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E3 2017: That Post-Kojima ‘Metal Gear’ Game Will Not Release This Year

by Derek KraneveldtJune 14, 2017

Briefly: Last Summer, Josh asked just what the hell was wrong with Konami after the reveal of Metal Gear Survive, a WTF-inducing Solid Snake and friends fighting zombies game that Hideo Kojima clearly had nothing to do with.

We’ve seen little else from the title since its reveal at GamesCom 2016, to the point where we’d almost forgotten that it even existed (leaving the world a slightly brighter place). It turns out, however, that the title is playable on the show floor amidst the giant lines at this year’s ongoing E3, but at this point the game will not be hitting your platform of choice until next year.p

Polygon learned earlier today that the development team requires a little more time to polish the game, and thus the title has been “pushed back a few months.” Naturally, Metal Gear games and delays are no stranger to one another — this game’s existence at all however, remains a mystery to all of us. What would it have been like to be a fly on the wall when this concept came up?

Forgot what it’s all about? Watch the reveal trailer below, and let us know if you’ll be picking this one up in early 2018.

How Tracer’s Sexuality Changed ‘Overwatch’

by Josh JacksonDecember 27, 2016

It didn’t.

But you wouldn’t know that based on the reaction of the Internet, where many of its denizens are totally convinced that Blizzard has forsaken them due to a detail of a character’s personal life that was shown outside of the game. Allegations ranging from pandering, to being unnecessary, to flat out saying that a company that has delivered free characters, new maps and a wealth of new items to keep the game alive has lost their respect have been lobbied at the game and developers. And why? Because the girl on the cover likes to bump clams?

If you somehow haven’t heard by now, the latest Overwatch web comic features the heroes and villains of the game celebrating the holidays with their loved ones. Primarily focusing on Tracer as she rushes to find the perfect Christmas gift for her significant other before meeting with the lonely Winston, the moment in question comes when the gift is given to a red head female who happens to thank her with a kiss. A rather mundane scene has now become the talk of the gaming world over the last week between those who are praising the reveal and those that I referenced above who have numerous problems with it. What are they saying, you ask? Here’s a sample of what some of the negative reactions have been funneling in on various forums.

I really wish they wouldn’t do stuff like this for this game now really. We’re not allowed to just enjoy the game anymore because we have to put up with a load of braindead social correctness bulls***. I’d rather put up with dark souls 3’s crowd telling me to kill myself again than this.

Yes, because a single character in a cast of 23 characters is “social correctness bulls***”. Because a web comic is keeping you from enjoying a game. Newsflash, being gay is becoming more acceptable these days, which is why we’ll more than likely see homosexual characters be featured in future games. I hope you find a way to continue enjoying your games despite gay people existing in them, but it sounds more like the medium is passing you by. Being gay isn’t “PC”, it’s reality, and it’s time to get used to it.

The purpose of the comic was to exploit LGBT awareness to stir up controversy for a game the week before Christmas.

The teasing and “Hype” for an alternative sexual character was intentionally a path leading to Christmas sales.

Because Overwatch was having such a hard time building a player base, right? 20 million in a few months really shows how desperate Blizzard was for those few extra sales. But we’re now at a point where anything other than heterosexual representation is either “pandering” or “exploiting”, despite the idea of again, having ONE character among a cast of 23 being a lesbian is pretty normal these days considering about 3.8 percent of the US population identifies as LGBTQ according to this 2015 Gallup poll. Then again, gay people can’t exist in fiction without an agenda, right? Because a single character in a growing cast of 23 and counting is asking for “special treatment”, as I’ve seen mentioned on other forums.

1. Tracer was not presented as gay from the beginning, so it seems like she was changed to being gay.

2. Tracer was paired with some random nobody that was just made up rather another playable or important character.

3. Not that Overwatch’s story is deep or anything, but it seems like the presentation of Tracer being gay served no other real purpose than to show that she’s gay, so the presentation didn’t seem organic, and more agenda driven.

Wasn’t presented as being gay? What, was she supposed to weigh 300 lbs with a shaved head and a biker jacket with a rainbow flag stitched to it? It may come as a surprise to some, but many gay people don’t wear their sexuality on their sleeve. They aren’t walking stereotypes. They’re actual people. Which makes the last claim that it’s not organic ironic since she apparently needed to wear a “Hi, I’m gay!” sign around her neck for this to feel organic. And the fact that she’s paired with a “nobody” instead of a different character? Do you *really* think it would be better if two characters were revealed as gay instead of one?

It simply didn’t need to be. There’s no plot arc for any character. Sexual orientation doesn’t select the way a character plays. It has exactly 0 bearing on anything.

However, it’s SUCH a big deal to liberals nowadays that companies pick up on the hype and use it to their advantage. This is known as pandering. Most people don’t have a problem with gays, it’s this bulls*** pandering that pisses people off.

No one on this cast needed to be gay or straight. They’re not real, and their orientation doesn’t change how the game plays.

You can tell what the mindset is coming from this comment based on using “liberal” as an attack, but I just want to point out that “this bulls*** pandering that pisses people off” completely contradicts the idea right above this quote that “It has zero bearing on anything.” I don’t see how someone would be pissed off to begin with if they really felt it didn’t matter, but even if it doesn’t matter to you, it obviously matters to those who found a character in the game they can identify with. Then again, I *REALLY* don’t think that the issue is that “No one on this cast needed to be gay or straight.” Because I can’t seem to find the outrage for Pharah’s unnecessary and forced boyfriend in the same comic.

Or Reaper following an unknown family in the same comic.

Or Torbjorn and Reinhardt’s families being revealed… IN THE SAME COMIC!

But I’m guessing that none of the images above make you feel icky when you look at them, so those are A-OK. Objectively, you could say that the Tracer scene is equally as pointless as all of the above ones. Yet, hers is the only one being labeled as such. Hmm… I wonder why?

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about the real issue here. Gaming has come a long way as a medium, and I feel that making the poster child of one of the most popular games of the year was a bold, yet necessary move by Blizzard if we want to keep moving towards normalizing homosexual characters in the way that many of the posters above and those like them pretend they already are. But reactions like these show how much farther we have to come, because we’re still sifting through comments calling the move a desperate plea for holiday sales despite the fact that Blizzard has been talking about this since at least 2015. Their goal was to reveal it in a natural and tasteful way. What better way to do it than to reveal it in a side story that’s all about spending time with loved ones during the holidays?

Let’s be real though. To these people, the only way for the reveal would have been “tasteful” and “natural” would have been for it to have never happened at all. Remember that in decades past, including minorities in prominent roles was also considered “pandering”, but with diligence and the continued usage of diverse characters in a variety of roles, seeing it has become more and more commonplace. Not that there isn’t a ton of room to improve, but homosexuality in the public consciousness is still behind in so many ways. So I can only hope this trend continues until we stop seeing gay characters as a gimmick and more as a facet of a more complex whole. And that won’t happen if we pretend they don’t exist.

Or you know, keep typing away furiously when girls kiss each other.

What The Hell Is Wrong With Konami? ‘Metal Gear Survive’ And The Dangers Of Being Out Of Touch

by Josh JacksonAugust 17, 2016

The big news coming out of Gamescom this morning seems to be the reveal of Metal Gear Survive, the first Kojima-less Metal Gear title after the very public split between the famed creator and his overseers at Konami. A quick look at the trailer leaves no question as to why the reaction so far seems to range between “lol Konami”, and “something something franchise killer”. We all know that Kojima was known for introducing some ridiculous scenarios into his games, but I would imagine that even he would laugh at the concept of taking the survivors of the attack on Mother Base and inexplicably sucking them into an inter-dimensional portal, placing them in a post apocalyptic wasteland where they’re forced to fight hordes of zombies. Yes, that’s the premise.

Currently sitting at nearly 30,000 dislikes on IGN’s YouTube page in less than 12 hours, it’s safe to say that after thoroughly killing any goodwill the company had with their fans courtesy of crowd pleasing moves like cancelling Silent Hills, removing the PT demo from the PlayStation Store, preventing Kojima from accepting an award he earned for his work, and turning some of their beloved franchises into pachinko machines rather than produce new games, this latest reveal isn’t going to win back anybody. Almost approaching parody levels of absurdity, it’s hard to imagine how anyone would have green lit a game in a franchise as big as this and take it in such a wildly different direction. But when we stop and think about how not only Konami, but the entertainment industry as a whole handles the concept of audience demand, should we really be surprised?

Oh, what could have been…

Watching this trailer for the first time, it felt like a checklist of what an out of touch executive would do when conceptualizing a game. Let’s see, zombies are still popular, right? Mad Max and Fallout are big! Why not place it in a barren, desolate space? Let’s have a group of no-nonsense soldiers take them down like it’s no big deal while we’re at it. But most importantly, new IP’s are way too risky. I know! Let’s slap Metal Gear Solid on the title and watch it fly off the shelves! We can even reuse assets to save some money while recouping cash on the money sink that was MGS V!

I mean, what could go wrong?

The worst part is that the people in charge will never look in the mirror and realize that they’re the reason for these failures, and we see it time and time again across the entertainment spectrum. Nintendo is going through a similar issue with Metroid Prime: Federation Force, a game that plays just fine on its own. But thanks to their own tone def assertion that making it a Metroid game would build enthusiasm is likely going to ensure that the promising multiplayer title will be dead on arrival. Why? Because the company decided to take a franchise that hasn’t seen a new game since the widely panned Other M in 2010, one that they’ve teased sequels to for years thanks to the rumored Metroid Dread, only to never deliver. What we’re left with is a light hearted spin-off that has next to nothing in common with its main games. While drastically different side games aren’t a bad thing on their own, how can you dangle a carrot in front of your fan base for so long, then be surprised at the backlash when you bait-and-switch them?

As many gamers will tell you, Nintendo has a history of making head scratching decisions such as this, ranging from self fulfilling prophecies like forcing fans to scratch and claw for “risky” games like Fatal Frame, only to run next to no advertisement for them, to the Villager amiibo being among a set of high demand figures that they didn’t deem popular enough to take away shelf space from Mario and Link, creating a huge scalper market for the figurines. This is despite the fact that Animal Crossing: New Leaf is currently sitting at number six on the list of best selling 3DS games of all time, (and might have been higher if they didn’t include each version of Pokemon as one total). You know what sold nearly six million fewer copies? Zelda. I’m no CEO, but this is *THEIR* data! To Nintendo’s credit, they finally restocked it exclusively at Toys R Us in the States about a year later, with a whole line of Animal Crossing figures and cards showing that they finally acknowledged what was right in front of them. The only way they could realistically claim that they didn’t anticipate demand is if they don’t read their own financial reports like the rest of us.

You got any of them Villagers?

This lack of foresight and these reactionary decisions aren’t isolated to the gaming industry either. I’m sure we don’t need to be reminded of how the Suicide Squad film was allegedly re-shot to include more humor after the success of Deadpool. An ironic prospect when you remember that Fox’s project had its own set of challenges when its creators had to fight for the film to be true to the source material with an R rated action flick, reportedly due to studios refusing to believe that a violent, vulgar superhero could sell tickets. Even Marvel, as great as they have been in recent years, isn’t immune to this disconnect. When Sony’s email leak revealed that CEO Ike Perlmutter was seemingly supplying “proof” that female led superhero movies are traditionally failures, he cites Catwoman and Electra, apparently placing the blame on them featuring female leads while ignoring that these were both critically panned. On the flip side, based on the advertisements, the Ghostbusters reboot sold itself almost entirely on the fact that it was led by an all female team, as opposed to the merits of the film itself. Turns out, that wasn’t enough.

I’m sure this had more to do with Electra‘s failure than Jennifer Garner’s vagina.

The examples are seemingly endless, from Capcom’s storied history to Lego Dimensions and the recent reveal that Supergirl will be exclusive to reissues of last year’s starter pack, leaving early adopters in the dust. But will these companies learn their lesson? Probably not. It’s much easier to fail when your job security doesn’t rely on making good decisions, especially when you can pass the blame down to your subordinates. In Konami’s case, I’m sure they see Metal Gear Survive as their saving grace. The game that will prove that they don’t need Kojima to carry on with their biggest franchise. It has everything that’s popular mashed together, and the tens of thousands of dislikes will be attributed to being from “haters” and “trolls” who will buy the game anyway. And naturally, when none of this happens and Survive ends up flopping, the obvious takeaway will be that fans have lost interest in the Metal Gear franchise. Not that their decision makers have no idea what their doing and are out of touch.

Oh well, there’s always pachinko!

Gabe’s SPOILER FREE ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Reaction!

by Gabriel von GrünbaumDecember 18, 2015

So I’ve literally just walked out of the theater. (Side note to theater: This is Star Wars—no one’s in a hurry to get out—please don’t turn up the lights before the credits even start rolling! Party foul!)

How fanatical am I? Not too much—I mean, I don’t go around dressed up in costume or anything—although my hot neighbor (who I’m carpooling to the theater with and who thinks this is film isn’t any more significant than say, The Scorch Trials) immediately asks, “Han Solo?” Guess I nailed it, subtly.

StarWarsTheForceAwakens_Selfie01_600x900 — Here I am, ready to head to the theater.

The real benefit to seeing something as soon as it comes out isn’t just to avoid spoilers, it’s also great because your expectations have been formed strictly between yourself and the film’s marketing team. There have been more than a few times when a film’s accumulated hype left me disappointed with the actual delivery—the product of unchecked adoration from the fanbase. Returning to such a film years later, my expectations palate cleansed, I find it to be much more enjoyable. Sometimes, a lot of bad reviews will having me dragging my feet to see something; only to realize, when I finally do see it, it’s just my cup of awesome.

My aim here is to provide your expectations a solid baseline—something you can hang onto in the oncoming storm of reviews and reactions that will be thrust at you from all sides now—until you’re able to see it for yourself and enjoy forming your own genuine experience and reaction, good or bad.

Again, all spoiler free, cause I hate when the beans are spilled beforehand—Star Wars: The Force Awakens is everything we need it to be. It is an organic extension of the galaxy far far away constructed in episodes IV, V and VI. Satisfaction, excitement and anticipation are the words in play. Some of the more elaborate wish fulfillment that might’ve taken place is instead solid and healthy story development as a new generation rightly takes the reins of the galaxy.

The tropes and mechanics you want are all there. The comedy is fitting with the proper Star Wars tone; as is the drama, story dynamics, character development and interactions—which were sadly all lost in the prequel trilogy. The action and cinematography are taken up a notch without violating what came before. So the production is very solid, any remaining uncertainty is only to what degree the story will resonate with you.

Zero complaints for me—although, the end result feels a bit more “The Empire Strikes Back” in that it leaves you hungry for more—which isn’t a bad thing! My expectations were already at a level where they wouldn’t have been fully slaked unless I left the theater having finally been taught to use the force and handed my very own genuine lightsaber. Again, short of becoming a literal Jedi in just over two hours, it was everything I needed it to be. I’m looking forward to watching it again and again, picking up all the little things I’m sure I missed during this first viewing.

Bottom line? No regrets. Looking forward to seeing it many more times. I think Star Wars: The Force Awakens is very hard to dislike—unless you believe in general that movies pretty much suck and sci-fi/fantasy anything is rather stupid (in which case we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation anyway and I wonder why you’ve read this far in the first place—good luck with your sad life).

Star Wars!