#we still have a gamecube though i wonder if you can still get a copy of the game

[crapmagak]

Engage Drip Marketing: Marth!?

Note: Sorry this is late. I had a personal project I was behind on, so I prioritized that over the past couple days.

Well, looks like we’re getting profiles for our emblems as well. Not quite as exciting as new characters, admittingly, but there is still some new info here to check out.

The first tweet goes…

The Emblem Marth (VA: Hikaru Midorikawa), also known as the “Emblem of Beginnings” is a hero among heroes who’s extremely noble and charismatic. A prince of Altea, from the outrealm continent of Archanea.

The Cutscene tweet goes…

Here's a conversation between the Emblem Marth and Alear. It seems he's been keeping watch over Alear, the whole time they were sleeping.

Marth: I’ve always been watching you, so I’m glad we can finally talk like this, Alear.

Alear: Me too, Marth. I hope you’ll continue to stay by my side. And I’m happy if you’ll lend me your strength.

Now, for those who don’t know, Marth is a character that debuted in the hit game Super Smash Bros Melee for the Nintendo GameCube.

Okay, in all seriousness it’s Marth, the pikachu of Fire Emblem. Makes sense that he’s our hero's Emblem Ring and all that. As for what story details we can gleam, well, there’s a bit. First, marth has apparently “always been watching over” Alear. This makes me think this isn’t the actual canon Marth. Assuming there's any story explanation and not just the valid justification of “we’re having fun, so who cares”, I think this may be a situation like the servants in the Fate series. To explain a lot of complicated lore briefly, in the fate universe Servants aren’t actually historical and mythological figures brought back to life (baring some exceptions cause there are ALWAYS exceptions), but copies created by the earth (which is a sentient god basically.) Maybe we have a situation like that.

We also see this conversation happen in Somniel, which is probably our magic base. Makes me wonder if this is part of the story, or a support conversation. I’m also curious if Marth can have supports, if they’ll just be with Alear, or other characters, or even other Emblems. Cross world supports were one of the highlights of Fire Emblem Warriors.

Marth is also given the title of The Emblem of Beginnings. Makes me wonder what the other emblems titles will be.

Now, as always, our combat clip is where we get some of the juiciest stuff. The tweet goes…

The Emblem Marth is an ace sword-wielder; when characters equip his ring, they're more likely to avoid enemy attacks.

Despite what the tweet says, we actually see that Alear gets a buff to all his stats. We also see through the menuing that Alear can already engage with Marth in this map, which seems to be the third or fourth one in the game. We also see Alear’s legendary sword, Libération. It’s described as “for divine dragons only”, and grants “Engage Count +1” whenever you land a finishing blow. So, it looks like Alear will be able to engage more than other units.

Curiously, though, the battle forcast is different than in the earlier trailer, when Alear and Marth attacked an ax wielding “ruffian” in the same map. Alear can only attack once in this clip, him and Marth attacking at the same time. In the first trailer, Alearis shown to be able to attack three times, though we only see the first strike. One attack does 13, the next does 6, and the final does 13 again. However, also in the first trailer, Alear did 10 damage to the lance wielding corrupted instead of 9, and was capable of doubling. As such, I think you get that third attack only if you can double, or maybe weapon advantage has something to do with it. Or perhaps it has to do with bond. Again, waiting on them famitsu articles to explain shit.

Lastly, I wanted to point out the music. The track for this map is the same we hear in the castle, which gave me a couple thoughts. First, perhaps each of the six countries in this game have their own dedicated map theme, which would be neet. The other thing I noticed is the overall tone of the track.

So far, we’ve caught glimpses of three different map themes.

Alear clip: Rather upbeat but also a bit soft, exactly what the artstyle brings to mind.

Vander clip: Sounds urgent and foreboding, fitting an attack in the middle of the night.

Clan, Framme, and Marth clip: Calm and a bit somber, especially surprising given the beautiful and sunny village map.

It kind of makes me wonder what the overall tone of the story’s gonna be? Like, I assumed Engage was gonna have a more light hearted and adventurous story given the art style, but the music reminded me a bit that even in the more sunny and colorful entries, there’s always a somber undercurrent to these games. It’s almost like they’re about war or something.

Also, dear god I can’t wait to listen to this ost

#fire emblem engage #fire emblem #marth #Now I'm POSITIVE we're getting Alfred next!

[attract-mode-collective]

Exactly 79 Photos & Videos Concerning The Game Boy (plus other handhelds)

So... hope you’ve all been following me on Twitter, which is more or less the unofficial new home for Attract Mode. Mostly cuz Tumblr’s days are, alas, numbers, plus I haven’t warmed up to Medium as much as I had hoped to. Though I’ve actually spent the past two months republishing every single post that contains mainline Game Culture Snapshots, so it has remained somewhat useful at least.

Now, for a while there, I had been compiling every single thing tweeted. But because I’m now so damn active on that end… plus I’m busier than ever with other projects… I’m way behind with those digest posts, and the very idea of playing catch up legit gives me anxiety. Yet I have been sharing lots of cool things, which all deserve to be in the blog proper… and because a lot of them are specific to the Game Boy, I figure, why not just focus on that?

Like the above, which is a technique for producing full color photographs via the Game Boy Camera, and yet another thing that I can’t believe hasn’t made the rounds!

Sticking with Game Boy photography, here have a pair of mods that will greatly enhance picture quality. The first involves mounting SLR lens onto a Game Boy Camera (via ekeler.com)...

And the second has one shoving a Game Boy Camera into a SLR itself (via @MaxKriegerVG)...

As someone who was into video games as a kid, and also interested in photography, the Game Boy Camera was the first camera I was able to call my own. Am pretty sure this was the case for others as well?

I also remember seeing this ad in Nickelodeon Magazine (which I would eventually writer for, not too long later) and being absolutely gob smacked (via nintendroid.org)…

Though as much I loved Nintendo brand of FUNtography, I would quickly discover… as did everyone else I also assume… that taking pictures is serious business (via @PolandNintendo)…

Not only did I have a Game Boy Color, but I also had the Game Boy Printer (I still own both, for the record). Unfortunately my snapshots from Link’s Awakening have long since faded, but as with many things, you can find copies online (via gameandgraphics.com)…

Speaking of the world of print, coming soon is a handy guide to Nintendo handy game machine (via miki800.com)…

That one magazine ad featuring Princess Peach catch your eye as well? Well here’s a much better look at it (via suppermariobroth)…

I love handheld gadgets of all kinds, yet some of the popular ones confuse me. Like Hudson’s Shooting Watch; it makes no sense to have a gadget that can detect button presses without a game attached. Guess I’m not alone (via instagram.com/kazzycom)…

A realization I made while sifting through Game Boy related content is how popular the color yellow is with many. Cuz Pokemon? Anyhow, the final post from a blog that specializes in gorgeous photographs of gorgeous hardware, which I just brought up again very recently (via hard-aware)…

How your parents used to trade Pokemans online (via melonjaywalk)…

And no, Game Boys weren't the only things that one could connect to keitais ya know. And yes, Game Boys aren’t the only portables I’ll be showcasing (via anthony10000000)…

I own quite a few VMUs and am always looking to expand my collection… but nothing yellow, sorry. Instead, I want the one covered with dolphins (via anthony10000000)…

So my new favorites artist is Eri Kitamura, and not just cuz she makes pretty looking Game Boys…

She also makes pretty looking girls playing Game Boys (well, this one is technically listening to music)…

Was originally going to post the first thing from Eri that caught my eye, which is a Game Boy with a girl on it, but instead here’s a Game Boy with a girl on it playing a Game Boy…

Time for two more videos from the same individual responsible with the process for producing color photographs at the very top. And it’s what everyone has been waiting… specifically the backlit Game Boy Color mod everyone has been waiting for.

The process is detailed in this two-part video, and here’s the first one (it’s about 50 minutes long cuz spoilers: this shit ain’t easy)…

And here’s part two, which is ONLY 40-ish minutes long…

The author of the videos actually has a store, so if the process seems a bit too daunting, you can purchase a pre-modded unit for $250. Actually, this one is $260, cuz of the dual shells. Quite the price tag, yet somehow totally worth it (via instagram.com/esotericmods)…

Now might be a good time to mention how… remember that GBA with the GameCube finish from eBay a few months back? Well, I decided to get the one that resembles a Super Famicom, something I’ve been lusting over for years.

Well, here’s what the aforementioned seller had in his listing…

And this is what I got instead…

Yeah, that green shoulder button is not the right shade. After some complaining, I got the seller to admit that the one in the picture was hand painted; he didn’t know where it get ones that it’s exact color as on a Super Fami controller.

He also had a no refund policy, yet I bitched & moaned enough to warrant an exchange, for another Cube-esque model, one sans the stick. Cuz it’s comparatively boring to look at, here’s a version with the stick…

Again, mine just has the standard d-pad. As for my replacement… the colors of the A & B buttons are not an exact match, once again. But it’s close enough (am mostly just sick of dealing with that guy, aka johnnys_merchandise, whom you should all avoid btw), plus I have started to scour AliExpress for replacements.

BTW, my failure to obtain a modded handheld that channels another form of hardware has me wondering if I should go for something completely different instead (via instagram.com/wakuwakuisland)…

Up in the mountains, flower bloom amongst Game Boys & Game Boy Colors, whereas deep in the forest, you’ll find mushrooms and Game Boy Advances (via pxchinko)…

Some say memories are fuzzy, though for others, they're leafy (via lyosphe)…

I’ve looked all over for tinycartridge's original post, but no luck, so you can all instead have my personal copy of the earthy wallpaper that was shared years ago (and which I still to this very day)...

The Game Boy Micro, DS, and DS Lite are like family, and like siblings, there can the occasional squabble (via benkyo-es)…

@frankcifaldi: When I met this guy in 2003 and he told me he was going to make an extensive fan site about the Supervision, a Taiwanese Game Boy knockoff, I was like "sure dude." 15 years later he actually launched the thing??

Meanwhile, the Game & Watch Perfect Catalogue just came out, with the full low down on all 59 models. BTW, had no idea there were 59 in total until @ionadisco mentioned it…

How Game & Watches were sold in America; I fondly recalls this ad in-between the pages of Amazing/Spectacular/Web of Spider-Man (via suppermariobroth)…

And how Game Boys were sold in Japan, one day one apparently, which would explain this salesperson’s rather perplexed demeanor (via flashbak.com)…

Silly as it sounds, and as silly as he looks, the US version of Firebrand is nonetheless a warm & welcoming face from my childhood (via nintendometro)...

Mario dropping a knowledge bomb (via suppermariobroth)…

Here’s Peach seemingly kicking Toad’s ass in Super Mario Bros Deluxe, which I’ve been meaning to tweet for a while now, but now seems like the right time & place for obvious reasons (via nintendometro)…

A cute comic about someone finally beating a game after ten years, or at least I believe that's the case (you know, language barrier and all; via @desune593)

Sailor Moon seems to enjoy handheld gaming more so than in the arcades (via uglygreenjacket)…

It saddens me that ravages of time is robbing me of my precious memories, including the names of 90s anime, hence why I had to ask on Twitter who exactly is this (answer was Tenchi Muyo; via shxtfased)...

It’s SethEverman, just playing some pokemon blue…

Speaking of music, it again saddens me that I wasn’t about to make the trip to Japan to catch chiptunes at Square Sounds, and various associated venues. At least @bit_shifter_ took this great snapshot of Glomag at Cyberpunks Osaka…

Meanwhile, here in NYC, we actually still have record stores. And you can grab Josh’s latest release, his first in 12 years(!) at Rough Trade (via bit-shifter)…

Though back to Japan; attended Square Sounds would have also afforded me the chance to check out Tokyo Game Show, where I could have gotten that VMU shaped USB drive that was being sold at the Sega booth (via miki800)…

A few weeks before TGS, there was an earthquake in Japan, in northern island Hokkaido. Many were left without power, but one person was able to keep up with the news, thanks to an old DS peripheral that basically provides bunny ears (via kotaku.com)…

On a semi-related note, here’s someone watching old ECW VHS tapes on their Game Gear (via heavyelectricity)…

Sorry, but the only other thing I have that’s related to Sega’s Master System on the go is this gif from a pizza ranch salad dressing (yikes) commercial, which was cross-promoting Sonic Chaos (via sonicthehedgeblog)...

I have no idea why I'm so amused by this Getty Image of a Neo Geo Pocket that was confiscated at summer camp. Or perhaps no explanation is needed? (via hellomrkearns)…

Speaking of the Great Outdoors, here’s my buddy Steve enjoying some Mario Kart 8 in the middle of a forest (via instagram.com/vitaminsteve)…

And speaking of Mario Kart on the Switch, Bowser seems like a pretty cool dood to have a car trip (via suppermariobroth)…

The Switch is so beloved that people are doing fan art, not for any particular game but the simple the act of playing with it (via annazees)…

Granted, one of the best things about the Switch is all the different ways in which one can play (via kanekoshake)…

If you enjoy your Switch on the go and are looking for a way to store games… and are a diehard Breath of the Wild fan as well… plus if you have access to a 3D printer (via miki800.com)…

It’s a tribute to Star Wars… games… all of them… featuring Princess Leia focused on her DMG (via deviantart.com/robduenas)...

BTW, do you still have your Game Boy? If not, here ya go (via anthony10000000)…

When the realization hits that your Game Boy Color library is incomplete (via @Bootleg_Stuff)…

Back to my buddy Steve, who visited the Primark at the Staten Island mall and took pics of the game related apparel that, sadly, were no longer in stock by the time I was able to swing by. With the one thing I really wanted being this shirt…

This pair of Super Mario Land X Air Jordans is only $1,350.00 (via miki800.com)…

I’m sure you’ve seen him already, but for the sake of completion, here’s that grandpa from who rigged this bike with 11 phones to become a Pokemon Go master (via bbc.com)…

Yet another sign of our times, literally (via fuckdragonballz)…

This image features a PSP and a MacBook, both of which are from the mid-2000s, yet feels very late 1990s/early 2000s. Why? Those USB cables (via jcgraphix)…

And last but not least, here’s Paris Hilton with her DS in 2005 (via @ParisHilton)…

[prompt-master]

In Sickness and In Sickness

#be more chill #bmc #boyf riends #fanfic #wow prom CAN write what a g ld damn surprise #nah but really I'm sorry!!! I got writers block and I'm trying to push through!!!

[iownmywiiulegit]

Metroid Prime 4: #1- The Lay of the Land

This is the beginning of documentation representing my journey through the Metroid franchise by Nintendo.  First, a warning: This next little bit is a flashback that leads up to now.  

When Nintendo first mentioned that Metroid Prime 4 was in development I thought man, I really should beat the first Metroid Prime.  Back in the days before the Wii I worked my Metroid Prime all the way up to the Ridley battle and then set it down for a few years.  I got into different games like Soul Calibur II and Tales of Symphonia.  Soul Calibur was a great bro bonding game and I still think it is.  The next few years were spent focusing on college and then I bought a Wii.  I thought the Gamecube was obsolete at this point since my Wii could play Gamecube games, but man was I wrong.  Buying the Wii U proved this to me.  I wanted to play all discs on one system but I couldn’t do that.  I wanted (and still want) purity with my consoles.  This resulted in my going hard into my Gamecube again and getting the hardware peripherals that made it stand on par with the Wii, if not debatably better.  I bought the digital component cable for a wildly discounted price on eBay, and the Gameboy player and disc.  I got super lucky in finding the component cables at the price I found them at and I think the seller was in a pinch because it WAS around the holidays and I was just randomly checking the listings and was like “holy crap.”  No bidding, just buy it now.  Can’t say, won’t say.  It was also around this time that Nintendo announced that they were starting development for Metroid Prime all over from scratch.  Hearing this news felt like hearing a referee pistol.  If Nintendo was going to give me a fair warning that shit was getting real about Metroid Prime 4, then it’s up to me to get on the ball and meet Nintendo and Retro Studios in stride.  My instincts told me to go beat my original Metroid Prime file, finally.  My hardware was excellent and Nintendo sent the official signal; let’s go.

Turning on Metroid Prime for the first time in years with my original save file still intact, I expected to me extremely rusty at the controls and traversing the landscape.  Surprisingly it came back fairly quickly and before I knew it I was blasting different colored Metroids away no problem.  What I didn’t realize was exactly how close I was to actually beating the game.  The final boss was all I had to defeat.  Really?  17 years just for that?  If my memory serves me correctly, I simply just didn’t want the game to end.  I do that.  Leave books unfinished, leave movies before the end, compose music and leave the ending open, and I don’t know why.  I want time to soak into the experience and really savor it.  Perhaps I’m not so much a voracious consumer of entertainment but rather an appreciative connoisseur.  Back in 2004, I remember being at a drummer’s house that I was in drum corps with, and he was a stupid competitive type that turned everything into a pissing contest.  Once he found out that I had gotten all the way up to Ridley or something he set out to beat that game asap.  It was when he was at the final boss that I got my first glimpse of the future 15 years later.  Damn.  

Anyway, I beat Prime but I still have this amazing fully loaded Gamecube that has the OEM digital component cable, and Gameboy Advance player.  My next move was obvious.  I wasn’t done with the original Metroid Prime yet, not by a long shot!  If you’re a fan of Metroid, you love finding secrets and collecting all de tings.  To get the full original Metroid Prime experience, I had to play and beat Metroid Fusion for the Gameboy Advance.  I eBay-ed it up asap.  It’s kinda funny- Fusion showed up in the mail right on the day or day after I beat Prime.  Pretty cool.

Getting into Metroid Fusion was something I wasn’t ready for but always wanted.  It was Super Metroid that turned me into a fan.  The music, the beautiful colors, the crunchy explosions, and the search really got me looking in every nook and cranny in each level.  I wanted more and Fusion was it but I didn’t have a Gameboy Advance and wasn’t going to shell out even more money if I wasn’t going hard into games back then.  At that time I was so into music and rocking harder than life could offer that I just could not afford to allocate money toward a handheld that still was not backlit.  Fuck that.  When I saw pictures of Fusion all I could think was that it was Super Metroid 2.  After playing it, man, was I right about that.

Metroid Fusion is so amazing.  I love 2D Metroid-style games.  Hell, I spent a large part of 2018 playing through the indie game A Robot Named Fight on Steam and currently have a thoroughly played but not beaten Axiom Verge save file on my Wii U.  Again, Nintendo gave the signal and I had to run with it so here we are.  What I love about Fusion is quite a few things.  I love the graphics.  The colors are so vibrant and all the sprites look lively.  Even though the Gameboy Advance’s resolution is apparent on a 480p screen, it still plays amazingly.  The controls are tight and intuitive.  I did get lost a lot and backtracked often to find that random wall that needed to be blown through to progress to the next area.  I love how the security levels kept me from progressing just enough to experience the game unfold before me.  Oh man, I loved hiding from SA-X.  What a cool addition.  I swore a lot at the spider boss because it took me the most tries to defeat.  It was somewhere around that point where I thought that this game wasn’t for amateur platform players.  You really had to have a handle on things to get any further.  The moment Fusion Stole my heart was in chapter 11, at Plant Core X.

In Metroid Other M, there were oftentimes feelings of isolation and maybe even mild claustrophobia.  The same could even go for the final boss in Metroid Prime.  There’s something really gross-but-in-a-cool-way about destroying a slimy bug hive in a dark triple sub basement, especially if you have to spelunking your way to perform the extermination.  In Fusion, it’s sooo different, but the feeling is eerily similar in a way that I absolutely love.  When I first experience Plant Core X, I didn’t think I would be emotionally attached to my character.  I didn’t think I was Samus.  But then I kept getting dragged into the poisonous flower swamp that released deadly spores into the air in a wide horizontal sine wave pattern.  The music was minimal and just a little quieter than the rest of the game.  I kept trying to jump out of the swamp but I couldn’t get out.  It frustrated me because it interrupted my flow.  I felt helpless and that my situation was serious, even over my head.  I was suffocating.  I felt connected to Samus and like I had entered an extremely deadly area.  If Samus is an exterminator, this place was ground zero for the cause of everything in Fusion.  Don’t get me wrong- all the other bosses are vital to making up the game but at Plant Core X, Samus gets into deep shit.  Imagine that you’re stuck in a poisonous swamp or quicksand and you keep trying to jump out but the sludge keeps pulling you back in.  Now imagine all that while the air around you is raining poisonous dandelion seeds.  There’s no way you can’t get hit or sucked into the swamp.  What an amazing experience.  I couldn’t believe what I was feeling.  Here’s a YouTube link to this experience but it’s not me playing.  Whoever played in this video did way better than me but I think you can get an idea of what I’m talking about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=347poZRrbrQ

Just last week I beat Fusion but didn’t do so well in collecting all the little things in the game. The final boss was cool and well drawn for the time period and hardware imho.  My main goal was to unlock the original NES Metroid in my copy of Metroid Prime on the Gamecube.  Since I have a Gameboy Advance that my dad found on a school bus and no kids claimed, I used it to link up to my cube with the Fusion cart and unlocked Metroid.  

That brings us to the current moment.  Today I figured out how to save my original Metroid game on the Gamecube.  This was a little confusing because the Gamecube controller doesn’t have a select button like the original NES.  Instead it’s the Z button.  To save while you’re playing the game, you need a second controller, just like in the original Legend of Zelda, and while paused push UP and A to initiate the save screen without dying.  

I can’t wait to get into it.  When the original Metroid screen comes up on my HDTV in a somewhat aliased 480p widescreen picture, I am immediately in a time warp.  Since I never played the original Metroid as a kid, my only memories of that game are from looking at strategy guides that didn’t show you everything.  I didn’t think much of it then because Mario was it.  I used to watch the title screen to Zelda II: The Adventure of Link over and over again as a kid and look into the stars on the screen and just wonder endlessly about anything. It cast a spell over me or something; I was captivated.  With Metroid, the original, it is now happening again. The game is brand new to me and I couldn’t give a care to anything modern as far as gaming and technology if I tried.  The stars in the background, the blinking letters of METROID, the fairly quick opening sequence loop-  all of this shows me that I’ve never grown up from being a kid after all.  I’m still the same after all these years.  The world can only help me build character and deep down I’m just the same kid that gets filled with endless wonder when 8 bit Nintendo does it’s thing.  Amazing.

For a current side note, I’d like to add that in Fusion, you can hear sound effects that are similar to those in the Virtual Boy’s Galactic Pinball.  Although the composer for Fusion was not the same as Galactic Pinball, Galactic Pinball’s composer was the same for Super Metroid and Mike Tyson’s Punch Out: Kenji Yamamoto.  You can hear similarities everywhere like Yamamoto was consulted often.  And if you’re not aware, Galactic Pinball does have a miniature Metroid space shooter game as a bonus easter egg on one of the tables. I like to think that only the hardcore Nintendo fans know this.  

Anyway.  I’ll report back as soon as more progress is made with the original Metroid.  In the meantime, here is my most recent Twitter post with a pic documenting where things are at.  

https://twitter.com/VeryBadTim/status/1100219464585490434

[theheavymetalmama]

Nintendo Just Can’t Win

So the Nintendo Switch is fast approaching being a week old and it’s already breaking ground. It outsold all previous Nintendo consoles at launch in two days, Breath of the Wild is amazing based on both critical response and general world of mouth, and on the whole the Switch has thus far proven that Nintendo won’t be abandoning console gaming and becoming a mobile developer like their investors and shareholders want anytime soon.

But I’m not going to talk about that. I mean, I’ll give a more in-depth look at the Switch itself once I get one, but for the moment I want to talk about something else. So it’s no secret that shouting doom and gloom for Nintendo is something that all the ‘cool kids’ do. Now the company is far from perfect and has made its’ share of mistakes, so I don’t begrudge these people when Nintendo genuinely fucks up. The problem is that this still happens even when Nintendo does something good.

Seriously, it seems like for every one person who praises Nintendo, there’s 50 uptight nitpicky asshole straw-graspers that focus exclusively on the flaws of something while also blowing them way out of proportion to make them look like bigger problems than they actually are. Case in point, when the first Bayonetta game failed to make back what it cost no publisher wanted anything to do with it, but Platinum still wanted to make a sequel. Nintendo stepped in and said that they’d front the money if Bayonetta 2 would be a Wii U exclusive. Does Nintendo get credit for saving a potential franchise from vaporware? No, instead everybody loses their shit and goes on a year-long bitchfest about how Nintendo stole the game from Sony and Microsoft even though the game wasn’t theirs in the first place and both companies wanted nothing to do with.

And that’s not an isolated incident. This shit happens all the time.

So Skyward Sword is a great game, isn’t it? It looks like a painting come to life, the characters are great, the writing is excellent, the villain is a ton of fun, the gameplay is immersive, and it has a wonderful story that fits organically into the Zelda lore and mythos with an ending that’s both heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. Good luck finding anyone to talk to about that, because all anyone wants to do is piss and moan about how it’s the worst game ever because Egoraptor didn’t like it.

Hey look, the Nintendo Wii revolutionized technology and broke down the wall between casual and hardcore gaming and taking a step toward ending the tired stereotype of gamers being deadbeat losers who still live with their parents. Who cares, bitch about how it doesn’t play DVDs and let Sony and Microsoft build that wall right back.

Super Mario Galaxy is a great game; everybody whines about Nintendo using their IPs too much (because NO other publisher does that, right?) Hyrule Warriors was a ton of fun; rant and rave about there being no online multiplayer. Oh hey, Other M was a C+ game at best; everybody act like its’ the end of the fucking world and rant incessantly on how NIntendo ruined the personality of a character who previously didn’t even talk!

And that brings us to the Switch, and while some people have drawn ire for multiple things the top of that list is how the console is ‘under powered.’

Right, because specs and graphics are all that matter, right? There’s no way in hell a system can be successful if their processing power and graphics don’t match up to those of their competition-

Let me try and be crystal fucking clear. Power does not matter. Specs do no matter. What does matter is if the game is good. We’ve seen time and time again underpowered gaming consoles crush their more powerful competitors time and time again. The NES held its’ own against the Genesis for years before the Super Nintendo was a thing, the original Playstation ruled the late 90′s despite the fact that it couldn’t hold a candle to the Nintendo 64′s power, the Playstation 2 DOMINATED the more powerful Dreamcast, Gamecube, and original XBOX, the Wii decimated the bigger and stronger XBOX 360 and Playstation 3, and the 3DS rolled the more powerful Vita into a fattie and smoked it.

Look, gaming today is rife with problems (race and gender representation and lack thereof, homogenized game design, E3 becoming more like the Oscars in that it’s less about celebrating important entries in the medium and more about crass corporate self-congratulatory back slapping, draconian DRM, the list goes on and on) and one of the biggest problems is the industry’s obsession with power. This best-specs arms race is choking the life out of gaming. We’ve seen dozens of companies go under because they poured such obscene amounts of money into a game to have the shiniest graphics that one single game had to sell five MILLION copies just to make back what it cost, all the while ignoring the fact that these games with big shiny graphics are consistently outsold by games like Minecraft, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and fucking Undertale. And it just gets worse every year! Now both the Xbone and the PisS4 are getting upgrades for compatibility with 4K TVs when hardly anybody owns a 4K TV! Did they learn nothing from HD-DVDs and plasma screens!? Speaking of which...

4K TVs are not worth it! Save your money!

Ugh. Look, I understand if you have problems with Nintendo. The company is far from perfect and yes they absolutely should be held accountable for their mistakes, but for the love of all things good and evil can we all PLEASE just fucking stop with the whole “NINTENDO IS DOOMED! DOOOOOOOOMED!!!” crap? People have been saying that shit since the SNES Mortal Kombat needed a code for the blood and every console generation those people have been proven wrong. You know when you can start saying Nintendo is doomed? When they fire half of their employees because they can’t afford to pay them and the company’s focus veers away from games ala Konami. THEN you can say Nintendo is doomed.

#Nintendo #Nintendo Switch #gaming #video games

[inkni]

There Is No Ninth Generation

I: Reflection.

Sometime around age 14 or 15, musing on the future of gaming, I wrote the following:

The next-generation systems (the replacements for GameCube, Xbox, and PS2) will roll out sometime around the year 2006. This will either continue the rise of video games, or begin the path towards their inevitable decline. Having us stare at a TV screen for hours on end will not keep the industry going. They must evolve to changing technology and, well… boredom.

I feel I was both prescient and incorrect here. (Albeit mostly vague.) Nintendo, as is their wont, did revolutionize gaming anew with the introduction of motion controls with the Wii, copied by PlayStation’s MOVE and SixAxis controllers. Microsoft introduced the Kinect in fits and starts. Technology did change, and changed gaming.

—but to what extent? Microsoft backpedaled utterly away from their promise to make the Kinect central to the Xbox One experience. The early promise of the Wii U GamePad (see: Nintendo Land) was squandered amid dreadful sales. The biggest games of the Nintendo 3DS (Pokémon Sun & Moon) don’t even bother to utilize the portable’s central 3D gimmick. And now we’re looking at 2.0 follow-ups to the One and PS4 that honestly don’t look all that different in form or function from the Xbox and PS2 I was contemplating in my mid-teens. (By which I mean, the gameplay is still essentially the same, with updated graphics. The overall user experience, I’ll concede, has shifted significantly with the rise of internet connectivity, streaming, and social.)

II: Innovation!

I still think, as ever, that innovation is central to the continued success of gaming. In this vein, two themes emerge: A) I worry about the industry as a whole, bloated with massive financial success and therefore afraid to take risks; B) I am more glad than ever to have Nintendo.

A) The gaming industry has never been easy to break into, but wow—gone are the days in which a massive company like Microsoft would step up to launch a new system from scratch. And the notion of any individual games company like Sega being able to rise from scrappy underdog to massive presence as they did throughout the nineties? A joke. For the most part, we’re stuck with what he have. (And on the software side, AAA developers release open world after open world, bungled with bugs, on an annual schedule like a Hollywood blockbuster studio. Is it sustainable?)

B) Thankfully, we have the Nintendo Switch. While I’m for sure a Nintendo fangirl, any historian of the gaming world has to acknowledge the company’s drive for innovation and how much it has shaped every aspect of the controllers we use & the gameplay we experience. I don’t want to get bogged down in this broader post with a lot of musing about the Switch, but it excites me to see Nintendo pushing forward in blending home and mobile gaming, while still delivering new features in the how of gameplay with the amazingly crafted Joy-Cons. This is the kind of new shit that compels me to purchase a console!

The overly dramatic title of this post is in fact in reference to Windows OS. After the messiness of Windows 8, Microsoft opted to skip right over 9 and debut their “final” OS, Windows 10. From this point onward, they claim, it’s just upgrades to the same basic framework. I wonder if home consoles have perhaps reached this point? Rumors abound about how the Switch might be upgraded via a new tablet or dock every few years, and of course the controllers themselves are modular as well. Microsoft and Sony have already made clear that they see their forays into 4K as upgrades to their existing lineups, and not wholly new tech. What major leap left could consoles take from here?

III: Disruption?

To return to my teenaged self:

You see, video game consoles are going to change very rapidly, it would seem. Not too far in the future… a virtual reality Zelda? Yeah, where you run on a treadmill to move across Hyrule, and by the time you get to an enemy, you’re too tired to swing your 3D sword peripheral! Great idea! Or how about, hmm… oh yeah, and when you swim, you get to wave you hands in the air, and make a fool of yourself!

OK, so maybe there won’t be a virtual reality Zelda any time soon, or at least we pray that there won’t be one. It would be nice, though, if you could have something like that X-men person… umm… Cyclops’ (?) glasses, where, in order to look around, you would have to physically turn your head! While still using a controller, for old time’s sake.

Yes, VR. Longed for since the days of the Virtual Boy, and now finally here. The sword peripheral came first, with Skyward Sword and Wii MotionPlus. Kinect’s truly impressive tech can detect arms swimming through the air (and the Switch’s right Joy-Con will have a similar, smaller feature.) The Wii U GamePad can be swiveled around to reveal hidden elements of a virtual world surrounding you. And now, Oculus Rift puts two fancy, immersive controllers in your hands while you’re strapped into a headset that engulfs your existence.

Even as the basics of console’s couch gaming have remained the same for decades, improvements in interactivity have swirled around our sofas, leading us to this point. Will VR truly present a major shift in gaming? Will Oculus (or another VR company) become a major force in the industry if it does—or will the Big Three stay the same, as Nintendo teases VR for the future of Switch and Sony already has PlayStation VR on the market? Is this all so much hot air?!

I didn’t know at age 15, and I sure as shit don’t know now. But the hype train is rolling, and I’m fully on board!

#week 22 #video games #vr #virtual reality #xbox one #xbox scorpio #ps4 #ps4k #wii u #nintendo switch #xbox #ps2 #gamecube

[reclaimerrob]

The Power of Xbox

(2017) The Xbox One X showcase event at the Galen Center

As much as I have enjoyed talking about the technological power of the upcoming Xbox One X for the past year, this article will instead focus on the powerful impact Xbox has had on my life for more than fifteen years, and how and why I grew to become so attached to not just a “brand” but also to a community and lifetime of great experiences and memories.

Essentially, this is a follow-up to my article “The Best Week Ever” that I wrote just after returning from my first week in Los Angeles for Xbox FanFest and E3 2015.  Those memories, and that write-up, continue to be special to me to this day.  I hope to expand on some of what I discussed there, while also reflecting on the incredible time I had doing it all over again in 2016 and 2017.  I realize I am not alone at all with some of the feelings I’ll express throughout this write-up, so I hope to also give a voice to others as well who feel the same way about what Xbox has done for gaming.

(2017) Playing Forza Motorsport 7 on an Xbox One X developer kit

Origins

I will never forget playing Halo for the first time with a friend in 2001.  I remember running around on Blood Gulch - the legendary multiplayer level that lives on to this day throughout the sequels - and being instantly fascinated by the Warthog vehicle, not to mention the physics and lighting the game had. That same friend and I eventually played through the whole campaign together and it was an absolute blast. I can still vividly remember the two of us running for our lives during that final level, laughing so hard as the Warthog we were in flipped over and he drove off without me. I was running on foot for the remainder of the level trying to catch up as we both eventually made it to the end just in time. 

(2017) Playable at the Xbox One X showcase event!  The Flood are back!

It was 2002 now and I was in high school.  Although it had been a couple of years now since I was the new kid in town I still did not know that many people, but luckily a couple of friends of mine had an older cousin who was a senior at my high school.  He and his friends would have Xbox LAN parties quite often and I was invited to come over and play Halo with them one time.  I remember being at this stranger’s house with around twenty people, not knowing anyone but my friend, and us all bonding over Halo on multiple occasions from that point forward.  That first occasion though, there was a point in a huge multiplayer match where I was put on the spot to win a match for my team and overcame some incredible odds and I remember one of the guys on the other team saying, “This guy plays way too much Halo…”  I laughed and told him it was only my third time playing and that all I have at home is a GameCube.  Everyone seemed to a get a kick out of that, and we all became friends.

Unfortunately, less than a year later those people were all graduating, so a lot of things were changing for them.  A lot was about to change for me though too, as I was about to turn 16 and get my first job.  After a few weeks, I had saved up enough money to finally get an Xbox of my own and be able to play Halo in the comfort of my own home (and not in split screen)!  That first major purchase I made was a new Xbox and a copy of Halo in June 2003.  A couple of weeks later I upgraded from dial-up AOL to cable internet so that I could get Xbox Live and again experience the magic of online gaming that I had last truly enjoyed on the Dreamcast.  It was also at this point that I decided I was going to go all-in with Xbox and it has been my only console ever since.

(2017) E3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center

More than a decade later, in the late spring of 2015, I was still just as hardcore of an Xbox gamer and fan.  I had always been up on the latest news and games for Xbox, but I had never taken the big step of going to see any of these events I followed so closely for myself.  Going to an event like that had always felt like something that wasn’t for me, or that it wasn’t feasible - which was actually true in the case of when I was invited to Xbox 360’s Zero Hour launch event in 2005 by a very nice man at Microsoft by the name of Arne.

I was 18 years old at that time, and so my main concern was that I would not be able to rent a car to drive out to the Mojave Desert location of the event.  I had also never even come close to considering flying anywhere before in my life - all of which had been spent in Minnesota.  Traveling was just not something my small family of my mom and I had ever done at this point, and due to the way technology was at that time there were not the conveniences of airline phone apps, Airbnb, and Uber to make a trip like that easy to understand, or even possible for me.  And so, I had to politely decline and I still regret to this day not being there for that historic Xbox launch event, which is still held in high regard by many on the Xbox team.

Ten years later, I had gone on a couple of trips with friends and so I was a bit more comfortable with airports and renting a car. I had now finally decided I was going to attend my first gaming convention at some point, meet my heroes, and be a part of the fun.  Initially, I was going to try for PAX in Seattle (because it was basically the only public option in the USA that I knew Xbox would have a presence at with its team and lineup of games) but the tickets vanished and were already being scalped for inflated prices before my page to purchase had even loaded.  Around a day or so later, the upcoming Xbox FanFest event was announced and I knew right then that I had found what I had waited all of these years for, and thus The Best Week Ever was in the works.

When I left Los Angeles in 2015, I thought it would likely be several years before I was able to come back again, but I decided sometime in the early months of 2016 to try for it all again.  Not only did I want to relive the amazing time I had experienced in 2015, but I had spent nearly every day interacting with Xbox fans like myself on Twitter ever since my trip.  A whole new side of the Xbox community opened up to me after that trip, especially after my write-up on my experience sort-of went viral thanks to so many great people reaching out to thank me for writing about how it all went.  I had never expected anything like that to happen; I had written it for myself, to be able to retain all of those memories in detail and to share with a handful of people I hoped would read it.  I have always loved writing and sharing things online, so I felt compelled to write it all down even if it ended up being just being for myself.  Instead, it went far and wide, and suddenly I was frantically going back to proofread it all again as I realized many more people would be reading it now!

(2017) Tom (@xboxsuperfan) and I in the Xbox booth.  Thank you for the FanFest 2017 pin!

Some people might laugh or wonder, “Why get so worked up over Xbox or gaming?”, and as I spent the last few weeks thinking in my head about all that I wanted to write in this article, I felt like addressing that.  To me, in the face of that question I instantly picture all of the people who are shown on the news crying and screaming over sports, or over a celebrity.  I'm not going to judge what anyone else is passionate over, but in my opinion if there's something to be completely invested in and passionate about it would be that which allows you to have countless different experiences for essentially your entire life, especially when they are experiences that put you in the center of it all.

With Xbox, it is us, or in my case here, me, playing through these games.  I have had these experiences that are personal to me, I have invested the time to complete so many games, adventures, stories, and the specific details within them.  I spend time each day reading the latest news in the gaming world and I often read something that makes my day or gives me something more to look forward to.  I have spent thousands of hours of my life with these consoles, having had amazing times whether I’m in an intense multiplayer match that becomes borderline stressful, am in the midst of an immersive 40+ hour story, am laughing at a game’s humor, or am getting emotional from a game’s story, etc.  These are years of experiences and memories, so how could someone not become invested and attached to something like that if they opt to allow themselves to do so?  If you are reading this article, I am likely preaching to the choir, but I wanted to put that out there as I am bluntly honest with how passionate I am for Xbox and gaming in general.

(2017) The Xbox One X's Scorpio chip

The 2016 Experience

In 2015, I went into Los Angeles knowing basically no one who would be there aside from those who worked at Xbox, so I spent much of the trip quietly taking it all in aside from brief interactions with those I met in line for a game at E3 or while kayaking in San Diego.  However, 2016’s experience would usher in an entirely new Xbox FanFest experience for me, and also affect the way I would go about many of my days back at home in Minnesota throughout the year.

Leading up to the 2016 flight to LAX, myself and others bonded on Twitter for several weeks over a common anxiety of hoping we would even get into the experience this time around.  Tickets were again going to go out to 500 lucky fans who lined up at a Microsoft Store in Los Angeles, except this time it was easy to tell that the demand was going to be much higher than in 2015 based on how the posts and tweets regarding the upcoming FanFest were receiving multiple times more likes and replies than the previous year’s announcements did.

I flew into LAX already quite sleep-deprived not only because I was worrying about FanFest, but also due to having a job interview on the eve of my trip.  After stopping at Target to buy a sleeping bag and pillow, I checked into my first Airbnb and relaxed for a few hours.  In the early evening I headed out to the mall the FanFest line was going to be at.  There were already hundreds of people there, and over a thousand people total would end up arriving by the end of the night.  In all, I was there from 5pm Saturday to the early afternoon of Sunday afternoon, and in that time I made several friends for life.  Although it was stressful, especially considering my lack of sleep and same day flight, it was an amazing experience that ranged from incredible anxiousness to absolute shock and joy.  

Around midnight, everyone was given a numbered ticket and a several-hour random drawing commenced and it had all become a less than 50% chance of getting in.  It was also around this time that I once again saw Major Nelson (Larry Hryb), Aaron Greenberg, and Bonnie Ross as they and other members of the Xbox team walked up and down the gigantic line that spanned two levels of the mall the Microsoft Store was located in.

After meeting Phil Spencer, the head of the Xbox team (thanks to a very nice introduction by Aaron) the fatigue and stress of it all started to hit me and I was starting to feel like the FanFest experience truly was going to be once in a lifetime.  I didn’t ever regret trying again, especially not after getting to meet so many great people and the chance to meet Larry, Aaron, and Phil again, I was just so tired and started to feel some doubt.  I was sitting there on the ground in the line trying to stay awake and was borderline delirious when I quickly handed a couple of thank you cards to Aaron Greenberg as he passed by due to thinking this might be the last time I saw him, and because of how nice he and some others had been to me the year prior.

I honestly can barely remember what it was like to experience that moment through my own eyes due to how tired I was and how much of a surreal experience it was for me.  The video above speaks for itself, but I am sure you can tell I am quite stunned by what is happening.  I never thought I would ever, ever, have Major Nelson holding a microphone to my face for hundreds of thousands of people to listen to us go back and forth - and especially not in the middle of the night in Los Angeles with the historic Nakatomi Plaza directly behind me.  As a kid, I rented the first Die Hard movie from Blockbuster probably twenty times, so I was excited simply to see the building from the movie all night long.

An hour or so after that amazing moment with Major, one of my new friends in line had her ticket number called.  At this point, she was one of the only people around us in that part of the line that had won in all of the hours of the tickets being called, and she was adamant that I take her ticket and walk up to the front as the next winner. At first I said no way, she had waited in line just like I had, and then her boyfriend at the time, Mitchell, was saying they had already agreed that if either of them won they were giving it to me based on what they had seen of me, and then my interactions with the Xbox team in the last couple of hours.  I still wasn’t going for it, it was too much to take, and then people around in line who none of us had even talked to began yelling “Go Rob!  Do it man!”.

Even writing about it now is overwhelming to think about more than a year later.  It was so nice of them to do that for a complete stranger they had only known for a few hours in the food court area of this giant mall (which was now mostly completely darkened).  I finally hugged and thanked them both, traded tickets, and walked up to the front of the line to get my FanFest credentials and entered the new line that was for the winners thus far. I had now won entry into something I had waited a year for, but all I could think about was that unbelievable act of kindness as I stood there in this new group of people.

Unknown to me, just a few feet from me now, was someone who I would become great friends with online over the next few months thanks to someone else near us asking everyone who could hear her to friend each other via Snapchat’s location-based friend finder feature.  Jonathan and I would finally meet in person exactly a year after this moment, on the first day of FanFest 2017.  Ultimately, it was that initial act of kindness by Kelsey and Mitchell that made this friendship happen as well.  Thanks to a common bond in Xbox, a person from Minneapolis and a person from Miami became great friends over the past year where we chat every day about gaming, other hobbies, and life.

Thankfully, in the next hour or so, Kelsey, Mitchell, and Jeff - the three main people I had hung out with throughout the night, all had their tickets become winners.  My original ticket had eventually become a winner as well, but who knows what might have been different if things had not went down as they did.  I think of little things, like the fact that someone in line encouraged me to high-five the ticket caller as I went in to turn in my winning ticket just as she was about to pull the next winning ticket out of the bowl.  If she had not stopped, pulled her hand out, and high-fived me, everything that followed might have been different.

What happened that night was a powerful showing to me in how one act of kindness can affect so much.  I have actually come across people in various social media outlets and Reddit talking about what they saw that night in regards to me being given that winning ticket, one man even listed it as his favorite memory of E3 2016.  These are people discussing that amazing moment that occurred within the line for a gaming event, so it seems I was not the only one touched by what happened.

The following days were incredible, as expected.  Myself and others were able to play games like Forza Horizon 3 and Halo Wars 2 many months before they were due to launch, and experience the various fun times that FanFest had planned for us, including a hilarious panel with the cast of Gears of War 4.  I don’t think I have laughed that hard since that night, I had tears from how funny things became between Rod Fergusson (Studio Head for The Coalition), John DiMaggio (voice of Marcus Fenix) and some of the questions the crowd was asking (most of which consisted of asking for Gears of War 4 spoilers, or if John remembered something minor that happened from decades prior).  Overall, it became yet another “Best Week Ever” and the memories of it would join 2015’s and become part of an almost daily reflection on how fun it all was.

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(2016) Mitchell and Kelsey surprised me on my final night in Los Angeles by bringing me to the Griffith Observatory, which they knew I had wanted to see all week.  We all watched the sunset from there that evening, with a lot of great laughs and sights all around.

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Looking Back

As I reflect on my life with Xbox, another reason I went for more of a "play-it safe" type lifestyle is that I would more easily avoid the bad, hurtful situations that come up in life.  Of course this means missing out on some things, but I have felt it was a fair trade-off to have a mostly peaceful life.  Unfortunately, a person cannot hide from all of the negatives that are bound to happen to us in life, and I have learned that as well - as we all have.  However, getting through those tough times when they come is when my love for Xbox has grown even stronger over the years.  I can remember so many times when Xbox was there for me either as a way to pass time during a bad time, or was there in my mind as something to look forward to and think about as inspiration to get through a rough time.  The below examples are nothing in comparison to what many people have gone through, but when I look back there has always been a couple that stick out to me just due to their timing and how into Xbox I was at the time.

In 2004 I was forced to change high schools right in the middle of the year after my high school of the last two years refused to provide anymore parking passes for out-of-district students.  Seeing as though I was no longer willing to drive to school, park a mile away, and then walk on the side of the road while crazy high school drivers nearly hit me as I walked on the shoulder of the road to school (my only option) I changed schools right in the middle of my junior year in early 2004.  It was quite a scary thing to try and do, but I ended up liking my new high school even more.

It may sound weird, but what inspired me to just do it and get through it was the looming launch of Halo 2 later that year.  I often had a Halo novel with me in my backpack (there were only 2 or 3 Halo books at this time) and at other times, usually lunch period, I would go to the library and check up on what was going on with all of the cool stuff that was happening with the marketing of Halo 2 leading up to its launch.  I don’t think I felt too stressed out or bothered by the big changes back then, but as I think back to a younger me going through that and going to a school where I knew no one, it was nice to have something I could think about that would comfort me and give me something to look forward to as I went forward with something that was going to change so much of my daily life.

I remember in the summer of 2005 my car breaking down on me on the freeway on a Sunday morning that was getting hotter by the minute.  There was barely any traffic, no one was stopping to help, this was before I (or most people) had a cell phone, and I was a long way from home.  I walked several miles along the road, until there was no shoulder left, and then had to go through a winding forest, and then back to some more roads until I made it to a payphone.  It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal when I think back to it, but it was for me in the moment, and I remember the whole time, while being so thirsty and hot, thinking about how it was going to be awesome in November when I get that Xbox 360 on launch day.  It makes me laugh to think about how that was the main thing going through my head during that several hour walk.

Life delivered a major curveball two years later in mid-2007 when my mom was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.  As the best mom in the world (of course) and my only family, this was such a shocking thing that I don’t remember ever thinking that she wouldn’t be okay - as if my mind couldn't comprehend any other outcome.  Thankfully after two surgeries to remove her thyroid, she was, and has been, okay ever since.  It was a scary time where I would often think about Halo 3 as hopefully that “light at the end of the tunnel” later that year.  I would think about that day, now just a couple of months down the road, and picture everything being okay and playing the game I had waited three years for and that all would be right again.  Thankfully, it was a joyous launch day by the time it came around and the cancer scare was relatively in the past by then, where it hopefully stays.

In 2009, I started college in the fall and I remember Halo 3: ODST coming out a couple of weeks into my first semester and it was great to once again have something fun to look forward to as I went through something that was stressful for me due to how different my life was now that I was adding full-time college to my plate along with work.  I was excited about it though too.  I had not taken many chances in life, so the decision to go to college despite not knowing exactly what to go for and all that, was a big deal to me.  I did not simply go right after high school, so it was something I thought about for quite a while.  Although I worked that first job of mine for nearly nine years, from early 2003 to late 2011, I do also regret not having had the confidence and courage I enjoy now to try and branch out to something else I might’ve enjoyed better earlier in life, instead of spending all of those years at the same place.

The newfound confidence in recent years to try and find something that is best for me when it comes to how I spend over forty hours of my life each week comes in large part to my experiences over the past two years in Los Angeles.  The amazing treatment and comradery I have experienced from the Xbox team and fellow fans and friends has shown me that things can be better, and I continue working towards a life that makes it so I feel a bit of the FanFest magic each day of my life at home in Minnesota.  Thankfully, I believe I have made good progress on this front and my life is better for it.

(2016) Aaron Greenberg and I before the 2016 media briefing

2017: The Year of the Scorpio

Based on the way Xbox’s 2016 media briefing ended with the teaser of Project Scorpio, Xbox’s next console set to launch in late 2017, I knew right away I wanted to be there again in a year to see my first console reveal live in person.  Like many, I have watched these happen so many times throughout life, whether it be via gaming magazines back in the day, on the computer, or, for the last several years, via the Xbox console itself where the briefings were conveniently streamed right to our TV.

Due to my experiences in 2015 and 2016, I already understood how (at least for me) being there when the game is first announced/shown to the world and being there for its big moments and reveals makes the actual launch of the game back at home much more exciting.  Games like Forza Horizon 3, while being an all-time great game, hold an even more special place in my heart because I will think back to being in the Galen Center when the game was revealed during the media briefing, and then I remember standing in line for over an hour to play it at E3 with the wheel and fully-immersive seat and screen experience with dozens of people watching me play from behind the whole setup.  So the idea of being there when a new console is revealed and available to play for the first time ever was a huge thing for me for a lot of reasons.

(2017) With @nickytwit, and a perfect photobomb by @MissAEternity

Fortunately, Xbox FanFest’s tickets were handed out via an online system this time around, several weeks prior to E3 instead of a physical line just a day or two beforehand.  Although the online system had a bumpy start due to an even higher demand than before for FanFest admittance, 500 winners were again selected and I was lucky enough to get in one more time.  I was so thankful for this chance because it had been a rough few months prior to that time in late April.  I did not want to see my hopes of seeing the reveal in person fall through because it all really had been my “light at the end of the tunnel” through the worst times of my life, but more on that in a bit.

(2017) @Dapper_Tux and I at the briefing and Showcase event!

For 2017’s trip I decided to not rent a car this time and try going all Uber and Lyft for transportation to and from LAX, and all of the trips in between.  I had never used either of these services before and I was a bit anxious of trusting someone else to drive me around in the crazy traffic of LA because I’m used to always being the driver for anywhere I go, but it was certainly the right call.  In the two previous trips, worrying about the car, and then driving in unfamiliar, sometimes hostile driving conditions, was a big source of not only anxiety, but cost, as parking prices in LA are steep!  The 2017 trip to LA was so smooth and perfect I almost feel like it didn’t happen yet because it all happened so effortlessly and there was never a time I was worried about anything during the trip.  Los Angeles finally felt like a home away from home.

(2017) Finally, @DocCupCake84 and I have taken a picture together!

Additionally, thanks to all of the amazing friends I have made at FanFest and/or on Twitter because of Xbox, I flew into Los Angeles this year feeling like I was in a city full of friends.  I know this is not particularly the safest mindset to have in the city of LA, but trust that I used that positive mindset of mine responsibly!  This year at Xbox FanFest, not only was I able to meet up with my friends from 2016, who almost all got in again this year (either to FanFest and/or E3 itself), I was able to finally meet many others for the first time too.  

(2017) After two years of close encounters at Xbox FanFest and E3, two fellow Xbox fans finally meet up!

We all were able to see the Xbox One X revealed to the world, and play games like Crackdown 3, Forza 7, Sea of Thieves, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Super Lucky’s Tale, and so many others games before release - including Halo Wars 2’s new Flood expansion!  This love of Xbox that I have had for so many years has grown exponentially over the last two years.  It was taken to a whole new level in 2015, and then again in 2016, and then again in 2017.

(2017) Friends from 2016 join with new ones from 2017 for the Xbox media briefing!

Throughout the rest of the year when I'm back at home, I am thankful for every reply or like I receive on Twitter, and the interactions become better each year, or even each month.  It’s an amazing feeling to quickly tweet something out about how I'm going into my first day of work at my new job, and then throughout my whole shift I can feel my phone regularly vibrating with one notification after another of people liking it or offering words of encouragement.  Needless to say, the experiences I’ve had at Xbox FanFest, and the people I’ve met there, have increased my opinion of people in general in a huge way.  

(2017) Major and I meet again, this time at the 2017 Showcase event

With everything the internet and social media exposes us to, it is easier than ever to become jaded at what the world is like, or perceived to be like.  Many people even continue that negative mindset to entertainment mediums as well, moving instantly to criticize a new game or movie, sometimes even just from something someone else said.  It is as if being negative seems to be what is perceived as “smart”.  I have always gone into any game, movie, or anything else entertainment-based with an open mind because I am looking to enjoy it, not hate it, and it is nice to have that positive mindset now extend to society in general in some ways, especially when it comes to the potential new places I will find myself in if it seems worthy of a trip or adventure.

SO COOL to be featured on #XboxDaily! The other moment was meeting @majornelson, @aarongreenberg & @PlutonForEver on the 2015 briefing day! pic.twitter.com/9efMdfm3Xx

— Reclaimer Rob (@ReclaimerRob)

June 15, 2017

Before I conclude this year’s article with some of my favorite pictures from 2016 and 2017's Xbox events, I want to discuss the greatest thing Xbox helped me get through this past year.  17 years ago this week, on July 4th, 2000, I met my best friend in life when a 13-year-old me picked out an 8-week-old kitten. I talked about Oreo in my 2015 article as well, and how my trip that year had some anxiety in it due to leaving him for so many days and his history of health problems.  In 2006, I remember pouring myself into the early Xbox 360 title “Full Auto” as Oreo was at the vet overnight due to a urinary tract blockage - a common issue in male cats.  Thankfully, it never affected him again, but due to that same issue being the cause for my first cat to be put to sleep at the same age six years prior, it scared me to death.

Another scare started again, in late 2010, as Oreo was diagnosed with diabetes and on the brink of seemingly death based on him having to be forced to eat at home for the first few days so that I would give him his insulin shot safely.  I remember so many nights he would be laying there on me for hours and hours as I played the newly-released Halo: Reach and I would wish for time to go by so that this could all be behind him too.  Oreo and I had a bond that I believe would be quite rare between a person and a cat.  He watched me grow up to almost the age of 30 and he was always so smart and caring for everyone in the house.  I would sound like I was exaggerating if I tried to go through all of the cool things he had done over the years to express the care he had for his family.

The worst hit to him though was in the late summer of 2013 when I brought him into the vet thinking he was going to need to go back onto insulin because of his recent lack of appetite again.  Instead, after a surgery to try and figure out what was wrong, he was found to have gastrointestinal lymphoma.  Because of his history of diabetes, he could only have the chemo pill part of treatment, and not the steroid pill as well (as the steroid would trigger diabetes).  It seemed at best he would live 19 months, and that would be if he had the steroid as well.

During that horrible week in 2013, I had just gotten into the band M83 a day or two before the visit to the vet, so I remember all of those drives back and forth to the vet with him listening to their music and simply having the worst time of my life - thinking Oreo was probably going to have to be put to sleep any day, because back then I tended to expect the worst.  His fur had been shaved on his underside, he had stitches, he was on several medications, and yet he was so full of life and loving.  He was always seemingly less bothered by it all than I was.

(August 2013) Oreo and I at his first oncology appointment, days after his diagnosis

Throughout my entire teenage and adult life, people who have known me knew me for two things: my love for Oreo and my love for Xbox.  Besides my first cat being put to sleep when I was 12, who was very much like Oreo and who Oreo “replaced” several months later, Oreo’s looming death was my first personal encounter with a close death, and it scared the hell out of me.  In what the oncologist once described as a “miracle” Oreo continued to live beyond the 36 month mark, despite him only being on half of the usual treatment for the lymphoma, and not even on the chemo for the final year of his life because I decided it was affecting his appetite too much and I didn’t want him to spend a single day in discomfort from that point on.  He continued to live, and even gain weight, until finally last October at the age of sixteen and a half it was clear that things were going downhill and I decided to have him euthanized at home so he could at peace and around all those who love him.

It was the scariest day of my life, and during that final day or two prior when mostly all he would do is sleep, I would lay there next to him and when I couldn’t take it anymore I would open up my Surface Book and stream an Xbox One game to my screen so I could take my mind off the surreal reality of what was finally happening.  Mafia III happened to be the game I was playing at the time and I am so thankful for that game being as fun and engrossing as it is, because it truly helped me get through a personal hell.

I knew I wanted to and should appreciate every last second with Oreo in those final days, but it became torturous to lay there next to him and fixate on what was happening as I waited for time to pass to see if things would change  Xbox was there for me to bring a little bit of peace even in the midst of all of that.  It also helped to think about all those good memories of 2015 and 2016 in LA, a sense of happiness I did not have back in 2013 when this lymphoma saga had all begun and hit me so hard.  I filled my mind now with thoughts about how good times have happened before, can happen again, and just focused on the fact that Oreo had lived a long, good life, more than almost any animal could ever dream of - and I think that for any animal who has a nice home of their own.  I know many people will say he’s “just a cat” but to me, an only child who grew up the way I did, he was like a brother to me,  Then, as he needed more care over the years, like a child to me as well.

I bring all of this up in full detail not only because I have never written it all down since it happened over eight months ago and I felt like doing so because he was a huge part of my life along with Xbox, but because something truly special happened for me on the night of the Monday night FanFest event this year.  

We were given special access to the Galen Center floor the night after the Xbox media briefing.  The floor had been transformed into a “Showcase” of dozens of gaming kiosks for the media and other insiders for an event earlier in the day.  The Xbox team had done this in 2016 as well and streamed a show involving it hosted by Larry Hryb and Graeme Boyd, but it hadn’t been open to FanFest and I had hoped for an entire year that it was what one of the surprises for 2017 would be because it is exactly the type of thing I love: an environment where you get to chat with the Xbox team, and easily play some great new games (and also free drinks!).

(2017) Major Nelson, Jonathan (@miamiprodigy:), and I in the Xbox booth at E3

The Galen Center has been the scene of so many special announcements and memories, that even being in that building is a treat for me, but to have an event like this happening on the floor itself, and to be so close to the stage all the magic has happened on, over the years, was yet another one of those “best ever” type experiences for me.  I arrived at the Galen Center about an hour early, was interviewed on camera by someone from Xbox about how much I love Xbox, at 8pm it was time to go in.  About fifteen minutes later I entered through the Galen Center's doors one more time and made my way towards the small tunnel that led out onto the floor, a floor that would be filled with everything from the new Xbox console, to my most anticipated game for nearly two years (Crackdown 3) and all of my favorite people in the gaming industry.  As I walked through the tunnel and was just a moment away from my eyes seeing all that awaited us fans for the next four hours, M83 came blaring onto the speakers.  It didn’t even hit me at first, but then it did and I got a huge smile on my face.

I had said on my Twitter a few weeks prior to the trip, that in previous years I would worry about Oreo when I was away in California, but this year he would be there with me now.  For over three years now, M83 had been “our band” in my mind and two days after he was put to rest I got an email alert that M83 was having a big concert in my hometown that night (which only seems to happen every few years).  I ended up going and it will likely forever be the best concert I will ever attend, as they played all of the songs I was hoping for and that were sentimental to me.

They started playing one of my favorite bands ever, @M83, the instant I walked into the magical @GalenCenter. Sooooo cool!!! #XboxFanFest pic.twitter.com/elaqO8Za0M

— Reclaimer Rob (@ReclaimerRob)

June 13, 2017

(A glimpse of the scene there in the Galen Center near the end of the song.  DJ: @Jen_Lasher)

To be in Los Angeles, and be at such a crucial moment in my trip where I am at basically my peak happiness in a land of exclusive Xbox experiences and my heroes in the industry, and then to hear M83’s Midnight City come blaring onto the speakers the exact moment I walk in…  That was really touching to me.  Maybe it is just a coincidence, but for my own peace of mind I will always think of it as something more.  My three trips to Los Angeles were filled with such amazing and unexpected times of happiness that it does not surprise me that something extraordinary could happen as a part of it all at just the perfect time.

(2012) Oreo and I on July 4th, the 12th anniversary of the day we met

Thank you for reading, and thank you to Xbox and its amazing community for helping make the highs and lows of life more fun and easier to get through.  For me, that is the true power of Xbox, and I know the best times are ahead, especially once this November arrives!

- Rob

Twitter: @ReclaimerRob Gamertag: Reclaimer Rob

A highlight from 2017's post-media briefing event, recorded by @miDnIghtEr20C:

YES!!! This is a GREAT video! #XboxFanFest @aarongreenberg signing @ReclaimerRob's hat on his back! What a great time. Double A Ron 😎 always pic.twitter.com/rbrMXivpgd

— ✖️ miDnIghtEr20C ✖️ (@miDnIghtEr20C)

June 12, 2017