The Breakdown: Hostile Actions, Ubisoft, Net Neutrality, E3, MTG, & More

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

Zombies, Zombies, and Yet More Zombies?

WE'RE SORRY BUT DO TO THE INCOMPETENCE OF THE SITE ADMIN, THE ENTIRE SMUG AND FUNNY INTRO (FRAMING THE PREMISE OF THIS PIECE) HAS BEEN LOST. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO LAUGH AT HIS FAILURES. ALL RELEVANT INFORMATION IS STILL LISTED BELOW.

The newest addition to the fray, seems to be coming in hot with its E3 trailer and gameplay, but will it going out cold. I'm sceptical, but that's mostly because there's no real info about it. At this point, all I know is that Sony's Bend Studios has been rumored to be working on the title for some time. In Days Gone, you'll be playing as protagonist/ possible anti-hero Deacon St. John (just as an aside this name feels gimmicky/ cliche/ lazy/ WASPy (is that even an adjective?) to me), and is set 2 years after an pandemic has reduced the majority of mankind to "freakers". They're like zombies, just not dead.

Bend is promising that this title will be like no other before it, with a more or less open map and dynamic weather. They are also stating that resource and sound management are going to be serious business. But more importantly, Bend is also reporting that they are still tweaking and optimizing the Unreal 4 engine so squeeze a few more zombies (sorry freakers) onto the screen.

The trailer seems to contradict the claims of open worldness being pushed by Bend. It's not bad trailer. In fact, I kinda like it. It just feels like it's a trailer for a strong narrative driven story, not for an open world post apocalyptic road trip. Check it out below:

The first view of the gameplay didn't really strike me as anything special. I mean, it definitely seemed like the intensity was turned up to about a 15, but other than that it just seemed like a straightforward third person shooter with modern graphics. On my second viewing, I noticed something. It's something that both bugged me and intrigued me. If you're paying attention, you'll notice that Deacon grabs an oil filter from the truck and proceeds to affix it to his pistol to be used as a suppressor. This I like. I like the ability to interact and craft in the field on the fly, but, and this may just be me. But the easy by which the oil filter is magically glued to the barrel, and the accompanying yet incorrect "mag being ran home" sound that knocked me out of the experience for a moment. And what the hell does this jackass need a suppressor for? He's been revving the piss out of his bike, and yelling for the last minute and a half. So, I'm probably being petty, and I realize this game is still early. I'm just saying... Just watch below:

Below is another quick bit of info from PlayStation Access:

I think this game has promise. I get the feeling that this could be the weird FarCy/ GTA with zombies game that we never really realized we wanted. Ultimately, I believe the success or failure of this new title rides on a fully developed story and the ability to deliver an intense player experience. No word yet on a release date or if this will be available on any platform outside of PlayStation.

State of Decay 2

The long awaited sequel to upstart State of Decay was just unveiled. Creators, Undead Labs promises that the follow up will be bigger and better than before. Many a fanboy was devastated to hear that the sequel will not be an MMO. However, with 4 player drop in drop out co-op, an open world, and the ability to play as multiple characters that can all experience permanent death, the tile shows promise. I'm going to need to see more before it gets the nod from me. Check out the trailer below:

No exact release date given, but this Unreal 4 powered Microsoft exclusive is set to hit the market in 2017.

Walking Dead Season 3 Ep 3

I'm not going to dive too much into details to avoid spoilers. If you've played Telltale's episodic TWD series, the you know that I know that we know they're generally pretty good game. If you haven't played it's time you move out from under that time wasting rock called WoW. Jokes aside I recommend you check the out. Below is the official E3 trailer for Season 3 Ep:

If you're interested, Season 3 Episode 3 launches this fall on all the usual platforms

Dead Rising 4

Making a return after it's brief hiatus is the Dead Rising series. Everyone's favorite chaos engine is scheduled to launch this winter holiday on PC and Xbox. It will be remaining exclusive fore a year before going to PS4. A lot of new weapons have been added along with the ability to map individual weapons to face buttons on the controller. In my mind it may not be fair to add Dead Rising to this list of judgement regarding the overuse of zombies in games. This is because, after the first Dead Rising I stopped thinking of the zombies as zombies. They were just targets... Then I realized that maybe this whole time zombies were being used, to absolve the player of guilt. You don't feel bad about the seriously fucked up things you do to them.. Well because, fuck them they're zombies. After that hit me, I lost interest, the illusion had been broken. However, check out the trailer and gameplay below, and make you own decisions:

Resident Evil 7: biohazard

Another returning champ, debuted at 3 this year; Resident Evil 7 appears to be a return to the survival horror roots of the franchise. Seems to me that it could be terrifying. Current release is set for January 24th 2017. Check out the videos below:

The gameplay footage has actually received some pretty negative attention from squeakers. It seems that fans have been bitching at Capcom for awhile about bringing back the classic feel, but now people still aren't happy because they wanted a bit more action to it. Jesus Christ folks! Which do you want Res 2 or Raccoon City? Also, Capcom better not screw the pooch on this one. Some in the gaming community are still bitter about Street Fighter.

And that's the end guys. So what do you think? Was I fair? Is it time to stop with the zombies? Can we all just agree to meet back at E3 next year with a more original adversary? Thank you for stopping by, and thank you for sticking it out through a longer post. As always, I look forward to our feedback. Please be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

-Chali Baicunn

Bethesda's E3 2016 Press Conference

Ello ello again. Thanks for stopping by. If you've been following along, I have been in a hurry to try to get out as much E3 content as possible. I came in late to the game due to day job commitments, so it's catch up time. In the interest of expediance I will be posting just the Bethesda Press Conference in this post. I will then later re-visit some of the more important content that was shown. Check out the press conference below, and let me know what you think. Skip ahead to 46:12 to start the conference.




Thank you again for stopping by. I appreciate your support. I'll be putting up a few more press conferences before pushing out more detailed content. Stay tuned for more news. Be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

-Chali Baicunn

Eye Candy... God Damn Zelda Looks Good!

Hey what's going on out there? Thank you for stopping by. I knew that if I didn't cover Zelda as my inaugural E3 post, a Ninendo fanboy friend of mine wouldn't let me live it down. Since first hearing about the next addition to the Zelda saga, I've been hopefully pessimistic. That's to say that I have had high hopes, but been expecting to be underwhelmed. Looks like I, maybe should have had more faith.



So the day has come, and the gaming world is getting it's first long awaited look at Zelda: Breath of the Wild. If you've read some of my previous works, you'll know that have Nintendo issues, but things are looking up with the latest chapter in the franchise. Honestly, the first time I seen the trailer, my heart was set a flutter, and I got a bit of a nerd boner. The art, animations, and sound are on point.



Straight out of the gate, the introduction video with Zelda Producer; Eiji Aonuma, feels like a breath of fresh air. From the title screen we get a feel for the expansiveness of this world. The addition of the abilities to jump, climb, and truly interact with the environment, coupled with the open world feels freeing. It's been a long time since I have felt that about a Nintendo title. Comments made by Mr. Aonuma, just re-enforce that Breath of the Wild is truly about the adventure and the thrill of exploration. I get a feeling of wonderment just watch others demo the game. And might I say, bravo for the new combat system. It seems that Nintendo has added so many dynamic layers that have been missing for so many years. It's obvious that Nintendo has spent a tremendous amount of time and energy in molding this game into a title that we as a community have been begging for.

I will say that the one thing that grinds my gears a bit, is the amiibo functionality. It seems that Nintendo might be jumping on the micro transaction bandwagon, in a manner of speaking... Idk though. Maybe I'm a purest. Maybe I'm an over reactionary little bitch. If you curious, check out the video below, and let me know:



Below is some video, that really does a great job at shows off a lot of the little details that fill out the game:



If you interested in listening to more info and hype (Nintendo self masturbation), the following video is for you:



The title is scheduled to drop on December 30th this year. If you're interested in reserving your WiiU copy, you can do that now on both Amazon and Best Buy.


Thanks for stopping by. Check back later for more E3 goodness. Make sure to follow BaicunnPress on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. As always, I welcome your thoughts, input, and your support. I will see you later.

-Chali Baicunn

Midweek Breakdown - Pokemon Will Own February, Ubisoft Drops The Ball, And Deadpool

Hello and welcome back my fine nerdy brethren. Thank you for stopping by! It's time for the Midweek Breakdown, where I serve you up with some tidbits of wonderfulness to help you make the final stretch of your work week toward the weekend.

First up on the list is a new Superbowl Commercial, from our friends at the Pokemon Company:



If you didn't know Pokemon has several major events coming up this month. On February 27th Pokemon will turn 20 years old. That's right, if you an OG trainer from back in the day, you're officially old... To celebrate their anniversary a special edition 3DS in the States with Pokemon Red and Blue pre-loaded on the device. In Japan, fans of the franchise will be able to pickup a 2DS bundles with choice of Red, Green, Blue, or Yellow theme, and matching game pre-installed. The American bundle price is listed at $199.99. As a side note, if someone sends me one of these they'll get free adspace on here for a year. (Can't blame me for trying. Haha!.. But no seriously.) The Pokemon TCG will also be receiving the next edition this month with XY-BREAKpoint. Honestly though, all of this doesn't hold a candle in the wind to the expected release of Pokemon GO. Widely believed, to be releasing on February 27th. If you're a Pokemon TSG fan checkout the video below, and if you're interested in some more info about Pokemon GO, please stay tuned for future posts coming out this week.

Also out this week, Bethesda has announced that it will be making a return to E3 this year. With the success of Bethesda's showcase last year, I'm expecting another great showing in 2016. If you're interested in speculations about the showcase, make sure to check out my post from last week; Pure Hyperbole: Bethesda's E3 2016 Showcase Speculation .


Over last weekend, The Division beta released and almost immediately got pwn'd. Specifically the PC version of the beta was compromised, by users that discovered that the game clients were running in a trusted status. Long short, this means that the servers didn't give a fuck about what speed, amount of ammo, or well any other player stats as long as the info was handed to it by the client. This was possible due to the fact that the servers were not checking the data to verify that it had not been tampered with. The beta was open to everyone who pre-ordered and a lucky few who made it onto the beta waiting list. No word from Ubisoft, if anti-cheating systems were left off on purpose or not. I recommend that you go check out the reddit devoted to the game here , as has a lot of great information posted on it.

I'd also like to remind you, that the Deadpool movie releases next week. So make sure you treat you're significant other to a romantic classic about a guy who'd do anything to stay alive for the woman he loves. And significant others, if you love your significant other, you'll recognize that it is a proper Valentine's Day movie. I now leave you with the following PSA:




Thanks again for stopping by. I really appreciate your support. If you feel that I missed anything, let me know. Please make sure you follow the site on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, And as always, I'll see you later.

-Chali Baicunn

Pure Hyperbole: Bethesda's E3 2016 Showcase Speculation

Hey you fine people of the Internet! Thanks for stopping by... And FUCK MONDAYS! Haha! Bethesda has announced that they will be doing another E3 showcase this year. I did some coverage of last year's showcase (links to the posts here: DOOM & Dishonored 2). In this post I'll be speculating what they may be showing this year. I'll be breaking it down by title. Let's jump in. 

*On 2/4/15, Besthesda announced a release date of May 13th for DOOM. I think it's safe to assume that Doom won't be showcased this year.*  - Posted 2/8/15

DOOM:
GameInformer has managed to snag some pretty nice exclusives with this DOOM. When you look past the hype and read between the lines, there are a few interesting details available from them. What we know so far is that the new DOOM visually feels like the classic we know and love... It's just been turned up to 20.

What We Know:

• Classic single-player DOOM
• There will be at least the following weapons: pistol, chainsaw, chain gun, super shotgun, combat shotgun, plasma rifle, heavy assault rifle, rocket launcher, and of course the BFG9000
• Weapons are upgradable via items drops in the campaign
• Multiplayer is available through the "Arena"
• SnapMap feature allows users to create custom maps quickly and easily.

BaicunnPress Guess:

• DOOM will be the headliner of the showcase (first presentation)
• Bethesda and idSoft will specifically showcase multiplayer and SnapMap
• Weapons will be upgradable in multiplayer via item drops from enemies
• SnapMap will allow for multiplayer and single player maps
• SnapMap may allow for demons to be placed in multiplayer  games
• More weapons will shown
• (Out on a limb guess featured below. Keep reading)

  


Dishonored 2
First shown during Bethesda's E3 2015 showcase. This next chapter of the Dishonored series will return to the Empire of the Isles. Arkane Studios (dev) has promised to continue the sandbox mechanics, and the graphics appear to be highly polished. The game was originally set to be released in Spring of 2016 and now pushed back to December 30, 2016 (after being reported for a 2017 launch in November 2015).

What We Know:

•  Sandboxing mechanics will be present just like the first dishonored.
•  There are two characters to play as now (Corvo Attano & Emily Kaldwin)

BaicunnPress Guess:

•  Dishonored 2 will be the second presentation
•  The world will be more open world (think GTA but probably smaller)
•  The release delay is two fold. One, game was not released on time because online/ multiplayer was added. Two, release date was changed from 2017 to 12/30/16 to allow the game to be available for a 2016 Game of The Year award. 

Fallout 4 DLC: I imagine that we'll be getting some Fallout 4 DLC this year, and if they drop it on the market around E3 the time would line up so that it would be about midway to the 1 year anniversary. I'd also expect a possible announcement of 1 year anniversary DLC.

New Skyrim: This is a total shot in the dark, but it's been since 2011 since Skyrim was released. I think we're do for another.

New Wolfenstein: I'm making this guess only because there has been a Wolfenstein title every year since 2014. It seems to me that both "Old Blood" and "New Order" have done fairly well for themselves. It may just be that Bethesda has decided that Wolfenstein is popular enough and profitable enough to make it a cheap cornerstone title that always keeps then relevant and is a constant source of revenue. Remember that "out on a limb guess" I mentioned before.... Here is goes... I'd speculate that if there is a Wolfenstein announcement, there will be an offer for beta access to the next DOOM title.

What do you think? Am I right? Am I wrong? Let me know what you think on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or in the comment section below. Thanks again for stopping by. I really appreciate your support. As a side note, I am working on a few ways to get more content out, and in different media forms. Stay tuned for more details. 

-Chali Baicunn

EA Pulls Booth From E3

Hello! How's it going out there in the wild today! Seems that the seemingly unsinkable ship, that is EA is growing very concerned about their relationship with their community. If you've read my previous posts, you'll know that EA and I are not on the best of terms currently. I'm not going to go into my personal feelings about EA today, but instead want to talk about some HUGE E3 news involving EA. 

Amid the blowback of several failed title launches, and the presumed PR nightmare of a growing contempt amongst many gamers directed at EA over the quality and value of their products. EA has decided to pull their booth from E3 showroom floor. Instead EA has reported that they will be hosting an event at the Club Nokia venue outside of E3. This event will be called EA Play. Unlike E3 the event will be open to public from June 12 to the 14th. On June 12th in London, EA will be hosting a similar event as well.

On EA's official announcement page, they are reporting that live attendees will get hands on time with demos, along with competitions, special guests, and exclusive schwag. On top of public access, they are also reporting that they will be live streaming their press conference, new games, and behind the scenes content. Gamesbeat is currently reporting that an EA spokesman is quoted as saying,

"It’s an all-new event that puts our players first and creates a play experience built around them.  Play LA will be at Club Nokia at LA Live on June 12-14, and Play London will be at The Mermaid on June 12.  Both events will kick off with a live press conference and offer hands-on with our games, and more."


The press conference is currently scheduled to begin at 1PM PT on June 12, 2016. It's presumed that the Press Conference and events will be live streamed on there Twitch channel here. If you're interested in getting more details about the event and how to get tickets, you should go to the official EA announcement page here and sign up for email updates.

So what do you think? Is this just standard PR? Or do you think that EA may have turned a corner? I personally hope they have. Let me know what you think. Please share and follow on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter. Thanks for stopping by again, and as always I will see you later.

-Chali Baicunn