E3 2014

The famous E3 Logo from E3

It is that time of year again for gamers and tech geeks. This year's E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) was more focused around the games than the hardware (minus the new augmented reality "Project Morpheus" from Sony! There were many ups and downs, but most importantly, there were AWESOME announcements for games.

Uncharted 4, Star Wars Battlefront and of course, a NEW Star Fox game! This year will truly be remembered as a year of games from E3, and the next year shall unveil many more fantastic announcements that have yet been released!

Here's to another good year!

E3 Coming!

Wow, one more week until the world's largest video game conference! Woot! I have a few ideas of what I want to see, but the surprises are always the best! (If they are positive for the players) Here are a few of the things I am looking forward to:

1. PS4 System: I REALLY want to see what the new system looks like, but also how Sony will incorporate other elements such as the new controller and Playstation eye, cell phones, tablets, etc... Its going to be good!
2. Used game problems: I just want all of the large corporations to be honest about the next generation of used games. Obviously, there are probably going to be some consequences on the used game industry, it just matters how severe. I really just want them to be honest and come out and say what they have to say without any B.S.
3. Star Fox: Nintendo, if you want me back after so many bad years for me, announce a damn Star Fox game already and stop with the continuous Mario and Zelda games! Oh, wait, too late, here comes another Mario :^P
4. GOOD Games: Obviously, I want to be blown away by the next gen games. Not just amazing graphics, but as well as revolutionary stories and game play. There is so much hype, I just hope that this is all for nothing,

The new Xbox is definatly NOT the One (opinion)

The "Box-O-Doom"

"Xbox, go home." That is all I can say to a system and corporation that did a "less-than-par" presentation. While E3 (The ultimate annual gaming convention based in California where all the major names in gaming show off their latest tech) is still only a few weeks away, the new "Xbox One"  promised to be a next-gen super console, but wound up being a "blob" of Microsoft operating systems.

I am very bias when it comes to Microsoft. I really do not like how they create their very, very expensive operating systems and them try to get even MORE money out of the consumer by not providing everything, such as office (which is now a paid subscription) But Microsoft codes things so they can look nice, but take up a lot of space. With three operating systems running at the same time, I can see a lot of errors and processing power being used unnecessary.

Its just the way Microsoft does things, plus with Kinect, its VERY scary. The user HAS to have Kinect connected at all times. This means, someone can hack into your living room and listen / see you any time of the day, not to mention the implications from big brother.

I really plan of staying away from the new Xbox One (Which is not the "One" box you are going to have, due to you still needing your cable box, your satellite box and your old 360 (its not backwards compatible))

For the moment, I believe the PS4 is defiantly the future for console gaming, for both the Wii U and Xbox one are both falling behind on both their own legacies, as well as gamers.

Put your thoughts in the comments bellow, people!

Why the Wii U is a Darn Flop

Ah, Nintendo. When I was a kid, I loved it. Today, I could care less. When I was young, Nintendo made amazing content. While the N64 was my first console, the GameCube was the gaming station for most of my childhood. While playing Star fox, Star Wars and many other games, I was instantly drawn into immersible stories and worlds. I also have vivid memories of playing games at parties or sleepovers with the guys as we played four player games such as Star Wars: Clone Wars. Eventually, the Wii came along and promised more "interesting experiences." This is when Nintendo lost me to Sony and my PC as a gamer. As they continued with the Wii, they lost my loving franchises such as Star Fox, Star Wars and other timeless classics. The Same is for the Wii U, but only more obvious.

Out of all the gamers I know, NONE of them own, or even talk about the Wii U. My generation doesn't really feel for it due to it continuing to lack those "core" features. Firstly, where are the games? While the Nintendo conference is VERY soon, the console launched with only a few titles, and the crew at Nintendo pulled an EA and went "silent mode" on talking about future titles. This killed sales of the Wii U due to no real value of owning one. Sure, it comes with a tablet, but my iPad can easily out perform it, and its a year older than the Wii U. In the end, Nintendo seems to be less focused in the Western market.

Nintendo, my question is WHY. Why should anyone buy your console? What makes it stand out above the new PS4 and Xbox 720? WHY should I spend money on it as a core gamer? Personally, I am going to stick with the PS4 and my upgraded PC. Hell, even my GameCube from 2002!

The Road to becoming a famous Youtuber - 1

This year, I am finally starting my goal of creating a successful Youtube brand, and learning to master the basics of the industry. For the name of the channel, I wound up choosing "Supersonicclank." The username that I created around 2009 for my first time playing Battlefield 2 online.

While I am still working on most of the admin, art and paperwork side of things, I am, however, pleased to announced that the main focus will be on gaming, tutorials and a few other snippets. A VLOG channel may be started down the line, but I've always wanted to do one!

I will share more updates as they come, but I can forward you to the new beta of supersonicclank.weebly.com  to get a more clearer understanding of what's going on! Cheers!

Goodbye Lucas Arts...

I still cannot believe the news. Ever since I was a child, Lucas Arts has been such an influential company in my life. From creating the Star wars franchise with a bundle of classic games and Lego, etc... To Indiana Jones to even amazing advancements in media technology, Lucas Arts being shut down after being recently acquired by Disney is truly a heart stopper to people around the world.

The first real time I experienced Lucas Arts was my N64 with Star Wars: Rouge Squadron. The games continued after that, and it gave me a real insight into the world of Sci-fy and its many worlds and places where it's creators can take you. I really do find it sad that this remarkable group of people and ideas is being shut down by Disney. Angry Lucas Arts fans all around the world cry for this developers sad departure.

What are your fondest memories of LucasArts? Share your thoughts bellow!

Starfox, ready for takeoff! - My favorite video game ever and why

Starfox Adventures cover art from 2002

Made back in 2002, Starfox Adventures, to this very day, remains my favorite video game of all time. There are many reasons why this game is on the top of the list, and I will try to explain in the very best detail below, but first, I have to get something out of the way. Most hardcore fans really hated this title, for it had very little flying unlike the rest of the games in the series. However, where people saw walls, I saw beautiful works of art.

Originally suppose to be a totally third party game called "Dinosaur planet" Nintendo decided it was time for another Starfox game, so they combined dinosaur planet and many of its original existing elements, and integrated them into the Starfox franchise. While many fans thought of this as a negative move, for me, this made it even more interesting as a game. When playing a game, I want to feel emotionally attached to the story. This game does an excellent job of immersing the player into an entirely new world that many have never even dreamed of.

When I young, I was totally blown away by the graphics of the game. For a game in 2002 on the Nintendo Gamecube, this game took  the graphics card to the max. The amount of details in this game can bring many modern HD games to shame, and that is double for the plot twisted story line  Overall, I doubt that I will ever find such a well build and loved game ever again, but just for some extra details, here is a list of things I loved about this game:

My top reasons for loving this game:

1. Story: This game had an absolutely beautiful story line and always surprised the player and gave extra motivation to keep playing. Many elements were a suprise to see in the Starfox franchise  and gave an extra "punch' for a few times during the game where the player was blown away by a new plot twist.
2. Characture design: The creators of the game did a brilliant job with making the charactures seem, well, human. Even if they are foxes, dinosoars, etc... the personalities and actions of all the charactures stay true throughout the game, and seem so realistic. It does such a great job of telling the story and emotions of every character, yet at the same times, leaves extra room for the player to fill in some of the 'blanks.'
3. Graphics: For a Gamecube game in 2002, this game looked, and remains to look stunning. While still putting some modern games to shame with detail, the changing of the time of day, weather, and even Fox's fur interacting with the environment all brought that extra scene of realism to the game, and made the experience an enjoyable one.
4. Fun and interesting game play: The game mechanics and controls were beautiful and simple. The game also had a very wide diverse of different moments of game play  From exploring dinosaur planet on foot, to flying your Arwing, narrowly dodging asteroids on your way to the next place, to riding a mammoth to break into a prisoner camp, the game play was always enjoyable, and used the story line as much as it could to keep the player playing the game, and happy at the same time.
5. Sound: The game utilized both brilliant and enjoyable voice acting, to the most beautiful and realistic ambiance the industry could offer. Also to give kudos to the amazing classic soundtrack by David Wise, the game was absolute extacy to the humans, or Fox's ears. Also, while some sound effects were industry standard, all the elements fitted perfectly with the game.
6. Prepared and full of love and life: unlike most modern games that are with the entire idea of "quantity over quality" Starfox Adventures was FULLY completed, and had hundreds of elements that had to be cut from the final release due to the space available, and changes in the plot (Hackers can get the extra scenes and recordings that are hidden on the game disk that were left behind as a 'cookie' by the game developers) This just shows how games used to be loved so much by their creators. Today, we never see this amount of love or work put into a game anymore. When I bought Adventures, I KNEW I was getting the full experience, but today, games are plagued with bugs, DLC (Downloadable content) and other little things that really piss players off. Adventures, however loved the players that plated it.

7. Imagination overload: This game actually encouraged the use of the players imagination  The game never forces ideas down the players throat  and gives the player a sense of freedom and allows their own personal sense of perception to certain events. As a young kid playing the game, I loved how the producers left a few holes here and there for the player to fill in with his or her own thoughts.

8. FUN! Lastly, this game is an overall fun game to play. With funny moments, streamlined design and a few 'memes' here and there, the game rewards playing with enjoyment.

Well, that's it for now! Comments bellow! ;^)

Is the multi-billion dollar video game industry crashing?

Picture from: http://philopractice.blogspot.ca/2012/12/philosophical-concepts-in-some-ios.html

While it is sad to say, it is evident that the video game industry is slowly crashing.  Why? It is due to the large video game  companies  caring more about money, than the millions of players that buy their products. Back in the 80's when the gaming industry was still growing large after its birth, gaming companies began to sacrifice quality for quantity. Even food companies such as "Quaker" and "Cool Aid" made video games just to advertise their product. The gaming industry almost died from people not spending money on games, (they were that horrible) until Nintendo came and saved the day by creating more quality games. 

In the early and mid-2000's, video games were reaching an amazing level of quality. From the many personal memories from my childhood, I can remember many timeless classics such as Star Wars: Battlefront, to Star Fox Adventures. (Yes, I enjoyed it). Everything was perfect until 2008 when the economy collapsed. The gaming industry was very largely impacted, and hard at that. Even super giants such as Ubisoft, Bioware and EA fell to their knees. This is when the gaming companies made the worst mistake of repeating the past: Instead of continuing to make amazing quality video games, they decided to, once again, sacrifice quality for quantity in a last ditch effort in raising sales. To this day, game makers are loosing their hard core fan bases due to them publishing horrible games, not listening to their fans, destroying multiple classic franchises and caring more about making money, than making something that is worth making. Today, games are often on their third game of their series. Games such as Battlefield 3, Dead Space 3, Mass Effect 3, Rock Band 3, Modern Warfare 3, and plenty more are pretty much the same game , just copied and pasted with a few variations in story line (some more than others). A  REALLY effective example is Call of Duty, that uses the exact game engine and textures for every single new game. Apparently, the number 3 is an unlucky number for games, due to the fact that nothing original has come up that often in the industry within the past few years. The game companies are spending no money on creating more original ideas, and are just recycling the same ones over and over until they die. A real reverse of philosophy from before the market crash of 2008.

Probably the worst part the game makers are doing though is creating crap quality games, and posting a price tag on it. The LARGEST disappointment by far, and possibly the worst game launch ever is the new Sim City 5. For ten years, players have been waiting for this game. People were drooling over the thoughts of having their dreams coming true and having a new Sim City to replace their dated Sim City 4 from 2003. When the game came out in February 2013, The game sold over 1.1 million copies, however, this figure is actually DROPPING due to people asking EA games for a refund. Millions of fans were let down by the Maxis / EA games game due to its horrible bugs, server issues and many other significant problems. However, the facts that people are most angry about are the DRM (Digital rights management) and EA not being transparent at all with their customer base. Also, rumored DLC (Downloadable Content) are rumored for the game, to create better cities and more. In the end, they want you to spend even MORE money on an incomplete game, something that, once again, never seemed to be an issue before. (This is true for most modern games, you never really get to buy a game knowing you have the FULL experience anymore.)

Game trailers have a few VERY good rants on the above comments of Sim City (Here and here)  and there are a few amateur youtube videos here  and  here. Lastly, there is an online amateur documentary that summarizes, if not provides more information on everything I have just ranted about right here.


Overall, It really is sad to see such a remarkable industry in such a horrible state. However, hopefully the game industry will wake up before it is a repeat of the 80's, or maybe, another industry crash is just that they need to wake up. 

If you have any ideas or opinions, please share in a comment bellow!