New upcoming games!

Last Thursday, July 23^rd, Microsoft held their Official Xbox Showcase 2020. They hinted at a second one later this year, but we'll see.

To start off, if you caught their E3 showcases for the last couple of years, you know what to expect, only this was smaller. In a way it's better like this, as I got pretty overwhelmed by their E3 presentations as they were so incredibly long. My brain got crammed so full it was hard to remember even half of what they showed.

This was one hour and just as stylish as before. Sadly, most trailers were just that, slick presentations with little actual gameplay. Then again they were gorgeous trailers, no doubt about that. Many of these games are still very far away, so all they have are teasers at this point but it is nice to know what is coming.

I'm not going to list the games shown, but I'm optimistic about the general output, even though there were many that are straight up not for me, like racing games. I urge you to take an hour and give it a look. If you don't care about Halo you can skip the first 10-12 minutes.

It is also worth pointing out that although they keep going on about how amazing their upcoming new Xbox is, all these games will also be available on PC.

My biggest take away is that beyond a few sequels for very popular titles, many studios seem to be thinking outside the proverbial box.

But enough rambling from me, I'll leave you to it but join me again next time for more Eccentric Spheres. Until then have a great week and stay safe!

Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7nkg_5ZfrM

Time for Fun

We had a bit of a heat spike over the weekend and it kind of melted my brain a bit, so I'm taking it easy today. I have some ace comedy for you today, and with all that is still happening in the world we can all need a bit of a laugh.

Now there is a small chance that I have posted this before, but since this blog has existed since 2012 it is getting a bit tricky to keep tabs on things like this. I expect that I'm going to accidentally re-post some stuff from time to time.

Anyway, first up we have some Norwegian comedy, which is in English so don't worry. Then we have a few select clips from Star Wars, Darth Vader to be specific, but you won't hear James Earl Jones. Instead another prominent African American actor with a more colorful vocabulary.

Join me again next time for more Eccentric Spheres, and have yourself a great and safe week! 

Norwegian Comedy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-mOy8VUEBk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eng5rJm9X7w 

Star Wars Comedy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_n8FRILoYE

 

The Day of the Jackal

It's been a while since I talked about a movie, but to be fair it's been a while since I watched a movie. Today that changes!

Last week I took the time to sit down and watch the classic The Day of the Jackal (1973), and I'm really glad I did.

The film is based on the book with the same name by Frederick Forsyth, and it's directed by Fred Zinnemann. I can honestly say I don't think I have ever seen another of his films, so whether they are good or not, I don't know. The Day of the Jackal is amazing, so maybe his other works are worth a look. I'll leave that up to you.

The story is based on real events, namely the attempted assassination of French President Charles de Gaulle by the Organisation Armée Secréte (secret armed organization). The OAS were furious when de Gaulle gave Algeria its independence and accused him of being a traitor to France. This is all fact, the rest of the movie is fiction.

So in a nutshell, the OAS hires an assassin to kill de Gaulle, since they are too inept and riddled with informers to do it properly themselves. The government puts their best cop on the case and he and his aides tries to chase down the Jackal before he can kill the president.

What really stands out here is that there is no mystery involved. Absolutely none. You know who the Jackal is, you follow him throughout the film in fact. You know what the police knows since you follow them as well. You even follow motorcycle couriers as they zoom around Paris. The tension comes from, well, tension. Will they arrive in time? Will the Jackals disguise work? Etc.

It sounds a bit lame, even though it isn't. This is a pretty subtle film and a lot of the focus is put on minor details. You can't have it on in the background while you do other things, or you will miss out. It requires your attention but I do think it rewards you for it.

To be fair, it's a pretty old film and in many ways it shows – we don't make movies like this anymore. There is no grandstanding, no dramatic speeches or chest beating. No fanatical “Viva la France”, instead a single tear rolling down a woman's cheek shows her utter commitment to the cause. Some might find this slow and boring, that's up to you.

In case you haven't picked up on it yet, I really liked it, but that doesn't mean there are no problems. If you are the sort who cares, you should know that all the cars are too modern. Being that the film is set in '62 and that it was filmed 10-11 years later this is understandable. As someone who knows very little concerning cars, I thought they looked fine, but there were complaints on the matter over at IMBD.

Personally I found the ending to be a bit weak. I won't spoil it, it is fine but there are complications with the story that they could have ironed out a bit. I'll give you one example. Throughout the film you follow the Jackal and all his preparations, and I do mean ALL. He steals a passport, he modifies his car, he even buys hair dye, but he has no plan to get away after shooting the president in the head! It would have been nice to see what his plan is. Sure the movie is 143 minutes long already and that is long enough, but the lack of a plan is kind of glaring.

I haven't talked about acting or cinematography, but I don't need to, it is all great. I can't talk about the score since there really isn't one. All that said, The Day of the Jackal is a kind of odd movie, but a really good one. I definitely recommend it without hesitation.

That as they say is that. Join me again next time, and until then have a great week! Stay safe and keep washing your hands.

It's gambling

The UK House of Lords has made a ruling and now states that video game loot boxes are gambling.

BBC News reported on July 2^nd that loot boxes and ”the same definition should apply to any other in-game item paid for with real money, such as FIFA player packs” fall under the Gambling Act and that it must be dealt with as such. The Government has said that the Gambling Act will be amended, but the House of Lords stated that the dealing with loot boxes mustn't wait.

Quote: "If a product looks like gambling and feels like gambling, it should be regulated as gambling." End quote.

Apparently the UK government wasn't fooled by euphemisms like ”surprise mechanics” any more than the average gamer was. What this means for gaming in general remains to be seen.

In the UK, the minimum age for any kind of gambling is 18, which would punch a huge hole in all games that market themselves as ”E for Everyone” if they contain any kinds of what will be legally considered gambling in the future. Some publishers have made halfhearted attempts to alleviate this already, mostly by mumbling about parental controls but with these new regulations unless games like FIFA changes up, they will likely find themselves rated “M for Mature”, a certification that is usually reserved for those games that feature full nudity or sexual acts. Many stores refuse to even stock M rated games for fear of the morale brigade.

Will this ruling mean the price of games is going to go up? Maybe, impossible to tell at the moment. Companies did try to raise prices a few years ago, but found too much backlash and lowered them again. I for one wouldn't be surprised at all if they do wring their hands and claim that it is all just too expensive. Here's a thought in that case: maybe they could learn to use their money a bit more efficiently instead? Maybe their CEO's don't need $30-50 million a year before bonuses? Perhaps they could use more modern and effective marketing strategies that cost considerably less than $150 million per game? I'm no economist but it strikes me that the big boys waste as much as they make.

My hope is that more countries would follow suit and if they do then maybe, just maybe some of these companies will be forced to go back to making good games instead of barely disguised casinos and Skinner boxes. Unfortunately, they will likely find some way to weasel their way around this instead. But, as always time will tell.

Many gamers were happy to hear the news of this ruling, but many are angry and some are scared. My question to anyone who thinks this ruling is unfair and stupid is this:

When has a game ever been improved by loot boxes?

Do they really make games more fun? More exciting? No, they don't, no matter how many times the companies yell about “a sense of achievement and pride” because you are able to use a credit card.

But as I said, time will tell. There will be more to talk about in the future, I'm sure. But for now, I shall be content to wish you all a great week, and I shall see you again next time! 

BBC article: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53253195

Entertaining Information

Hello and welcome back to Eccentric Spheres.

Today I want to share a few of videos by Youtuber CGP Grey that I found to be extremely informative.
The world is a chaotic place right now, and the first video, The Rules for Rulers is really good. Certain recent happenings and the reactions by politicians are more understandable after watching the video. At least it was to me.

The second video is a bit of a follow up and explains why dynasties are what they are. Watch it after the Rules video.

Then there are two videos on old timey pirates and how they worked. Funny and interesting.

And that is that. I have to cut it short today, but join me again next time for more and until then stay safe and have a great week! (wash your hands)

Rules for Rulers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs&list=RDrStL7niR7gs&index=1

Death & Dynasties:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig_qpNfXHIU&list=RDrStL7niR7gs&index=7

How to be a Pirate: Captain Edition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YFeE1eDlD0&list=RDrStL7niR7gs&index=25

How to be a Pirate. Quartermaster Edition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0fAznO1wA8&list=RDrStL7niR7gs&index=20

Who are they trying to fool?

A couple of weeks ago I talked about how Sony and Naughty Dog were illegally copyright striking Youtube channels who were even talking about the leaked spoilers concerning The Last of Us 2.

Now that the game is out, there is a brand new sort of controversy.

As with all highly anticipated releases all the major gaming news outlets raced to get their reviews out as soon as possible. The vast majority gave the game 10/10 with statements like “Game of the Year”, “Best game of this console generation”, etc. etc.

Then the user reviews started to pop up and they tell a very different story. The vast majority of gamers (at least the ones that bother to write reviews) hold negative views of The Last of Us 2. Very negative views in fact.

A quick look at Metacritic shows that the professional critic score is a whopping 95/100 while the user score is a paltry 3.7/10 as I'm writing this. So how is this possible? Speculations started to fly immediately that Sony and Naughty Dog had bribed the outlets to get good reviews, but there is no actual evidence of that.

No, the sad fact is that the major outlets are terrified of being blacklisted by Studios and Publishers. To them, being blacklisted means being thrown out into the cold, and not getting preview copies. In order to stay on the Publishers good side, they kowtow and bend over to every whim thrown their way, instead of doing their jobs and being journalists. It has come to light that Sony and/or Naughty Dog had “requested” only positive comments about The Last of Us 2 and forbade the “journalists” from mentioning the second half of the game at all! With these caveats there is no earthly way to write a real review. Might as well have the marketing department write it for them.

I'm old enough to remember the time before the internet, when you got all your gaming news from magazines. These gaming mags were the only way to not only find out if a game was good, but to learn it was being made in the first place. You could trust that the magazines were reasonably honest since the gaming companies needed the magazines, and the magazines needed their reputation to remain intact.

But now... it is a sad state of affairs, and it doesn't have to be this way either. If even a small number of these outlets put their feet down and said, “No, we're going to make up our own minds and tell it like we see it” things would get much better. Sure, they might get blacklisted, but so what? All they really need to do then is publish that fact, and their integrity and redership could rise over night. People respond to that. And if enough outlets follow suit, what are the game companies going to do about it? Not tell anyone about their upcoming games? Stand on the street corner with a sandwich board and yell “New game is coming out next fall!” Or maybe hire some old fashioned paper boys? “Extra extra, Sony to publish new game next year! Read all about it!”

But as with all cases where an authority is abusing their influence, it takes someone to make that brave first move in order to motivate others to follow suit, and I don't see that happening.

At least gamers have other means to discover the truth about a new game. It just takes a little longer and a bit more work than reading an article. Do your research, people.

Whew, rant over. Join me again next time and until then, wash your hands and have a great week!

Game News

Both of the next gen gaming consoles have been revealed and predictably, the console war immediately kicked off again.

If you are not in the know, the console war is the pointless argument between (mainly) Playstation and Xbox fans who argue on and on about which console is better and why the other person is an idiot for supporting the other system.

The new specs are incredibly similar this time though. I mean crazy similar. If anything, the Xbox Series X looks slightly stronger, but some tech people speculate that the Xbox specs don't take into account the machines operating system, which could make the two machines practically identical inside. The biggest difference I can see so far is in backwards compatibility, where Xbox reaches back further. But as always the big selling point is the game catalog. Sony will continue to put their games on their console, because of course they are.

The prices haven't been announced as I'm writing this, so do not believe any prices you see. They are place holders at best or just speculation. There is still plenty of time, as the planned release for both machines is the holiday season 2020.

This is all pretty academic to me personally as I'm a PC player. But for the first time in ages (or indeed ever) Sony is putting some of their titles on PC. Horizon Zero Dawn, the game both fans and critics loved is already on the Steam store as coming Summer 20, and a sequel is in the works for Playstation.

For years now, there has been a rumor that Bloodborne, the Dark Souls like game of gothic horror would come to PC, but it has always been just that: a rumor based on wishful thinking. Now, the rumor is stronger than ever, and man do I wish it would come true. But we do not yet know.

One announcement that made pretty much everyone scoff in unison is that GTAV is coming to the next gen consoles. This game was released in 2013 to Xbox360 and Playstation 3! Then it moved over to PC, Xbox One and Playstation 4 – and now to the new generation.

Look, everyone knows that GTA Online, which is a part of GTAV has made over a billion dollars, but come on, how about GTAVI? No? Okay.

It been tricky to follow game news this year as everything in meatspace has been canceled, but here at Eccentric Spheres we keep trying. This is all I had this week, but join me again next time. Until then have a great week and stay safe!