Microsoft's E3 killed it

Skipping over the bits I don't care about, or where the most I could think is "looks cool, but let's wait to see a bit more:"

If you enjoy Halo (I enjoy Halo, especially this new Halo starting from 4 where they're actually at least trying to make Master Chief a real character), Halo 5 sure does look like some damn good Halo. The Hunt the Truth marketing has been a cool little story to get me intrigued, and I'm hopeful this one is actually gonna do something with the fact that ONI are kinda terrible human beings. Having a squad you can command is cool, and I like that they're all characters and not just "here's Chief and 3 oddly resilient Marines." And the dual stories on a collision course thing is something I'm always a sucker for.
Backwards compatibility for 360 titles, both disc and download (including XBLA games, I heard?), which is both really awesome and a pretty good middle finger to Sony's PlayStation Now streaming service, a.k.a PlayStation Pay Us To Rent Games You Already Paid Us To Own Previously. It's a bummer that it can't just be the whole 360 catalog all at once, but at least there's no extra work for developers beyond approving the title and making sure no licensing issues exist.
The Elite controller, which looks and reportedly feels GREAT. $150 is a bit pricey, but as someone who happily purchased both a Razer Sabertooth and a Mad Catz modular Pro controller for the 360, I'm interested in an option that combines aspects of both while also being wireless, and I know first party is always gonna run more than third.
Fallout 4 on the One will be able to use mods, which is maybe the best piece of news I've heard the whole damn show so far. They also hope to do mods on PS4, but the One will have them first- I assume something about the console architecture (Bethesda + Sony does historically = oh fuck why won't this work) or perhaps the way MS has designed Xbox compatibly into Windows 10?
Rainbow Six Seige looks like I might actually want to try it. Still not happy about not getting Patriots, the Rainbow Six that looked fucking interesting, though.
Cuphead looks so great and I cannot wait to get my hands on it. The animation style makes you think everything's gonna get SUPER racist, but I'm gonna assume that doesn't happen.
Xbox Game Preview, a.k.a. Early Access...I see a lot of people freaking out about it. I think it could be not great, but I'm willing to wait and see. They've got a bit up on Steam at least, with allowing a free trial before you actually do the "pre-pay for an in-development game" part of the deal.
They're gonna put out Tomb Raider against Fallout 4, which I'm willing to call "dumb as hell." I will not be even a little surprised if that date changes by a week or two.
As much as the re-release trend has been annoying me this generation, I am all-in for the Rare Replay Collection. It's basically thirty games for a buck each, people. And frankly, there's probably something in there that you haven't played that's worth $30 by itself!
That Hololens shit! That was legit amazing. If you haven't seen that demo, you need to go and look it up right now. It's blowing my tiny little "started gaming on the Intellivision" mind. God damn.
Why the fuck would they end on a Gears of War remake and GoW4 tease? Seriously?! Look I am happy for you Gears people. I don't get you, a lot of you hated Judgement and I thought that was the best one, but I'm happy for you. And I do think there's been cool stuff in the Gears titles even if they aren't really my bag! But what a dumb closer. They absolutely should have closed on Hololens or backwards compatibility. Or at least close on Halo 5, the better of your two shooter franchises. Come on.
Good work, Microsoft. A+ for you.

Ah, the rumor mill...

Man that Silent Hills rumor. Hmm. As good as Silent Hill has been and could be again, just looking at how those titles sell? Nobody is gonna drop billions for just a single game. It would be dumb to drop billions for the entire IP. I wouldn't necessarily be surprised to see Microsoft make a deal with Konami, but I'd expect it to be either less $$$ or more series. I could imagine them snapping up Silent Hill AND Castlevania, for example. Or even making a play for Metal Gear. But a billion dollar deal for JUST Silent Hills? No way.

Not to mention we've heard more than enough from various involved parties to know that the whole "it's 80% done" thing is pretty definitely not true. As for Konami taking down P.T. as a good faith gesture to Microsoft? Considering they did it before this rumored deal supposedly started being discussed? Besides, I'd imagine that, similar to Minecraft, Microsoft would enjoy Sony advertising for their new title.

That said, I'd be happy to see Silent Hill, Castlevania, and Metal Gear go to anybody else at this point. If Konami would really sell any of them off...good or bad, I'll take any studio giving them a go over whatever oblivion Konami heads for. And frankly, I could see a lot of potential for Konami IP at Microsoft. They've rededicated the Xbox focus to games, seem intent on doing it well, and very much want to put the initial One plans behind them, which adds up to me thinking they'd be a bit more invested in not fucking them up than others would be.

All that aside, I see people saying that if it's true, they'd rather Silent Hills not exist over it existing as an Xbox exclusive. The fuck is wrong with you people? That's a ridiculous level to take your console fanboy war bullshit up to. Would it be inconvenient to people who own a PS4? Yes. I could understand the annoyance of now having to purchase or otherwise get access to a new console unexpectedly. It's a similar situation to the Rise of the Tomb Raider situation, and I see the frustration, but come on. With Tomb Raider, the developers have said that the Microsoft deal is the only reason the game is getting to happen. With Silent Hills, it IS dead, and if this rumor were true, this would be the only way it comes back to life.

So yeah, it's irritating. If you get mad, I get that. But get mad at Square for their ridiculous budgets that spend God knows how much on marketing and have to declare by every account successful games a loss. Get mad at Konami for fucking up basically everything and chasing people away however they can. But don't sink into some "I HATE XBOX" fog and wish for cool shit to not happen at all. If you're a gamer or a supposed fan of any given series, you should want a game to happen, even if it may be a bit before you personally get access to it.

Yes, that Batman season pass IS bullshit

A pet peeve of mine with a certain sub-group of gamers and a small number of my friends and acquaintances is their long-standing habit of railing against some industry practice or another for years on end, only to turn around and have no problem with it the moment it gets employed by a developer or franchise they're a fan of. The latest instance of this has been the coverage of Arkham Knight's $40 season pass, as I watch people typically quick to anger over Day 1 DLC and "overpriced" add-on content have no comment other than how excited they are for the DLC, or conspiracy claims that WB Games only got ripped a new one in the press because they forgot their payoffs this time. All these fans are quick to claim hypocrisy on the part of any press outlet that dare besmirch the good name of WB Games, oddly ignorant of their own newly minted hypocrite status. And frankly, it's a silly thing to get so defensive about, gamers, because the Arkham Knight season pass is in fact 100% bullshit.

I want to mention that there are two friends of mine that I know are on the opposite side of this argument from me. I know you'll know I mean you, and I don't intend to throw out your names and start some dumb Internet fight. This isn't a longer version of a subtweet, just that I didn't get this done until after you'd said your piece. Probably a weird disclaimer, but this is my blog, not a real publication, so I can do that. Anyway. After the jump, I'll talk about season passes in general, and then more specifically the Batman issue. I'm sorry this is so long and ranty - it was LONGER, I cut some stuff to try and help, ha ha. But please, read on, and feel free to respond in the comments.

Holy shit Mortal Kombat X is so good y'all

If this were a GameFAQs board the entirety of this post would just be the word "topic"

I spent entirely too long, longer than I'm proud of, trying to come up with a fun Mortal Kombat headline. I spelled a lot of words with a K, Fun times. But in the end, I figured I'd just open with my overall opinion of the game. Follow after the jump for a quick review, a longer bit about the shitty DLC, and a few personal observations.

Current events

Ferguson. New York. Cleveland.

And literally everywhere else in this country.

I'm white. Born and raised in the Detroit area. And I'd like to think I understand. But I pay enough attention to know that I never really will. No matter how outraged I am by this, all of this, every possible aspect of this, I have never and will never actually have to live it. My entire life will always be totally free of this fear, this terrifying aspect of reality. This entire thing is a level of insanity and injustice I can't truly imagine, even right now while looking directly at it. Because the entire system of this country is built for me, starting from a place where I'm above the rest. All of it benefits me; even those laws and policies that put certain other whites above me still put people of color below me.

To paraphrase one of the many statements being made on social media these last weeks, white privilege is me being outraged, being angered, by the Ferguson decision, by the Eric Garner decision, by the Tamir Rice shooting, without having to be utterly terrified.

I don't have to feel any of this at all, not the way so many others do. I never, ever have to feel this, and I will not pretend I do. What I do understand is that everything about this is wrong. And changing the fact that racism and white supremacy are built in to our entire culture may be something that's difficult, something that will take time, and something that's going to make white people uncomfortable in a lot of ways. But it needs to start happening and it needs to start happening now. We shouldn't need more examples, we shouldn't need one of the many protests to turn violent.* This entire country was founded on a violent and destructive revolution. We're supposed to be a more civilized sort of human race now, aren't we? So why can't these changes start because white people recognize such a clear case of right and wrong?

*I want to be clear that I don't mean this as one of the many "hey now don't get violent no need for that you protestors" statements. The people out there protesting are being forced to fight for their right to live, for their right to simply be recognized as human. And they are being met with force, and threats, and unjust arrests at every turn. They are being antagonized in every possible way by police forces that, it seems, want them to respond with violence. And not that my approval is necessary, but if any of these people find themselves in a position where they feel a violent response has become necessary? Well, we all do what we have to do for our own fights. God bless them. But it shouldn't fucking take that, should it

Anyway. I don't want to spend too much time spouting my view. I saw quite a few signs tonight reading "White silence = White consent" and in that case, I felt I absolutely should not be silent-hence my 2 a.m. ramblings. But I won't be writing a bunch of posts from my point of view on this either. I will be listening to the people this affects, signal boosting the words and works of the people who belong in the driver's seat on this, and I will spend my time doing what I'm told I can do to help. Thanks for reading, I'd encourage you to do the same.

For whatever little it may be worth, I'm sorry.

---
Edited to add The Daily Show intro from 12/3/14 after seeing it and thinking it kind of fit a bit of what I was saying/feeling.

The Daily Show
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Here are some words about a thing

"Aspiring journalist" Vandon Gene, approaching Anderson Cooper during live reports from Ottawa: Hey Anderson can I get a photo?

AC: No, I will not take a photo with you on a day where someone was killed! It seems wildly inappropriate!

VG: Oh alright, thanks a lot Anderson! (with exactly the tone you're imagining, yes) *loses goddamn mind on Twitter*

He says Anderson Cooper is "an ass" and "went on a rant." (I will point out that he posted a video of the conversation, and everything I typed above is the entire thing. I will also point out that in order to criticize Cooper's "rant," he spent 20 minutes ranting on Twitter about it.) Then he flips his shit about Cooper "exploiting Ottawa" because obviously a professional journalist doesn't cover these sort of events because it's, you know, their job. My favorite part of the "EXPLOITER!" whining is where he criticizes Cooper for having to fly to Ottawa whereas HE was "on the streets covering." "I was here during a lockdown while YOU flew here on a jet." Man, what an ass that Anderson Cooper guy is, not already living in Ottawa and having to travel to get there and not just using his DBZ Instant Transmission move, how dare he. The gall of going to where something happened instead of sitting in a comfy studio and doing everything by satellite, the sheer nerve of that.

Cooper took about two minutes to reply with every he needed to say about the stupid situation: "Dude, you were rude and asking for a selfie near where a soldier was killed. It was completely inappropriate. Think about it. I can't believe any station employs you, and if you want to be a journalist, learn how to behave when covering a story."

Kinda exactly what I'd have said.

I should note, obviously there are plenty of people on cable news, ESPECIALLY in the U.S., who I would absolutely believe were just out to exploit a tragedy for ratings. And I would love to see them called on it every damn time. And to an extent, any journalist covering any story could be seen as exploiting it. But maybe let's refrain from taking that position just for the sake of a temper tantrum against the few people we have who  still try to be class act professionals and do the job the right way?

I dunno, just my two cents on a dumb thing I was thinking about today.

I wish I was not a nerd

So first, the cool part of the Thor news:

Coming off of Original Sin, Thor is going to be found unworthy of wielding Mjolnir. He's still gonna be around, and he's gonna do what I assume will be hero-y things with a big-ass ax, but someone new is going to be found worthy of picking up the hammer.

Unworthy Thor drawn by Esad Ribic

Note the clearly not-non-lethal big fucking ax. Also, please don't make his new name "Unworthy Thor," I hope to God that's just the description for the image. Maybe just drop the "Thor" part and address him only as "Odinson" until he regains his honor or makes his own name or whatever?

Anyway, since Marvel is riding on a ridiculous wave of "LOOK AT ALL THE AWESOME, INTERESTING SHIT WE ARE DOING," that new owner is going to be a woman. (All of my money is on Thor's sister, Angela. I mean, it kinda really looks like her, and she's another child of Odin, sooooo I'm gonna ignore the fact the press release says it's a brand new character.)

(edit: They've now released a promo that clearly show Angela standing right next to Thor, so I was totally wrong. But I didn't want to delete the line and act like I never said it, haha)

Thor #1 cover drawn by Esad Ribic

"The inscription on Thor's hammer reads 'Whosoever holds this hammer, if HE be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.' Well it's time to update that inscription," said Marvel editor Wil Moss. "...this new Thor isn't a temporary female substitute - she's now the one and only Thor, and she is worthy!"

The same point - that this will be THE Thor now - was driven further home by Jason Aaron, who will be writing the new series. "This is not She-Thor...Lady Thor...Thorita. This is THOR. This is the Thor of the Marvel Universe."

Quotes taken from this article: CLICK HERE

And look, yeah, maybe making a female version of a character isn't a new thing. But Marvel, according to their own press release, considers Thor to one of their BIG 3 characters, alongside Captain America and Iron Man. So, yeah, it does mean something pretty great that their going to have one of those characters be female - especially since, as they've made clear, she's the NEW THOR and not THOR'S LADY SIDEKICK/ALTERNATE.

(Kind of unrelated, but we also have something else pretty great and I want to point it out: with Steve Rogers currently unable to fill the role of Captain America in any active way, we're also going to have a new Cap, at least for a while. And if the cover for Avengers #35 is any indication, it looks to be Sam Wilson, which you may notice means the Marvel Big 3 would also feature an African-American character.)

(edit: CALLED IT. FUCK YEAH CAPTAIN FALCON.)

Try and tell me that Cap suit doesn't SCREAM Falcon.

And now, surprise surprise, onto the not cool part:

"SUBSCRIPTION CANCELED."

"This is a sad day........gonna go puke now, thanks Marvel"

"I want to find the dumb-ass, pencil pushing, administrative, completely uncreative person who forced this idea on every one in some lame and obvious, commercial and banal attempt to get more female readers and fire them."

"Um...Not to be sexist at all or anything...but I cannot believe this. I'm extremely disgusted with them......WTF ARE DOING DOING, MARVEL?!"

"Thor receiving a vaginoplasty... what's next?"

"She name its now WHOR,God of trans-sexual"

There's worse, big shock, but I don't really wanna throw any of the worst shit right into anyone's face.

So.

Thanks, shitty idiot comic fans making everyone look bad. Christ.

One of you morons used Mjolnir as the character's name and cited Amazing Spider-Man 2, Days of Future Past, and the upcoming Sinister Six/Fantastic Four films as proof that Marvel Studios is putting out too many movies, and then said that AS A COMICS PURIST you couldn't accept a female Thor. I don't think I even believe you read comics, motherfucker.

I didn't screengrab at the time, and I'm not about to go wading back through the shit now.

Look damn it, in the Marvel universe, if you can pick up the fuckin' hammer, you're Thor now. That's just how it works. I mean, okay, previously you just got the powers, you didn't take up the name. But if the current Thor is going to fall so far that he's no longer worthy of Mjolnir, or even his own name? WELL THEN I GUESS THERE'D BE A NEW THOR AT THAT POINT ASSHOLES.

Look.

We had a frog Thor.

100% NOT MAKING THIS UP

We had a weird-ass alien horse Thor.

AND PEOPLE FUCKING LOVE THIS GUY

But you draw the line at "woman?" It's that unbelievable that a woman would be worthy of the power of Thor?

This is clearly the least realistic of the last three images.

Fuck you guys.