Cheating/rubber band AI i am not a fan

With games like mario kart and some of the need for speed games they have something called rubber band ai which means if you are doing well the opponents would get better perhaps via a speed boost or if you are doing badly they will slow down.

Now i know why they do that to keep the races close but i hate it i remember i was the last corner of a lap i crashed and was overtaken and it was not for the rubber band ai i would have probably had a decent lead. I would much prefer a more realistic take to try and simulate over players as rubber band feels cheap.

Cheating ai is even worse i have come across it a few times such as in some of the mortal kombat where the opponent can seem to counter all attacks.Worse i ever saw though was in a puzzle quest game not sure what one.

But i noticed that the opponent would always go for the 5 in a row or 4 in a row above everything but i remember several times it would go for a 3 in a row and gems would drop in from off screen and then chain into a 4 or a 5 in a row...blatant cheating.

All i ask is make the game fair if you are a lot better then the AI do not resort to cheap AI to make up the difference   

Always online needs to die a horrible and painful death

Recently we heard about the psn and xbox live network being brought offline. And it has been a couple of days and there are still issues.

I wanted a go of killer instinct which has a single player "offline " component but guess what it would not let me as it needed to get online and god knows what other games are having issues.

Problem is obvious if online was not such a important component then there would not be a issue the fact people have to rely on another company and there servers to play the games the consumer paid for is just asking for trouble.

I really hope this is a wake up call for the companies and we get some changes done.

Killer instinct review

I have been following killer instinct since the e3 reveal and it was one of those game because i had seen so many videos and coverage i felt i knew the game so well. Due to lack of money i had not been able to get a xbox one but this month i finally got a xbox one and the game.

Now first thing i will say see the game as a work in progress when i first saw the game till now it has changed a lot .But the price of season 1 and 2 together is the same as a normal xbox one game

The blank character selects are for characters coming out over the coming months. The ultra edition of the season come with ports of KI 1 and 2 and costumes but there optional and for the hardcore fans .

The original release was bare bones now there is a lot more meat on the game a story mode and a really good dojo training mode but i would love the story and the dojo mode to be expanded especially character specific training.I was a bit put off with the microtransactions where you can use real money to pay for KI gold to purchase unlockables but thankfully after a few min i realised you can unlock stuff just playing the game. I would really love more unlockables and more customization but it is a decent selection.

Graphics wise it is decent though i do find some character animations odd but it runs smooth and i love the particle effects

Character wise it is very diverse and looks like will have all characters from KI 1 which as far as i am concerned completes the game (not to fussed about the KI 2 characters though) . Gameplay wise it is classic killer instinct but brought upto date i will not go through the finer details but it deals with my complaints with a lot of modern fighters that it will always give you a way around things even if you are being hit by a massive combo you have a way out . Online play i have had a few matches only had a bit of lag but to be honest that is more due to my connection then the game 

I do not really have any major issues with the game and the game is being updated all the time so here is my wishlist on what i would love to see 

Hidden ender for each character perhaps can only be done after meeting certain criteria

Improvements to the ultra combo, Now while they do look decent i think they could look so much better perhaps some insane hit sparks like from KI 2 and a dynamic camera . This is minor but hit counter font.....to be honest it looks boring and i can just see where the hit counter starts boring but as the hits build up the font gets more and more crazy. And of course i would love to see more content. 

I would say a 8/10 

The death of retro ?

I still have some old consoles like the original xbox/ps2 and older such as megadrive and i know that i can always buy games plug them in and play them. But the previous gen it got me worried with digital becoming more and more popular i wondered would it kill retro ?.

Past few years i have seen games being removed from digital distribution for example outrun/marvel vs capcom 2 usually due to licensing. But i do wonder will servers still be around in 20 years so i can download games for the xbox 360?.

Its not just the downloadable titles i worry about major games like skyrim and fallout 3 in there unpatched no dlc state they have a lot of issues while in 20 years i may still be able to play them can i still get the patches and dlc if there is not a game of the year on disc version.

I really had this feeling with a lot of games that i was just renting them what with always online needed for more and more

Two comics that i think would make good films or even tv series

First comic is called leviathan and appeared in the comic 2000ad. Think of it as a cross between titanic/twilight zone and lost. Brief summary is set in 1928 a ship called the leviathan which is like a floating city a mile long and half a mile high which after setting off never arrive to there destination and are trapped on a endless still ocean for 20 years and follows what happens on board. 

I will not spoil but it had a great atmosphere alot of mystery and a payoff that was far better then in lost 

Next one is a manga called bio-meat set in the future.Meat has become in short supply but this new thing called bio-meat comes out which you do not know where it comes from but then it shows later on. And it becomes a really good horror comic and i am not usually a fan of horror comics but it just appealed to me. 

What games would you see remade or updated for next gen ?

News came through that capcom were updating DMC (the more recent devil may cry game) and devil may cry 4. They were only released last gen so i doubt will be a huge update.

But i was thinking what games i would like to see remade and i mean not a token texture update and up rezzing .


1. Panzer dragoon games. I really loved them all and to have them released now would be great especially orta and saga

2.Vampire :The masquerade bloodlines. This game had so much potential i mean it is great just it is unfinished and i would really love it expanded on.

3.Hokuto no ken (Arc systems fighting game) had this for the ps2 was a pretty good fighting game but was broken and unfinished and while i know due to licensing would be difficult this is one of the arc system games i would love to see updated

Hatred (PC game)

There has been a lot of controversy about the upcoming pc game hatred. Now when i first saw the look and the graphics of the game i thought that looks cool reminded me a bit of syndicate.I thought the graphics were pretty decent.

But then i saw and heard about the subject matter and i thought oh that does make feel very uncomfortable. Now people say oh there not real it is only game but the idea of the game is to immerse you into a world. Now if you are playing call of duty killing the bad guys that feels right in a bizarre way.But the way hatred is set up i do not think i could really play it.

I just really wish they had taken that engine and Gameplay and just done something a more killing bad guys type of thing.

I imagine they did it so they could get the press and it will either make the game a huge hit or backfire badly  

Arc systems stop or at least slow down with the Blazblue releases

So they recently announced Chrono Phantasma Extend. for ps4 ps3 and xbox one in april next year .Now while it will be the first time on a next gen console ( i will be interested to see if it will look a lot better). I find  myself getting wary with the way arc system release there games now.

These are all the versions

• BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger (BBCT) - (Arcade, PS3, 360) - (2008) - (PSP, PC) - (2010)
• BlazBlue: Continuum Shift (BBCS) - (Arcade) - (2009) - (PS3, 360) - (2010)
  • BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II (BBCS2) - (Arcade, PSP, 3DS) (2010)
  • BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend (BBCSX) - (Arcade, PS3, 360, PSVita) - (2011) - (PSP) - (2012) - (PC) - (2014)
• BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma (BBCP) - (Arcade) - (2012) - (PS3) - (2013) - (PSVita) - (2014)
• BlazBlue:Chrono Phantasma extend (2015) - (ps3) - (ps4) - (xone)

 And of course you had DLC Characters for a couple of versions aswell (though appears annoyingly for chrono phantasma seems in europe did not get the free dlc characters).

Now i really loved the look of guilty gear xrd and i may still get it but i know there will be another version and i do not mind paying for dlc but when characters are available at launch i do feel a bit wary (like what happened with chrono phantasma).

All i ask is just be a little bit more sensible as people will get burned out at some point and make sure there is enough value for the update.

(Pre) review

So eurogamer on youtube did a video about the upcoming game The Order :1886. And 5 reasons you may not want to pre order the game. And it got me thinking in previews how often do we actually see a opinon on the game ?.

People would often use the argument that is not a finished game. But you could still say what the game is like as if the game is close to release if there is any major game breaking elements they could be mentioned especially if there so integral to the game chances are they will still be in the game.

For example in the eurogamer video they mention QTE events and instafail stealth sections two of my most hated things ever.

Two games i have to mention where i do not remember it happening since are nightmare creatures for the psone and timeshift for the pc. Nightmare creatures was finished and sent for magazines to review and it got average reviews so they actually took the game back into production and polished it making a better game. Timeshift i remember playing a demo of it and i think it was near finished but they took the game back into production for another year i believe and the final game was far far better (And different) to the demo i had played


Here is the eurogamer vid

Early access game arcane worlds

So saw this game on there called arcane worlds and it looked promising had mixed reviews on steam but thought i would read some of them and check the forums and it almost seems like a catch 22 situation.

From what i can gather it is only being done by one or two people and they released it on early access in january and been fairly regular with updates on the game and then  due to not quite getting enough sales to make much money then put up a indie gogo campaign to speed up the development.

Unfortunately it failed  (though i have to say i only heard about the game through just browsing on steam) so i would have assumed perhaps would try again say on kickstarter or try again but spread the word more.

But nope seems like was working on another game called level up! and the priority is finishing that and releasing that on steam. Now that is the part that puzzles me for people who have bought the game arcane worlds i bet they would be a little bit annoyed. But also from a business point of view.Would people buy your second game if the first game is not finished ? (As with what happened with UBER entertainment) and also i think the first game looks a lot better.

In the end i have to say at least he was being upfront with things and i guess if making a much simpler second game and getting the money for that to help with finishing the first that makes sense but i wonder what other people would think ?  

Why they should banish Quick time events in games

So watched a video on eurogamer about the game coming next year order:1886 and low and behold it had quick time events.

Now i HATE them in the majority of cases i think the first time i came across them was dragons lair and of course since then we have had so many in a variety of games from shenmue , Resident evil 4 upto more action based games like god of war.

I was trying to think what about them i hate and the games i do not mind them in.

So games i do not mind are such as god of war in gameplay where you fighting as normal against a normal enemy you weaken them then you can do optional QTE. That i find fine as its quick and you are not really penalised for failing in fact you will have weakened the enemy more if failed .

But then you have games like dragons lair where it is really just one long movie and with quick time events there it is just succeed or fail and that's it. With games i think there is always a grey area where you can get better and improve but with those type of games that is not the case.

Also i find they are just put in to give the player something to do for what would normally just be a cutscene. Now while you do have more recent takes on it such as heavy rain but it is not expanded to the degree i would like.

I would really love a option in games where it says "Disable QTE scenes "   

My new years resolution is....1080p

So my last monitor packed in and had a old back up monitor which runs at 1280x1024  (though oddly can go up to 75Hz)

Been looking at a lot of monitors firstly i can say 4k is out of the question. Game wise rigs capable of running games  at 4k at a modest price is a long way away and also with 4k monitors in there infancy there is still a lot of improvements needed.

G-sync monitors i was really really tempted with but with the choice of monitors not being that many.Upgrade kits no longer for sale and the price premium for the g-sync is a bit to much

In the end i plan to look for a monitor that is 144hz less them 1ms response time  (ideally price wise around £200-£300) the Asus VG248QE is at the top of my list at the moment but if anyone has any other ideas please let me know

Could Killer instinct come out on pc ??

So in the killer instinct forums one of the producers put a poll to find out how much interest there would be for a port of killer instinct to the PC.

I am in two minds about it. One of the reasons i would get a Xbox one is for killer instinct so from my point of view if it came for the PC would be great saves me having to buy a Xbox one (though i suspect if it did come to PC would not be for ages)

From Microsoft's point a view if they want the Xbox one to sell they need to keep those exclusives. Sony and Microsoft seem to have this point of view where the PC is not in competition with the consoles but i disagree.

Any game that comes out for the PC and consoles i would usually plump for the PC version just because of better performance and potential modding tools. Also it does seem like the PC is getting more and more games that would have normally been console exclusive with tons of fighting games now out.

With killer instinct though as it is developed based on feedback i would welcome more people to play it as the more feedback they get the better the game would be  

Why do publishers do stuff to annoy the fans ?

So past few of months a lot of things has happened from ubisoft and the assassins creed unity issues . Square enix and there massive Final fantasy VII troll and capcom with there copyright strikes for legitimate videos.


It did make me wonder why do they do this ? is it just stupidity ? or do they just want to try and make as much money at the cost of there reputation.

I put the blame on the publishers though there are exceptions but as someone said on gametrailers it can often happen that a developer make there first game is released and is closed down before even the first sales are known.

Every time something bad happens they do lose the trust of the people who actually pay for the game. Take the game destiny for example sure it had record breaking sales to begin with but i suspect was due to the reputation of bungie and many people who play the game may not be willing to take a second chance with them.

I do wonder when the breaking point will be i really do not want a video games crash of the 80s but with buggy games so much nickel and dimeing going on


All i can say is get more people who have a bit of common sense and treat the customer as they would want to be treated themselves.

Bring back the shareware sales model

The early and the mid 90s for pc games what they would do for example doom they would give away free on floppy disk a large chunk of the game often 1/3 or even 1/2.



And after you played through you could then send off and buy the rest. Now while it could be argued as a glorified demo the games were complete with no cut content and all game modes accessible.Just the additional levels that you had to pay for.

You got a real good look and play of the game. They did die out later on and when the digital age came now hardly hear anything about them.


Was only reminded of it recently with the release of killer instinct you had the option of a free version which only had one character but you had access to everything else.

Would love to see it make a return

Youtube and there copyright strikes

So something happened online today which irritated me today after capcom had accidentally released the Streetfighter 5 trailer.

And of course people watched it downloaded and commented about it now one of my fav youtubers uploaded the trailer and they asked him to take it down which is fair enough (though i still argue pointless at that point the cat was so far out of the bag it had got to the next town) So he uploaded another video with his opinions and a few screenshots only....and he got a copyright strike over a few pictures ????. Now he did it again with no pictures and got ANOTHER copyright strike.

Now this as far as i am concerned is abusing the system and while it may be all cleared up later on it would not be a nice situation to be in to be close to getting the channel deleted.

Now capcom are not the first to abuse the copyright system there have been plenty of others from sega and nintendo to smaller developers (total biscuit did a video about it a while ago).

As far as i am concerned the whole stike system needs to be changed and i think the burden of proof needs to come from the companies and not the person who did the video as the "fair use" policy is being negated    

Thankfully i have not had any strikes at all though probably because my channel is so small but there is always that fear

What i want to see from streetfighter 5

So it has been announced and just for the ps4 and pc which really surprised me and there were a few very brief glimpses.

Here is what i want to see in the game

1. Fewer characters but more diverse balanced and fun to play in sf4 there were so many characters a lot of shoto characters and other characters who i just did not feel were fun to play or lacked options

2.Stages for each characters and perhaps stuff that happens in the background which reacts to when you play

3.Throws into combos i know this is personal preference but i would love the ability for grappler characters to do a combo which includes a command throw

4. A really good story mode nuff said really

5. Unlockables and secrets i know people like to have everything up front but i love to unlock stuff

6. No on disc dlc and no content that should have been on disc released later on

7. Reduce the charge time for characters with charge based moves again this is a personal thing but i think it would help the pace of the game

STEAM (sales and what i think of it)

I loved pc gaming and i used to buy things on physical media. I did not have broadband till fairly recently i had steam but never really used it then the summer sale happened last year 

And i got a lot of stuff now it did not break the bank but i was so happy getting a collection of games to play and steam being so easy to use and autoupdating i thought why did i never use this before. Games that i would never have been interested in before were so cheap i thought i would give them a try.

So things i like about it first ease of use no need for manual updates.Second the community when a game comes out very soon you will see peoples opinions and it really helps with buying. Mod support which again is simple to use. And my fav offline mode.

Things i am not to keen on though are early access while i appreciate the idea i think there has to be a lot more rules as there is a lot of rubbish out there. I still wish the search options were a little bit better. Also i really really wish that some publishers did not use there own drm on top of the steam (like ubisoft and there uplay) but i know that is not steams fault 

Updates and Patches

So if you have a console or a pc or other technology such as phone and tablets you will be aware of updates and patches. I use steam for pc gaming and every day there is a update of sorts to games which can vary from a small bug fix or a major content update (often with early access).

Now go back many many years i had a load of dvds filled with patches for games which i had to update manually now with steam it is seamless.

And with hardware its the same with consoles like xbox 360 or ps4 you will have updates which again can add stuff and fix bugs sometimes you get a major overhaul with the UI. such as here is the original xbox 360 ui

and here is the most recent version

Now while it can be good it does have downsides firstly if you do not like the changes there is nothing you can do like with the xbox 360 UI i still preferred the original. And with games it can change gameplay in a way you may not like. Second issue far worse sometimes it can cause a problem with the game or a system perhaps erasing saves or a gamebreaking bug or even bricking a system.

Now in principle i have no problems with the way it works but my major concern is will it kill systems from being retro in 10 years could i boot up my ps3 and play a fully patched version of a game such as skyrim

More of the same or something new ?

There are games where i want more and others where i have my fill.You will often see games which have so many sequels (and often released quite quickly after the previous game) that people do get burnt out.

I played through borderlands 2 and i wanted more then there were the dlc which i played through and by that point i had my fill. Then there was the presequel and while i enjoyed the game but it did feel like a offshoot (and was obvious was done by another developer)

Then there is a company like nintendo which has some of my fav franchises like metroid/starfox but since it was so long ago since those games were released and i enjoyed them so much i would love to see something new.

Creating something new is a risk but it can pay off such as the demon souls (And its spiritual sequel dark souls) but i would always say if you are going to make a sequel do not go for a annual thing give the games the time they need because when you create a bad sequel it can kill off the franchise

Brand/company loyalty (or could be classed as fanboy syndrome) i really do not get it

It was back in the early 90s i noticed you had the snes and megadrive wars and you would have people who would ONLY like one or the other

I had a megadrive and a lot of people i knew who also had a megadrive kept saying how bad the snes was back then and i was thinking what are you talking about it had a load of great games ? i think it was just a way to make people really believe the system they chose was the right one. But for me personally i liked both and could appreciate them.

Cut forward to now days and is still happening microsoft/sony , amd/intel ,apple/samsung  and i really do not care about company's or brands if its a gaming console i would get the one with the games i want to play. If it is a phone then it is specs and prices i would look out for.

Now i do have to say i can understand avoiding some brands i will not name the company but i had bought two hardrives made by the same manufacturer and they both died so i avoid them.

In the end i would say do not follow company's or brands just get the stuff that makes sense