Capcom's Underwhelming Performance

Capcom appears to be making it a divine company mission to fuck up and underperform in every release imaginable in 2016 and 2017 even more so. Capcom was once the company that defined a generation of fighting game and platforming adventure fans with the legendary, once untouchable franchises of Megaman and Street Fighter. How far the mighty have fallen indeed! Capcom's latest Megaman release is nothing more than a lackluster re-release of Mega Man 7, Mega Man 8, Mega Man 9, and Mega Man 10. How about a new Megaman game Capcom, something fresh and innovative? Oh, my mistake. This philosophy is Capcom's marketing strategy, a company that has no problems reusing old elements until the paint begins to rot, and has no issues screwing every one of their loyal fan bases to the breaking point. They rest alongside Konami, SEGA, Rareware, and EA as examples of fallen giants of the video game industry, where profits and quantity have replaced consumer confidence and quality game releases. Nowhere is this disgraceful attitude more present than in Capcom's biggest failure in over a decade, that being Street Fighter V. Where to even begin with this awful game?    

How about this! This "game" is an atrocity to the legendary name of Street Fighter. No Arcade mode, no online working mode, only 16 playable characters and you just know, they will sell you the rest of the game through DLC parasite packs to slowly drain a fool of their money in small increments. A full middle finger to the entire fighting game community and the worst Street Fighter release imaginable. Honestly, Street Fighter IV is one of my favorite games, HOW DID CAPCOM ROYALLY SCREW UP THIS BADLY?!?!?The gameplay is still in the vein of classic Street Fighter, but Capcom's unrepentant consumer greed and shameless DLC plugging ruin any potential this game could have had. All the characters should have been unlocked from the start because the online mode is such a laggy bore fest, you won't even give a fuck about playing it. Also, arcade mode is a shameful disgrace; it's so short and pointless you will want to throw your controller against the wall within an hour. Useless cutscenes and no challenge anywhere? An idle and dysfunctional online mode? Nearly no new content, and overpriced DLC for what remains included post-release? Fuck this game!!! 

Top 4 Ways to Avoid a Second Video Game Market Crash

1) Put the Hardcore Gamer First:
The rise of casual gamers is nothing to shun or ignore, but hardcore gamers are getting devalued in the new triple AAA gaming developer market. They want to bring kids, the elderly, and increasing amounts of female players to the table. I am all about all-inclusiveness, but the problem is that they have neglected the core gamers through deceptive practices that we didn't have to put up with before. We didn't have to put up with shitty micro transactions before. We didn't have to pay $60.00 for a full priced video game before. Oh, my mistake! I meant a $60.00 priced half-finished triple AAA title with shitty DLC you have to pay for later, half-finished maps, and glitches out the ass that will get slowly "patched" later. Enough with the bullshit! Release your game in a complete state with all the features built in, or do not release anything at all!

2)  Cut the prices of video games back to $50.00

Let's face it, $60.00 isn't a massive increase over the old school $50.00 price point, but it's not exactly a small amount of money, especially considering all the video games getting released with half of their features missing or only unpolished! By lowering consumer costs, you increase consumer confidence and trust in the strength of your product. The amount of Triple AAA video games getting released with incomplete features merit a cutback in price, these video games should not get released with so many missing features, half-baked concepts, and then you expect the audience to shell out full price for a mediocre offering? No Man's Sky was all one huge lie, and gamers were ripped off. Mass Effect Andromeda promised big, delivered little to nothing, while destroying a once untouchable franchise, bringing Bioware to its knees in disgrace. Haven't the core gamers suffered enough at the hands of incompetence and deception?

3) Kill the hype trains and stop pre-ordering games!

The pre-order, as every hardcore gamer now knows, is a huge trap. Do not fall for it! They promise extra features to those who preorder, which rarely make a difference in the final released product. I once made the terrible mistake of pre-ordering Halo Reach. I paid nearly two hundred dollars (what a waste) for a collection of Halo Reach statues and my Legendary copy of the game. 

I stood outside in the rain, stuck in the dead end of Palm Springs drunk as a skunk on several shots of Jack Daniels whiskey at a Gamestop on a Friday night, with a group of strangers instead of having fun with my friends! What did I get for all that extra money and my pants soaked with water and stale urine besides a group of nice-looking action-figures? Blue flaming helmets in multiplayer, a pure cosmetic afterthought. That's it! And Halo Reach sucked ass by the way, with broken map design, an average campaign, but hideously terrible multiplayer with the broken Armor Lock AA that made players invincible to both grenades and melee attacks! Simply put, I was conned into pre-ordering Halo Reach because I thought after Halo 3 Bungie could do no wrong *cough* *cough* (Destiny) *cough*. The bottom line is to tell all your gamer friends, stop pre-ordering video games! Let's force the developers to step up their respective games, and offer all content at release with nothing left out for anyone. Charge a single price, and give everyone the same content, no Pay-To-Play bullshit!

4) Include a free Beta before every release:

So many new titles are popping onto store shelves with little quality control! We need more gaming developers to begin offering beta tests for every game they release. Let us break your video game for you, then you can fix the product before making us pay full price for an incomplete product!

Crash Bandicoot Returns on Playstation 4

I will admit that growing up, my penchant was for Super Mario Bros and Sonic The Hedgehog. So, the PlayStation lineup didn't factor largely into my scope. But when it did, Crash Bandicoot was the one gaming title that stood out largest. I loved the multilayered and colorful worlds, the unique enemies and boss fights, and most of all the excellent platforming mechanics! So when I heard that Crash Bandicoot was getting a remake on the PlayStation 4, I was not expecting to get disappointed. However, one concern remained, Activision developing this remaster instead of Crash Bandicoots rightful creators, Naughty Dog Studios. However, my fears have been laid to rest upon sampling the gameplay.

Put simply, this remake gets everything right that a remaster is supposed to. The original shine and polish of Crash Bandicoot is here, but with a next generation coat of paint! The platforming is as addictive as ever. Even better, this game combines Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bandicoot Warped, into a single unified release, so you can get your Crash fix at any hour of the day or night! The only genuine improvement I could mention for Activision to consider is the necessary addition of Crash Bash. For fans of the Crash Bandicoot series, this game is a must purchase!

Cuphead: A Blast Of Retro Awesomeness!

I can say with little hesitation that Cuphead is one of the greatest gaming concepts I have seen in a long time. The graphics are gorgeous, hand-drawn with a Disney style and panache. The gameplay is classic Super Mario Bros, Contra, and Shovel Knight blended into a single release. The soundtrack is utterly breathtaking, orchestral instruments backing up the ensemble of tight, crisp, classic 2D platforming. 

Everything about this title makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside! This is the type of game that reminds me that all hope may not become lost for a true, incredible, new platforming adventure and solid two-dimensional gameplay. Make no mistake, 2D gaming still has its place among video gaming veterans, and Cuphead combines the greatest elements from all of them into a single release. I have not been this excited for a new title in a long time, check out the Youtube video below for Cuphead's classic blast from the past, and future gameplay! The game will be released both on Xbox One X, PC, and the PlayStation 4 Pro, and for any old-school platforming fans remains a mandatory purchase!

SEGA Genesis Flashback Is An Absolute Trainwreck

It has become abundantly clear to myself, as well as countless other gaming fans of both SEGA, Capcom, and Konami, that these three gaming studios literally have stopped giving a fuck about anything but profits. Capcom continues its newfound tradition of butchering classic titles such as Megaman, Street Fighter, and Marvel VS Capcom with shitty DLC requirements and nerfed gameplay options. Konami huffed so much paint and air duster, they believed firing Hideo Kojima was a good idea, and received a proper fan backlash ribbing up the ass.

But between Konami and Capcom, the true loser is now SEGA. This company is on life support. Outside of Sonic Forces and the rumored new Shenume title, this company no matter should matter to anyone who loves video games! SEGA has repeatedly demonstrated total callousness towards old school fans, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the pitifully awful, SEGA Genesis Flashback, buy at your own risk! Shell out $80.00 a pop, then recieve a crappy lineup of non-HD Genesis game remakes with an incomplete roster of Sonic The Hedgehog titles, NO SONIC THE HEDGEHOG THREE ANYWHERE!!! It's insulting, as this company once was Nintendo's primary competitor, now they are a sad joke than cannot compete with Nintendo, who despite being an excellent company themselves, are struggling against Microsoft and Sony's dominance of the video gaming industry. 

The difference is that between Nintendo and SEGA, I want to see Nintendo come out victorious and remain a competitor to Microsoft and Sony, whereas I only want SEGA to die off and never return. Even if Sonic Forces is not a shitacular Sonic game, and even if Shenume is decent enough as a remake or sequel, it will take decades of excellent game releases for SEGA to undo the damage they have done to themselves. SEGA has also made the foolish mistake of attempting to ban all YouTubers from promoting their video games and consoles through fair use. News flash video game developers, gamers uploading videos of your product increases consumer desire for your products. By banning the fair use of copyrighted material, you ban people selling your product for you, and deserve every bit of the backlash you receive in turn!

The Way To Save The Mass Effect Series From The Mistakes of Andromeda

Alright gamers, we can no longer pussyfoot around the issue. Mass Effect Andromeda was not just a disappointing video game. It was easily the worst, most overhyped video game of 2017 by far! All the magic of the original trilogy is gone, removing unique characters such as Garus Vakarian, Commander Shepard, Grunt, Mordin, Wrex, and Tali, now being replaced by hideous paper-thin cardboard cutouts. Mix in poor facial animations, an annoying and pointless storyline, buggy glitch rode gameplay, irritating fetch quests along with useless, completely ineffectual writing, and Mass Effect Andromeda may well take the title of the worst video game of 2017. Just thinking about this game makes my blood boil, as the original Mass Effect Trilogy is one of my favorite game series, and this latest entry is a far cry from the past glory days.

The way to save the Mass Effect series, in my opinion, is simple. Bring back Commander Shepard and the original Mass Effect cast, add new characters to that world, then build on the universe which has already been set up through deep and complex storytelling! These new characters are boring and pointless. Therefore audiences do not want to waste time with them. Hire better writers, and integrate seamlessly, the worlds of Andromeda and the first Mass Effect together into a single game entry. Make the relationships meaningful again. When the characters feel like cardboard, and there is no significant incentive to care about their motivations or personality, they become a faceless AI in which the player cannot become invested in the storyline. Simply put, a Mass Effect title with shitty writing ruins the entire foundation upon which the franchise became built.