New info on Kyurem and Meloetta forms

First off, both Kyurem forms retain their Dragon/Ice typing. This may be a disappointment to some, but I sort of saw it coming. I mean, the presence of Cold Flare and Freeze Bolt means the Ice type isn't going away, and it's hard to see the Dragon type being lost as well. However, what this means is that Kyurem will absolutely need some extra moves from other types to be viable, such as Reshiram's and Zekrom's signature moves. Stats aren't the only issue with regular Kyurem, its movepool is also as deep as a puddle. I think we all know the first one will be taken care of, so moves are the name of the game now. Best case scenario is, it gets some new moves to give the regular form as hand-me-downs (such as Air Slash and Earth Power on Shaymin-L).

Also, Serebii heavily implies that the "big reveal" in tomorrow's Pokémon Smash episode is going to be Meloetta's Pirouette form. The reveal of a new Pokémon (which they also call alternate forms in that context) says it all... it can't be a gen 6 Pokémon just yet, it can't be Genesect either (three event Pokémon in the same year? Not happening), and only the Aria form has been revealed thus far. Calling it right now.

Canada finally gets rid of pennies

About time! Keeping the damn thing alive cost way more than it was worth, and it's really welcome in an era where cutting spending is all the rage. As long as those cuts are applied in the right places, and banning pennies definitely qualifies as such. 130 million dollars were wasted every year on the production of coins people tended to keep, or outright throw away.

So, what's the impact of prices ending in a five or a zero on pricing? According to research done in America (which can't be that far off from what we're about to experience in Canada), almost none, with consumers gaining a measly cent every 40 transactions on average. All in all, GOOD FUCKING RIDDANCE. I'm not going to suddenly start voting Conservative because of that, but it's still awesome.

As an added bonus, the composition of $1 and $2 coins will be revised to decrease their production costs.

Edit: Thanks to SuperNerd137 for pointing me to this. QFT.

Hyrule Historia: three months later

We're in the days leading up to the start of the Wind Waker LP, so this is an appropriate time to come back on the Hyrule Historia artbook, which, on top of looking pretty, gave us the actual canon timeline of the Zelda series. At the time we were like, WHOA, the real official timeline? But now, looking back, I can't help but feel a bit disappointed, because instead of coming up with their own creative way of explaining things, they just took some fanon (God I hate that term) into canon, from the split timeline theory to Kaepora Gaebora being Rauru in disguise - and doing so, also made the corresponding plotholes into canon as well. Sure, they came up with the Ganondorf timeline, something no one even thought of, in order to staple a few plotholes shut, but at the expense of opening up a huge existentialism debate that feels even more out of place than a split timeline.

Overall, it feels like they took the path of least resistance, taking what most fans who actually care about that stuff believed, and making it fact. On the other hand, one could say that millions of fans will eventually be able to make more sense out of such a complicated saga than a limited amount of writers ever could, especially since said writers clearly stopped caring at all at some point that could be pinpointed to anywhere between the Oracle games and Twilight Princess.

So, what's your opinion on this? Laziness from the writers of the book, or the fact that such a massive amounts of fans is bound to make the most sense?

Poll results: high interest in Nobunaga

Out of 211 voters, 90 would be really interested in an international release for Pokémon + Nobunaga's Ambition, so I imagine they're going to be satisfied with the patch I mentioned yesterday should it never happen. 73 others say their interest depends on whether the game's good or not, and after seeing some footage, I'd have to say it is, despite the most awkward concept ever behind a video game. 29 aren't interested because turn-based strategy games aren't their thing and 16 are turned off by the concept. And finally, three voters have the Japanese version! (Or at least claim to.)

New poll is as straightforward as it gets. What part of the world are you from? I know, I could get some info on that (and a bigger sample) from YouTube Analytics, but we all know how unreliable that is...

Edit: Sorry about deleting the first draft of the poll, I just forgot to put in an option for Latin America! Sorry about that, guys.

Nobunaga English patch in the works!

I don't know how many of you already know, but there's currently a fan translation of Pokémon + Nobunaga's Ambition being worked on! So should the worst happen and there's no international release, at least we're not left in the dark! You can keep up with the project here.

I want to give up on my status as a gamer right now.

Seriously. Writing a subpar script is against the law now? Why not go after the likes of Michael Bay then? What next, some rabid idiot suing Blizzard over the Mystic and Talisman being cut from Diablo 3, as well as PvP not making it for launch? What about going after Gamefreak because all the new Pokémon are teh suxx0rZ, Team Plasma is defamation against PETA, or Skyla needs more clothes because some extremist imam is offended? Or going back to BioWare, nails on a chalkboard are more appealing than Sonic Chronicles' soundtrack? Oh hey, I brought up Action 52 on this blog yesterday, why not sue the owner of Active Enterprises for charging $200 for a game that's in the bottom 5% of the NES library (quite an accomplishment when you know just how easy it was to make shovelware for that thing)?

FML.

Update: Wait, it gets worse! Amazon gives full refunds to some people who bought ME3 and didn't like the ending? That's simply unheard of! This is by far the most ridiculous, overblown, over-the-top debacle in gaming history. Yes, Bioware didn't follow up on their promises, but that can't possibly justify this ridiculous reaction. Normally such a thing would peter out over time, but the worst part is that instead of doing that, it's actually gaining steam! Scary.

Announcement in next week's Pokémon Smash

According to Serebii, there's going to be a major announcement in next week's episode of Pokémon Smash. There are no hints whatsoever as to what this could be, but if you look closely at the image teasing the announcement, in the background you'll see Pokémon that starred in movies in the background (obvious fact because it's a bunch of legendaries, Lucario and Zoroark). Does this mean the announcement is movie-related? Maybe, but there's no way to know for now. I feel safe assuming it has nothing to do with main series games, at the very least. So the vast disappointment we always feel in these announcements shouldn't be a concern this time around...

What do YOU think it is? Speculate away!

Why Action 52 was the disaster it was

I think everything's been said on the subject... Action 52 blows chunks. I'd say 52 kinds of chunks, but since half of these are space shooters I'll settle for half as many chunks. Nonetheless, the newest episode of GameTrailers' Pop Fiction, which, since we're dealing with the bottom of the barrel, was also an AVGN crossover, taught me some interesting stuff about this holocaust of garbage.

While the episode itself was about a way to bypass a gamebreaking glitch in Cheetahmen 2 that stopped the game from progressing past the fourth stage's boss, it also brought up Action 52's sordid backstory. As it turns out, the owner of Active Enterprises wanted all 52 games completed in three months. Let that sink in for a moment. This asshole wanted 52 games done within THREE MONTHS. On a single NES cartridge to boot. Even with dozens of highly qualified people this would be an impossible endeavor, but Scrooge McDuck here decided he was going to entrust three college students with that task.

Three months. Three people. And college students to boot. Is it such a surprise it was one of the biggest flops in gaming history? And mister almighty owner thought the Cheetahmen would be able to compete with TMNT? GENIUS.

What was Bioware thinking?

A few days ago I cracked a Mass Effect 3 joke in a video, and I did that without ever touching any game in the series. Nonetheless, I have a pretty good idea what's going on, and even if I don't care for the franchise, I still feel somewhat insulted as a gamer. Fans were explicitly promised a variety of endings that would vary greatly depending on the choices you made over the course of the trilogy, and said freedom of action was one of the things Mass Effect was known for. Instead... well, you get to choose between a red explosion, a green explosion and a blue explosion. (Michael Bay would probably argue that any minute difference in an explosion would be a huge difference maker, but hey, it's Michael Bay. ALIENS.) I know you're going to nitpick and say there are other differences, but they were nowhere near what was explicitly promised. Perhaps the worst part is the "buy our shit" message that comes immediately afterwards. Yeah, I'd be pissed too.

So yeah, lots of outrage. And most of the time, when something like that happens it peters out pretty quick. Not here though... people went so apeshit over this that it's still the topic of the day, every day.

But the point of this post isn't to recap what happened or anything (else the word "plothole" would be everywhere), I'm just wondering... WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? They backtracked in pathetic fashion on a heavily promised and very anticipated feature of the game, they couldn't not have expected the fans would hate it. Maybe they didn't anticipate the supernova nature of the backlash, fair enough. But were they really thinking Mass Effect fans would actually like it? Some people believe that the writers had something else entirely in the works, but someone higher up thought whatever story they came up with would cripple DLC sales, so that someone stepped in and rewrote everything to make said DLC more potentially appealing, without ever considering what Mass Effect is all about in the first place. As I said, I never played any of the games, but according to many who did, it does seem like the last ten minutes seem to be written by someone else entirely.

Either way... I'm still in disbelief. Here you're looking at one of the most popular franchises in modern gaming, and in a matter of minutes they make it into something you can't even think about without trying to throw up. Why? Why would they do that? To drum up DLC sales? Didn't they think, wait, we might piss people off enough that they wouldn't buy it? I haven't studied in marketing, but that doesn't make an ounce of sense. I'm writing this today to ask: any ideas, guys? I'm trying to understand, grasp why they did the things they did, but... no way.

Now you know how long-time Metroid fans felt after the abortion, maybe even franchise-killer (AFAIK there is no new Metroid title in the works) that was Other M - a game that could've worked, except the storytelling was so horrendous it dragged everything down with it, even by the standards of a guy that doesn't give a hoot about story in the first place.

Bulbagarden deletes news item about Kyurem forms

Turns out the news I reported this morning might be fake, as Bulbagarden deleted the news item I mentioned there. Sort of odd, considering they quoted the Pokémon Daisuki Club as a source... and a quick check of the Daisuki Club's site (from someone who knows zero Japanese, no less) reveals none of the info Bulbagarden reported was even on there. So was it a hoax? If so, I hope someone got fired. I mean, that's the kind of questionable reporting you'd expect from Pokébeach (who did NOT report on that), not Bulbagarden.

But should we be surprised? I sure am not. Everything on there just sounded ridiculous, especially the "red white" and "blue black" parts.

Update: According to a post from Serebii on the Bulbagarden forums, "Sparkling Blue" and "Burning Red" are descriptives that go along with some merchandise, and NOT part of the form names, while Overdrive was lingo that existed for two years without us knowing anything about it. It refers to when Reshiram's and Zekrom's tails turn red and blue, and is NOT a gameplay mechanic. At least so far.

Kyurem forms' full names revealed

Courtesy of the Pokémon Daisuki Club. Sparkling Blue Black Kyurem and Burning Red White Kyurem. Wait, what? That's a mouthful... I'm under the impression it's going to be a Japanese thing, and the international names will be a bit simpler. More interesting is the fact that according to Bulbagarden, "Kyurem will change forme when its emotions get worked up and going into "Overdrive" status". Since there's nothing like that in the games so far, the major question is, will it be purely an anime/manga thing, or will this mean the introduction of a new game mechanic, like Pikachu's happiness in Yellow? I'm intrigued... more on this as it unfolds.

Poll change: BW2 and Nobunaga

The results of the last poll about general perception of a sequel BW2 reveal that the general belief mirrors mine: careful optimism. No less than 159 voters out of 229 say they're skeptical but optimistic, and 62 of the remaining 70 are certain it'll succeed. More pessimistic options are almost nowhere to be found: only six voters say they're afraid Gamefreak might stumble, and the last two believe there's no way the game can work.

Moving on, next question is about the recently released (in Japan, of course) Pokémon x Nobunaga's Ambition. What's the general opinion on THAT title? Are you looking forward to it, or couldn't you possibly care less? Did the info released in the last few days impact your interest?

The most spoiled, rotten, brattiest youth of all time

We're officially doomed as a civilization. The generation of my parents utterly failed to properly educate mine, and say no when it's time to say no. As a result, we're stuck with bratty young adults who think the world owes them everything.

Why am I saying that? Well, I'm pissed and I need to vent. Today's newspaper (Le Journal de Québec) asked a few students their point of view on the ongoing student strikes in Quebec (you read that right, STUDENT STRIKES) to protest against a raise of our stupendously, stupidly low scholarship fees that were frozen two decades ago to buy an election. And as if the repeated protest marches that degenerate into roadblocks and carnage every single time weren't enough to prove that they're probably not even intelligent enough to go to university to begin with, the newspaper gives their reasoning behind why they oppose the fee raise. I'm going to spare you a full translation, because it's going to anger you as much as it angers me, but still, let's see a little sample of their complaints.

Non-English VG dubs: are they that bad?

I probably mentioned this a few times in my LPs before, but everything in video games (not just voice acting, either) just looks and sounds so much better in English. Maybe it's because it's my second language, but seeing any game in French makes me cringe sooooo badly. I just saw a video of Diablo 3's French version, and it just makes me want to throw aside my French ancestry and fake being of Irish descent like everyone seems to do around St. Patrick's Day. Which is convenient, because nothing washes away terrible voice acting like booze does.

So, quick question for those of you who aren't native English speakers. Am I the only one who feels like upchucking when I hear a video game in my own language? To be fair, it's not much of a problem in Quebec since most games are unilingual English as far as I can tell, even if the instructions are trilingual, but what about people from other countries and ethnicities?

Pokémon x Nobunaga's Ambition now out in Japan

Indeed, today marks the Japanese release of one of the most bizarre concepts for a video game ever. Is it any good? We'll have to see, but on the surface it looks pretty decents. Early reports suggest that around 200 Pokémon are available within the game - that isn't a problem though, spin-offs typically only have a fraction of all the Pokémon, to the notable exception of the Mystery Dungeon series and Rumble 2.

I'll update this post if anything interesting comes up, so stay tuned. By the way, if this ever gets an international release, what title do you think it'll have? The current one is a mouthful...

Diablo 3 released on May 15: LP hiatus incoming

After a decade of waiting, we finally reached the holy grail! Diablo 3 will be released on May 15, and as such... well, I don't think I'll have much time to put into LPing for a while when that time comes. Just letting you know in advance.

Eeveelution poll results + new poll

First, I'd like to remind everyone that the amount of days stated until the poll closes isn't absolute, it's just there because I'm forced to give an end date - which I can change at any time anyway.

Anyway, on to the poll results! It was a hard fought battle between Vaporeon and Espeon, and while Vaporeon was ahead throughout almost the entire thing, a late surge from the Psychic-type allowed it to eke out a 75-69 victory. Truth be told, I'm not sure Espeon would've been this successful had I asked this question two years ago, with Magic Bounce and whatnot, but oh well. Jolteon and Umbreon were also locked in a close fight for third, but this time the original won by four votes, 41-37. Flareon obtained a whopping 28 votes, and I'm not sure if it's because it was one of the originals or if it got a lot of pity votes for sucking so badly, but it still managed to do well here. (For the record, I STILL get comments from people arguing that Flareon isn't all that bad...) Finally, the gen 4 duo didn't do so well, with 13 votes for Leafeon and 9 votes for the very redundant Glaceon. (Which probably shouldn't have been created in the first place, Vaporeon covers the Ice base so much better, strongest Blizzard in the game or not.)

Next poll is about BW2 being a sequel. Do you see it working out, or do you think Gamefreak will meet their Waterloo?

The Canadian paradox

Yesterday's newspaper featured a series of polls on all kinds of subjects on the Canadian political scene, from voting intentions to provinces' perception of each other to the prospect of a Quebec secession. But in all that, there's one thing that makes no sense whatsoever: English Canadians massively want to see Quebec remain within Canada, despite their strong belief that Canada would be as good, if not better off, without us (something I can agree with). Meanwhile, the prospect of independence continues to rally a hefty 40 to 45% of Quebec's population no matter how divided, battered, and quite frankly obsolete the movement is. And yet most of us realize that it would be suicide to separate at this point, with a government so corrupted and inefficient even all the cash we suck out of Alberta isn't enough to get us out of the gutter.

Yep, we're certifiably nuts at this point. Anyone care to explain this anomaly?

You will die. They promised.

By far the most common complaint leveled at the Diablo 3 beta was that it was ridiculously easy, even judging by Blizzard's admitted design goal of easing people who've never touched a Diablo game into the game without killing them right off the bat. The major worry was that the game wouldn't get tough until hitting Hell difficulty, if not Inferno. And it made sense, too, as the content covered by the beta was basically the tutorial areas (first third of the first act of Normal difficulty, if you'll recall). As a veteran to the series, I had no challenge whatsoever, and even with the melee classes I was hard-pressed to fall to half health, even in the toughest scenarios and without the overpowered armor that could be crafted.

These complaints quickly vanished with patch 14, which was released last week; the damage done by all monsters was doubled, and those aforementioned crafted items saw their level requirements increased beyond what the beta allowed. Suddenly we were faced with some sort of challenge from the get-go, so much so that some people started worrying that a complete newbie could get trashed. I don't think it's such a bad thing, though: if you're doing things the wrong way, the game won't hesitate to tell you so by making you struggle, and THEN you'll learn from it. A newbie won't figure out Plague of Toads is utter garbage if the lowest you ever get to is half HP. But yeah, the difficulty is more in line with what SHOULD be done.

But that was nothing compared to what happened these last few days. A few lucky guys managed to glitch past the gate in the Cemetary of the Forsaken (which is supposed to be impassable in the beta), then snagged a few waypoints beyond that and shared them with anyone who asked. And after seeing some of the footage in those areas, which are expected to be visited immediately after the beta's content ends... I am simply blown away. These places look a lot more cruel than anything seen in the beta, and people who went there were suddenly struggling to survive, with goatmen, possessed trees and gigantic beasts that possess a charge attack not unlike the terrifying Horned Demons from the first game. Not to mention, we get a few new boss modifiers in there, and these, quite frankly, put those in Diablo 2 to shame. Truly, anyone who thinks the game is too easy will have a nasty surprise coming as soon as the second third of the first act.

Oddly enough, while Blizzard was informed of this a few days ago by a benevolent (though some may think otherwise) beta tester, it took them until this afternoon to hotfix the issues with the gate and take all those extra waypoints away from the characters who got them. Some are already accusing them of waiting so long on purpose to drum up some more interest for the game... who knows? Either way, if you want to head to the Fields of Misery or the Festering Woods, these are now gone until release, but here's some footage to show you what you missed:

http://www.twitch.tv/vggaming/b/311431163

BW2 confirmed to be a sequel

And you know how much sense that makes... just about every logical argument you could make, aside from the title, pointed to anything but that. Time to man up and admit I was wrong. At least we won't see the legions of pitchforks from whiners calling for a boycott. Now to see how it'll turn out. And as much as I have a hard time believing it'll work, the last time I doubted Gamefreak they seemingly went out of their way to make my concerns null and void.

So, what does that mean for my LPs? Nothing. I still want to see what the game will be like before I decide to LP the first game... it might have a different story, but otherwise be almost identical, at which point I'll have quite the condrunum on my hands.

BW2 and Kyurem forms to be featured in CoroCoro + Reshiram/Zekrom event

Gee, what a surprise. But it's about time, considering BW2 was announced two weeks ago and we don't know the first thing about it - we even lack full confirmation that it's either a sequel or twin deluxe versions. But I'm expecting many questions to be answered in the next few days, including that.

...hey, how many calls for boycotts will we see if these are indeed deluxe versions? With all those poor people getting hyped up for a sequel, only to get denied, things could get nasty.

On another subject, the opposite uber mascot of whichever version you have is now available through Mystery Gift. Make sure to get them!

DW ability poll results + new poll

Turns out my hunch was right on the money, as Imposter Ditto took the cake with 132 votes out of 233. Second place was largely predictable as well, with Techniloom snagging 42 votes. Beyond that, though, the few remaining votes were largely split, with Ice Body Regice being the "best of the rest" at 10 votes. Well I didn't see that one coming, I'm not sold on Regice being a force ever again, even with Ice Body... though I guess people really are looking for something better than Walrein to use its signature set with. After that comes Moxie Heracross with 9 votes... I guess Guts is a filler ability for the most part, though it's not going to help with the choice of either average speed or being locked into one move.

Multiscale Lugia, the Pokémon I expected to finish third, maybe even challenge Breloom for second, had 8 votes, same as Sand Rush Sandslash, whose appeal comes from the fact that no one knows whether it can be a decent substitute for Excadrill or not. Regenerator Ho-Oh was next with seven votes, but I think everyone secretly wants it to come about, both because Ho-Oh NEEDS it to be anywhere near usable, and also because such a major improvement to a sun abuser will help slow down rain's stranglehold over ubers. Sheer Force Feraligatr, the Pokémon so good 4chan spreads hoaxes about it being banned, obtained six votes. Lightningrod Zapdos and Water Absorb Suicune collected four votes apiece, Unaware Clefable got two (c'mon, if Quagsire can do so well with Unaware, Clefable can at least do as good), and last place goes to Volt Absorb Raikou with a single, solitary vote.

With that said, here's a new poll for you: which is your favorite Eeveelution? To be honest, I never understood the generalized obsession with them, and was never as fond of them as most people, but Espeon is the #1 ragequit inducer in this game, so I have little choice but to throw it my vote.

Big Brother Google is watching you...?

Martin Lessard, IT blogger for Radio-Canada, recently wrote an article about Google's new privacy policy, which centralizes data they collect from you on sites such as Google and YouTube - data that used to be gathered separatedly for each site. While it's hardly a popular measure, this guy still managed to get a chuckle out of me with a part of the article, which I'm going to translate for you to the best of my ability:

I have two computers at home, plus an iPad and an iTouch. As well as my Android. At home, I'm not the only one who uses these. I use one or the other depending on the occasion, time or place. Or because my children use them to browse the internet.

However, since yesterday, Google reunites all of us under one profile, mine. Because don't think my wife or kids disconnect from Google to use their own account when they search on YouTube or Google Maps. While I look up Nietzsche and my wife is listening to What Not To Wear, my kids watch Bébé Lilly clips or a tutorial for making cannons in Minecraft.

I don't even want to think about what Google's algorithm is building about me! Sometimes I'll look up images on Google Earth with the keyword "Washington" to illustrate an article on American politics. Maybe, at the same time, my wife looks up "grenade" (NDLR: also the French word for pomegranate) to read a recipe based on this exotic fruit, and my kid searches for "how to build a bomb" on YouTube (and forgets to add Minecraft).

Washington, grenade, how to build a bomb! I imagine an American border guard who gets a Google alert, and my next visit to America could end up at Guantanamo.

Google, in a likely psychological profiling, already thinks I'm a psycho with terrorist tendencies, who likes both quantum physics and Barbie, searches equally for pictures of both dolls and war machines, looks at the same Da Cliff clips for hours and downloads advanced marketing strategy PowerPoint presentations on Pinterest.

It's probably exaggerated for comedic purposes, but it still gets you thinking. What if...

A look at Meloetta + more Kyurem speculation

Since Meloetta got an announcement out of the blue last week, how about we take a look at what it can bring to your team? Meloetta, unfortunately, is a Pokémon that looks amazing on paper... until you look at the fine print. Indeed, the problem that will likely screw it over is the part where it will always revert to its Aria form whenever it switches out or at the end of the battle. As a result, if you want to use the Pirouette form at all, you'll have to sacrifice a moveslot for Relic Song, which performs the form change, and a turn to use it. EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU SWITCH IN. And both form's stat spreads are polar opposites, meaning that moves that are useful in one form are worthless in the other - much like Zen Mode Darmanitan, which no one ever uses because of that. Shame, because if you could stay in Pirouette form as long as you want (like how Shaymin can keep its Sky form)... well, I'd smell a suspect test. STABbed Close Combat off 128 attack and 128 speed? YES PLEASE.

So now that we've established that, how about the Aria form? Well, the direct competition comes from Jirachi, given the typing and ability. Problem is, Jirachi's typing is infinitely more useful, both offensively and defensively, it's much bulkier physically, and it has a crazy array of moves to abuse Serene Grace with. Meloetta... hits harder and is more specially defensive (arguable because of the typing, though). Serene Grace almost seems like nothing but a filler ability. Overall, it has a few interesting assets, but I have a hard time seeing it break into OU.

By the way, fun fact: Relic Song is the only move in the game that has a sleep chance as an added effect (20% when factoring in Serene Grace). This could potentially lead to all sorts of crazy hijinxs about the definition of the Sleep Clause. But I'm not too worried about it, because even if you wanted to use Relic Song for the damage and sleep chance, guess what? It also happens to be the move that triggers the form change, making it completely useless if you want to remain in Aria form (and you should)! So if for some reason you want a Normal move (which DOES get STAB to be fair), Hyper Voice is definitely your best shot.

On another subject, I've been thinking about what BW2 could do to help Kyurem become better. I know we're all looking forward to the alternate forms, their new stats and their new moves, but I've been wondering lately about the regular form itself. Remember when Shaymin-L, which used to be horrendous, obtained a few new moves only the Sky form could learn as hand-me-downs, as well as move tutors? It actually became OU for a little while. Could the same happen with Kyurem? Judging by the nature of the alternate forms, it's not impossible for them to get moves like Fusion Bolt or Fusion Flare, which regular Kyurem would enjoy very, very much. Maybe even Bolt Strike and Blue Flare? It's only wishful thinking at that point, but a guy can hope, right? It's almost certain that the alternate forms will get Cold Flare and Freeze Bolt, but these are Sky Attack clones, and unless the forms get a new ability that cancels charge-up turns they're not going to do a damn thing...

Big company CEO gets hate for being a big company CEO

Maybe you've heard about Blizzard laying off 600 employees, most of which work in WoW's customer service, maybe you haven't. The problem with Blizzard is the same as Nintendo, namely that people delude themselves into thinking they're in it for the fans, not for the money. What makes this especially weird is that people STILL think this when Blizzard is owned by real-life Scrooge McDuck Bobby Kotick. However, Blizzard still operates independently from Activision... but I digress.

Blizzard seems to have a lot of so-called "fans" who don't have the slightest idea about how private companies work: when employees are no longer needed, you can't keep them. And when Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime announced those layoffs... well, the crap hit the fan pretty quick. Accusations of greed and whatnot were all over the place, with total idiots claiming this was done just so Morhaime could keep his $17M annual pay (real number), and buy a 24-karat gold toilet for his mansion.

Newsflash: Blizzard is a private corporation, its primary goal is profit. With WoW's base dwindling quickly, of course they won't need nearly as many people for customer service, especially since the way I understand it (I wouldn't know, I don't play WoW) they improved the CS process to treat demands or something. And now there are calls for boycotts. ARE YOU SERIOUS? If you boycotted every company that laid off redundant employees, you'd be naked, you wouldn't be eating anything and you wouldn't have a home. Blizzard does what every private company does, and somehow the reactions are completely different. Look, just because it's very, VERY profitable doesn't force them to make unneeded expenses. Apparently big corporations are nonprofit organizations now. Either they don't have the slightest clue how the world works, or they're hypocrites blinded by a false reputation Blizzard has.

Don't get me wrong, it sucks for those who got fired, but not only did they get good severance packages, but just having Blizzard's name on their resume will ensure that they don't wait forever before finding a new job. I'm just staggered at the general reaction not mirroring mine.

Official Let's Play #17 announcement

As I promised in the Banjo-Kazooie finale, and after a few technical difficulties I had to sort out, I am now ready to reveal the Let's Play that will be done once S3&K is finished!