Wulfsbane

Spongebob: Battle for Bikini Bottom Re-Hydrated. 8/10 for the PC 7/10 for the Switch. What I liked: 100% 1 for 1 remaster of the original game. Nothing was moved, changed (in terms of item locations, abilities), and a few adjustments such as the amount of shiny objects you get upon destroying tikis and robots, which were increased mostly. What I didn't like: The Switch version, for whatever reason (hardware limitations I assume) was locked at about 30-45 FPS, had some lag, and had texture and god-ray issues. The game was also rather brighter than the original so turning down the gamma was a necessity. Controls were a bit clunky at times and seemed a bit finikey as well. Sound was kinda off, as it was hard to hear some of the bots and the character banter was excessive. The amount of shiny objects you needed to get the Golden Spatulas from Mr. Karbs increased from 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5k, etc. to about 3, 6, 9, 12, 15k, etc. which felt rather excessive. It appears a lot of the "added cut content," such as the Robo-Squidward fight, was hidden behind the multiplayer mode. Also there's no way to access the Spongeball Arena after you beat the game, though it's really just an interactive credits screen. Would I recommend? If you played the original then yes. If not, it's only worth $30 USD and it can easily give you about 30-40 hours of playtime.

Apparently they're coming to Forces: Speed Battle soon Rather peculiar.

Black Widow was delayed, Shang-Chi, “Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” “WandaVision,” and “Loki” are all on production hiatus due to the beervirus

Honestly, is it weird to say Peggy Hill is a greatly written character but also a terrible character at the same time?

The leaks were true, Persona 4 Golden released on Steam

Why would he? He believes he has done no wrong and is a creative genius that we should all be thanking him everyday

I still expect it to be enjoyable. I might see it Saturday. Will do a review then

Warcraft 3 reforged is also a major disappointment. All the improvements they said would be in during Blizzcon 2018 isn't in

This is what I said to Mike the other night: Okay so here's the thing about it. I like the concept of the expansion pass for Pokemon because the last several "3rd versions" have been, to be honest, not worth it. The idea that we can just continue the current journey with the additions in an expansion pass would be better than dropping an extra $40-60. Here's the problem though. Armor and Crown absolutely look like they should have been in the base game to begin with, especially Crown as it looks like the post game content the game was lacking since the start. Armor looks like the Battle Tower or Area you stumble upon as you travel the region, try it once and realize this is meant for later on and go back later. The idea behind Crown does look rather interesting but I can't get over the name of Mustard. Seriously, freaking Mustard? And I thought Hop was bad. Crown, as I said, should have been a part of the base game as the endgame content. 200+ Pokemon are back, but they're quasi-locked behind a paywall. Yeah, sure they can be transferred from Home or traded with someone who has the pass. That's horse^%&t. You're telling me that Pokemon that have been available from the start or able to be available from the start of each region are locked for those who don't want to pay $30 or hope that someone has the capability to trade them to you. Absolutely should not be the case, at all. The 200+ should be made available to everyone or not at all. The fact they're being added in all shows that GameFreak had an issue with the transporter system and they had to redo most of them. But that being said, they're trying to pass this off as "we heard you and therefore we are bringing pokemon back in... pay us first." This whole expansion pass thing for SwSh absolutely sounds like what EA would do in the past before they got absolutely blasted for the "Sense of Pride and Accomplishment" comment they mad on reddit 2 years ago. Since then EA smartened up and offered free content updates to nearly all their games. GF should have done the same for the Pokemon that were cut. No ifs ands or buts. This shouldn't be how it's done. The pass shown reeks of cut content that they could have included in thge base game. An Expansion pass content should be something like Emerald's Battle Frontier or a half sized region based in Ireland or something like that. The concept is good and what was shown looks cool, but GameFreak, as usual, is going about it wrong. Yeah basically this. Masuda is absolutely terrible at conveying the thoughts he has for the games. There's been leaks about how troubled development was and they're passing it off as "everything is fine" while the studio is on fire. Also it's $30 for both apparently so $15 per game, which is good. Nah I like the idea of the different versions of the Legendary birbs. It's like the regional variants, it's the same pokemon but adapted to the region better

I'm split on this. I like the concept of doing the expansion over the 3rd version... yet Armor/Crown look like they should have been a part of the base game.

Morwiec appears to have deleted his and Duggan is hard to find with 400+ with the same name. I think I found Duggan's website but it's apparently a massive security risk... assuming if it is him because there's several other artists with the same name

Pokémon Sword & Shield. Grade: 7/10 Oh boy, this review may seem a little strange with the context I'm about to give but bear with me on this one. So to begin, Sword & Shield are the beginnings of the 8th Generation of Pokémon. This time around, it's set in the Galar region, primarily based off of England/Wales/Scotland for it's setting. This is the first main series title for Switch, as Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee were technically spin-offs and meant to be for the causal player or for someone who got into the series via Pokémon GO. The promises made by Game Freak was that when the next generation of Pokémon dropped (Sword & Shield) it would be designed for the more hardcore fans or more seasoned fans of the series and the adventure would be like the previous generations. Promises made... not kept. Almost immediately after Nintendo's E3 presentation the first major change was revealed in a Nintendo Treehouse by Junichi Masuda & Shigeru Ohmori: The National PokéDex would not be available in the game. For the first time in a main series Pokémon game you will be unable to obtain every available Pokémon that has been released. This, obviously, did not go over well. The reason given by Masuda and Ohmori was to obtain a more balanced game and that the decision to cut Pokémon was a 'hard one' to make. The two never revealed how many Pokémon were cut and the subsequent news led to the fans calling this Dexit, based off of Brexit. Oddly fitting because of the region it's based off of. Now a lot of fans in the US and Europe were upset by this news as the series tag line has been "Gotta catch 'em all" since Generation 2, completionists wanting to say they had the full Dex, and a few liked transferring Pokémon from game to game. While trying to create balance, this basically threw a wrench in the competitive scene as teams and strategies would have to be reworked to fit in with the game's reduced roster. Now I mentioned only the US and European fans being upset, and that's because the Japanese audience was never told about Dexit until the day the game out. So Game Freak straight up lied to their own home audience to avoid any potential backlash. Now, another reason given for the reduced roster a few months later was because Game Freak had to recreate the models for all the Pokémon. As you might have guessed this also was a lie... well mostly. Obviously the new Pokémon introduced in the games got new models but several old Pokémon, such as Machoke, needed new models because they didn't scale properly from the 3DS models to the Switch so some reworked needed to be done. The new models also were needed for newer "high quality animations." But data-miners got the game early and did some digging and found out by counting the polygons and triangles in the models that nearly all the Pokémon in game that came from previous generations had the exact same model as before. Game designers commented that the only way they could have gotten the same amount of polygons/triangles would be if they imported the old models into the game... which is apparently what they did. Also, the new animations they said were in the game really weren't high quality and were rather choppy. Hell some character animations were recycled from the previous game. Even Pokémon battle moves were basically the same as they have been since X/Y with little movement and action. Now according to a leak, the main reason why all of this happened was because the transporting software they use from game to game failed, which caused the already stressed team to have to re-import each character manually and basically start from scratch in terms of programming. To me this isn't all that surprising because Pokémon has historically had godawful coding and software errors. Now with all the ranting about the games problems aside... I still had fun with the game, although I am disappointed with Game Freaks dishonesty about the game's issues. Synopsis: You are a young Pokémon trainer who, along with your friend/rival Hop (terrible name), were chosen/sponsored by Leon, the Galar region Champion and Hop's older brother to take part in the Gym challenge, the typical challenge from previous games where you get all 8 badges then face the E4... though it's a bit different this time. While going through the challenge you face off against two other challenge takers, Marine & Bede, who have their own goals and reasoning for taking part in the challenge. Likes: Despite a lot of my ranting about the problems above, Game Freak did a lot of quality of life changes that made the game more enjoyable. You immediately get the ability to fly via the Flying Taxi service in the game. TMs got spinned off a bit with TRs; Technical Records. TRs are like the old style TMs, you can only use them once and then they break. The Gym challenges in the game are a combination of the typical Gyms from Generation 1 through 6 and the Trials in Generation 7. For example the first Gym, Milo's, you have to heard twenty Wooloo from one end of the gym to the other while battling a few trainers along the way and avoiding Yamper who run around the area trying to scare the Wooloo, once complete you face off against the Gym Leader. These were actually rather fun and gave a bit of a challenge. A lot of the Pokémon designs in this game are rather awesome. When you go on the routes between towns/cities the Pokémon even appear on the grass so if you were looking for a particular Pokémon you can run into it, some even come up to you. Growlithe for example will see you and run up to you like a dog would when you walk into a house. The Wild Area is a supercharged version of the old Safari Areas and give a major area of exploration and catching Pokémon. Plus getting charged at by a 20 foot tall rock snake known as Onix is rather funny. The music in the game is probably the best in the whole series. Dislikes: While the Wild Area is great, there were a lot of frame-rate drops and lagging, especially if you're connected to the internet. Leon, the Champion, is a rather one dimensional character who's only real traits were that he has a Charizard, and he gets lost all the time. Hop is basically Hau from Sun/Moon/Ultra Sun/Ultra/Moon but more bearable at times (Hau was extremely annoying). The 'main villains' in Team Yell weren't really villains at all and it was kinda boring that way. There was also no real challenging areas like Rock Tunnel in Red/Blue/Yellow, the Underwater areas from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, or Mt. Coronet in Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. The always on Exp. Share was a major drag and while there are ways to balance training out I much rather have the option to turn it on/off. The move animations were extremely lacking as well. Would I Recommend? Yes... and no. While I had a ton of fun with the game and was a rather enjoyable experience, I just can't help in being disappointed with the game, especially with Game Freak's dishonesty. For what is the series first main go on the major console it just left me with the feeling of wanting something more, especially compared to Breath of the Wild or Super Mario Odyssey. I feel like this has to do with The Pokemon Company's 3 year cycle for generations; I think it has finally caught up to them and with each game slowly becoming lesser in a sense they need time to develop. Overall, if you like Pokemon give it a go but I would wait to see if they do a 3rd game, like a Crystal or Emerald version.

Blizzard cancelled a launch event at Nintendo NYC two days before launch and even Nintendo is offering refunds for people who pre-ordered OverWatch Digitally. When Nintendo is beefing with you, you know you screwed up.

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzard/23185888/regarding-last-weekend-s-hearthstone-grandmasters-tournament Blizzard doesn't make it better

The winner of the Asia-Pacific Hearthstone Grandmasters had his prize winnings taken away and the two shot-casters were fired because the Winner praised his home country of Hong Kong for the protests and mentioned how bad China is. And things aren't going so well at Blizzard HQ

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/sony-marvel-tom-holland-spider-man-1203351489/

https://deadline.com/2019/08/kevin-feige-spider-man-franchise-exit-disney-sony-dispute-avengers-endgame-captain-america-winter-soldier-tom-rothman-bob-iger-1202672545/ Originally reported by Deadline: Disney asked that future Spider-Man films be a 50/50 co-financing arrangement between the studios, and there were discussions that this might extend to other films in the Spider-Man universe. Sony turned that offer down flat, and I don’t believe they even came back to the table to figure out a compromise. Led by Tom Rothman and Tony Vinciquerra, Sony just simply didn’t want to share its biggest franchise. Sony proposed keeping the arrangement going under the current terms where Marvel receives in the range of 5% of first dollar gross, sources said. Disney refused. Two more movies were planned allegedly. Sources said there are two more Spider-Man films in the works that are meant to have director Jon Watts and Tom Holland front and center. Holland is under contract with Marvel directly. Unless something dramatic happens, Feige won’t be the lead creative producer of those pictures As per Variety: The deal is still in negotiation even though Disney and Sony reached an Impass. Nothing is final as a deal could still be reached

So I bought a GameCube recently because my Wii crapped out (think the laser broke on it) and I have a few GC games I wanted to play again. Most noticably... METROID PRIME Synopsis: Samus Aran intercepts a distress signal from the Space Pirate frigate Orpheon, whose crew have been slaughtered by the Pirates' own genetically modified, experimental subjects. After investigating, destroying a mutated Parasite, and inadvertently trigger the self-destruct sequence, Samus escapes and lands on Tallon IV after seeing her nemesis, Ridley, rebuilt on the frigate. Samus hunts down Ridley and discovers a whole Space Pirate operation on the planet, using a mysterious substance called Phazon for tests and modifications on animals and Space Pirates. So literally Samus stumbled upon a much larger operation by answering a distress call. Likes: Even nearly seventeen years later this game still holds up. The graphics still look rather great although you can see some rough edges and is less detailed in some parts. Combat is still fluid and the enemies aren't static and have a good AI that gives you a challenge. The world is somewhat alive as you can go in one room in the beginning of the game but later on there will be more challenging enemies. The exploration is top notch, and there is a ton of scanable items that give depth to the world. Dislikes: The game's age does show up a bit as controls can be not as responsive. No camera control kinda hurts and in the original GC version the Chozo Lore and Space Pirate Data are, at times rather hilariously, out of sequence. Would I Recommend? Absolutely, though the rumors are we are getting a remastered version of the trilogy sometime before Prime 4 drops... in two to five years.

In a way, it plays better than Mario Kart. The team aspect of it is rather fun and you don't auto win if you get in 1st (so you can't carry the team essentially), the courses are actually fun and single player is rather challenging. The items leave much to be desired though. Also Big the Cat is there so another negative

You got your wish

But SEGA doesn't really need the profits. Most of their money comes from panchinko machines. The problem is that you have the likes of Iizuka (who I kinda feel bad for in a way) and the rest of the old guard at SEGA who believe that they (SoJ) know what's best. Recently it seems Iizuka's kinda relaxed a bit, judging by the SxSW panel as he seemed loose and relaxed. A rumor has floated around that Atlus wants to make a JRPG spinoff for Sonic... which intrugies me. There's a theory floating around that when Sega saw the design months ago, they asked Paramount to change the design to make it closer to what Sonic looks like in the game but release the trailer with the design as is to get people talking about the film... which worked really. As I said earlier (and doing a bit of research to mostly confirm it) Paramount typically doesn't do trailers until 3-4 months until release. Right now we're about 6-7 months out so it could give credence to the theory that they dropped the trailer to get people talking about it, cause people are now interested in the movie more than they were before, regardless of the reason. With 2 more years until the 30th anniversary and the only game due is TSR (which looks great), I'm gonna put money on Mania 2 and another game in development by now that's due in the 2 years.