Hello everyone! Spencer and I have decided to start doing podcasts! We recorded two podcasts and decided to only post the second one since out first one was pretty bland.
A few quick notes however, the quality is not going to be very good for a while because we don't have access to any good microphone equipment. We will also be launching a new way for fans to support us directly instead of us depending on annoying advertisements for any sort of financial support (more on that in the future).
So without further ado here is a link to our first episode!
About a month ago, Matt, the co-writer for this blog, posted his thoughts on why Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the worst game ever. And while it's not a perfect game, OOT shows many great gameplay elements as well as a riveting story. In this post, I'll analyze the game and show why OOT still stands up as a good game even years after its release.
However, let's start off with what OOT does wrong. The camera isn't the best in the world, I'll admit. During combat, even if you Z-target, the camera sometimes points towards walls and floors. The only way to adjust this camera is by centering it behind you, which isn't always optimal in some cases. Moreover, the combat in OOT is lacking in several ways. Many enemies either consist of consistently slashing them over and over, or waiting for several seconds until they are vulnerable over and over. Stalfos, Wolfos, the Gerudo thieves, and the Iron Knuckles are prime examples of this linearity of combat.
Even though this fight goes fast, it demonstrates the poor fighting mechanics.
There are also a couple of things that OOT does that are not good or bad. The game doesn't really tell you the specifics on where to go. Although Navi and Saria are available for you to ask for help, their messages are not really useful. However, if a younger me could get through the game with no problem, maybe it really isn't a problem. Also, the inventory system is a bit clunky, but that can be attributed to the console that it was played on. Lastly, the game not saving your exact location when you restart the game is a minor issue, but this issue can also be attributed to the power of the N64. These minor issues don't really affect the quality of the game.
Everybody knows the terror of putting the iron boots on and off.
But OOT really shines in other places. The story of this game is great and keeps me addicted to the game no matter how many times I play it. At the end of the game, you feel that the long, hard journey that you traveled was well worth it. Furthermore, the music is fantastic. Who doesn't fondly remember the Gerudo's Valley music or the Lon Lon Ranch music? When you're not blindly swinging at enemies, combat feels amazing. With Z-targeting, one on one combat feels fast and exciting. The game's dungeons are difficult, but not too difficult. Even the water temple is not extremely difficult, even though most of the community says that it is. Moreover, there are plenty of things to do even if you're not progressing the main story. From the bombchu alley, to getting all of the pieces of hearts, to fishing, there's always something to do in the game.
While OOT does have it's share of flaws, it's not "the worst game ever" as my co-writer would say. It's actually pretty good. If you have the time, you should definitely take a look at one of gaming's finest classic. Trust me, you're in for a good time.
Don't like what I said? Like what I said? Please, leave a comment in the section below. Also, if you want to see someone bad at OOT, take a look at the video shown below for our series on OOT.
So my Co-Editor and myself haven't been posting to the blog for a few reasons.
1. School has started for our senior years which means that we are both busy with class work and also other activities outside of school
2. We have begun to analyze what kind of content we want to make and will be revising our content strategy soon
So, apologies to those who may have been reading every article we have posted (maybe the one person). We will post here again when we decide on what kind of content we want to make and how you can consume that content.
For the time being feel free to re-read one of our posts below, or just go somewhere else online that will have newer content.
For the past few nights after getting back to school with my friends I have been playing Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a game released on the N64 in 1998. After playing about 4 hours worth of game time and only making it to the first adult Link temple I have reached a conclusion about the game. For those who don't actively play video games, the change in controls, graphics, and story lines between 1998 and now has been immense. These three changes were drastic from playing the remastered version of Halo CE to playing OOT. Ocarina of Time is a game designed so badly that it is near impossible for a casual gamer such as myself to even come close to ever understanding the controls for the game.
The video clip above is a recording of me attempting to play the game during my second sit down.
The first flaw in the game's design is with the controls, although this is more the fault of the N64 than it is of the game developers. For some reason Nintendo figured that a controller for a game system should look like this:
That's right, a controller with three hand grips, a misplaced joystick, and a poorly implemented secondary D-pad/button arrangement for the C stick. I don't know how any console developer expected players to use these controls for supposedly next generation (at the time 3-dimensional games were all the rage) games such as Super Mario 64 and OOT. The game design stems from the poorly designed controller to affect the overall button system for the game, having to use the C buttons to equip weapons is simply too difficult compared to relatively modern weapon switching mechanics present in games such as Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and GTA V.
The next huge pain that presents itself in OOT is the camera system, which also happens to plague other games also released on the N64 around the same time. The camera most of the time will follow the player forcing the user to control Link while watching his actions at completely odd angles. There is a fix for the system that requires the player to repeatedly press the Z button to re-focus the camera behind the player. There are however other bugs present in this camera system including the targeting system, and also when entering certain parts of the maps where the camera is static and simply pans to wherever the player is located. The final gripe that I have for this game is the lack of concrete storyline for the player to follow, this would be understandable if OOT were a completely open world game. However, since the game play revolves around the plot too closely there is no excuse for not providing in depth side-quest information for the player. Ultimately the only reason I will end up finishing this game is to laugh about these flaws and make jokes along the way with my friends. if you are considering picking up this game and trying to play it I highly suggest that you step back and look into a more modern game that has at least better controls and graphics. As always feel free to sound off in the comments with your opinions, and make sure to follow us on Twitter @SageDiscussions and like our page on Facebook.
Social media is currently broken, and most people don't even notice. Thats right those 5 or more social apps on your phone, tablet, computer etc. are serving a completely different use from what they were intended to do when being developed.
A quick intro about the current flaws of social media, and why Beme was created.
Social media apps mostly share the same goal, to allow people to share their perspective of the world/their day with others. However with the recent launch of the app Beme launched by popular video maker Casey Neistat showcased the exact problem with social networks, that most apps have become a way for people to stylize their life or to filter what they show to other people. Social media is no longer about sharing your true life it has become a way to share a filtered view of yourself. The problem, highlighted in the Beme video above extends to Beme itself. The fact that the app has to be opened and has to be activated in some fashion automatically means that the content shared will be picked and chosen by the individual. This is a vital flaw of most social media apps.
No matter what app you use to share your life with others, you will be sharing a filtered version of yourself, these problems don't lie in the intent behind the app but rather the designs of the applications.
Apps are designed to work certain ways, mostly for ease of use, which is why apps like Snapchat, Beme, Instagram, Facebook and others don't share every single little part of your life, every one of these apps allows you the user to choose whether or not to share that moment. These design choices become accepted by the public and then become simply part of the status quo. People use apps like Snapchat because to them it seems like the current best method to share photos and videos that will disappear after a select amount of time. More and more companies will arrive to the social media market, claiming to fix the issues of all the previous applications in the same space, and most of the time these apps will fall to the same issues that all their predecessors have encountered. A word of advice when developing a social media application, don't claim that it is going to completely change the way people will share their lives. As always feel free to sound off in the comments if you think these problems don't matter or don't actuall exist, or if you think that there is some interesting insight in the post you agree with. Also make sure to check us out on Twitter @SageDiscussions and on Facebook Sage Discussions.
With the upcoming release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain just around the corner, a huge outcry has been heard throughout the gaming community about micro-transactions in full retail games. Many people are bashing these games, saying that micro-transactions make the game "pay to win" and that the content should be able to be acquired easier in game. I'd like to take a while to show why micro-transactions are toxic to gamers and the games that they are present in.
One major reason is that micro-transactions make games unbalanced in multiplayer. Let's take the fine example of Mass Effect 3's multiplayer. Even though I liked the game, micro-transactions allow people to quickly and easily get extra and powerful gear. Although you can get this gear without paying the money, it's much harder and time consuming to do so. Getting this gear allowed those players to generate in-game currency faster, and take the currency from the people who didn't pay.
Another major reason is that adding micro-transactions make gamers feel inferior when they play. Let's say you are in a game, trying to get a shiny set of rare armor. Let's also say that you could pay to get said armor with micro-transactions. Naturally, you would feel bad when you see someone in that armor that truly didn't earn it. Furthermore, some strong items take hours and hours of grinding to get. Or you could play a couple of dollars to get it immediately. And if this weapon is strong and is available in multiplayer, it could cause a unbalance in gameplay that is undeserved.
In the end, micro-transactions in full, retail games are unacceptable. Games should not have shortcuts to get items built into it. They are just a weak attempt for companies to get your money. And you know what? It works. People use their money to get in-game cash because they feel like its a sound decision. The only sound way to get micro-transactions out of our games is to stop buying them, but that doesn't seem like that's going to happen any time soon.
Sorry for the delayed and rushed post today, school just started and I'm still trying to get my bearings. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below!
The American Ultimate Disc League just got off of another season of expansion, expanding into a Southern division adding teams from Atlanta, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Nashville, Raleigh and adding a few other teams to their existing divisions. This rapid expansion for such a young sports league might signal either the league has been making a lot of money from existing teams or that the league is willing to take a hit financially to get into markets that can provide returns in the coming years. However besides the rapid expansion there are two other flaws with the league that might force the AUDL to ultimately collapse. The first problem with the AUDL is that there is no centralized marketing for all teams we will dive into this a bit deeper below about what this really is and what it will mean for the league. The second problem is the lack of prominent game footage for fans to watch this is a slightly smaller problem that many people tend to gloss over but is a vital part of making a sport go mainstream in this day and age. The first problem that I mentioned above is the lack of a league marketing team that oversees all teams in all divisions. When looking at other sports leagues in the United States and across the world for that matter, most if not all have a centralized marketing team. This team develops a brand strategy that teams conform to so that no matter the team or city the league should be advertized the same way. This expands beyond just basic advertising on team websites but also apparel and associated swag. Currently the league sells products such as mugs, shirts, hoodies, and other basic merchandise, but there are a few teams that have their own stores with more products than what are available on the AUDL's shop.
This lack of cohesive brand management and marketing leads to issues where some teams might not be perceived as part of the league and leads to different and confused experiences for many fans that go to games for different teams. The second flaw I introduced above was the lack of game footage available to fans. I happen to be from Seattle and go to school in New York, so when I am in New York I am unable to attend any of Seattle's games and therefore since the team doesn't provide live streams for all games, nor provides the game's full footage online via video anywhere I end up missing a lot of the action. This is not an isolated case, the only games that were freely available for fans this last season in the AUDL were the championship games and that was it. So there was no way for people who have just heard of the sport to go and watch game footage from the AUDL teams without paying for a subscription through ESPN/TSN or using some third party streaming website for the few teams that offered those streams. This lack of free content from games severely limits the publicity and rate of growth of the league because it limits viewership to only fans that pay for streaming services or even worse limits viewership to only those who are going to the games. These two problems with the AUDL will, in my opinion, severely limit the growth of the league in regards to fans and spectators and might just doom the league from ever reaching the heights of leagues such as the NFL, MLS, MLB or the NBA within the United States. Think what I said above is wrong, or believe that the AUDL has what it takes to grow to a large recognized sports league? Let me know in the comments below or via email: sagediscussions@outlook.com. As always make sure to follow us on Twitter @SageDiscussions and like our Facebook Page: facebook.com/SageDiscussions.
I am unlike any of my friends at college or from high school, the newest gaming console I have played on is my families Wii U. My family has mostly stayed a complete Nintendo platform only kind of family except for our PS2 which I incredibly enjoy. However most of my friends have Xbox's and PS4's so my only experience I have with these consoles comes from my friends where I spend most of my non-work time at school. One of my recent conversations with these friends started off like this:
Spencer: I only have 34 GBs left on my Xbox
A few quick notes about this, Spencer is my friend with an Xbox One, it has a 500Gb internal hard drive, and Spencer only has 6 games installed on his Xbox.
The conversation continued on about how video games now days take up incredible amounts of digital space on consoles, he recently bought Halo the Master Chief Collection which was a total of 68 GB's worth of data that had to be both ripped from the disks and also downloaded for the whole game. Granted Halo MCC is kind of a one off game where it is actually a collection of the first four Halo games remastered, yet when most games take up 30-70 GB's worth of storage there is a problem.
The central problem as to why these games require so much storage falls down to how games are played on modern consoles and how the game is actually packaged. For those who haven't played any games on these modern consoles, most games no longer require the disk to remain inside the console in order to play them. In many ways this is an incredible advancement from older consoles, no longer would you need to sort through tens of games just to look for the one you want to play. However most games require a ton of files, textures, game logic, and most importantly audio files. Textures can easily be compressed simply because they are basic images and 3d files. Surprisingly the audio files for all modern games aren't compressed, this causes these game files to remain so large even with advancements in console processors. So what's the takeaway? Well game developers need to find a way to compress the entire game, audio files included to make them easier for players to install and save space so people can install more games on their consoles, also Microsoft and Sony really need to start selling 2 TB internal hard drives for their consoles to offer more game space.
For an avid Ultimate player and fan like myself, finding quality Ultimate streams and videos is a very tough chore. Among the monotony of Callahan videos, Frisbee trick shot videos, and how-to videos, there are very little actual games on the net. And amid these very few videos, most are of low quality and are very hard to get interested in.
But if you're talking about professional Ultimate, there's only two places to turn to; MLU and AUDL. Both are regarded as the top level of Ultimate in the US. With only three years to grow its program, both leagues have many impressive things. However even with all the advancements in professional Ultimate, the MLU is still boring to watch for four major reasons:
1: Lack of Movement
Now any Ultimate players may be confused about why I say that a lack of movement is making the MLU seem boring. Surely Ultimate is a high speed sport? Let's first look at how a typical Ultimate player sees the game. On offense, if you do not have the disc, you usually are running around. As a cutter, you typically look at your handler with the disc, the field in front of you, and the defenders around you. If you have the disc on offense, you are always looking for cuts and handler movement. On defense, players look for these same things, but in a different way. As a player, area that you can visually sense is dynamic and constantly changing, leading to a very exciting experience.
Now let's switch perspective and take a look at how a viewer of a typical MLU game sees the game. First, the camera is zoomed out to see a larger view on the field. However, this makes all the players look slower than they actually are. This camera perspective is not really a MLU problem though; most, if not all Ultimate games are filmed in such a way. It allows viewers to get a better grasp of the field as a whole. This wouldn't be a bad thing if it didn't directly interfere with another part of the camera; central focus on the person with the disc. When the disc is actively moving, the game is exciting. Unfortunately, for a majority of the game, the disc is stationary in the handler's hands. While it makes sense, keeping the disc in one space slows the game down and makes it less fun to watch.
2: One Strategy
This problem has been a huge problem for me specifically, but probably for other fans of Ultimate as well. When I play Ultimate, I try to stress the point of having what I like to call "smooth flow". This "smooth flow" is the act of having cuts happen at a time where the disc can be pushed up the field in one smooth motion. This movement leads to a faster paced game than playing more conservative. Yet this is not the best strategy in the meta today. The best strategy in the game right now is to wait for a long drive opportunity. There are several reasons why this strategy is considered the best. First and most obvious, it's one of the quickest ways to score. No doubt throwing the disc across the field for a score is a great and exciting way to score. Moreover, the downside for missing a long huck is very minimal. The defending team would usually get the disc at the front of their endzone, which is pretty bad field position. The problem is that this strategy is used so much during professional play that it gets repetitive. In my experience, a typical professional Ultimate game has around fifty to eighty-five percent of scoring plays using this strategy. In any sport, a play done over and over quickly gets stale, whether it be the long hucks of Ultimate, or a hail mary play from football. The monotony of the same play happening over and over again get tiring to watch. It doesn't help that most defenses usually play a mix of one to three defenses. But this is the most optimal way to play the game. Although boring to watch, it's understandable that teams play this way.
3: Monotonous Commercials
Now while the above two points can be attributed to how the sport of Ultimate Frisbee is played in general, the next two points are purely MLU problems. Like football, Ultimate has commercials during idle parts of the game. Also, like soccer, Ultimate(at least the MLU) is plastered with ads around and across the field, on players, and perhaps other places. Usually, I would be mad about this as I am with hockey, but I do understand that MLU needs the money, as Ultimate as a sport has just started up. I am confused, however, that as of the last game I have seen, all commercials during the MLU games are about MLU. Furthermore, the MLU must have hired a single intern to make commercials, because there are a grand total of around seven commercials that constantly cycle over and over. As I previously stated, repetition leads to staleness and all around less interesting content. The MLU also switches to commercial break extremely often. Sometimes, the commercials overlap with game footage, making viewers miss parts of the content, although they have been getting better with this recently. Furthermore, most MLU commercials have very bad songs to go along with them. All of these advertisement gaffes makes watching an MLU game painful to watch.
4: Commentary
The last point that I want to make is that commentary for the MLU is sub-par. First off, the microphone volume for the two commentators are off. One commentator may be too quiet, while the other is too loud. But it doesn't really matter which is louder because the commentary itself is dry. Most commentary consists of saying who caught the disc, what penalties are called, and if the disc is caught when thrown deep. The problem is that this style of commentary doesn't add anything to the game. Commentators need to do analysis on key plays on the field. Now, I know that Ultimate isn't like football; after a play you can't go to Starbucks and get yourself a cappuccino and come back to see the next play. Nevertheless, MLU commentators need to go more into detail when commentating. The MLU also suffers from having boring commentators in general. I like to say that commentators in the MLU would be better on radio because they speak as if nobody can see the game. Unfortunately, Ultimate is a game that is streamed, so these voices are ineffective here. Commentators need to have more excitement when they commentate. If they can do that, the game will be more interesting and the MLU will get more viewers.
This game highlights several of the problems I've already stated.
Also, this is the state of the game footage after the livestream. It's not great.
I understand that the MLU is still very young, and will take time to get to a truly entertaining level. But at this rate, MLU will get overtaken by its major rival, the AUDL. MLU needs to make major changes in its upcoming seasons, or drop out.
If you have any opinions or questions, please leave a message in the comments section below! I'm always interested in other's opinions.
In case you haven't heard it yet Drake released a new single a few days ago titled Hotline Bling, in it Drake talks about the late night phone calls that a girl from his hometown Toronto used to give him, but has since stopped.
Here is the single Drake released.
This new single has a relatively new sound to it compared to his last two albums If You're Reading This It's Too Late and Nothing Was the Same. It has a sort of mellow 90's Miami beat in the background behind the vocals.
The song feels more like a call out to someone than just a single to push out. It also feels more like an individual effort than something that might be from a new album, but then again you never know what Drake is up to.
So with all that introduction around the single covered I'll quickly break down the feel of the song in a series of gifs of Drake, feel free to scroll through with the song playing in the background.
When I was watching Major League Ultimate the other day, I noticed a strange event happening on the field. The pulling team, called a timeout before the pull. Afterwards, the started the pull from midfield.
Now for those of you not versed in the rules of Ultimate Frisbee, usually pulls are thrown from your end zone. This is done to assure that the defense has the time to set up an offense. It was a big surprise to me that the pull was taken from midfield. At the time, I thought that there was some kind of weird rule going on, so I checked the rules and sure enough, there was. From the head of the MLU rulebook, Ian McClellan,
If the pulling team calls a timeout between points (before readiness is signaled), they will get to pull from midfield after that timeout. This provides an exciting strategic option for using a timeout between points apply some extra defensive pressure to start the next point. Hopefully this becomes a useful tool for teams that are behind to create some break opportunities to improve comeback chances.
Now, let's get to the point. I believe that this rule change is a terrible decision. Let's first talk about how this effects the starting field position and starting flow of the game. Normally after the pull, the offense has about one or two uninterrupted throws before the defensive team can set a play on the offensive team. This short freedom allows the offense to solidify the beginnings of their offense. Furthermore, the disc after the pull usually ends up outside of the end zone, giving the offense better field position. These two things allow the offense to get a slight advantage after previously losing a point. Unfortunately, with the new timeout rule in place, both of these slight offensive advantages are lost. When pulling from midfield, the defense can both easily set up a defense and apply massive pressure to the offense because of the imbalanced field position of the two teams. With the defense starting from midfield, it is much easier to set a defense due to the shortened space between the two teams. Coupled with the fact that any good puller can pull half the field, the defense is in an unfair advantage over the offense with this rule.
But to say that this rule wouldn't achieve its purpose is a false statement. I'm sure that this very advantageous defensive position could be, as Ian McClellan says, "a useful tool for teams that are behind to create some break opportunities to improve comeback chances." However, the converse could be true. This rule could also be used to solidify leads. Now, I'm always excited to see a huge comeback and I would be happy to see a reasonable rule that favors comebacks. Yet this rule is not it. This call, when used when a team is two or three points ahead, could further increase a teams lead by causing turnovers, or even worse, Callahans. This would make a losing team's comeback that much harder, rather than make it easier.
In a sport where the rules are already confusing enough to understand, is this rule worth adding in for the "hype factor" or excitement? In my opinion, it's just poorly designed. A rule that promotes unfair advantages and potentially kills comebacks is a big pass in my book. As an Ultimate player myself, I know that I would be annoyed if I lost or won a game because of some silly rule.
But maybe that's just me. If you have any opinions or want to call me silly for not knowing what I'm talking about, please leave something in the comments! I'm always ready and willing to discuss anything about Ultimate!
This month, Xbox's Games With Gold
program gave gold users Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes(MGS5:GZ)
for free. And while I'm not the biggest fan of the Metal Gear Solid
series as a whole, I am interested in playing the upcoming Metal Gear
Solid V: The Phantom Pain. I took this opportunity to check out what
Konami would be planning for a grand finale to their acclaimed
series. What I got was an excellent, repetitive, five hour demo.
MGS5:GZ runs at a smooth 60fps on the
Xbox One. The graphics and scenery are nice to look at, but there's
not really anything that stood out as unique or extraordinary. Most
of the time, you are looking at gray buildings or brown sand.
However, this does make sense, as for the entirety of the game, you
are pit into Camp Omega, a top secret American black site. The
weather, atmosphere, and shading in the game is fantastic and really
immerses the player into the world and the situation. My favorite
graphical part about this game is the how it looks at night. The
lighting and the darkness really mix together well in this game.
However, playing on the same map over and over get quite repetitive
and really makes you wish for something more. With the exception of a
couple of weird textures, MGS5:GZ is a great looking game, but
nothing special.
Story – 7/10
Although the game is only a couple
hours long, the story is surprisingly strong. The game's first and
only main mission has Snake, the series' longtime protagonist,
sneaking in to Camp Omega to extract two agents. As the main mission,
the story is strong here. The game shows not restraint in showing
gruesome scenes, and it adds to the realism and stress of the story.
Overall, the story shown in the first mission is good. However, the
first story is also the end of the story, with the rest of it to be
shown in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
After you beat the main mission, four
extra missions open up called Side Ops. Each of these missions follow
a single story that seems to precede the main story, but are not part
of the main story. Returning to Camp Omega(or a really good replica
of it), Snake is sent on a variety of simple tasks to reveal the
secrets that go on in the black site. The storyline for all four Side
Ops is good, with the best part happening right at the end. However,
the story for the Side Ops is not as good as the main story, as would
be expected.
Gameplay – 8/10
As a major promoter of stealth
gameplay, the Metal Gear Solid series has always been good at
allowing the player to use stealth and quick wit to complete their
objectives. The game gives you several options and paths to help you
get to your target. Firstly, you have binoculars which allow you to
tag enemies so you can know their location at all times. Usually,
marking the enemy with your binoculars is the first thing you should
do before entering a new area. Secondly, your tranquilizer gun will
be the main weapon of choice if you're going down a stealth route.
The tranquilizer will put a enemy to sleep, but the amount of time it
takes to do so differs depending on where you shoot the enemy.
Moreover, when an enemy spots you, Snake enters reflex mode, which
makes everything move in slow-motion for a couple of seconds. You are
given these options and more to complete the objectives at hand.
Conversely, you can play the game more
aggressively, but getting caught will make your life troublesome.
Even getting slightly seen will put most enemies on alert, and
getting spotted will get the guards to attack you. Luckily, escaping
the guards is not especially difficult, but it will take a long time
to get the guards back to normal patrols. The enemy AI in this game
is mediocre at best, with many predictable movements, or silly
actions done by the enemies, but it's doesn't impact gameplay that
much. Enemies are easy to dispatch, as you are given plenty of ammo
and the soldiers don't take too much effort to take down. If you
happen to kill too many, your final score will dramatically decrease,
so playing stealthy is probably the best way to play. In the end, the
gameplay is pretty solid, and is generally fun.
Other – 5/10
Now, I got this game for free as part
of the Games With Gold program, but at the time of writing this
article, MGSV:GZ is a hearty 20 dollars. With the gameplay lasting
around five to ten hours, that makes it more than most modern FPS
shooters, but playing the same level for hours at a time tends to get
stale real quick.
The main mission can be beat
in around 4 minutes. I mean it can, but it'll probably take longer
for most players.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is a
great tech demo for the promising Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain.
But that's all it is. Why pay for a demo when demos are made to
entice the user to buy the full game? Free, the game is a steal and
is definitely worth getting; however at twenty dollars, I can't
recommend it to most people. It's just too much money for not enough
content. But at least the content is pretty good.
Recap:
Graphics – 8/10
Story – 7/10
Gameplay – 8/10
Other – 5/10
Overall Score – 28/40
This is my first blog post ever, so I'm
hoping that this kept your interest for a while. If you have any
thoughts or questions about the review or my writing in general, feel
free to leave them in the comments!
Recently if you have been following the Ultimate Frisbee news cycle you would have heard that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially recognized Ultimate as an Olympic sport which means that in just a few short years a lot more people might see the sport played during a summer olympic event.
However the problem that the Ultimate community at large has had is that it believes that becoming an Olympic sport is the final goal for Ultimate.
Olympic recognition is not the final step in a sport’s evolution, and it doesn’t offer true growth for the sport in the long run. - Click here to tweet
Simply because Ultimate gets played in the Olympics doesn’t mean that flocks of new people will begin to start playing the sport. Sure there will be some growth for the sport as new people will get introduced to the sport, but the best opportunity for the sport to truly take off is to develop a true world cup event for Ultimate. Now I realize that there are the world games events for Ultimate and there is World Ultimate Club Championships but there really isn’t an event that is on par with the soccer/football world cup.
If Ultimate has its own world cup scale event every four years or every two years then there will be enormous growth in sport because it won’t get drowned out by potentially 27 other sports or sporting events. With an Ultimate world cup event, the sport can be introduced to millions of people without needing to compete against other sports. The key to making a world cup format introduce the sport to more people then falls into the hands of sports broadcasting on TV.
Once the sport has a true world-scale event that is broadcast internationally on TV, then will we begin to see widespread growth in the sport.
TL;DR: Don't worry about Ultimate Frisbee in the Olympics, make a new World Cup event for it.
One of the three new teams to join the premier league from lower divisions, Bournemouth is a storied team going from rags to riches. Only a few years ago the team was on the brink of being shut down but they have since fought all the way back and made a Premier League debut. There are three reasons why I will be cheering for the Cherries this season.
The first is that their stadium is one of the loudest and yet only seats 12 thousand. Bournemouth's Goldsands Stadium, traditionally known as Dean Court, has plans to expand their seating to 18,000.
The second reason why is because of their manager, Eddie Howe. Howe played for the Cherries as a defender and retired in 2007 when previous knee injuries began to take their toll on him. He was selected to manage the Cherries, and has since helped them reach the Premier League.
The third reason why I want to support the cherries is that their mascot is the lovable Cherry Bear! Who wouldn’t love this awesome mascot?
Cherry Bear is also pretty skilled as well, able to fool children with cheeky behind the back passes as showcased in the video below.
Lastly here is a highlight video the Cherries made upon making it into the top flight of English football.
If you have another reason to support the Cherries, or think there is a better mascot in the Premier League let us know in the comments!
Finally here is a quick gif of the Cherries scoring an amazing goal that helped them break out into the Premier League:
So the other day my friend and I figured that it would be interesting to share the thoughts we have about a variety of topics with the world, or at least the part of the world that can see this blog. If you aren't part of the world that can see this blog then I am not sure exactly how you are reading this.
Some of the stuff we will post will be humorous and some of it will be serious, we will let the reader decide exactly which is which. With that said I guess I will leave this post be and begin working on the next post. Which might be some sort of introductions to who we are and what we are interested in.
