Video Game Tuesday: Violent Games Are Not The Problem

I’m back with a topic that is really starting to piss me off for this week’s Video Game Tuesday. Violent Games Are Not The Problem!

What?: So recently our beloved leader of the United States Vladimir Putin Trump, and no I don’t like Trump if you can’t tell from me implying that he’s a puppet of a foreign government, stated that he believes that violent media, namely movies and Video Games are at fault for influencing people to become more violent. I have so many problems with this bullshit that I could rant for ages. I won’t though, and will stick to a few paragraphs at most.

Video Games Do NOT Cause Violent Behavior: The American Psychological Association (APA) has stated in a recent memo that there is no viable link between violent games and movies and violent behavior. These are people who perform hundreds of studies and actually know what the fuck they are talking about. So the next time you turn on the news, and no Fox isn’t actually a news channel it was made for sensationalism not accurate or even coming close to factual reporting; and hear a person saying video games are the problem, ignore them. They have no idea what they are talking about. Besides if that was the case, and it isn’t because even watching an episode of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood could cause a kid to become violent, there would be so many mass shootings around the world that most of humanity would be dead or hiding in the ruins of civilization.

Here’s the quote from the APA “The less publicized, more scientifically sound view [is] that little evidence exists that playing violent video games produces violent criminal behavior”.

So when Trump announced his meeting with video game industry leaders I was more then a bit pissed off. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened, in 2013 Vice President Biden held a similar meeting with industry leaders and it went nowhere because they aren’t the issue. Easy access to guns and poor mental health care are the things we should be focused on. The fact that so many people with mental health issues are not being helped by the government is a huge problem, and it’s not just an American issue.

We don’t as Humans have enough care for people with issues like severe depression. So many people believe that it’s something you can just get over, and that’s patently not true. I’ve dealt with severe depression for many, many years and it has never once gone away. I’ve had times in the past where I was almost able to forget the negative sides of myself, but it never fully went away. There’s always a part of me telling myself that I’m an utter failure and waste of oxygen. That I should just give up and find some shallow ditch to lay down and die in. But I’ve never once performed a criminal act of violence against another person. And I’ve been playing video games longer than I’ve known and felt my severe depression.

That’s it for this week’s Video Game Tuesday.

Video Game Tuesday: The Magic FPS

This week for Video Game Tuesday I’m covering a topic that gets way too overblown these days. It’s all about The Magic FPS.

FPS? First Person Shooter?: No, I mean Frames Per Second, although I hear the most complaints come from shooter fans about frame rates. Frankly I don’t see why people get so upset about not getting a steady 60fps for every game. There are various reasons why it’s not the standard frame rate for games.

Which Reasons?: Well for one reason 24fps is what we watch movies in. If you watch it with any faster frame rate it will look off, and often breaks suspension of disbelief much easier. But 24fps isn’t the baseline that most games use these days. That would be 30fps. It still is very close to the cinematic standard of 24fps, but it’s a solid round number that is easy to work with and doesn’t strain the eyes of players. Most games these days run in 30fps.

So why 60fps?: Because it looks really smooth, which I’ll admit is sometimes very nice. But I’m going to point out that it looks just wrong for most cutscenes and since I play Video Games because I want stories, that is a huge disadvantage to me. It also isn’t very easy to get with ever improving 3D artwork for most developers. It can be done, but most systems won’t be able to run it easily. So really, please stop complaining about not reaching that “magic number” of frames, because 60 isn’t all that amazing. It has more disadvantages than advantages.

That’s it for this week’s Video Game Tuesday!

Video Game Tuesday: Destiny 2 Hopes

This week for Video Game Tuesday I’m covering what my wishes for Destiny’s sequel. It’s my Destiny 2 Hopes!

Levels Mattering: I want to see levels actually make a difference, I want to fight against a level one enemy and be able to sneeze and instantly kill them at max level. The fact that Destiny actually punishes you for having a higher level then content is unacceptable. Back in Year 1 if you went into the Vault of Glass with Crota’s End gear you would be at a disadvantage compared to someone with full Vault of Glass gear. You’d do less damage to bosses even with the same weapons equipped. It made no sense whatsoever, and it still applies even now. Why even make a leveling system in the game if it doesn’t affect anything in a positive way?

Ships Doing More: I want to be able to use my ship to fight in space, or in the air above a planet. Hell I want to be able to fly it above an area and land where I choose for patrols. I want it to be more than a glorified loading screen tool. Back in pre-alpha footage that they showed at E3 in 2012 ships were actually shown in places other than the Tower and Orbit when a player landed and whatnot.

Lots of People: I want to see tens of guardians running around in a zone during patrols. I hate only seeing one or two people per area. Some of the best gameplay Destiny had was when people all flocked and worked together to farm the Loot Cave back in the first few weeks after launch. You could actually reliably see more than a couple people in a zone at a given time, and it was awesome. I know lots of people play Destiny, but when I’m just out on patrol I feel alone way too much.

Story: I want a coherent story! I live for stories, and the fact that Bungie keeps pushing this flimsy excuse of a story, if you can even call it that, is shameful. It doesn’t have to be JRPG worthy, but I want to feel like I’m paying for more than an glorified ticket to a virtual grindstone. Rise of Iron and Vanilla Destiny’s story was terrible, Vanilla had almost nothing story wise. The Taken King was a step in the right direction, but it lasted all of a few hours.

Lots of Loot: If Destiny 2 will be as RNG heavy as it is now, we need to be seeing lots more drops then we are seeing now. Again The Taken King had it right, but Bungie went backwards after that with Rise of Iron.

There are lots more things I’d like to see, but this article would drag on and on. That’s it for now. Maybe I’ll cover it more in the future, if I feel like it.

Retro Game Friday: Oni

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering a game few people even know exist! It’s Oni!

Plot Synopsis: The events of Oni take place in or after the year 2032. The game world is a dystopia, an Earth so polluted that little of it remains habitable. To solve international economic crises, all nations have combined into a single entity, the World Coalition Government. The government is Orwellian, telling the populace that what are actually dangerously toxic regions are wilderness preserves, while keeping the populace inside the cities safe using atmospheric conversion centres, which treat the poisoned air, rendering it breathable. The WCG uses its police forces, known publicly as the Technological Crimes Task Force (TCTF), to suppress opposition; their primary opposition is a terrorist organization known as the Syndicate, led by the mysterious Muro. The player character, code-named Konoko begins the game working for the TCTF, in constant neural communication with an android named Shinatama, and under the supervision of TCTF regional commander Terrence Griffin.

Plot: The plot was decent, although I had to look up the story again to get a refresher, and as any long time reader of my columns will know that is rarely a good sign for the quality of the plot.

Characters: I actually loved Konoko, sure the player can make choices, but ultimately it doesn’t change the fact that’s she’s a bad ass chick who handles herself pretty well. The rest of the cast was good, but Konoko took the cake.

Gameplay: This was a Third-Person Shooter that fairly seemlessly blended close quarters combat and gunplay together to make a pretty fun game. I actually enjoyed this gameplay quite a bit and it was quite impressive at the time.

Art: The art has suffered, but given the nature of 3D art that’s not surprising.

Music: Don’t remember a whit, sorry.

Overall: Great Gameplay didn’t quite make up for the mediocre story, but definitely worth a try for those who find in a bargain bin.

For those who like: Cyberpunk, Action, Drama, Third-Person Shooters, Close Quarter Combat.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Retro Game Friday: My Favorite Imbalanced Items

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m doing another list! It’s My Favorite Imbalanced Items!

The Pistol from Halo: This baby was given to you in the very first level, and if you ever dropped it in favor of something else without picking it back up after emptying the ammo of whatever you picked up, you were playing the game wrong. This thing had ammo almost everywhere, and except for the most annoying level The Library, could be used to devastating effect from the first level to the final level. It had a zoom function, could kill most enemies in a few shots (including the Hunter enemies) and in multiplayer had no trail like a Sniper Rifle had. This thing was stupidly overpowered and was nerfed in later entries, although Halo: Reach and ODST did bring it back to a somewhat decent level of power.

The Fierce Diety Mask from The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask: The only thing preventing this monster from completely breaking the game was the fact that it was only usable in Boss Fights, but with it makes the final boss completely powerless to stop you. The way to get this item was to get every mask in the game and present them to the Skeleton Kid in the final dungeon, so it’s really only useable in the final fight if you don’t plan on playing the game after beating the final boss.

Farsight from Perfect Dark: This gun let you see through walls and then shoot through walls to kill your enemies. Oh and it automatically aims at your enemies. Need I say more?

The Unrelenting Force Shout from Skyrim: Given how many mountains this game has, or cliffs, or something to push someone off of, this shout becomes completely unbalanced in any situation when you are at a location with a decent height and place to push things off of. Pretty funny to use on the Bandit’s near Whiterun on the bridge.

Knights of the Round from Final Fantasy VII: While it really required a clever mixture of materia to cast endlessly to be put to best use, it still was the main force behind the complete imbalance it brought to the game. Thankfully it was hidden towards the end of the game, and if you were focused purely on the story it wouldn’t even be possible to get it, but if you did and used the mimic materia on the next party member they’d cast it too, and so on.

Mehrune’s Razor from Skyrim: I’m not done with you yet Skyrim, this Daedric artifact had an incredibly overpowered proc ability that would instantly kill a target, which while having a low rate of success was increased if you delayed getting the artifact until you well above the minimum level of 16 to start the quest to get it. To make things even worse, it was a dagger, one of the fastest hitting weapons in the game. Needless to say, having this allowed thief build characters in Skyrim to absolutely destroy people, especially once they gained the ability to enter stealth in combat by crouching.

Crissaegrim from Castlevania Symphony of the Night: This is probably my favorite item in the Castlevania series, more because of the mythology behind the weapon, than the fact that it completely broke the game, and dear god if you had two of them it was devastating. Crissaegrim had no animation lock when using it, which means that you could use it while moving, and it would swing as fast as you could hit the button. The fact that a single press of the button would have the weapon hit 2-3 times in a split second wasn’t even fair at all. The only thing making this even slightly balanced, and it isn’t really at all, was the drop rate. However clever people would go to a certain room to farm the enemy that dropped the item over and over again, until it dropped. Even more clever people would then repeat the process once more with it in hand to get a second one, because it’s possible to dual wield the monster.

That’s it for this week’s Retro Game Friday, are there some favorite Imbalanced Items of yours that I left out? Leave a comment below with your favorites.