Snake No Longer Solid: Kojima, Konami Part Ways

I'm Going
 

A cryptic tweet and some rumblings from the business side of things later and it looks as if Hideo Kojima/Kojima Productions and Konami are breaking up at least in terms of the Metal Gear Solid franchise. Gamers and industry folk are all going “!” at this news as they speculate on the reasons for the rift turned split. I’ll save the guesswork for deciphering the facts to come later on, but Konami is pushing forward in that way big corporations that own assorted IP tend to do. They’ve removed Kojima’s name from the marketing materials for Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and is currently looking for a team to help create a new Metal Gear Solid series. As lousy as that news is to many core MGS fans, you’d best believe applicants will be jockeying for the opportunity of a lifetime… Continue reading

Eh, You May As Well FAKE Scare Yourself to Death This Weekend…

(Thanks, Sleaze-O-Rama!)
 

Let’s see now… this week, no, most of the last few months have been absolutely annoying and in you sit in front of the TV news for more than five minutes, terrifying. Woo hoo. Anyway, not that ignorance is bliss or anything, but sometimes it’s just good to drop everything and chill (your spine) out with something fake, stupid and scary to counteract something real, stupid and scary. Or you can go serious and scary – it’s your move. I’m probably going to watch ALIEN again at some point just to prepare for Alien Isolation on Tuesday. I was thinking about watching more disease-related stuff like Outbreak, Contagion, The Andromeda Strain, Scream and Scream Again or Coma, but a friend’s mother just went through some surgery today and I didn’t want my choice to see out of place for any reason.

Well, fake panic is always a good diversion, right? Sooooo… PANIC!

(Thanks, Horror Theater Video!)
 

There’s also some stupid ongoing game industry nonsense kicked up by fools for no other reason than a weird political agenda that’s seeped into things and has boiled over into weirdness and ugly stuff, but I’ve only wasted about a half hour of my life reading up on the basics and it’s pretty much garbage and fake outrage that’s gone way overboard because of a select, vocal class of internet idiot. Blech, and make mine a double, bartender. Anyway, go catch something primal scary or extremely silly this weekend, say away from the news (or internet if need be) and just ENJOY the hell out of this weekend, folks.

Welp, VR Just Went Viral. Literally. Yuk.

RiftPeople, I’m speechless. THIS just happened and while some in the tech sector are giddy, anyone who had any thoughts about privacy using that Rift when it comes out has just gotten a “poke” to both eyes. Blech, Yuck, Argh and so forth and so on. Not to mention that people who will buy that thing and not clean it because they’re dopey about stuff like this will end up giving everyone in their homes and elsewhere some sort of eye infection or worse. Ewwww…

Now, I’m not a big VR supporter (I still recall when it was attempted with mixed results in the 90’s), but I was willing to give it a chance based on all the people I know who’ve tried both development versions of the Oculus Rift hardware. Now, I’d not touch the thing with a ten foot pole unless I was using said pole to bash those goofy goggles to bits with. Data mining through your entertainment isn’t new at all, but facebook getting it’s money gloves into EVERYTHING is getting to be extremely annoying. Let me shut up here and vent with some ice cream for a bit. Man, what a day… between this and Fed Ex jerking me around with a package they keep failing to deliver (I’m HOME you idiots!), I’m not having a good day today. Blaaaaah.

Comcast/Time Warner Round Two: Let’s Get Stupid…

 
So far, no one but business news folks and analysts like this Comcast.TWC “deal” and I’m still ticked off by it to post something that’s not going to be laced with profanity. So, I’ll letting the famous and fast Taiwanese Animators (formerly or perhaps still known as NWA World Edition) have at it with a hilarious take on this stupid and historical kick in the behind a few too many millions are going to be negatively affected by. Yeah, this is going to be nothing but bad news for anyone but investors looking to make some bucks and some executives who will be rolling in more loot from irate consumers who currently use either service and get stuck with whatever fee increases come from this merger. Mark my words, folks…

Comcast Buys Time Warner Cable: Here’s All You Need To Know As a Consumer…

 
Words fail me on this EXTREMELY crappy 45 billion dollar “deal” for any current consumer of pay TV out there who uses either service, so I’ll let assorted clips from The Empire Strikes Back do the talking (Thanks to ABiggerQuote for the clips!):

And so forth and so on. If you REALLY want to know how I feel, Robot Chicken spells it out even more (we’re screwed, folks):

(Thanks, adultswim!) 
Yeah… sometimes all you can do is nothing but laugh at how we’re jerked around by these way too large corporations…

SOE Cuts 200+ Jobs, Kills The Agency -THQ Drops Staff At Kaos, Volition Studios

It's been a capital “L” Lousy week for the industry in a pretty rocky few years that have seen quite a few layoffs, studio closures and newer, smaller studios formed after such shakeups. But the cost is certainly getting higher. Sony Online Entertainment has let go 205 employees and shot down the PS3/PC massively multiplayer online shooter/action game, The Agency, which had been in development for a few years. This news in particular irks me because I remember seeing and playing a very early demo build about two or three years back and thinking the team was onto something really unique. I recall asking if the team planned to do the game as single player with straight co-op modes and no MMO functionality in case things went south during the rest of long dev cycle, but everyone seemed to believe the game would find an audience based on the spy theme and solid Unreal 3-powered visuals… Now we'll never know.Read more »