Category: Uncategorized

Pokemon GO Fest ends in Complete Disaster

If you still play Pokemon Go, you might have heard of a huge event called Pokemon Go Fest. Held by Niantic, developers of the Pokemon Go App, the event was held in Chicago, Illinois. The concept was to host a park area where Trainers would work together to capture legendary Pokemon. Fans from all over the state and the world flocked to the area. Tickets were $20 to even attend such at Chicago Park. Their goals had good intention and it sounded like Niantic would finally deliver the experience players wanted; however, it failed horribly and has been a huge disaster for the company.

Many players attending were unable to log on to the game. Countless Trainers around failed to log on. The CEO, John Hanke, and their Marketing Officer were booed on stage and were shouted at by players to “fix the game.” As a sign of apology, they increased the range of the event itself by 2 miles. Animations were slowed down to run the game in the area leading to choppy animation but the Trainers were able to play the game and catch the legendary Pokemon and more.

As a final form of apology, Niantic has promised to give $100 worth of PokeDollars to Trainers who purchased a ticket. They also will refund them the price of the ticket and obtain a free Lugia.

Sources:

Niantic Pokemon Go

The Verge

Polygon

Opinion:

Niantic screwed up. They have never been able to handle the load of players or properly gauge the amount who would be interested in playing. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt because they are a smaller company but they should have servers set for a number of people. A Gaming company should test the numbers before even considering hosting an event of this calibre. People travelled from all over to have a good event and they were met with crushed experiences. Hosting a live event always has the potential of being a complete backfire on the company and it happened. I still play Pokemon Go and I don’t particularly enjoy it because of the technical issues and the lack of interaction despite the game being a year old. It’s basic and overall, a pretty boring experience. I’m not surprised this event failed and that they didn’t have servers that could handle the amount because they have never proved themselves to be capable of doing it. It’s their own fault again and I feel no empathy for a company that has constantly disappointed their fan base.

New Crash Bandicoot Level for Free!

The never been release level from the 1996 Crash Bandicoot, Stormy Ascent has been released. Originally a cut level from the classic game, it was too difficult to be released based on original creator: Taylor Kurosaki. Already a difficult game, the level was “roughly four times longer than any other level in the original game. Getting through it is a feat of both skill and endurance!” said Game Director: Dan Tanguay. It was too hard to release for the original game but if you own Crash Bandicoot N’ Sane Trilogy, you can get it for FREE…for the next 30 days. After that, it’ll be $2.99 in the United States. Announced at San Diego Comic-Con, the level is the hardest and was initially going to be released with the N’Sane Trilogy game but it was not finished on time.

If you wanna see the level in action, you can find the trailer below.

Sources: Playstation Blog

Eurogamer

Titanfall 2 Co-Op Drop and Free Weekend Play!

Titanfall 2’s July 25th update includes new horde mode and a free weekend!

For people who enjoy mechas, fast-paced action, first person shooters, and Attack on Titan, Titanfall 2 is the game for you. Despite decent sales for the franchise, Respawn, the developers of the game, continue to pump out new and free content for the series. The new game type will be a Players vs Environment (PvE) called Frontier Defense. Fans of the first game will remember it from the original. The update will release July 25th which includes more maps, Titan Upgrades, and a free weekend to play.

Frontier Defense:

A four player cooperative mode. Your task is to protect the harvester from 5 waves of enemies. Like every horde mode, you’ll earn currency to purchase traps, upgrades, and abilities unique to the mode. There are 4 levels of difficulties: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Master. Insane can be considered one but it’s a feature mode.

There will be 5 maps for the game mode: Homestead, Forwardbase Kodai, War Games, Rise, and Blackwater Canal. Rise is the new map from the previous Titanfall game. There will also be unique upgrades to your Titan and Aegis Ranks exclusively for this mode. If you buy the in-game paint job with real money, you’ll receive double XP until August. 28th.

If you’re interested, the trailer is below. I’m a huge fan of Titanfall 2 and I highly recommend it if you’re a fan of fast-paced shooters.

Sources: Respawn, Polygon, Eurogamer

New Nintendo 3DS Ends…in Japan

Recently, Nintendo has announced to halt production of the New Nintendo 3DS in Japan. This is based on a recent post on Nintendo‘s Japan website regarding the New Nintendo 3DS. The recently announced New Nintendo 2DS  will be taking over the production line instead. It is a sleeker model and has better firmware. In a comparison of the two systems, the new 2DS will have no gyroscopic features and of course, no 3D.

Reasons, why they are stopping 3DS production, is mostly because the fad is dying. Nobody is interested in playing games in 3D and rarely were games using the gyro feature. In fact, several of Nintendo‘s recent games for the system didn’t even have 3D support including Pokemon Sun and Moon and Super Mario Maker. Not only that, but it’s a more subtle way of saving money since gyroscopic features and 3D projecting screens would save Nintendo more money.

New Nintendo 3DS will still be made worldwide but this may be a sign that Nintendo will be moving away from 3D for their previous handhelds. Sales for the 2DS have been better than the New Nintendo 3DS. The Nintendo 2DS seems more popular as the Nintendo portable sold 490,000 units in Japan and 770,000 units in North America in the last fiscal year. North America shows a little more interest in the New 3DS hardware—400,000 sales in the last fiscal year.

Based on my opinion, I think this is the best move for Nintendo. I’ve rarely used the 3D capabilities because of the strain on my eyes and because it wasn’t very fun. It was a nice gimmick to have but didn’t really appeal to anybody in the long run. All people wanted was a fun hand-held system and the New Nintendo 2DS can still do that.

How do you feel about 3D gaming and if you owned a Nintendo 3DS, did you use the 3D often?

Sources:Artechnica

Nintendo JP

Polygon