So I didn't actually watch the whole live show. I have to work but I did skim down through the various announcement articles. They kept good on their word to not talk about TV stuff.

Killer Instinct returns and oddly enough, Rare is not making it despite Rare still being owned by M$ and instead being passed off to Double Helix. I was kinda hoping it might have been a true Banjo sequel but it appeared to me that this was most likely going to happen.

A new Halo which at this point, is like Nintendo announcing more Mario. We all know it's coming and it will sell. It just doesn't surprise anyone anymore.

Several new IPs showing up which is always nice though I wonder how many of these will be truly exclusive given most Xbox exclusives eventually get ported to the PC. Given what we've seen the PS4 and XBO doing so far my husband already made up his mind that instead of getting another console, he'll just upgrade our PC when the time comes.

Xbox Live being more like PS+. Now besides having the privledge of paying to play with friends, you do get free games which is rather nice. I recently cancelled my PS+ subscription because I really wasn't doing much with it. All the free games I downloaded I had beaten and hadn't played for a while. If I want it again, I'll buy it again. Much like I did with my WoW subscription.

Price point $500. Actually this is what I predicted it would be. After the Xbone reveal, I couldn't see this being a cheap machine with the inclusion of Kinect and all this TV stuff they're wanting to do. Cheaper than the PS3's first price and I am interested to see what Sony prices the PS4 at. Still too pricey for me

Still nothing that made me want one or want to deal with jumping through hoops to play used/borrowed games, dealing with having to be online once every 24 hours or have Kinect watch me.

Everyone's talking about next gen consoles and I'm just here playing the Zelda Orcale games on my 3DS.

With all the blogs and articles about gamer's disdain over the Xbox One and now that MS finally came clean on the used games, the once a day online and the always watching Kinect, a lot of gamers have said "no way." For me it's nice to see many former Xbots suddenly coming out of their six year trance after spending that time defending something that constantly broke and charged for you something everyone else got for free but clearly M$ underestimated their loyal fans, and while sure there are those CoD and Madden loving dudebros who may still buy it because they didn't do the research, many others have looked upon what this next gen is offering and said "screw it."

But still I look at everything that M$ is doing with the XBO and thinking "why would they make something so unfriendly to consumers? Why are they so obsessed with making this more of a multimedia watching device than a game console?"

Then I came to the realization that Microsoft, like a lot of us, see an impending console crash coming and is simply bracing for impact.

Let me explain. If you watch the Game Overthinker, a while back he did an improptu vid regarding the SimCity mess with it's online and made the point that EA is a smart company. You don't become a multi-million dollar software developer by being stupid. I think Microsoft operates the same way. MS has marketed the Xbox as this manly man console for big boys full of guns and sports and Mountain Dew. Meanwhile Nintendo's that "gay baby console" and Sony's what "nerds" play or something along those lines. As I said, looking through a few FB posts many "dudebros" I know are still wanting an Xbone because that's the awesome boys console for guys!

But at the same time, this is a console that can't make a dent in markets outside the US, doesn't have a ton of killer exclusives and is still for the most part being supported by the US market's love of FPSes. We'll see about these "15 exclusives" they're promsing at E3. And eventually, at some point, the consumer market is going to get burned out on FPSes. It's just a matter of when.

The thing is, at the same time this is going about, there's a lot of discussion regarding another "crash" probably not like what happened in '84 but a combination of apathy towards new consoles, ballooning AAA game budgets, disdain among consumers and mainstream audiences gravitating towards mobile and tablet games that are cheaper and more easily accessable. At this point the console makers either need to adapt to the changing times or say "well that's that" and take the money and run.

This is what I think Microsoft is doing with the Xbox one.

M$ is seeing this impending console crash and has said "well let's make as much as we can before it crashes down." As many of us have seen, despite all the crap we've learned about the Xbone, there are still those insanely devoted CoD loving Dudebros probably going to buy one because of how the Xbox is marketed and didn't do the research and MS is probably counting on making as much off them as possible and if the console industry truly crashes then hey they got the TV/Blu Ray thing to fall back on. I mean it would explain why at the reveal they were putting more effort into the TV aspects and simultaneously making this as unfriendly to gamers as possible.

Sounds a bit morbid I know but I am of the camp that a crash is coming and possibly soon. I know "Sony will save us! The PS4 will be awesome!! You'll see!" Oh I hope that is true.

Funny how this isn't all over the gaming sites.

http://gengame.net/2013/06/report-microsoft-post-e3-media-roundtable-cancelled/

Basically those of us hoping E3 would answer our questions about all the stuff the Xbone is trying to do. Used game blocking, used game fees, Kinect always watching, the always online once a day thing and all the stuff that has us all up in arms, well don't expect to learn that at E3? Though at least they promised "no TV talk." Don't worry I'm sure we'll get a fair amount of Kinect gameplay with bad actors. lol

But honestly this shows that Microsoft is really trying to sidestep the issues everyone has and a reviewer at IGN said it best "Either tell us this stuff or were going to make sh*t up."

Microsoft, you messed up big time with this reveal. No one cared about your voice controlled TV box. None of us care that your system will have more EA Sports and Call of Duty with realistic arm hair, moving fish and motion capture dogs. Are you going to let us play used games or not? Does Kinect always have to be on? Doesn't matter how good a game is, if it's going to be too much of a hassle to just pop it in and play, then I want no part of it. If I want to deal with something that I can play used games with that forces me to install and be online, I already have a PC, thanks.

Also I hear that they are dragging out the limping, wheezing, ready for euthanization beast that is Rare and bringing back an old franchise. I want to be excited but at the same time, I worry what will come out of a stripped down, barely breathing Rare. Honestly I thought they were repurposed into the "Kinect game makers."

So there's been a lot of talk about how the PS4 and Xbone aren't going to be backward comptable with 360 and PS4 games, not just the discs but not even the stuff you downloaded which sucks. Ok guys, you're trying to save a few dollars in production by nixing some of the crap gamers don't care about like Xbone's cable TV B.S. unless you were hair gel guy on GT's Bonus Round (seriously go watch that, I swear he had to be paid by M$ to make the TV feature sound awesome).

But this isn't going to be about why consoles should or shouldn't have it. I am thinking more of what if the console makers are purposely leaving it out to make more money off us? Think about it.

Now when this gen started, all three consoles could play games from the previous gen though the 360 was limited and emulators had to be downloaded to play the entire Xbox (1?) library. Now originally the first wave of PS3's did play PS2 games but later models nixed it. Then not long after the PS3's dropped it's ability to play PS2 games, we started seeing these.

These are the ones I have played and I am considering getting the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 game later this year. On one hand, it's nice having these collections in HD on one disc and if you're like me and didn't own a PS2, it's a nice way to catch up on stuff you missed. But what if you had the PS2 versions of these games and your PS2 dies? My friend loves the R&C series and played the PS2 games over and over again. They had a first gen PS3 that could play them but eventually it wore out and had to be replaced and their PS2 died shortly after. Lucky Sony got money out of her to purchase games she already owned.

Now all the game companies have been making money rehashing classics for a while now. The good part is, most of these are a good deal. They're usually cheaper than new AAA titles. All 3 compilations I showed were $39.99 at launch as I recall though I would argue that both Jak and Ratchet's could've thrown in the PSP outings as well as Deadlocked and Jak X respectively but I'm going to guess that disc space was an issue.

Most of us are not like the Angry Video game nerd with a basement full of working versions of every console and game ever made so "stacking them" isn't an option for everyone. PC gamers probably have the most backwards compatability but even that depends on the hardware and what emulators you've installed. And being able to download old games is particularly good for cart based games that can't be put into modern disc based consoles.

But when I thought more about the lack of backward compatability on the new consoles and more so the inability to transfer over downloaded titles, it really makes sense. The new consoles will launch and mark my word, we'll start seeing compilations of PS3 and 360 games though they won't simply be able to slap an HD coat of paint on it this time. I'll hedge my bets right now that an early XBO title will be "The Halo Collection" and don't forget all your 360 peripherals are useless on the XBO so you'll need all new controllers and headsets to go with it. $$$$$$

And yes just in case someone wants to point out my Nintendo bias, it wouldn't surprise me if Nintendo does HD remakes of more Gamecube games. We already have several 3DS remakes and Wind Waker HD coming but at least some of these added new things. Way back when Link's Awakening was released for the Gameboy color, they added a new dungeon and if you are going to basically make gamers buy the same game again, then add something to it. New levels, fix issues the original had like the XBLA version of Banjo Kazooie that fixed it so you didn't lose all your notes and Jinjos when you died or left the level. I was annoyed that the original Ratchet and Clank rerelease didn't work in the strafe or make a bigger health bar or Jak II couldn't have tossed in a few more health packs to not make it so brutally hard.

And that's what bothers me about a lot of rereleases of old games. Yes some of us will argue that it "dumbs it down" but you gotta admit having autosave put into an old NES game beats the hell out of entering a password. But I am getting off topic, I worry more of seeing compilations that are just the exact same game from before that we end up buying again so it can play on our next gen console, thus the game publishers making easy money. "What's that you want to play the Mass Effect Trilogy on your PS4? Sorry we didn't make it backward compatable but here's our Mass Effect Collection you can buy for $50 even though you already own all 3.

Maybe you think that sounds crazy. But doesn't it kind of make sense. Don't make the PS4 or XBO backward compatable and don't let downloads transfer over so they can make you buy a game you already own again. $$$$$

For some time now, many have been speculating on if gaming is setting itself up for another crash. Maybe not like the one in '84 but seeing a number of studios closing, and the AAA games being bigger and more bloated and not making back their production costs (see the Tomb Raider reboot), and the industry's greed getting worse and worse. It's not unrealistic to think the PS4 could be a $700 system with $70 games. The average Joe doesn't have tons of money to put into high end systems and games and has cheaper alternatives in the form of tablet games. Meanwhile the hardcore gamers and the studios seem to be blind to this more interested in fancy graphics and "emotional polygons" and honestly I'm tired of it all. I like games but I'm tired of the industry greed, developer's egos and fanboys..oh the fanboys but instead of writing a big long editorial discussing about this possible crash I saw The 25th Hour and I heard Edward Norton's famous monologue about NY and I started think of a verion I had for my thoughts on all this. Of course I had to censor it because GS doesn't like naughty language so either you are all going to love this or hate this.

F*** you? F*** me.

F*** this whole gamer culture and everyone in it.

F*** the Xbox Live brats, screaming their racist, homophobic slurs into headsets. Stupid spoiled brats.

F*** EA, money grubbing corporate pigs, self styled masters of the universe with their DRM and on disc DLC figuring out new ways to rob gamers blind. You think we don't know about this. Give us a break. Activison, Microsoft, Sega Nintendo. All of you.

F**** the stuck up elistist PC gamers and they're $1000 gaming rigs. Not all of us are made of money you know.

F**** the "fake geek girls" with their anorexic bodies and fake boobs making it hard for us legitmate girl gamers to be taken seriously. You're not foolin' anyone honey!

F*** David Cage and his "emotional polygons."

F*** the hypocritical parents who condemn games for making their kids violent then throw an Ipad in the little snot's faces because it's a cheap baby sittier.

F*** the NRA using games as a scapegoat. Yeah let's destroy the 1st Amendment to protect the 2nd amendment. That makes a lot of sense.

F*** the mobile game makers, making half assed things, calling them games then shoving as many microtransactions into them as possible.

F**** Gamestop and their crummy trade in value and their overpriced used games. You force your employees to shove preorders and magazine subscriptions down our throats and can't even pay them decent wages.

F*** the fanboys and their whiny malcontent.

F*** this industry and everyone in it. From Japan to Europe. From the studios in California to the lofts in New York. Let an earthquake crumble it. Let the fires rage. Let it burn to f***** ash then let the waters rise and submerge this whole, rat-infested industry.

No. F**** you kbaily. You're getting too old for this.

Anyone who frequents Gametrailers can't help but notice that they've been doing ALOT of videos regarding the reveal of the next Xbox. A lot more than we saw for the WiiU or PS4. I'm sure i'm not the only one who sees this.

Maybe if I got back I'll see more videos building up the reveal of the other consoles but I don't know. Someone commented that GT pairs with SpikeTV which is owned by Viacom who has a partnership with Microsoft which wouldn't surprise me.

Then again, not all the vids are super positive and let's face it, ever since Adam Orth's comments and the on again off again rumors of an "always online Xbox" most of us are looking towards the nextbox reveal with some degree of skepticism.

Voice of GT talking about how Kinect needs to be better. http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/77lluh/next-xbox-one-man-s-kinect-experience "Most of us would say 'get rid of it."

Xbox E3 screwups: http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/7eghir/next-xbox-lighter-side-of-xbox

10 Games we want from Rare. Yeah try not to lay on the floor and cry watching this one. Or as I call it "10 games we'll never ever see." http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/t0nuqf/gt-countdown-top-ten-games-we-want-from-rare What a shame as it would be nice to see Xbox exclusives that don't involve guns.

Guess I can't blame GT for doing a bunch of nextbox coverage as there isn't much else going on right now. E3 is a way off yet and no major releases are out any time soon but seriously GT, I don't recall seeing this much stuff for Nintendo or Sony.

So I haven't written anything in a while. Lately there's so much news about everything and I keep making the mistake of scrolling down through the GS comments under various news stories and reading things that make me say "I must go kill myself now." But instead of going on another editorial rant, I thought I'd talk about what I'm currently playing as so far these are two of the best games I've played in 2013.

Poor Sly had been sitting on my shelf for some time. It's not that I didn't want to play it, I just had a backlog of stuff to finish and was trying to make a dent before starting something new. We've all been through that. Thankfully Link's Awakening, Paper Mario Sticker Star and Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed all got finished. With Sonic's game I got the credits but still need to try to get all those stupid stars to unlock Reala and Ages as well as finish the GPs to get Eggman. But booted up Sly 4 and so far I'm loving it. Maybe it's just my love of platformers starring cartoony mascots and it had been a while since I finished the Sly collection. OMG HE'S NOT WEARING HIS MASK!! This is actually amusing as Sly being a racoon wore a mask over his mask so he really doesn't look all that different. I love the visuals. Sly looks amazing on the PS3 and it's always nice to see an HD game do something besides make dirt look good. And as usual as soon as I entered the first main stage, I wasted a ton of time running around collecting bottles so I haven't gotten to play as one of the ancestors yet. It's also nice to see they finally got a decent voice actress for Carmaletta. Also I can't believe Bently turns the van into a time machine without making a mention of 1.21 Gigawatts or Flux Capacators. Come on, isn't that a given?

I'm going to be honest. I didn't love the first Luigi's Mansion. I liked it ok, but I didn't love it. I borrowed it off my nephew long after I had a Gamecube just to try it. In fairness it was better than Luigi's last starring role Mario is Missing but smashing your hand with a brick was more fun than Mario is Missing. So I was not going wild for the sequel, but after seeing so many stellar reviews particularly perennial Nintendo hater Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation liking it, I was curious. I played the in store kiosk a few times and once Paper Mario Sticker Star was beaten, I traded it in for this and so far, it's pretty good. I like the playful ghosts and the polterpup is adorable. Seriously I love the ghost puppy. He's cute and a little derpy and I think he needs to be a Pokemon for X/Y. Who wouldn't love a ghost pup who's strong against psychic Pokemon?

So now for some shameless self promotion. Seeing as how I have over 500 followers I might as well promote my other works here. First of all, I write reviews. That was the main reason I first joined this site so please read and like my reviews. One a note, I recently wrote an Epic Mickey 2 review and it's under the WiiU version but the version I played was the Wii version. Not a big deal as it sucks no matter which console you play it on.

Also I used to head 2 unions but my job changed and I no longer had the time or energy to put into maintaining them.

One such union was titled Under the Radar which was devoted to not only indie games but smaller, less promoted games that often got overlooked. It came about when I got tired of people constantly complaining about no good Wii games and ignoring such great gems like Little King's Story, Muramsa, Klonoa, as well as other overlooked gems. But recently the current leader of UTR wanted to start it up again and we're looking for new members to help us. http://www.gamespot.com/unions/Underradar/forums.html

The second union I am still leader of I have let falter and only 2 or 3 of us post regularly there. This one is called The Serious Discussion Union. If you liked some of my more serious, in depth blogs and want to further discussions on things like whether or not there will be a gaming crash as well as current events and such. It would be nice to have some contributions there as well.

http://www.gamespot.com/unions/SeriousDiscuss/forums.html

Well it's too nice a day to be sitting inside playing video games. I'm going to sit out on my porch and play my 3DS. :D

So I really don't have time for one of my longer more insightful blogs but I feel like I need to put something new out there so let's talk about inconsistencies among what gamers think is "lame" and "awesome."

Now as you all know I love Wind Waker. The sailing never bothered me. I love the story and while I was hesitant of the art style at first, I grew to love it.

But on at least two occasions I encounter people who say something along the lines of "Wind Waker would be better if it looked like Twilight Princess. It was too cartoony." We all dealt with this crap. People who swore off Zelda the minute we saw "Celda" as it was called but then TP came out and everyone complained it was just Ocarina rehashed and let's face it, no matter what Zelda game comes out, fans are inevitably going to hate it for not being Ocarina of Time.

But that's not what bothers me about this particular brand of WW dislike. It's the fact that no long after that conversation they started going on about how awesome Kingdom Hearts was. I'll pause and all intellegent gamers will see my point immediately.

Yes the game that ends with *SPOILERS* a young boy stabbing an evil wizard in the face is "cartoony" and "childish" while the game where you run around Disneyworld wearing big yellow clown shoes accompanied by Donald Duck and Goofy while swinging around a giant key is "mature." And no I don't buy the KH fan argument of "well it's anime so that's different." Anime is defined as cartoons from Japan.

So for the record the argument is THIS is too "cartoony." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wHEgTA5iLE

But this is totally meant for mature gamers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py2cajc6dP8

And no I'm not dissing KH just the dumb f*** gamers who aren't consistent in their judgement.

Also I love finding Bronies who like to accuse Nintendo of being too "kiddy." You like watching a cartoon about bright colored ponies aimed at 6 year old girls. A bit of hypocracy there huh?

So yesterday the internet exploded when MS Rocket Scientist Adam Orth decided to tweet his feelings about fans reservations about the next Xbox requiring an online connection at all times. Now after the disaster that was SimCity 4 (as I stated in a previous blog of mine) you'd think MS would see that mess and say "maybe forcing people to be online all the time to play non online stuff isn't a good idea."

Apparently not. http://www.gamespot.com/news/microsoft-creative-director-doesnt-get-the-drama-around-an-always-online-xbox-6406464

So by now we all know about Mr. Orth's rather insenstive comments most notably critizing people who lived in smaller rural towns who don't always have the best internet service saying "why would you live there?" In the linked article MS came out and made an apology but didn't dispell the rumors of an "always online system" but most people agree the damage is done. Going on various sites and reading user comments, alot of long time Xbox fans responded to his "deal with it" comments by saying "I'll deal with it, I won't buy the next Xbox." or something along those lines to which I say "more power to you." Companies exisit to make money but if consumers aren't happy with your product and you don't acknowledge their concerns and act all flippant and arrogant, they'll move on to something else. This is how the free market works.

I've never been a big fan of the Xbox or Microsoft's business practices when it comes to gaming. I don't like that they charge for something everyone else can do for free. (My PC and PS3 online gaming work just fine, thanks) My husband and I had 3 Xbox 360's die on us. 2 got red rings and the third glitched out and erased our entire hardrive to which after that we said "screw it" got a PS3 and never looked back. Their Points system that makes no sense. I hate that on top of that monthly fee you get a dashboard cluttered with ads (don't have that with my PS3, Wii or 3DS) and their most grievous crime watching: Rare's slow crippling death under their mismanagment killing all hopes of ever seeing a true Banjo or Conker sequel. Also I don't like FPSes meaning the 360 had little that interested me in terms of exclusives. So yeah if the next Xbox goes the way of the Dreamcast, I won't be crying.

But seriously to flat out insult consumers and their genuine concerns with such a flippant attitude is inexcusable for any company. It would be like Ciggarette companies responding to all the health problems smoking causes by saying "well something's gonna kill you." I get that companies are worried about piracy but forcing everyone to be online and DRM do nothing but punish those who did nothing wrong.

More and more I watch video blogs and read articles and the tone of gamers in general is the thought that the industry is going to crush itself under the weight of it's own bloated greed and that it doesn't seem to care. The industry has this mindset of "hey if we're going down, get all the money we can then!" As opposed to trying to asses the needs and concerns of its consumer base.

But I honestly didn't want to get into this. I had plenty of more lighthearted topics I could be writing about. So here's my favorite internet cat right now, Grumpy Cat who celebrated her 1st birthday on April 4. Let her adorably grumpy face cheer you up.

Happy Birthday Grumpy Cat. Your face expresses how a lot of us feel about Adam Orth's comments.

This is a blog I've been trying to write for a while but too many times when I was drafting it, it went off into different tangents but everyone knows I'm a big advocate of the industry at least trying to put forth effort when it comes to games geared at kids instead of going by the lazy ass mindset of "who cares if it's crappy, kids are stupid and buy anything." Yeah kids are less discerning when it comes to entertainment but I agree with the Nostalgia Critic in that just because it's made for kids is not an excuse not to try. And I also agree with the Nostalgia Chick's comments on the fact that entertainment is the one thing parents will look at and say "who cares if it's crappy, it's just for my kids." Seriously parents, you wouldn't say that about a car seat, or food, or their bed.

And all too often I find comments regarding the consoles and see comments along the lines of "Well I got the Wii for my kids so they could play it while I'm playing Call of Duty." And part of me wants to just go over and say "you know instead of using a game console as a babysitter, why don't you go down and PLAY something like Mario Kart with your kids and you know BE A F***ing parent" or that's what I'd say if I was an angry person.

But even with video games removed from the equation, this is all too common in today's society. Familes who don't spend time together when they're at home. I mean how many of you come home, eat dinner, do homework and spend the evening on the computer or playing games, your mom is downstairs surfing the web on her Ipad, Dad's watching the game on TV, your sibling is in their room doing their own thing. It's kind of sad. Then we wonder why there are so many troubled teens, or kids going on crazy school shootings, or whatever and instead of blaming violent media maybe parents should actually take time out of their day to do stuff with their kids including play video games.

This past Thanksgiving I went to visit my nephews. I have 2 young ones (the oldest one is working in Montana now). The youngest one is 6 and with some of my influence is a big fan of Mario, Zelda, Sonic and more recenlty Kirby. But he rarely has anyone who will play with him. After dinner most nights, his dad will go up to the bedroom and hold up in there the rest of the night watching TV and posting his strong right wing views all over Facebook because slapping his poltical beliefs all over FB is clearly more important to him than spending time with his kid. My sister in law isn't much better. She has a PS3 in her room so she's either on that or her laptop looking at stuff on Pinterest. My youngest nephew was so happy I was visiting because he knew I'd play Smash Bros. and Mario Party 9 and whatever else with him.

Now some nasty naysayer will call me out saying "well yeah you're a Nintendo fan so you'd play that stuff anyway!" And you're right. All too often I'm playing a lot of Nintendo games on my own, but I will say that at least during this particular holiday weekend both the 13 year old nephew and my husband also played with us. The 13 year old is a great kid. Sure he has his own stuff in his room like his 360 and his Kindle and while he's getting older and gravitating to stuff like Metal Gear Solid. (interestinly enough he was introduced to Snake though Smash Bros. Brawl) he will still take time and play with his younger brother. Often helping him get through some part he stuck on. And my husband who isn't a Nintendo fan also sat downstairs and played a couple rounds of Mario Party 9. Why? Because it was more important to him to spend time with his nephews.

And I'm sure I'll get yelled at by someone who will point out that I don't have kids and I don't understand. And yes I don't have children of my own. I'm trying to but it hasn't been easy for me. And yes I do look forward to sharing my love of Nintendo characters with my kids someday just as parents who loved old Disney/Pixar movies share them with their kids. But I'm sorry if the idea of taking time away from teabagging in Call of Duty or blogging on Gamespot to spend time with your children playing some "silly kids game" is a huge inconvience for you, then you suck as a parent. No one's making you give up your big boy games to play with your kids but being a parent is about sacrifice. Video game consoles should not be babysitters.

And I'll leave you with this immortal words from Bender B. Rodriegez.

Have you ever just thought about turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids...and hitting them?" But we're so busy! "Well make time!!"

And to those of you gamer parents who do take time out of your hectic day and play games with your kids. Good for you and I'm sure you learned that the "non working controller" trick only works for a short time. lol