze and just reboot the Outbreak franchise.

Also don't diss Back 4 Blood, it's an awesome game.

[Minorikawa]

I barely remember anything that happened in this game, only that I had a miserable time the whole way through. It's a shame, because I would like a more action-oriented shooter where you play as a UBCS trooper, but I want it done well. Right now, though, Capcom is done outsourcing projects to Western developers, and I think they're unable to take on so many projects that would allow them to create such a thing (especially as they have two multiplayer-oriented trend-chasing RE games already, one packaged with RE3 remake and one with RE Village).

The thing is, such a project should only exist if the main series is still delivering on horror, and I'm not sure what's going to happen with Village being more action than 7 was (and, depending on where they go with its ending, could lead to an even more action-packed 9).

For sure, though, I do remember a lot of frustration, and though I honestly think Capcom themselves get super stupid with the RE lore (can we just... stop with Umbrella, please? Can we move on? It's been 84 years. We can do without big bad evil Umbrella being roped in for a change. Anyway, my point is, I guess I wasn't as bothered by the complete wreckage of lore because it was just par for the course to me. But, I certainly remember it being stupid, and the dialogue of your characters being so eye-roll inducing and edgelordy.

Looking up that assets issue on the Googles, it seems the original game lead didn't even know about them himself. This was evidently a "#1 seller in Japan", though, which... is kind of a shock, but it wasn't enough to save the company. Developers leave unused assets on disc all the time for one reason or another, but hot dang, assets for another game? Yikes.

[Elena Ichinomiya]

12 hours ago, DragonneRPG said:

Also don't diss Back 4 Blood, it's an awesome game.

I don't hate the dev and the concept (they are after all, who create L4D back then). I just don't like their publisher who stupidly trying to make patent middle-earth gameplay system which drive every gamer mad because that mean every game with similar gameplay system had to pay license to them a la KOEI Beat'em up system (luckily they realize it was stupid and abort it but after got various dox and DDoS then they take things seriously).

B4B is decent, but...well...i won't lie, i rather play WWZ. The perk make it feel like playing looter-shooter. I only play the demo.

10 hours ago, Minorikawa said:

can we just... stop with Umbrella, please?

I might need to remind you, Capcom always has issue of moving on. Back then, they decide to give it a try to detach themselves from Dante on DMC series, hence Nero appearance on DMC 4 to take the helm. And what they did after? Releasing a wacky ride Donte DmC instead make use of the up and coming hero.

They just bad at making new lore. Period.

But i agree, if they want to bring RE to new direction, they better leave the big bad name behind for a start.

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

I wouldn't call B4B a worthy follow-up to L4D but I like that they added a variety of weapons and a card system to give the game a little more depth. Yeah, the publishers are scummy but that's nothing to do with B4B's merit. Haven't played WWZ so I can't say much about it.

Also I kinda agree on Capcom lore, though I like that Village revealed their logo's origin. But frankly, I'm not sure where RE could go next. Each new game is pretty much going to be another bioweapons outbreak by an evil corporation/obssessive mutant, with the only variable being the main protagonist, who could be an inexperienced survivor like Ethan or a military anti-BOW soldier like Chris. 

[Elena Ichinomiya]

8 minutes ago, DragonneRPG said:

but I like that they added a variety of weapons and a card system to give the game a little more depth. Yeah, the publishers are scummy but that's nothing to do with B4B's merit.

Let's hope that's the case. No seriously, let's hope that's the case. Because those mixed review doesn't convince me its nobody fault. I'll hold back for now until it properly addressed. 

 

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

Just play it and you can make your mind about it. Personally I played it on Xbox Game Pass so it didn't cost me full price for only one game. That's always an option.

[Minorikawa]

50 minutes ago, Elena Ichinomiya said:

I might need to remind you, Capcom always has issue of moving on. Back then, they decide to give it a try to detach themselves from Dante on DMC series, hence Nero appearance on DMC 4 to take the helm. And what they did after? Releasing a wacky ride Donte DmC instead make use of the up and coming hero.

They just bad at making new lore. Period.

On one hand, I don't wholly blame them for stepping away from Nero given the fan response to him at the time. For some reason people didn't like him. However, DmC was a combination of effort, as once again Capcom was trying to become more "successful" in the West and therefore they tried to get a Western studio to make a game that would appeal more to Western audiences while Itsuno was off making Dragon's Dogma. Unfortunately, the director at Ninja Theory decided "Kids today only like awful edgelord type characters" and completely made the worst story and setting of his career (I mean, seriously, how did the guy responsible for Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and Hellblade write DmC?!), though the gameplay wasn't the worst.

Honestly, though, DMC5 is a crown jewel and a perfect way to wrap the series up, should it end here (and who knows since Itsuno himself has said he doesn't have much longer before retirement). It's a rare example of knowing how to bring all that lore in and tie it off with a neat, satisfying bow.

I honestly think RE4 is a decent way to step away from Umbrella. It wasn't a big evil corporation, it was a new kind of infection, and it set itself apart. I also don't mind having to deal with the aftermath of Umbrella's experiments breaking out into the world. It's just that, somehow, the manner in which they always bring it back around to Umbrella is the dumbest way possible.

Regardless, at this point I expect bad stories from RE and merely hope that every so often you'll get one that's actually good, like RE7.

34 minutes ago, DragonneRPG said:

But frankly, I'm not sure where RE could go next. Each new game is pretty much going to be another bioweapons outbreak by an evil corporation/obssessive mutant, with the only variable being the main protagonist, who could be an inexperienced survivor like Ethan or a military anti-BOW soldier like Chris.

Well, who really knows given Village's conclusion. It really is up in the air at this point.

As for Back 4 Blood, I have it installed from Game Pass but the Beta was enough that my friends haven't come back for more. Dunno if I'll really play it much myself. It's probably fun, but it's got a lot of competition and it doesn't feel enough like Left 4 Dead to get me to play it instead of Left 4 Dead.

[Elena Ichinomiya]

13+ 

Hah, are you virgin or what? I can't believe i said that but those rating really questionable at best to be aimed for. Look here, i understand some marketing value, but what good is marketing value if you end up dumbing down your own product beyond recognition? Not only it break the game immersion, it devalued the game developer creativity. We all been seeing how much game tone down their very image just so it didn't raise their rating miles high. But what do they get later is stale reception among critic. What those publisher miss out is the fact of the real profit here. Which lead to this thought of mine...

"If the game is set to M rating, don't need to worry about profit. Kids will grow up one day and play your game once they get proper job to earn money. If the game aim to Teen rating, kids have fun early, then their old arse gonna scream OW THE EDGE! and other cringe quotes while wondering if this game is good enough to replay on their adult age, followed with kids stole their parent credit card to buy crappy game, yours truly"

To be fair, i appreciate the presence of rating because while flawed, it give the game developer to say anything in their defense to a shitty parent who bought their sweet 5 years old daughter Playboy Mansion by simply point out "Don't you see what's written there?". Also the fact that the gaming community is nice enough to say and warn people ahead of time before buying with this label is probably good thing to note about gaming. Just like movie, there's rating for a reason. But turn out the stale marketing lead to many mishap...

Trend & Profit Is Double Edge
Its easy to find many game stray away from its predecessor. Be it Battlefield latest release to GTA. But what i didn't get is when publisher decide to tone down the game to lower the rating, just so they can add some willy silly stuff and become relevant. I mean sure teenager would do silly stuff in gaming which make the game look fun, but the thing is, its not always. Especially if the game wasn't made for stupid thing to happen every single seconds. At the end of the day, following trend by sacrificing game value to be lower than M rating when its not meant to be, is not always end in profit if the game wasn't made for that. It would make you wasting breath convincing how great your game is; which is true, but not on your target audience.

Screw the trend! Make your own mainstream! Or at least stick to your own gaming tradition people know and love! Imagine if Bandai release Tekken as battle royale because of a trend. That's total kick in the nut for everyone because that's not the title to be work with such genre!

Lower Rating Doesn't Mean Easy Way To Fame
Take Ninja Gaiden 3 for example. Or other embarrassing downgrade everyone remember. While it reach more audience, it doesn't end well for them because their running theme was dumbed so much, the game losing their identity. The game are well received in mature audience. But because they dumb it down to 13+, they forgot few thing which is one, those kid at that age play ANYTHING they deem as fun and stuck with it for long before move on, and two, the game price is not up for their monthly allowance. Believe me when i said it took me at least a whole month without using my monthly allowance just to buy The Sims 2 Pets (rated T) for PS2. This is bad news for game company who seek first week profit. It fail to reach the goal because their target audience and the game budget was too much to take in on day one.

Unless they're oil baron child who has $5000 monthly allowance, this point might prove invalid. But boy, those parent need to chill.

Who Spent More Money?
If you heard game make profit, the question is, who bought it? Teenager with their piss poor paying part-time job? Or adult who has money but no time to play? While its easy to guess, its clear that the bigger number of audience of 13+ doesn't spent that much money on a game on day one. Not to mention they're not always have bigger wallet. Meanwhile, the adult audience was there with their wallet open. But because their game wasn't meet their standard, they pull away. That's what they missed. Compared to 13+ audience to Mature audience, who spent the money most on DLC and other stuff pack for their game? If you were put on 13+ shoes, with your monthly allowance at hand, would you buy more than just the game? Then put yourself as who you are now, you think its possible for you to buy DLC? You could, you just think of better time when to buy it. While those younger audience can only wonder when they can buy it.

Still think bigger audience = easy profit? If your luck with you and the game worth the price, surely it would get profit; after those teen get stable job that is.

Blocking The Dev Idea
Look at Witcher 3, Dark Souls, SMT: Nocturne, Fallout, Battlefield (pre-BF1), Mortal Kombat, anything that deemed too gritty for everyone to take. They manage to earn their place and deemed memorable because there's no aim to lower rating. Meaning they can add realistic value as much as they could. And when people think having Mature audience as the main marketing wasn't going to work out well as much than 13+, those game prove them wrong. Not only they won best game of the year, they win most profitable release. Even without toning down to appease younger audience, the game manage to receive great reception both from critic and gamer alike. This goes to show that its better to leave the dev and their idea alone than chasing a trend.

As long as it wasn't outdate or oversaturated, nobody will hurt!

At The End Of The Day...
When game dev said "The game has Realistic value", do they actually meant the game has character take a breath animation or something? The immersion of every game these days is pretty much non-challenging at all. I remember back then in 2008, game creativity is at its finest even with limited engine. And here we are for some reason take ten step backward from those realistic value. Back then, even new game+ still a challenge on the replay. Here? Not without buying extra boss DLC if you want more challenge which is desperate attempt to cash in a trend.

Sure its good way to lure new audience but doesn't mean you had to make the game felt like tutorial from start to finish either. Where's the challenge? Where's the graphic? Where's the immersion? Where's the engagement between game and player? I don't feel any of it since 2017 game release...

Or if putting challenge would scare audience as game company feared, why don't those dev add feature like...you know, DIFFICULTY CHOICES!?

Elena, shutting off~

[Minorikawa]

I think game difficulty has actually seen a revival over the past decade. I mean, stinking Metroid Dread is giving people a run for their money and that's a first-party Nintendo game. Nintendo! But it's challenging and has a free Hard mode you unlock that... well, yeah, it's hard. Then there's the coming hype for something like Elden Ring.

The problem is the game industry is really weird in regards to its target audience, and what younger audiences are playing is different than what many grew up with, and those that are grown up are, in some cases, getting old and no longer able to play as well as they used to. It's such a weird mixture that the industry keeps trying to figure out how to get more numbers and units sold rather than specializing their demographics.

I guess, basically, you once again gotta look at the indie games, though a lot of those ironically are able to pass with E or T ratings simply due to the 16-bit aesthetics.

But honestly, working in a games retailer as a teenager when I was younger, most parents never cared about the ratings and just bought their kid GTA anyway.

[Elena Ichinomiya]

This one might be the shortest than usual post. I'm in the mood to sort out what kind of event that transpire among gaming community and perhaps some hilarity this year. I'm no professional nor keen enough to pay attention to every news so i probably gonna miss out some big news. So i'm gonna put some disclaimer that what i write down here is based from news i manage to catches on. I do my best to sort out the news based from monthly order so expect some jumble here and there

1. Cyberpunk got pulled out from PS Store
2. CD Projekt literally lose a big sum of profit due to Cyberpunk disaster launch
3. Cyberpunk new roadmap lead the game into mostly positive review on steam (It was mixed back then)
4. Delay of various game happen and fans are not happy (in toxic way which is bad for their own good)
5. E3 2020 (thanks to plague, they retain the previous year for title) launched in new normal and receive decent reception...some
6. Nintendo deemed as winner of the E3 shows whereas people call out Microsoft presentation are drag to watch
7. Razor E3 receive mixed reception due to most of their presentation they talk about charger instead the actual hardware it connect to
8. UBISOFT vague presentation leave fans hanging and expect less of them
9. Bethesda was bought by Microsoft and fans are worried about exclusivity (though the PR said its timed exclusivity)
10. KONAMI rumored to try their hand at gaming industry again
11. Genshin Impact Anniversary end up flop so bad they got cancelled (again) on twitter
12. Activision got shot again with scandal
13. KONAMI E-Football receive so many backlash, it end up as worst game on Steam of all time
14. Rockstar trailer about GTA definitive getting skeptical review among fans
15. GTA definitive edition turn out to be disaster and T2 literally being dick on Modder
16. BF 2042 turn out to be sack of void for a triple A games. And fans point it out right to developer face in Reddit
17. Genshin Impact KFC wings receive many backlash, and (you guess it) being called out again on twitter
18. Activision scandal turn out to be true and game platform CEO (PS, XBOX, Nintendo) nudge them to take action
19. T2 abuse of authority lead many small company having difficulty running their business with their ridiculous claim of their company name and common term. (as you might expect, they only bully small company even though there's WHOLE bunch of company using words "take two" and "Rockstar" such as "Pepsi Rockstar". Yeah, too pussy to fight big fish so they bully the handicapped kid on the class)
20. BF 2042 change its leader but people still pessimist since the new leader is creator of APEX and Titanfall. While both are good game, it still so far off from Battlefield gritty theme as the said title is far more realistic in approach than fictional like APEX in the least.
21. KONAMI, Bethesda, and Capcom almost join hand in being bad company but thanks to Activision scandal and T2 ridiculous authority, they "disqualified" themselves from everyone view and goes radio silent for now

And lastly, bet you won't gonna believe me when you read this...

• For the first time in years, i root for EA for being good this year around...sure BF 2042 was BS launch but at least they didn't trip too much; just the game issue only, no scandal like Activision or T2 abuse....or being screw loose by teaching kids on gambling on FIFA. Their microtransaction still crap though!

That's the news i manage to catches on. As for reason why i didn't talk about it, mostly because i wait for logical conclusion or if lucky, a final conclusion that put nail on the coffin. Just like you, i hate yellow journalism too. When i know something, i want to know it through and through and tell you what i catches on, no sensationalism or crazy theory that doesn't even have to do with it (i mean back then, some maniac call me out on Dark Rose Valkyrie review for being misogynism when the game itself doesn't even have such scene, feature, conversation, let alone featured content or idea! If you're the one who give me that BS and happen to reading this, then know i'm laughing at your logic and glad we're not related!).

Did i miss some news? Do tell! I accept no rumor though, hm-hm~

Elena, shutting off~