Ello ello you fine folks of the blog. Changes are a comin'. I believe you'll be excited about them at least. I have spoken at length in the past about wanting to push BaicunnPress further. We started on WordPress and moved to the Blogger platform to lean out production. Now BaicunnPress enters a new phase. Recently I was offered several writing opportunities that I frankly can't turn down. Those opportunities not only allow me to carry on the with the type of content I've been posting here, but open other doors as well. As you may have guessed, this means that less content will be published here... But have no fear, as the content that would be posted here will be over at ambushvin.com, and it's affiliated sites. The Breakdown will still be released every Friday on ambushvin.com, and I'll introducing a new series of posts there titled, Wake Up Call at the beginning of every week. BaicunnPress is not going the way of the dodo though. It's simply changing. BaicunnPress.com will be migrating away from the Blogger platform, to a monthly webzine. The change in platform will allow me to really focus on presenting the content in the best possible way for you guys. Plus the added bonus of the additional revenue source will allow me to recruit a greater number of talented content creators. With the goal of presenting BaicunnPress content in the best possible way 100% of the time. As I work on the transition, and license existing content, you may see content leave and re-appear from the site. Whenever there are status updates, I will post them here. I expect to have the first issue out in July, and the site fully transitioned onto a new platform by August. Thank you all for your continued support. I look forward to seeing you all on the other sites i write for and back with BaicunnPress after our transition. -Chali Baicunn
Ello lovelies and welcome back to BaicunnPress. It's Monday, and the Breakdown is late. I do apologize for the delay, but I had some unexpected personal business come up last week; and it had to take precedences. I'm working on I believe that I'll have some exciting news for you guys by the end of the week. So as not to delay further, let's jump into The Breakdown
What's more hostile than Mondays? Well Vivendi, if you're Ubisoft. Vivendi recently disclosed that they are looking at increasing their holdings into the video game industry. According to a Reuter source close to Vivendi, the French media giant is looking to acquire Ubisoft, and wrestling control away from the Guillemot family. As can be expected, the Guillemots are not keen on the idea. Especially since Ubisoft has been killing it in the US, in 2017; scoring not only the most triple A sales, but the 2 best selling games. Even more hostile than Vivendi... Apparently, a 20 year old autistic kid with a keyboard. Adam Mudd was just sentenced to 2 years in the UK for operating DDoS services. Mudd plead guilty to 2 charges under the Computer Misuse Act (The UK equivalent to the US CFAA). He was charged with collecting around $498,413 (@ the current exchange rate) in cash and BitCoin, from users of his Titanium Stresser service.
If Titanium Stresser sounds familiar, it's because it became basis of Lizard Stresser; used by Lizard Squad's Christmas 2014 DDoS on Xbox Live and PSN.
In other Internet related news, the FCC and it's Chairman; Ajit Pai are poised to shit all over US Internet users. The flaming douche canoe formerly known as Ajit Pai, recently made comments stating that he would be looking at rolling back key policies of net neutrality. Stating that there would be a vote on the matter at the next FCC meeting currently scheduled for 5/18. (RIP the Internet).
The Flaming Douche Canoe
Formerly Known As Ajit Pai
If the former is as catastrophic as many believe it might be, physical copies of games may become more popular again. Recently, marketing research firm; NPD announced that their research has shown that up to 75% of the video games market in the US is now digital. This is remarkable considering just 6 years ago, 2/3 of the market was still physical. It'll be interesting to see if AAA publishers come out of the wood work if net neutrality is rolled back, as digital copies of games create more profit than physical copies. However, it's unknown whether this will happen; as AAA producers have troubles of their own to handle. At least they have problems according to Boss Key Productions founder and Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski. Bleszinski, recently presented a talk at Reboot Develop. During his talk he claimed that AAA games are stagnating the industry, as consumers are being presented with "category of eight games that are getting repeated over and over again". Bleszinski went on to state that triple A games cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and the cost makes it "too scared to take the risk on new IP" for many developers. Which Bleszinski states, "This is a nearly unsustainable model, unless you're an Activision, 2K or a Sony.", and advised developers to produce "Double A". He clarified that double A games are "games that look and play great but pick their battles in terms of budget and marketing".
Seems like a bit of a bleak future considering the upcoming release of Microsoft's Xbox Scorpio. However, according to Brad Wardell; CEO of "Double A" game dev Stardock; Scorpio has no technical limit with it's 12GBs of GDDR5 RAM. He also stated that the same would be true, even if developers only had 8 Gigs to work with. Further comments indicated that to properly exploit the capabilities of the Scorpio, an engine would have to be "Core-Neutral". Wardell even took the time to plug Stardock by stating "...right now only Stardock & Oxide Game's have a shipping core neutral engine." So maybe there's hope for a future of stunning Double A games.(At this time, there's still no official release date or price for the Scorpio, but it's likely that we'll have that info come E3 in June.) Incase you unaware, E3 will be open to the general public this year. According to ESA VP; Rich Taylor, the 15,000 general access passes are due to direct feedback from gamers. So, good job all of you reddit thread armchair activists! In other E3 news, IGN has put up a list of games that have been confirmed to be playable at E3. The list will likely grow over time.
While on the topic of pleasing fans, Atlas has back down off of their high horse regarding streaming Persona 5. If you remember a few weeks back BaicunnPress covered that Atlas's bizarre stipulations regarding streaming gameplay, and droning on about mysterious "Japanese Masters". Well, it appears that bitchy fans won... At least a little bit. Atlas recently announced that the game can now be streamed up to the in game date of 11/9, and apologized for "the poorly communicated message". A few last topics before we leave off here. M. Night Shyamalan announced on Twitter that a sequel for Split and Unbreakable is in the works. Yes, Split and Unbreakable exist in the same cinematic universe. The sequel is reportedly, named Glass, and both Samuel L Jackson and Bruce Willis will be reprising their roles. And as a final PSA, it took just under a week, and Wizards of the Coast have banned a new Amonkhet card from standard. The ban revolves around using Felidar Guardian in conjunction with Saheeli Rai to amass an army of cats. WotC estimates that roughly 40% of tournament decks will be affected by the ban.
Well that's it for today. Thank you for stopping by. I always appreciate your support and feedback. If there's ever anything you want me to cover, you need only to ask. I'm out for now, but I will see you guys in the next post. -Chali Baicunn
Ello ello, and happy fucking hump day to you fine readers. I hope you're having a good day. In the news today is Activision's CoD: WW2 livestream event scheduled to start at 1PM EDT today. Before the stream starts, I figured we'd what information is out there right now. *Update/ Edit: This post has been updated. The Twitch live stream was replaced with the video of the event, and the official trailer has been added.
Thanks to a thread from reddit, we have the following screen shots. According to redditor, the screen shots were lifted from the official CoD website.
Cofounder of Sledgehammer Studio, Studio Head; Michael Condrey put out the following video via Twitter, to announce a release in November, and the live stream event.
Lucky for us, there was a bit of a SNAFU regarding marketing material being released before Activision could do their live stream event. The following pic was obtained from reddit:
In case you don't want to zoom into the photo to read the details they're quoted below:
Call of Duty returns to its roots with Call of Duty: WWII–a breathtaking experience that redefines World War II for a new gaming generation. Land in Normandy on D-Day and battle across Europe through iconic locations in history’s most monumental war. Experience classic Call of Duty combat, the bonds of camaraderie, and the unforgiving nature of war against a global power throwing the world into tyranny. The Definitive World War II Campaign Call of Duty: WWII tells the story of an unbreakable brotherhood of common men fighting to preserve freedom in a world on the brink of tyranny. Players enlist in a gritty intense journey through the battlegrounds of war. The campaign features bold, lifelike visuals with the kind of blockbuster cinematic authenticity that only Call of Duty can deliver. Boots on the Ground Multiplayer Call of Duty: WWII multiplayer engages players grounded, fast-paced combat across many of World War II’s most iconic locations. Players will also enjoy exciting new ways to interact and socialize with their friends and the Call of Duty community. High-Octane Co-Operative Call of Duty: WWII’s co-operative mode unleashes a new and original story. Play with your friends in this next-level standalone game experience full of unexpected, adrenaline-pumping moments. Pre-Order and get access to the Private Beta
Down below is the live stream of the event. I hope you all enjoy!
How do you feel about a new CoD? Are you down, or are you done at this point? Please let me know, I'm interested in your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by again. As always I appreciate the support. I know it's a short post, but I hope you had a good time. -Chali Baicunn
Ello ello. Welcome back to BaicunnPress! Thank you for stopping by. It's a fantastically rainy day outside where I'm at. I hope you beautiful bastards are having a great day. It's Friday so let's get into The Breakdown. Good news everybody! What's better than sunshine unicorns and nyan cats?...Free games, of course. While they are working on StarCraft Remastered, Blizzard wants to keep the game brooding in our hearts and minds. To insure their psy-ops campaign is successful, Blizzard has released the original StarCraft with the Brood War expansion for free. They are calling it StarCraft Anthology. Based on the latest patch notes, they've ironed out some bugs that come with trying to play a nearly 20 year old game on a modern pc, along with some upgrades in matchmaking. Patch notes are here and download are available here. Also more StarCraft news should be unlocked on their official site on Thursday. The day after the new shit drops on the StarCraft site; new Titanfall 2 will have a new DLC drop. Starting on Tuesday; 4/25, Respawn is set to launch 2 new maps, bringing back the Marked for Death gamemode, and adding the M.R.V.N. faction. It's rumored that we may even see a new Titan released.
In an antithetical twist, Activision has announced that they a releasing a new COD (surprise!?). It appears that this time around Sledgehammer is going back to the glory days of World At War with COD: WWII. Activision has announced a live stream event to start here at 1PM EDT on Wednesday; 4/26. Since we're talking about publishers grasping at straws and DLC; EA released a full length trailer for Star Wars: Battlefront 2 at Star Wars Celebration. During the keynote talk EA/ Dice made comments inferring that there would be more options, a campaign, and no season pass DLC. Later further comments were made muddling facts by rephrasing to state, that there is not, not going to be pay for DLC. So who really fucking knows if consumers are going to get screwed again or not. I'm pessimistically optimistic, but I won't be pre-ordering this go round.
The world was given a Star Wars: The Last Jedi taser trailer. The trailer did present a bit of a kerfuffle with some fans, as Kylo Ren's mangled mug getting some cinematic cosmetic work. If you look closely you'll see that the gigantic Tyrion-esque scar has been downsized and migrated, becoming one of those badass brow to check eye scars. I guess the New Order has a pretty badass insurance plan.
While on the topic of the oddly grotesque, the English dub of Attack On Titan season 2 drops on Adult Swim tomorrow night.
In the same hyper japanese vein, Bandai Namco, has announced their newest game; Code Vein. It appears to be one part Dark Souls and two parts anime. The project is being directed by Hiroshi Yoshimura of God Eater's fame. Running on the Unreal 4 engine, this vampire based RPG is likely to attract a fan base quickly when it releases in 2018.
Vampires, aliens, and crazy shit oh my. Running on the heels of a successful 6 episode run in 2016, the X-Files is returning again for a 10 episode. Set to go to season in 2017-18. In other fanboy pleasing news, Steven Universe is returning May 5th. The news comes straight from Cartoon Network via their Twitter account. To help make the announcement, Cartoon Network released a teaser trailer.
And rounding out the break down, Nintendo has announced that they are discontinuing the NES Classic. If you're wanting to add this game to your collection, time is running out; as the current production cycle will be it's last. But have no fear, as it is widely rumored that like their very own savior of Hyrule, Nintendo will be releasing an SNES Classic soon. Thank you again for stopping by BaicunnPress. I hope you have a fucking awesome weekend. I'm headed out this evening for the MTG Prerelease. Crossed fingers for good pulls. Stop by next Friday for another Breakdown. I'm currently working on a few different projects and trying to tighten up my workflow so that I can get more content out to you guys faster. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. -Chali Baicunn
Ello ello. Welcome back to BaicunnPress! Thank you for stopping by. Yesterday, The Last Jedi teaser trailer was released at Star Wars Celebration. As far as I can tell, it's the standard model Star Wars teaser trailer. You know the shtick; gentle mentory disembodied voice speaking. Flashes of lightsabers, force powers, and blaster fire. Stuff exploding, and ships crashing. Glimpses of heroes and villains... I think you have the mental picture. I'm excited about this release, but honestly, I'm mostly excited that JarJar Abrams is out of the picture... So I can safely say, that I'm optimistic about the future of the franchise. Don't get me wrong, I love the Force Awakens. However, I believe that Star Wars and I have an unhealthy relationship, and by extension; I guess this means I love it because it is Star Wars, and not because it's good. With that said, I felt like Rogue One did a great job of stepping up the bar from The Force Awakens. I do have a minor quibble with intergalactic space farers needing to connect communications cables and operate separate control panels to position an antenna and send data. I'd think that screen writers would have a better grasp on wireless communications in the 21st century, but eh... Below is what you likely came here for. Further down below is a video tribute to Carrie Fisher, that was shown at Star Wars Celebration 2017. Enjoy!
So what do you think of the trailer? Be sure to let me know what you think. Thanks again for stopping by. I really appreciate your all of your support. Please be sure to follow @BaicunnPress on Twitter or Google+ for new post releases. I hope you have a great weekend, and I will see you next time. -Chali Baicunn
Ello ello, and good day to you. Welcome back to BaicunnPress. It's Friday and I haven't murdered a single person yet; so I'd argue it's shaping up to be an alright week so far. If you're new here, The Breakdown, is a quick recap of nerd news you need to know about. (Usually delivered with an er of cheesiness and sarcasm.) I'll stop wasting, and let's jump into The Breakdown.
In case you've been out on expedition in the wilderness with the Scouts; Attack On Titan has returned. Season 2 first aired on April 1st, and is currently streaming with subtitles on Funimation, Crunchyroll, and Hulu. If you hate reading subs and you've already Adult Swim will be airing the English dub starting on April 22. I'm a bit of purist on this front, but screw it; it's been 2.333333 years since the last english dub episode of season 1 aired for the first time. Crossed fingers that production isn't delayed for season 3, as season 2 will only contain 12 episodes.
While on the topic of possible disappointments, we have some more info regarding Microsoft's Project Scorpio. That may seem like a bit of cheap shot, but I'm skeptical that this mid generation upgrade is going to stop Microsoft from continuing to get its ass kicked by Sony. The specs of Scorpio are impressive for a console, as you can see in the infographic below. Impressive though they are, the projected cost is somewhere between $400 and $700, and this is likely to be an issue.
In other self-saving attempts; Microsoft with its sights on boosting user experience, has announced that they will soon be offering cross-platform gaming and Steam style refunds for pc and Xbox game purchases. Currently there's not a lot of details, but I believe these are positive changes. Moving in the opposite direction of Microsoft. Germany's Landesmedienanstalt (Germany's media regulatory body) shits on user experience. In a ruling announced recently, YouTube and Twitch streamers are now considered "broadcasters", and subject to government licensing for any stream with more than 500 viewers. This licensing can cost multiple thousands of euros. The current licensing ruling is being considered only temporary, as the German government admitted that the law is outdated. Originally created to target radio and TV broadcasters. It'd be interesting to know how this ruling could apply podcasts. In a whole 2 dicks one internet moment, Atlus also recently decided to go after Persona 5 streamers. Threatening bad things for any streamers that stream past the in game date of July 7. They go on and on about their Japanese Masters and what not to do, to avoid angering these faceless nameless overlords, in a post on their site. Down below is a screen cap (selecting the image will enlarge it. Also there's a joke in previous sentence, somewhere):
Since we're discussing out of touch developers; Earlier this month Gearbox announced that they'd be teaming up with the much despised key reseller, G2A. In the announcement it was revealed that G2A would have exclusive selling rights for the launch of Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition, and fans of franchise quickly lost their shit. Due to the backlash, Gearbox laid out changes in business practice that G2A would have to start putting in place within 24 hours. Well that shit went sideways, and Gearbox began pulling their support from G2A. After a bit more dick measuring the 2 parties have officially ended their relationship with Gearbox pulling out of their deal with G2A all together. Before this thread is brought to a close, I want to leave you with some important PSAs: As mentioned in a previous post, a BattleFront 2 ad trailer leaked below:
The Thor: Ragnarok teaser trailer dropped:
A reminder for you MTG players out there. The new Amonkhet set drops on 4/22. So now is the time to hit up your local card shops to check for pre- release events. Wizards of the Coast has a convenient tool HERE to help you find a pre-release event near you.
Last but not least, this week is Star Wars Celebration in Orlando, FL. If you're interested in checking out any of the panels, the official Star Wars YouTube channel has them running HERE
Thanks again for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed the content. As always I appreciate your support and feedback. The Breakdown will be posted up every Friday. Monday's UAS education post will be repaired and returned back to the blog this weekend. That's all for now, and I will see you next time. -Chali Baicunn
Ello ello, and welcome back to BaicunnPress. I hope you're getting through the week unscathed. If you've been here before, you're likely aware that I was highly critical of EA and their handling of Battlefront. If you're interested in checking out those posts, the links are below:
With the disclaimers out of the way, let's talk about what you came her for; there's been a disturbance in the Force. Today we get our first glance at Star Wars BattleFront 2, via an alleged 50 second leaked Sony ad. Stick around after the show for further discussion. Enjoy!
So what can we see. It appears that the trailer starts right after the Rebels' victory at the Battle of Endor. In the trailer we can see something else though... looks like this title may just span the Clone Wars up to were "Battlefront picks up?" and even some post Death Star play up to the Last Jedi. Looks and sound pretty amazing right? But let's not forget EA's backhandy bullshit, when it comes to ads. To be fair though, EA has made me feel a bit better about their brand. Battlefield 1 was a pretty solid title. I played the beta. Didn't buy the game out of principal,.... but I played it, and liked it. Then EA and Respawn dropped Titanfall 2 on us, and the game is stunning. Balanced gameplay, and free DLC... that's pretty hard to beat. And I know I've said I was done with EA/ DICE and their shenanigans in the past. But the Battlefront DLC that dropped toward the end of last year really did a good job at trying to salvage the disappointment we were given. So I'm skeptical, but if EA can keep it up... I may be interested.
That's all for now guys. I'll be putting up The Breakdown later this week, but wanted to get this out ASAP. I've also started a Monday series titled Back To School, where I'll be putting up educational content meant to teach you some cool shit. Monday's post was about the laws and regulations in the US regarding Unmanned Ariel Systems (UAS). It's been taken down for the moment, as there are some busted links. As soon as they are fixed, it'll be back up. Thanks again for stopping by. I appreciate all of your support. If you like what you see, please share, and make sure to follow on Twitter at @BaicunnPress. -Chali Baicunn
Ello ello, and welcome to BaicunnPress. I hope you're all having a fan-fucking-tastic day! Thank you for stopping by the site. Today, the Internet has gifted a very special thing; a good laugh and a whole new door to a possible vulnerability in IoT. It feels a bit dickish to laugh at watching an entrepreneur unravel over a couple days, but meh. In short, you're gonna love this shit. A little background is needed to grasp the full majesty of the situation. Garadget is an IoT device that allows users to incorporate their garage door into their home automation, allowing remote open/ close operation and providing notifications. If it sounds lame, it's bc it kinda is, as it has no other real off the shelf application. However, Garadget was able to raise $63,059 on it's Indiegogo campaign in February of last year, and are currently selling for $99 on Amazon (with 71% favorable reviews as of writing this). On April 1st (yes... the April Fools Day), an Amazon user named R.Martin took to the product review page for Garadget to unleash his fury. R.Martin was incensed at the alleged instability of the companion iOS app, and decided that shenanigans would stop with him by posting the following review:
Martin also took to the Indiegogo Community Board to start the following thread about the product and iOS app:
It's not clear which came first, but hilarity ensues with Garadget's following responses:
When confronted by another thread user about effectively bricking Martin's device Garadget responded with this nugget of purely juvenile genius:
Technically, Garadget is being a bit of a dick, but more surprisingly civil chatter happens before Garadget, in an apparent attempt to apologize?... let slip the cherry on the cake:
OK, calm down everybody, Garadget is being dramatic. Save your pitchforks and torches for your elected representatives. Please, no death threats. And in case you're curious about the link to the quote, it's actually the following tweet by Ellon Musk:
Can we get a golf clap for the brilliant mind behind the creation and slow death spiral behind this startup. It takes a pretty big set of brass balls, and a pretty hefty background in rocket surgery to play your brand so boldly. But c'mon man, this is the internet, and it's gonna shut that shit down. As far as the possible new IoT threat... Think about what could happen if a device manufacturer in the future weasels an anti negative review clause into their terms or service. With the lack of consumer protections in regards to technology in the US, there's a lot of people that might get locked out of their homes. It's an unlikely threat given the potential for blow back, but a potential threat it still is. The Indiegogo Community thread has been taken down, but down below you can find the link to the Google cached page, the Amazon review thread, and the Indiegogo campaign page : Amazon Review
Indiegogo Campaign Page Thanks for stopping by. As always I appreciate your support. Keep an eye out for new content, and follow @BaicunnPress on Twitter for new content alerts. I'll see you wonderful people tomorrow. -Chali Baicunn
Hello hello. Thanks for stopping by. Good to see you, and I hope you're all having a good day. Well let's just jump right into the uncomfortable part. It's really just uncomfortable for me that is.... It's been awhile since my last post... Actually, it's been a really long time; about 5 months if we're getting technical. And even then some things were spares before that. So, where have I been? What in the actual fuck is going on? And why has the site been silent for so long?
The answers to these questions are a bit hard to address, but I want be open with you; the readers. Firstly, production began to fall off due to some site administration errors that caused a literal shit ton of work to be permanently lost. If you've experienced this, then you know just how demoralizing it can be to lose so much effort and work. During this time as well, my day job was becoming more and more demanding and requiring more of my attention and energy. Unfortunately this all led to me having about 0 hours of any free time that I was not sleeping or attending to my family. I had all the good intentions and plans on how to get back on track, and was planning a hard re-launch on the first of the year. But, plans and intentions don't mean a whole hell of a lot when life happens. On January first, a close friend of mine took his own life. He had been struggling for years, with the effects of seeing combat in a warzone. I then began to question everything that I was doing with my life. From my career, to my family life, to even this site. I felt like I needed to do something that mattered. Like all of this is for nothing. Like I wasn't quite good enough. And that greatly effected my identity, and threw me into a bit of an existential crisis. Life must goes on, and as I thought more, I realized that I am enough, and this site is enough. I slowly realized that this site is my voice,and it gives me the freedom to discuss the serious issues of today, and joy of just being alive. This site gives me the ability to reach out to anyone in the world, and share a moment of existence with them. As I thought about my life and BaicunnPress, thought about all of the wasted ideas and time I had spent just being concerned about me. It was at that time, that clarity struck and I thought about deeply disappointed my friend would be to know that I just gave up the ghost. So I'm back. I've been offered help from a friend to keep the content rolling out. I'll be rolling out new content regularly starting on April 5th, and I'm hoping to expand into other possible formats by summer. Thanks again for stopping by, and I will see you on the next post. -Chali Baicunn
