swifigamesblog-blog

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Online Stability Patch (1.02) for Tekken 7

What's up everyone, Swisher here with an update concerning Tekken 7 and the (1.02) patch that went live on Thursday sometime in the afternoon....this was an update primarily focused on improving the online section of the game and it's matchmaking stability.  If you've had difficulty finding those PvP matches in the online menu now is the time to download that update, get it installed and navigate your way into Online features.

-- There were also a few small inclusions that made it into the 1.02 patch and those include Voice Chat for the game which is now set to OFF by default, so if you're now having a difficult time hearing or speaking with your friends or opponents in the PvP section of the game you'll want to navigate your way to the Tekken 7's options menu, select Game Options, scroll down to Voice Chat and switch that to the ON position. -- You should also now notice that when you've been paired against an opponent and you see that players gamertag and connection rating that their selected character, Wins, Rank and Title are no longer visible to you........I imagine this change was to push certain players away from backing out of the match before it started if they felt they were at the disadvantage.

In addition to those two changes the Tekken team has also made an adjustment to Nina's 'Ivory Cutter', which some of you may have been aware that the move was exploitable against larger characters such as Panda & Kuma.....basically if you had Nina in a walled stage vs Panda or Kuma you could pin your opponent into a corner or against a wall and use her Ivory Cutter infinitely until you would win the round.........that has been fixed, so if you were exploiting that in-game you'll no longer be able to do so.....sorry Nina loyalists (smiley face).

Before the patch hit on Thursday the Tekken team stated that this patch would only be for the Playstation 4 user base and that the Xbox One patch would arrive later on in the week, but the team pulled out all the stops and pushed the Xbox One version of the patch very early AM on Friday, June 9th....which I can imagine will make a lot of Xbox One Tekken 7 fans very happy.  

Overall the patch seems to have improved the online matchmaking significantly, at least from my own experiences in the game for the past few hours.  I'm able to jump right into the Online menu, choose the game mode I wish to play in and after a brief period of time on the 'searching for players' warm-up screen you'll find yourself being joined with players searching for the same, only this time the success rate is much, much better and improved.  So get in there....warm up....and start getting your ranks up with your favorite character(s)!

I, myself am rather excited to see the patch hit so soon AND for both consoles to boot....so job well done by the Tekken team for recognizing the issue, addressing it, and fixing it in less than a week from the game's state-side release.  I look forward to seeing more great things from the Tekken crew in the future and certainly with the future of Tekken 7 in general.   I thank everybody for watching, please scroll down and crush that like button, consider subscribing for future content, as it is most certainly always a pleasure and I thank you sincerely.  But for right now that's going to do it.......this is Swisher for Swifigames, thanks for reading. :)

- Sw

[swifigamesblog-blog]

Bring on the Battlefield

What can be said about the DICE (Digital Illusion Computer Entertainment) developed, EA published title Battlefield 1?

An ample amount, that’s what.

Since it’s release in October of 2016 Battlefield 1 has been a staple in many households the world over and it only appears to be gaining an increase in popularity for the avid FPS enthusiast.  Whether you’re playing from the United States, Europe, Canada, Russia, Australia, Japan or a number of other countries the game has released in...with diligent community support, vital game updates, and genuinely listening to player feedback and actually using their customer base (us) for many of those update tweaks to improve upon the game mechanics and game as a whole, one thing is for certain...

DICE appreciates you, the gamer, just about as much if not more than you love and appreciate DICE and their titan-title FPS Battlefield 1.  And let’s face it, without users, where would the game be?  It’s nice to see gamer’s appreciated in such ways.

I picked up an Early Enlister Delux Edition copy of Battlefield 1 upon release in October, which was my very first Battlefield title release.  And even though it had it’s hiccups in the beginning (It took two day’s to gain access to my Early Enlister rewards, for example) it’s only gotten better for the long term.

I’m currently typing all of this praise towards the Battlefield 1 experience and want to give credit where it’s due.  Every game these day’s appears to have it’s bumps in the road after release and apparently DICE’s BF1 was no exception, considering what happened with my in-game items and perhaps a couple other technical issues I experienced within the game shortly after launch.  But one thing that I’ve seen from this developer that I’ve rarely seen elsewhere in gaming is in it’s community involvement, support, and appreciation.

I applaud DICE’s continued support for, involvement in, and commend them in their appreciation of us, the customer and gamer base as a whole from the start.  I stand in praise of DICE and what they do for us, as individual gamer’s, and for the entire Battlefield community as a whole.  Their business model is, at least on the outside perspective of things, absolute in one fundamental respect...you, the gamer.

There just isn’t enough time in my day to extend an appropriate amount of thank you’s for what they do for me and you as Battlefield 1 player’s.  Whether you’re part of the CTE (Community Test Environment), an avid voice of opinion(s) on the Battlefield forums, or a tweet loving enthusiast and Battlefield supporter on Twitter, their dedication to their fan base is astounding to say the least.

They value your opinion and idea’s just about as much as their own, if not more.  This isn’t something you see every day in the video game world in my opinion and it’s fantastic!  And it only means great things for our collective Battlefield future’s.  To know and see that there is such a vast amount of work being put into a game post release and not just on the advertising and sales end of the spectrum from the start is impressive to see as a life long gamer and lover of online multiplayer combat in the FPS scene.  I’ve typically only seen such player support coming out of MMO’s to be completely honest.  But that’s touching on another aspect of Battlefield’s approach to online FPS gaming all together...let’s look at that for a moment.

What does the Battlefield experience bring to FPS fans?  Where is Battlefield going from here?

The Battlefield is vast with complexity and options in many respects, whether you’re a Medic (healer), Assault (DPS), Support (tank), or Scout (archer) an MMO aspect of the game appears in place, at least to a small degree, bringing a cooperative, teamwork emphasizing aspect to their Battlefield titles.  To be completely honest with myself here, it’s practically an online FPS MMO...or at least appears to be (at least to me anyway) and seems to attempt melding these two genre’s into a single unified gaming experience and perhaps that’s not too far fetched?  The only thing I think we’re missing are mages...oh wait, that’s the cavalry, planes, tanks, and behemoth’s...those magic son’s a...

I’ve seen other developers take part in their communities in the past and I’m not saying DICE are the only one’s to do so by any means, but let’s take a look at what we have so far.

• Friday Night Battlefield (A weekly community event).  Log in every Friday at 9pm UTC or 2pm PDT on PS4 or Xbox ONE for a chance to play with DICE developers using the search feature and entering #FridayNightBattlefield or just look for the dedicated server with that hashtag from the main browser menu.  I’m certain this is also available on PC, though I do not have any information pertaining to times, etc. (perhaps they are the same?)  Good luck to you and happy dog tag hunting! Here you can earn a chance to obtain rare dog tags by sneaking up on DICE team members and pick up that shiny new tag after sliding your knife, or kukri, or any number of melee weaponry of your choosing into a developer to pick up some of those rarer finds in the Battlefield experience.  Very neat opportunity and a must for completionists.  Two thumbs up!!

You’ll also pick up a sweet unique Battlefield 1 dog tag (pictured above) with the #FridayNightBattlefield hashtag encompassing the upper portion of the tag and a pretty sweet crescent moon with a soldier perched upon it’s inner ledge looking outward into the distance with gun drawn as well should you simply find a match with developers in it.  Still don’t have this one myself, but it’s nice that I can be on the lookout for it...now where are those employees -_-

• CTE - (Community Test Environment) - Want to take part in helping on the creative end of the game? Want to get your hands on sneak peaks, unreleased content (some of which may never even see the light of day) before it’s released to servers for actual game play and provide your own feedback on such new content before it’s release?  Head on over to:  https://www.battlefield.com/news/article/join-community-test-environment-battlefield-1 for more information on the CTE and information on how to join.  CTE should be hitting consoles in the very near future, although I don’t have specifics on exact details, rumors abroad point to ‘very soon’.  We could see CTE hit consoles in the Spring Update for Battlefield 1 although it is possible that we would need to wait for the May patch as well but we’ll just have to wait and see.

DICE developers value, rather highly I might add, the gamer perspective and input on it’s game(s), which is quite honestly one of the smartest business moves they can utilize to their benefit and ours too (did I mention this already?).  Because without us, the gamer’s, they’d be finding other things to do than working on Battlefield 1 and putting it out for all of us to enjoy.  Without them we’d very possibly be wondering where we could get a game like this from, this is a symbiotic relationship and it’s nice to see it’s valued across the board here.

  Let me be honest, I enjoy this game immensely!!  Sure it has it’s ups and it’s downs just like any other game can, whether it’s plane’s being too powerful or anti-air turrets being too weak (both of which are being tweaked in the Spring Update), grenade spam being too rampant, a map not being evenly balanced (Suez for example) which they’ve gone in and added extra capture points to in Conquest (there’s that community support!) but for what it is and will be in the future, it’s nearly perfect in so many ways.  I would not hesitate to give this game a solid 5 out of 5 stars, or a 9.0/9.5 on a 10 scale.  There is surely much more to come, much work and tweaking to constantly be brought into effect to make the experience that much better as a whole, but honestly for what it is right now it is a superb and wonderful online multiplayer title and it’s only going to get better.  

I can’t say I won’t get all those hours of my life back at the end of the day, but memories are made, objectives completed, dynamite triggered, tags taken...you get the idea.  Picking up a Lebel sniper and playing WWI themed trench warfare has never been more exciting of an experience for me personally and I know there are tons more just like myself with the same opinion regardless of what loadout you choose to run with.  The player base is huge and only getting larger and after my very first Battlefield launch with Battlefield 1 it is safe to say I’ll be looking very forward to more Battlefield content from DICE in the future.

Play the objective, run some death-match, plant some rush sites...whether in a tank, a plane, a motorcycle or cavalry unit...get in there and start having some fun of your own!  If you’ve been on the fence about this title hesitate no more.  This is worth the money! and fun! that comes along with it.

Special thanks to DICE for allowing me to play this wonderful title.  It’s been one heck of a ride so far, Battlefront II trailer just dropped yesterday (April 15, 2017) and looks to bring more depth and customization to the Battlefront experience, a new map (Neville Nights) is also coming soon for Battlefield 1 players as well (June to be exact) along with so much more.

I think we have a lot to look forward to in the near future from this developer and it should be quality entertainment at it’s finest to say the least.  I’m happy to share my views and opinions here with the world of gaming.  I think DICE works very hard at what they do and it shows in Battlefield 1.

If you love Battlefield 1, don’t forget to check out my Battlefield 1 playlist on my Youtube channel, you can follow this link right here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBnTi7ndUJ25m4U5JBMorbgZ25fzRf11A

Feel free to leave a comment on the videos or leave some feedback, I always appreciate it.  Or keep up to date on my Battlefield 1 videos from my Twitter @ https://twitter.com/Swifigames.  I try to keep everyone updated on new additions in content.

Thanks for reading!  Have fun, stay safe, and Bring on the Battlefield!!

-- by Bradley Swisher for Swifigames -- 

[ Sw ] -- 16th April, 2017

[swifigamesblog-blog]

- Comcast “Customer Service” -

Wow...just wow @Comcast. They offered me a 29.99/mo. rate for internet. Said if I provided my own equipment that would be reduced to 19.99 (10 off), which I did and it's 19.99/mo. now. I inquired about the convenience fee of 4.99 or 5.99 and was told it was for those wishing to have a CSR process my bill pmnt, which would be non-issue if I signed up for Eco Bill & Auto Pay. I was told multiple times that I could reduce the 19.99 an additional 5.00 as well, which would drop the 19.99 to 14.99 by signing up for Eco Bill & Auto Pay and I confirmed that at least 2 times with different agents. I called to process my first payment that way and planned on signing up for the Eco Bill & Auto Pay after my initial bill. So after installation fee of 60 and my monthly payment of 19.99 my bill was 79.99, I paid this fee.  Initially I was told that the 60 install fee would be taken from my 100 deposit, then I was told by another agent that it would not come out of the 100 deposit.

So much misdirection led me to take this one bill at a time, one step at a time. So now that my first bill is out of the way, I start Eco Bill & Auto Pay, which another agent was now telling me wasn't going to bring me down to 14.99 but to 19.99. When I asked how that's possible, the agent told me that my current monthly charge for internet was 24.99 and that signing up for Eco Bill & Auto Pay would drop me from 24.99 to 19.99 and that's the rate I get for signing up for Eco Bill & Auto Pay, I said that's ridiculous and I was told numerous times differently and not only that, but my rate was locked in at 19.99/mo. not 24.99/mo.  So I asked how did my bill go up from 19.99/mo. to 24.99/mo.  The agent told me that's not going to happen now (as I'm obviously irritated at their billing).  So I asked once again, "So if I sign up for Eco Bill & Auto Pay, my bill is going to be reduced from 19.99 to 14.99/mo. and the agent told me yes.

I logged into my Xfinity account online and my banking account on another tab.  I see that the 79.99 payment was deducted from my bank account, so then I go to see my next bill for my next bill price information, the total amount due is still listing at 19.99, not 14.99.  I told myself I'll call them again the next day and speak with an agent to sort it out and have the 14.99/mo. rate reflected on my account online.  What's strange is that the next day I decided to go verify the next monthly charge of 19.99 was either still there or enough time had passed and it was reflecting 14.99 (I gave Comcast the benefit of the doubt here and thought maybe the reflection would take a bit of time to process online).  However, not only did my bill statement not say 14.99, it didn't even stay at 19.99, my bill went up to 20.98 in the span of one day. So now I'm sitting here asking how it's possible for my bill to go up 1.00 since my install & first mo/bill payment, which had already been calculated online.  I verified with my own eye's that it said my next bill due was 19.99, not 20.98, so how did my bill go up 1.00??

Not only is that a headache, but when I call into Xfinity's customer service to speak with an agent, the automated voice message system they utilize told me two times during my attempted call in's that my payment of 74.99 was successful.  Why doesn’t it say 79.99?

• Why was I told my 60 install fee was going to come out of my 100 deposit initially, then told it wouldn't?

• How does my bill not drop the 5.00 down to 14.99 after signing up for Eco Bill & Auto Pay?

• How does my bill go up from 19.99 to 20.98? Where did the additional 1.00 come from and what's it for? (This will prove to be cute further down the page).

• How does my monthly set rate plan of 19.99 go up to 24.99? Isn’t that illegal?

• Why is the automated system Comcast employ's telling me my payment of 74.99 was successful when my bank account say's they took the 79.99 out for the first bill? What happened to the 5.00?

Also: The way Comcast summarizes their bills is incredible.  They group Credits together with Other Charges which are both listed under the 'New Charges Summary'.  So how does it work that the total amount due underneath New Charges Summary includes my 100 deposit?  Are they trying to get an additional 100 from my pocket even though I already gave them that 100 deposit?  Comcast is conducting bad service in ways that are unprecedented.  I used to imagine when hearing that Comcast Customer Service was terrible, people typically meant the employee's were jerks, but apparently I was wrong, they lie to you, they mislead you, they say something and allow you to take it as good business trust and then turn around and break it in half because nothing they said was obviously true or worth a single penny.

Also:  The person who referred me to Comcast also got screwed out of their 'refer a friend' program and they aren't getting their gift card as well which is screwed up, they SHOULD be paying people for referrals as much as they probably screwed them over

Also:  The 10Mbps download isn't 10Mbps, it's more like 4 or 5 Mbps tops, which I thought may be due to a cap I hit during my first month, but after paying my first bill it's still only 4 or 5 Mbps tops.  

I've seen bad business before but Comcast takes the proverbial cake. I am literally appalled and shocked that they are able to conduct their business this way and treat the customers they swore they wanted to help with lies and misleading information as well. There really are no words to express how frustrating this entire experience has been for me already and guess what? I'm only just going into my second month with the service I agreed to for 12 months. 

Comcast is already making me sick to my stomach...buyer beware.

I tried calling Comcast to inquire about the 19.99/14.99 reflection online. So let’s go over what the most recent agent said as we spoke over the phone.

The current plan that I have is at 24.99/mo. which is not 19.99 as I was told numerous times if I supplied my own equipment, which would also mean that the 29.99 starting price wouldn’t be 29.99 as advertised, it would of had to have been 34.99 if you take into consideration the additional 10 off for my own equipment.  So that was an obvious and blatant lie on Comcast’s part to me the customer, so they’re lying in advertising about the 29.99 now? Seriously? 

I’m screwed now as my bills are only brought down to 19.99 AFTER signing up for Auto Pay & Eco Bill....basically what this means is that I was lied to by at least two other representative’s of Comcast.  Mislead your customers much?

So I inquire about the 1.00 and how the bill went up from 19.99 to 20.98 (This was a mistake to bring up).  The lady’s response was that 5 convenience fee was tacked on due to processing my first payment over the phone (which I expected).  So not only was my bill online reflecting the 14.99 new price for signing up for Auto Pay & Eco Bill thus showing a 20.98 balance, the lady now say’s over the phone that my new total is 26.97, not 20.98, bringing my 14.99 monthly price BACK up to the 19.99 per month.  This is literal bullshit at this point.

I very politely said that I’m a pretty laid back individual and I can deal with a lot but that I didn’t want to be or won’t care for being mislead by representatives of Comcast and that I hope we can prevent this in the future, she assured me that everything would be alright and that she understands.  So while voicing that I don’t want to be mislead as a customer, I was at that very moment being mislead by this very same lady who was reassuring me that she understood.

So not only is Comcast OK with misleading their customers, they are very eager and even willing to mislead you while giving you the proverbial ‘bird’ as they are telling you they understand.

My oh my...my oh my...just wow, really.

So now that my price was back up to 19.99 from 14.99 :D and my new balance due would be 26.97, I ask what all my other months bills will be after paying the 26.97 for March, this polite lady tells me every single bill after that will be 19.99 per month.  We’ll see Comcast...maybe I can take your word for it and maybe I can’t.  Guess I’ll just have to wait and see.  

Every time I’ve called after the installation date to learn about the service I’m being provided I’ve been bent over and at the same time reassured everything’s going to work out.

Comcast or at least the ‘agents’ they employ to conduct business and field any questions you may have are crooked liars and they will mislead you the consumer, every...single...step of the way.

To a point they are correct.  It will all work out, just don’t push them for information about your bill or try to be smart to their billing setup, they don’t like that apparently and it’s reflected above when my 14.99 adjustment went back up to 19.99 because I was just trying to get information about my service.  For shame.  How can they operate this way?  Oh yeah...what other choices do you have?

[swifigamesblog-blog]

FPS Reflex

First Person Shooters (FPS) games - There are two directions we could go.

FPS Campaign’s - Depending on the difficulty you choose it really shouldn’t be too difficult an experience to get through. The only other issue here would be if you are susceptible to motion sickness or similar. If that is the case I would either suggest giving it some time and try to adjust (perhaps similar to adjusting to a new television) or just don’t play them.

FPS Multiplayer Online - Perception - Awareness - Quick Reflexes - Fast Problem Solving -

Whatever you can do to increase the above skills in your person will be beneficial to becoming better in FPS Online Multi’s - We could compare also the similarities between pilot’s and gamer’s. A pilot’s skills will not only depend on how accurately and efficiently they complete the training requirements, they will also be heavily affected by time ‘in the air’. Similarly, a gamer’s skill in the FPS arena will not only depend heavily on their skills of Perception, Awareness, Quick Reflexes & Thinking, but also on how much time they’ve spent in that game’s world, how much have their brains been able to memorize it’s design and structure compared to yours? Even if you neutralize the skills playing field, if you give one player an hour of play time and the other zero, the player with the hour of playtime should typically win a VS. Though I imagine that would not always be the case…particularly for a fast learner.

This is why a vast majority of gamer’s who try entering into the Online FPS Arena get Pwnd.

Sw

[swifigamesblog-blog]

Making Time

Between actual life and playing games, it’s difficult measuring segments of time into working projects.  I have a lot of writing about games that needs to get done.  I’ve spent a lot of time building up to the moment I am currently at and now that I am here it’s going to take a bit more time to make the snow ball even larger.  I’ve been spending a good amount of time in game lately, having fun and building new stories to tell.

As I’ve started this journey I’ve allowed it to start as a hobby, so there is no need for added pressure on myself to make sure this is receiving it’s fair due.  This is just a hobby of mine and I’ll write my stories when I feel I have built a nice new short game history to delve back into.  I may revisit older games I have played in the past with a story here or there.  Certainly won’t forget to be mentioning Vagrant Story at any time and whenever possible :D

Vagrant Story is my unicorn. It may be your unicorn as well, but it is most certainly mine.  I love the game, it’s characters, it’s story, art design, direction, depth, the challenge and much more.  Composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto, the VS:OST is a perfect fit into the nature of the game.  I highly recommend finding a way to play this game. It’s available on the Playstation Store for purchase probably rather cheap in price.

I’d love to make a full article on my Vagrant Story experience, Battlefield 1, Final Fantasy XV is in less than a week away, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Tekken 7 and many more on the way in the coming months.  I’ve just gotten setup and these are what’s coming my way? I’m sure I’ll plenty of gaming to do and plenty of stories to tell soon enough.

For now, thanks for your time and I wish you all a fantastic weekend of enjoying life and gaming wherever you may be.

Sw ............................................

[swifigamesblog-blog]

A Roll of the DICE

Many great things can happen in the gaming community and sometimes they are just GREAT!  Take developer DICE, for example…Activision support, huge fan base, big pockets?  

Back in May of this year DICE revealed their teaser footage for the soon to be released Battlefield 1 and showcased their vision for the road ahead.  Somewhere during this vision an employee at Activision or DICE (I haven’t found an answer) decided that it would be a good idea to start giving their dedicated fans the games DLC map packs that were released after the initial release of BF4.  This wasn’t a good idea…it was GREAT!  Whether or not execs were iffy/on the fence with this or not is irrelevant in the end, they’ve stuck their current fans with an uptick of fresh online players for sorting out, invited a great number of taste testers to stick around and enjoy some freebies and perhaps just perhaps pulling in brand new customers along the way.

I am one of those customers. My name is Mr. Swisher and I am a very pleased gamer, now let me tell you why.  Already did, mostly…

DICE has just gained my sincerest respect and I will show them my appreciation for their fan support by picking up my very first Battlefield™ game.  That is when #Battlefield1 releases :D. Until then…you might find me in a Firestorm, might stop and check out the view at Guilin Peaks….finish the night up with a little R&R at the Lost Islands.  Don’t know, not sure if we’ll have enough time! ~ p.s. I named my tank Frank, it’s the Frankentank…what!? You shut yer’ face, there’s no such thing as too punny!!

Game releases: October 21

[swifigamesblog-blog]

Free to Play?

With games being as popular as ever, it comes as no shock that the majority of households in the United States play them. With so many people playing and spending their hard earned cash on games they have to have, it should also not be surprising that many of these gamer’s want to play their favorite games AND save money. And that’s where keywords come into play. With exciting headlines like “free to play”, everyone is sure to get very excited, right? But when it comes to such enticing things as per usual, if it’s too good to be true, theN it probably is. With gamer’s in the majority of homes across the world one might tend to get weak in the knees when they hear words like play and free. But just because something is advertised at free doesn’t necessarily mean it’s free.

Take Microsoft’s Warface for example. The FPS military game that get’s you all hyped advertising it’s free to play by default. But when you really analyze what’s going on and calculate that there will surely be DLC to purchase to be the best or contend with the best, the “to good to be true” part starts to sink in.

How can a game be free to play after all? When reality has settled in and you start to come to your senses, you realize that after dropping a nice chunk of your hard earned cash on a brand console, any peripherals you may desire, and a subscription to paid services such as Xbox Live, there is no such thing as free to play. The idea is nice to think about and has the potential to get people talking. But in the end, when a game that advertises being free to play and at the same time requires subscriptions to a consoles online network you realize it’s just a marketing campaign. Having a 12 month subscription to Xbox Live is right around the price of a fully priced hard copy. Which, when you think about the things purchasing that subscription allows you to do isn’t all too bad for the dedicated gamer is it? I think it’s a relatively tolerable price for playing your favorite games online with your friends or family. Whether you’re in a frag-fest shooter, a world creating wonder, or a cooperative campaign I find it to be a very reasonable price personally.

But the fact that you have spent money on that very console and it’s online support and then toss in the fact that that game requires* a gold subscription, you have already paid for the game. Now it just comes down to profit and loss for companies like Microsoft or Sony. What did they have to lose? What did they have to gain? With the gaming industry having become such a giant in the world market it’s not all just about making games anymore. It’s about seeing what works, what doesn’t, and how to maximize profits by implementing new ideas and strategies to capitalize on investments. The games industry is here to stay as a very firm customer base has been established and through many ways has been solidified enough to get company’s taking smart risks. Which is why we are starting to see these company’s take these catchy phrases like “free to play” and plaster them all over the place. They only have more to gain by trying new things and any losses will simply be staved off by ever increasing console sales, paid services, peripherals, etc.

It really doesn’t hurt the company overall to risk taking a small calculated loss at the chance to reap huge rewards for a successful project. It’s happening more and more in the industry and unless something very big comes along and wrecks that ideology, there is nothing to stop it from happening. It’s nothing more than smart business if you look at it from a business perspective. Is it right? Is it wrong? That is for you as a gamer to decide. To decide if you agree with it or do not and make your purchases accordingly. Even then, considering most things favor the majority that may not be enough. All we can do is choose what we want to play and how we want to play it. Micro-transactions and DLC content are probably here to stay, the avalanche has already been set off….you’re either on top for the ride and learn from it or get buried in it’s wake screaming the rest of the way. You cannot stop an avalanche. At least not yet. Maybe we lose this round but it’s never really game over is it? Just stay positive, enjoy your game, play what you love, keep an eye on your budget and enjoy life.

- Bradley Swisher

[swifigamesblog-blog]

Fantastic Original Soundtracks

Yasunori Mitsuda’s Chrono Cross OST

One of the best video game OST’s I have ever experienced in my entire gaming history. Simply beautiful and seemingly perfect in every way. It touches on my heartstrings and provides countless therapeutic results whenever I am in need. Yasunori Mitsuda really raised the bar in the OST category for me personally and will always have my respect for what he brought to the table in a video game soundtrack.

They are all fantastic tracks, though there are two that absolutely stun mysenses: On the Beach of Dreams - Another World & Termina - Another World

[swifigamesblog-blog]

Death Stranding

Hideo Kojima & Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding looks very interesting to say the least. Whatever happened between him and Konami is in the past where it should remain regardless of which side you were on.  Kojima is one of the best in the business as far as I am concerned and if he’s putting out a new game I want to be there for it, period. Can’t wait to get more info on Death Stranding…