More ESO updates.

So Elder Scrolls Online has some new screenshots. And in someways my opinion has improved. They've shown me Argonian soldiers, which actually look pretty good in both keeping to the source material and adding to it.

It they toned down the Argonian colors, which in someways make sense in someways, but it might not be popular with all. I'm really curious in how the Khajit will be done. 

These are Khajit:

So are these:

They are both canon and according to UESP:

Khajiit are each subtly bound to the Lunar Lattice, a mysterious force entitled the ja'Kha'jay in their native tongue. The Lunar Lattice determines the form a Khajiit assumes in life, according to the phases of Masser and Secunda at the time of their birth; while Khajiiti newborns appear incredibly similar to one another at birth, their future form becomes clear in a matter of weeks. This is due in part to the fact that, although born smaller than the children of either man or mer, the Khajiiti mature at a significantly faster rate.

It is imperative to note that while the Khajiit derive their natural form from the moons of Nirn, their peculiar tie to such is in no way related to lycanthropy, for, unlike that disease, it is neither contagious nor temporal. A Khajiit will retain its form of birth throughout their life and the moons, although they affect in what form the Khajiit will be born, do not affect it after that. Furthermore, there are no known shapeshifting Khajiit.

So the ones in Arena being the Ohmes and the ones in Skyrim, Oblivion, and Morrowind being Suthay-raht. So what's ESO going to do? Just go with Suthay-raht or actually have a couple different types? It seems like they are just going with one type. And I know I'm not the only one who knows this.

I hope they don't betray the Orc strongholds that they set up in Skyrim. It's not a subtle hidden thing either.

Their new demo video has got my interest peaked. One tiny thing bugged me in that at one point in the movie they show what looks like a Dunmer and the white hair made it look a little too drow-ish for my taste.

On to the graphics.
On the armor and the scenory:
You've done it again you magnificent bastards.








On the colors and some of the characters:
Meh. Sometimes it looks too much like Wow. And that isn't necessarily a good thing. They keep saying they're not another WoW clone but they need to prove it to us skeptics. It's pretty, but even after playing Oblivion which is the brightest of the later 3 games, it seems too bright. You don't need to focus on the people you've already won over. The Bethesda obsessees and the MMO freaks you'd really have to piss them off to get those guys away. Try getting the cheap asses and the people that aren't sure about going back to MMOs. I haven't been on one in a while. Don't do monthly payments, it's dying. Do something so that "everyone can play" like you said. Show me why I should play more PC online games, give me an excuse to use my docking station for my laptop for something other than homework. That is my challenge I give to you Bethesda. Do you accept this quest?

Political Time!

So I got Pokemon Black 2 and while that's fine and dandy, PETA made a "parody" of it. And I haven't even bothered to look at it since the "Mario shows its okay to kill animals" episode because he wears a Tanooki suit and how they blew that out of proportion. This person on Tumblr says it best: PETA- You're Doing it Wrong. And honestly, if you really think Pokemon is about animal cruelty, then play the damn games. And I don't think they get the irony of their bad guy being a Team Plasma boss rip off. It just annoys me to no end about how ignorant they are about the games they shame.

In other news, Colleen Lachowicz is under fire for playing World of Warcraft. I can't get over how stupid an argument this is, how trivial it is that she plays a game. Not out with hookers or rent boys or mistresses, just playing a game for fun. 

And some people are freaking out because she's a level 85 Orc Assassination Rogue. Which infers that she doesn't do work or anything besides play WoW. You know, with some people, you could maybe make that argument, but if you're campaigning for a senate seat, you can't be someone who just sits and plays WoW. So stop inferring that she's similar to a stereotypical nerdy teen on the weekend. Because she can't be, she just likes killing stuff that isn't real to have fun. 

This is it because if I delve any deeper politically, I might offend too many more people, and my blog's too small to support that right now.

Why I don't like 4th gen of Pokemon

So a little background info:
Pokemon Black & White 2 are coming out a day after my birthday. And thinking about maybe getting it made me decide to look back at my older games. And for those who don't know when I say Gen x of Pokemon, here's a quick guide:
Gen 1: Red, blue, and Yellow
Gen 2: Gold, Silver, and Crystal
Gen 3: Fire Red, Leaf Green, Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald.
Gen 4: Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum
Gen 4.5: Heart Gold and Soul Silver
Gen 5:  Black and White
And I don't know where Black & White 2 will go until I play it.
Anyways first I want to explain why I didn't put HG and SS with D,P &P. The main thing I have is that the two feel very different where as Ruby and Fire Red don't seem like they were made by two different people. I honestly don't know about Platinum, but feel free to correct me on if that should be more with 4.5

I had a few problems that were unique to these games.
Most ridiculous villain

They looked silly then, they look silly now. Some people say that they have one of the more legitimate "save the world plots" but it's hard to take them seriously when you're lolling at hair or outfits. That and they still have a storm trooper-like syndrome. In that they can't be threatening in any sense after fighting them.
Learning curve
It switches from really easy battling to hard bosses at a whim. And I know that bosses are supposed to be harder than the trainers in the gym or during the bad guy plot. But lvl 9, lvl 9, lvl 14, lvl 16, the last two being boss ones. That's not fair. 2-3 level jumps are expected, not 5 levels.
New Pokemon
We have:

The cat that has ugly in it's name to make it even more apparent how ugly and annoying this is.

And the affermative action Gardevoir. Because we really needed that, but yet Lopunny, the new one, only has one form for gender. 

First time playing Diamond, I had a boy one.

Honestly a lot of the Pokemon this Gen were relatively forgettable. There were very few that I was excited about 2nd time playing around and showing me the occasional gen 1-3 Pokemon taunted me with the better Pokemon. The first catch-able non-gen 4 Pokemon? Psyduck. Which is redundant since I have Piplup.

All in all, it's not bad, it's not like they betrayed their old ways, but it's just not my favorite game to date.

How to Kill a Troll - Incisive.nu

How to Kill a Troll - Incisive.nu:

I was going to have a whole post how trolling has gone from jokes to being straight out assholes. And this covers it better than I could have. I don't have a problem with joking around with people. But when a gamer thread turns into who can be more racist for the lols, I stop finding it funny. And I'll end with this to sum up the ending.

'via Blog this'

Looking at Why Subscription games are failing

So Wow is free up to level 20, the Free to Play section in Steam is now a few pages and growing, and now there's talk about once the Elder Scrolls Online starts it might eventually go to Free to Play.
So why is it that almost every subscription game is going to some form of a freemium. Well, it's a survival method, because obviously the old way isn't working.
And subscriptions aren't new, whether to news, music, cable, and obviously games. I remember when I was a kid Disney had some Club type thing that was a monthly subscription, and I was annoyed when we stopped getting it. But why now of all times is the subscription payment fading out?
My theories are:
The Economy- As everyone knows, the economy is a hot mess. And when the economy is a hot mess, everyone has to trim fat. And you do that in things like less cable channels, maybe staying with the same car instead of getting a new one, and cancelling your monthly gaming subscription.

And that makes Blizzard a Sad Panda.

Demographic Shift- So a lot of the original WoW players have grown up, gotten jobs, gone to college, etc, etc. And whether they needed to make ends meet with a Ramen and free WiFi budget, or if they just simply don't have the time for gaming. You don't have much time for gaming if you work 8 hours a day and still have to do other adult activities. And for most adults that have those few days on the weekends to play, $15 dollars a month doesn't seem worth it for a few hours, when you can get a brand new game for $60 and play multiplayer endlessly. That brings me to my next point. What we're playing on has changed in a few years. 

As a whole, people have been playing less "serious" video games on computer, and more on one of these systems. 

And since this picture, the smartphones have also taking a good chunk of would be subscription gamers. This being said, why pay $15 a month for one game when for $25 for 3 months for whatever games you have. Does the cost of games cancel out any money saving argument, yes. But it doesn't change the demographic that I am more likely to find my friends and friends of their friends on console games versus a subscription game like WoW. 

Bang for Your Buck- A lot of games, as everyone knows, I get for cheep or free. And I'm okay with games Like League of Legends telling me to use real world money to buy stuff. I'm not paying them and in turn I get a basic package.Where as WoW's free to play is only up to a certain level and then when you pay monthly it's still a pretty basic package. If you want Worgens or Goblins, you have to buy the prerequisites before buying Cataclysm. And to me, that annoys me. If I'm paying them money for the privilege of playing their game, I should get whatever they make, not just what the standard package comes with. Maybe I'm just spoiled but I feel like it's the same argument for on Disc DLC. I payed for the damn game, I should get everything of the game. It's not the same as flat rate or Freemium games. If there is a one time payment or none, I don't have problems with that. But if I'm paying you monthly to be entertained, and I shouldn't have to pay for more races or higher levels at that point, especially if it has to go into to download so I can see what I'm missing out on anyways. 

I know that I'm mainly basing my knowledge on WoW and that that's not the only subscription game out there, but they were one of the first and that's what a lot of models of others are like. That and examining every subscription game would make this ridiculously longer. 

A Plea to parents

ERSB ratings are there for a reason. They even have online guides for if you want more than just the letters. Here it is. That being said, please stop buying your kids games that are not appropriate for them. I'm tired of little kids on online games that aren't meant for children. And I'm tired of spoiled brats bringing bad names to well made games, because the games have mature themes.

"But Samus, I thought you were against censorship." Some of you would say. Well yes, you are right, I am against censorship. But I'm not talking about getting rid of Rated M games. You'd have to pry Skyrim from my cold dead hands before that happens, and TF2, No More Heroes, Brutal Legend, etc. What I'm talking about is not having a six year old playing Skyrim or GTA4 and thinking that it's just about shooting and stealing. And both aren't about that.

And for those that want to seem like the cool parent for getting your kid every game they want, guess what. Parent's shouldn't be worried if they are considered cool, they should be looking out their kids best interest. And I doubt the best interest of a 10 year old is getting them a game with alcohol, sex and violence in it.
So, yeah. Parents please stop getting your kids rated M games when their not even close to the right age.

Animal Crossing 3DS trailer thoughts

So this video came up a few days ago, and I just got to looking at it, and here is a video with an English translation since I know no Japanese and most of my readers know little if at all. 

So in this Animal Crossing, you'll be mayor, unlike the rest of the series where you're just a citizen. And that means you take responsibility for upgrading the whole town. And I found the solar panels shown at 1:03 very interesting.
There will be new and old villagers alike, and have more personality than just the six (cranky, jock, lazy, peppy, normal, and snooty).
And instead of going to the city or just having Nook's shop and the Able sisters, you'll have the shops from the city just outside of town.
So I don't know how to feel about it yet, I need to see more of it to really rage/geek out.