Previous news post is redundant as I've been sober for long enough now. So yes, the mighty sword is mine. Best icon on the site.

S E XY DR A FA GH O NS

No, I didn't lose the job or anything but when I attended the induction on Monday, I overlooked one thing about them. I actually haven't started yet. When I went to the training place on Tuesday, they were asking me why I was there and I assumed I was meant to be there again. Unfortunately, I misunderstood one thing and I don't actually start anything until when they find me a placement ELSEWHERE. I just assumed we still had more to do at the training place itself but that's not so.

I apologise for building up hope here but shit happens, I guess. I should have waited beforehand but I was just too happy. I know I did wait before announcing that I had a girlfriend (well, that didn't go well in the end but you know what I mean) but that I wanted to make sure of. For the job, I thought I was secure after being considered a successful applicant at the place.

Oh well, I'm a few squares back now but I'm still waiting for this training place to tell me that I've got a job interview for a work placement. When, though? Could be anytime but really, the sooner the better. Since I'm back to where I was, I might as well enjoy the free time I still have so that's doing whatever I want such as finishing off Oblivion (it's a lot better than Morrowind) and writing more rants.

As for anything else coming up, just the same old Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas, even though I'm still doubtful about the latter. However, what makes the last quarter of this year different is my new cousin who is due to be born anytime soon. So of course, this is something to look forward to except for whatever name they give him/her as I've heard horrible ideas from my aunt so far.

One last thing, no rant tomorrow as I really need to take a break after tackling Activision. Not sure if I'll get one up the week after either since writer's block is hitting me. So maybe the next rant will be up on 9th November as I have a special one due for then. The other rants I'm wanting to write up, I just can't get myself into writing them up for the time being. Oh well, I'll get through them eventually.

(Latest gaming rant is still here for those who have yet to read it)

It finally happened. Almost two years after leaving college in 2007, I finally got myself into employment! So I went to the place today not expecting too much just yet, even though I had a good feeling about them. The interview went well and right at the end, the interviewer asked me "When can you start?" and my response was today. So today is the day I finally got myself into employment.

Of course, you'll be wondering what the job is. It's an apprenticeship for Business Admin which is what I've been trying to get for a while now. Not an actual job, even though I'll still have actual work in the programme but this is still something. It's actually the kind of job I've been looking for ages now so I'm pleased I finally got something, especially when between leaving college and now, I've mostly done nothing.

Sure, I've had some work placements which have helped me a lot but on the other hand, three crappy training courses which were of no use to me and a lot of staying home because I had nothing better to do. I needed to get something sooner than later. Ah well, the free time was good while it lasted.

Of course, less free time means less time to play PC games, write up rants and working on Flash (even though I haven't really done anything in a year now...) but it's for my future and at least I still have some time for myself so it's better than nothing. Infact, that free time may have been abolished right now if a few things worked out for me.

It may come to a surprise to you all that I almost had a girlfriend back in Summer. It probably sounds strange but the reason why I said almost is because while we declared our love to each other, we wanted to know each other a lot more before we officially declared ourselves as a couple. That's why I never even said a word about it here with one exception until now. I wanted to make sure since I didn't want to say it right away and end up disappointing everyone quite shortly after. It was just a few weeks ago when she said she wasn't too sure about our relationship for the time being. I was disappointed to hear it but I'm well aware these sort of things do happen in relationships. Whatever happens in the future, I'll just have to wait and see.

So yeah, that's how my life has been recently, most especially today when I truly started the next part of my life. Don't worry, I'll still be here on a regular basis. I just won't have as much spare time now.

[INDEX PAGE]

Previous rants:

Activision/Robert A. Kotick
Guitar Hero/Rock Band (Part 4)
The Sims
EA Sports
Electronic Arts
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You've heard most about Activision and Robert Kotick and how much of a disgrace to the gaming industry they are. Now...You're going to hear yet more about them as the one action they made towards one game I found to be so despicable, horrible, disgusting, disgraceful, and so sickening that it got a rant separate to the previous one.

Brutal Legend is an action-adventure game based on heavy metal music directed by Tim Schafer. I'm anticipating for this game as much as SSBB and MGS4 for those very reasons. Also, heavy metal and video games are two of my favourite things and not only that, this is a game directed by Tim Schafer. This guy has made/worked with several big titles such as The Secret of Monkey Island, Grim Fandango and Psychonauts, despite some of them suffering in poor sales.

Majesco, the publisher for Psychonauts had financial troubles from the poor sales for that game so when it came to Brutal Legend, they had to seek for another publisher and the first one that took them on was Activision who were interested at the time. It all seemed quite good since Tim Schafer had several games which didn't receive enough praise they deserved and a company like Activision would have given them better exposure.

Unfortunately, it all went on a bumpy ride once Activision lost interest in publishing Brutal Legend. EA then picked them up and while they're a bad company most of the time, they at least deserve some respect for willing to publish original titles. However, a few months after, Activision claimed they were still in negotiations with Double Fine over this game and THREATENED A LAWSUIT! BULLSHIT! They left the game behind due to lack of "exploitations" and didn't even care about it. They just wanted it back because they saw its increase in popularity and regretted dropping the title. You were too late to take it back Activision. That was your mistake and you should have lived with it. Too bad they didn't stop there.

The worst of this happened right after E3 2009 press conferences. Following Activision's threat to sue Double Fine for bullshit reasons, after acknowledging even more popularity for Brutal Legend and seeing a huge ass poster advertising the game, they became really jealous and decided to sue Double Fine for yet more bullshit reasons and even going as far as preventing the game from being released!!

You dirty, stuck-up, sadistic, SHIT-EATING COCKSUCKING BUTTFUCKING...If you've ever seen Nostalgia Critic's AVGN Wizard rant, you'll know the rest of the line. I don't mean to take an insult from someone else like that but there is nothing more fitting to describe them for this horrible action than that. This is the very reason why I detest Activision and Robert Kuntick and why whenever I look at EA or even 99.9% of the world population, I see halos on their heads.

It was obvious why Activision wanted Brutal Legend back. However, trying to prevent the game from ever being published? That is very VERY low! What pisses me off the most is that this game is likely to sell fairly well, unlike most of Tim Schafer's previous titles and it's a damn shame. The last thing Schafer needs is yet another big issue with his releases. The likely success of Brutal Legend will do good for Tim Schafer and NO-ONE should ever take that away just for childish excuses.

Activision were crying about how Brutal Legend needed so much money to develop and supposedly failed to meet one deadline. Well excuse Tim Schafer for actually putting heart into these video games rather than rushing to make a yearly game you fucktards. It was your fault in the first place for not even caring about the game afterwards. Also, the comment on failing to meet one deadline is laughable. Why can't these greedy fucks at least be grateful that they were never going to publish Duke Nukem Forever? Now a lawsuit for the problems with 3DRealms going out of business makes some sense but to take a game back they lost interest in only to want it back after acknowledging its hype? No words can describe how pathetic Activision and Robert Kuntick truly are.

What really pissed me off the most is that if Activision actually succeeded and Brutal Legend would never see the day of release as a result, that would have been it for Tim Schafer's games or at least not until ages like the time gap between Grim Fandango and Psychonauts. We would have had to thank these motherfucking cocksucking scumbags for losing a potentially great title as well as destroying any light there would have been for Psychonauts 2.

Fortunately, Tim Schafer and Double Fine weren't going to back down from this. They fought their way to defend their title from Activision and made sure the public would still get their game which they desire to play and for this, they are very respectful in my books, unlike that menacing Kotick.

As you can see, this is why I truly detest Activision and Robert Kotick to oblivion! This is why they don't deserve any respect from me, the fans of Tim Schafer, anyone who acknowledges the heart of gaming...As a matter of fact, WHO THE HELL would even give them any respect after this? The only reasons would be for Guitar Hero and Call of Duty but besides that, there's nothing for them to make them respectful.

As for Tim Schafer and everyone at Double Fine, best of luck for the release of Brutal Legend which is to come out sometime this week. Whatever praise you get for this game, you rightfully earned it for the heart and soul you have clearly shown you put into making this game. Sadly, I don't own an Xbox 360 or PS3 right now but as soon as I get a HDTV and either console, I'll be sure to get it right away. Of course, whatever future projects you have in mind, I'll be willing to hear out for them, even though I would like the next project to be the sequel to Psychonauts considering the ending that game had.

To Activision and Robert Kotick, FUCK YOU! You may have failed to take Brutal Legend back but this is a huge scar on your company's reputation and many gamers such as myself are not likely to forgive you. We'll put every effort into making sure our money doesn't fall into your hands.

Whew, I'm glad that's over with.

[INDEX PAGE]

Previous rants:

Guitar Hero/Rock Band (Part 4)
The Sims
EA Sports
Electronic Arts
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
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NOTE: I'm well aware that Activision have merged with Blizzard to become Activision Blizzard but regardless, this rant focuses more on the Activision side. Anything Blizzard-related is left out due to not covering that area very well for the time being. Maybe there'll be rant on Blizzard themselves at a later point or maybe not. It all depends how I feel in the near future. ANYWAY...

Boy oh boy oh boy. If you thought my rage from the bullshit with Virtual Console, Wii games and EA in general were bad, you have seen nothing until now. Activision is the real deal for the BULLSHIT in the gaming industry, most especially for their actions over the last few years. Yes, this rant contains excessive swearing and CAP LOCKS, surprisingly unlike most of my written rants so far.

If you're not too familiar with their history, then it might come to a surprise that they formed in 1979 and became the very first third-party gaming developers/distributors. The reason for forming the company to begin with was due to a dispute with the programmers and how Atari treated them at the time. Activision even earned respect for the right reasons during the 1980's for making Pitfall which is said to be a strong influence for the very early days of platformer games, possibly even an influence on Super Mario Bros.

You're probably thinking "How can a company who made a huge contribution to the early days of video gaming fuck up so badly in the later years?" Back when they formed, the company wasn't run by a dickhead known as Robert Kotick who is an evil man. This horrible excuse of a human being didn't become the CEO of Activision until 1991. Now to be fair, the company didn't start becoming terrible right away. Infact, they've done some good in the past such as making the 3D remake of Battlezone (very underrated FPS-RTS game and is one of the very few things that I liked about the company) and publishing most Quake titles.

When did things start to go wrong? Hmm, what about the Tony Hawk series? I'll admit, I did play the first game in the series and enjoyed it but never picked up any of the later titles and when looking at the series now, that was a good thing. Sure, the first game lacked a few things such as customization but ah well, that's something I can easily live without, especially when I lost interest in skateboarding years ago.

The problem with the Tony Hawk games is yearly releases à la EA Sports' FIFA, Madden and such. Although, there was an exception in 2008 when there was only a mere spin-off release but the rest still could have cut down with the amount of sequels, especially in some games they actually RECYCLE skate parks from other games!

It doesn't end there! While the Tony Hawk's yearly releases are what EA Sports do with certain series of games, this isn't even the worst actions from Activision. They, more especially Robert Kotick didn't become complete and utter douchebags until the current generation. What appeared to have corrupted their minds entirely are Guitar Hero and Call of Duty. Not saying these games are bad, especially when maybe if I ever gave some of the Call of Duty games a try, I might actually enjoy them but I digress.

Ever since they released sequels for Guitar Hero and Call of Duty in the recent years and the franchises became increasingly popular, Activision knew they could make millions from these games and begun making at least one sequel each year or rather several titles in a short amount of time for Guitar Hero. Sadly, it's become clear as day that they're only doing this to make as much money as they can and making sure Robert Kotick has a lot more than enough money to afford a mansion and a fucking Ferrari. Infact, Kotick openly made this statement on video games which had little to no guarantee on having many sequels:

"Don't have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million franchises."

I swear to God, this was NOT made up! This is an actual statement from Bobby Kuntick and this proved that he only cares about the money and not whether the games will be a real success. THIS MOTHERFUCKER could care less if the next Guitar Hero game was literally a PIECE OF TURD he took. If it's shit that sells gold, that's all he'll care about, nothing more. This is THE reason as to why these greedy bastards care about Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk, Crash and Spyro but completely ditch Brutal Legend, Ghostbusters and Riddick despite their hype.

Just seeing Activision "exploiting" the Crash and Spyro franchises truly sickens me. Sure, if they didn't pick up those games, someone else would but the point still stands with Activision's true intentions. What really disgusts me about how they're treating Crash and Spyro is that they were two games series I loved when I was a child, more especially Crash since Crash Bandicoot was the very first PS1 game I ever played and that console made a huge impact on my gaming interests. A decade after that great moment, the franchise has been utterly destroyed and the chances of Crash to make a return to form is pretty much good as gone.

As for ditching non-exploitable games, this is another great example that the fuckers at Activision don't care about the quality and abandoned them simply because there was no potential abuse of making sequels for these games every year. For your information fucktards at Activision, most especially Bobby Kuntick, games like Brutal Legend and Ghostbusters were NEVER made to have annual releases like your precious Guitar Hero and Call of Duty! THIS IS NOT HOW GAMES SHOULD BE TREATED! These games were made to give the public a brand new game to enjoy themselves playing to, not putting as much money as possible in your fucking pockets! Care more about the heart and soul into making these games.

That's not even the lowlight of the whole company. Even after they claimed to have no interest in publishing Brutal Legend, they later insisted on taking it back due to its popularity from the public afterwards. Although the publishing issues have been solved, this still pisses me off even today. Those money whores only wanted Brutal Legend back just because they knew the game would put yet more money in their pockets.

You may be thinking "Hang on, how could Activision make any exploitations on Brutal Legend?" Word came from Double Fine that those greedy fucktards wanted to make a Guitar Hero sequel BASED on Brutal Legend. FUCK YOU ACTIVISION, YOU DO NOT TARNISH OTHER GAMES LIKE THIS JUST TO BENEFIT YOURSELVES, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT WAS MADE BY A VERY TALENTED DIRECTOR! Take note that while they tried to make a Guitar Hero sequel from this game, they later claimed there was no potential to exploit the game so they left it behind and allowed another publisher to take care of the game while they were wiping their arses with dollar bills. Maybe Tim Schafer refused such game to come out and if he did, he has earned so much respect from me for that.

Every gamer is aware of the extreme hype of Modern Warfare 2 and since it's become so anticipated that Activision went and upped the RRP in the UK by £15, making it £55 due to more shit no-one cares about or even believe and that's just the standard edition. It really kills how the UK residents are penalized for such bullshit reasons and there hasn't been a game in the retail stores sold that high since the N64 days when some games actually went as high as £60. The highest one game should be right now is £40 but on the other hand, if they really want to sell Modern Warfare for that much, my advise to all Call of Duty fans is to wait until you can find a used copy. The other advice would be to wait until it goes down in price but of course, too many are desperate to get it when it comes out so no point in arguing that. OR, if you can somehow purchase the game for the price it should be at, no complaints there.

It didn't even stop there. Activision was asked a few questions by a guy named Tony Gikas about how they handled their business and Bobby Kuntick's response to the question regarding prices for new games was this:

"And Tony, you know if it was left to me, I would raise the prices even further."

YOU SWINE, THIS IS TRULY DESPICABLE! I don't care if this was just a joke, a comment like that only makes you look more of a disgrace than you already are. It's like he wants all the money from the consumers just for his sake. Goddamn, you truly are a selfish bastard Bobby. Even if you were joking, it's clear as day you want games to cost more for...Isn't is obvious by now?

For someone like Robert Kuntick who's on thin ice with all these controversial statements on the gaming industry, the last thing he should do is making such a joke. There was a huge backlash from this and joke or not he deserved every single hate comment for that. Do you see other well hated people like George W. Bush making jokes about anything that can make them look like worse individuals than they already are? Best be careful with what you say next time Bobby.

Not only that, he's also wanting Sony to lower the prices of their consoles and if they don't, he won't give Sony anymore support. This is really a lot coming from Mr I want to raise game prices. Sony already brought the PS3 down to a reasonable price and he thinks the prices need to go lower just to please him? IS HE EVEN AWARE OF THE CAPABILITY OF PLAYING FUCKING BLU-RAY ON THE PS3?! What a douchebag, the prices for PS3 and the PSP (not PSP Go!) are fine right now for what they are.

Another thing that makes Bobby Kuntick a wretched being is how he treats his workers. He has gone as far as saying, ""We are very good at keeping people focused on the deep depression." WHAT A SACK OF SHIT! Which kind of place would want to make people as miserable as possible? It's like he wants to treat his workers as slaves (except they get paid) and this is the last thing the head of a company should do in business. If I ever worked at Activision (god forbid), I would be seeking for a job elsewhere immediately but here I am still seeking for a first actual job. *sigh* What a shithole this country is.

It's not just Robert Kuntick who's a complete twat, there was actually a statement from Michael Sportouch (Senior Director of Guitar Hero) that retailers should stop selling their rivalry products just because they don't sell as many copies as Guitar Hero. Sorry dipshit, it simply doesn't work that way. There is no way in hell you can force ANY shop to decide what they can sell and what they can't and why he even made such a thought is beyond any sane person's mind. Other companies deserve a chance to sell some products in the gaming industry, unless you're EA Sports or Activision who milk the fuck out of their games to get as much cash as possible. So Michael Sportouch, consider yourself a selfish bastard and a representative that it's not just Robert Kuntick who's a complete jerk in Activision.

In conclusion, Activision may have been the very first third-party company in the gaming industry but that doesn't excuse them for their recent behavior. Tony Hawk, Call of Duty and Guitar Hero have become huge cash-in attempts and they are only keeping those games for that very reason. Any games that aren't going to sell billions will be ditched by the company due to lack of potential to "exploit" them.

As for Robert Kotick, he is the scum of the earth. He is one of the people I despise the most in the entire world for tarnishing video games and business in general. For clearly stating he wants to exploit video games for cash and won't be willing to give other games with little to no chance of surviving, he should be banned from contributing to video games entirely as well as not being involved in business. It's obvious he's only here for the money so do we really want him hurting business even more?

Because of Activision's huge success and with this cocksucking scumbag around, I fear for the future of video gaming. However, the more game companies that know not to become like Kuntick, the better. As a result of these actions, I never want to buy another game of Activision's, unless HE is no longer running the business or it's a second hand copy to show less support towards them.

I'm not done yet, though. There's still one particular topic that hasn't been covered in this rant. That one move from Activision that has triggered me to hate the bastards to hell and despising them more than any other game company out there. Stay tuned and let's hope I live through the next one. In the meantime, enjoy Nostalgia Critic's thoughts on the #1 douchebag and try to resist yourself from punching the monitor after seeing his ugly face:

[INDEX PAGE]

Previous rants:

The Sims
EA Sports
Electronic Arts
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Guitar Hero/Rock Band (Part 3)
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You might be thinking "Hey Bahamut, I thought you were done with ranting on Guitar Hero and Rock Band." I thought I established enough with what's wrong with the craze but as a matter of fact, a fair amount of things were left out because I either forgot or simply didn't bother mentioning them at the time.

Another thing I have to say is that I actually haven't completely lost interest in these games as I stated a few times before. There have been two occasions recently where there were people around and I was requested to play a few tracks on Guitar Hero III. I decided to go along for the heck of it and I have to admit, I did have fun playing certain tracks again. However, most of my gripes with the games still stands. If you checked back, I never said the games themselves are bad but only had my interest killed up until recently.

The recent talks about the games in real life have given myself some thought on getting Rock Band sometime. Whether I'll get the first or second game I'm not sure yet but at least all the DLC is available for both games. And yes, I'm aware of my rants on the DLC expenses but I'll only buy tracks that I like. No good in buying tracks by artists who I don't even like such as blink-182 and Evanescence (if you like them, I have no problems with that but that's not the issue here).

Of course, if I get another game, I definitely won't be extremely obsessed with it like some who aim to get 100% on Expert for every track available. Sure, I might give myself a challenge by trying to do better with playing songs on Hard/Expert but it won't be anything extreme. There's a difference between giving yourself a challenge by trying to play songs on higher difficulty and playing until you got 100% for every track on Expert mode.

Anyway, that's enough about me. Now to explain the other things wrong with the craze that I previously forgot to mention. To start off, if you've heard of Guitar Hero Smash Hits then you'll know how utterly ridiculous this release was. It was nothing more than re-releasing a selection of songs from every game before World Tour. The only reason why this was done was to make songs from the previous titles playable with drums and vocals. Instead of making a huge DLC pack for the newer games, they had to go and make a whole new game. That is really low of Activision to make a quick buck for this shit load of fuck.

Another problem with Guitar Hero specifically is the technical issues with the instruments. Apart from Rock Band peripherals not working with Guitar Hero games and vice-versa (this problem appears to have been solved, though), Guitar Hero has had a few mishaps with their drum peripherals. When World Tour just came out, people were experiencing problems with playing the drums when it was failing to register hard notes. If you never bought this game when it first came out, you can easily feel how frustrating it must have been for those who were having such troubles with the game and in the instrument. I'd sure as hell be frustrated if it ever happened to me.

The other drum problem on Guitar Hero's side is with the latest game when you play on Expert. Supposedly on Expert, the game thinks you're playing Expert+ and the drums won't respond well. It really makes you wonder how Activision (or rather Neversoft) overlooked these two issues when they were developing the game. You'd think at least someone at the office would bring these problems up and try and fix them immediately but they didn't. Perhaps these games were rushed so they could be released in time to make as much money as possible. Shame on you Activision and Neversoft.

As for Rock Band, they have been milking their franchise as well but it's not gone as far as Guitar Hero. While the occasional spin-off title like The Beatles Rock Band is perfectly acceptable, does there have to be a LEGO ROCK BAND?! Maybe I just don't agree with the idea of Lego video games, especially when there's a whole series of them but really now? Lego Rock Band sounds plain silly.

The other main problem with Rock Band are the extremely ridiculous release dates for non-American territories. The first title had the PS3 and 360 platforms released in November 2007, 18th December for PS2 and then 22nd June 2008 for the Wii. For Europe, it was Xbox 360 only from its release in 23rd May up until 22nd September when they finally got it out for PS2, PS3 and Wii. Although there are three different developers for Rock Band (one for PS3 and 360, another for PS2 and Wii and the last for Japan), they should have put the effort into releasing the game on all platforms simultaneously. Despite getting it after Europe, Australia had Rock Band released on all platforms simultaneously. EA have the decency to release EA Sports games and movie-based games on the same day for all platforms!

It didn't stop with the first Rock Band. While the gap lengths between the American and European releases were much smaller for the sequel, they failed to release the game on all platforms simultaneously once again. European Xbox 360 players only had to wait 2 months after the American release while it's taken 4 months, 5 months and a terrible 10 months for PS2, PS3 and Wii respectively. As a matter of fact, Rock Band 2 on the Wii isn't even out yet and guess what? The Beatles Rock Band on the Wii came out BEFORE and that's a newer game!

Speaking of The Beatles Rock Band, that game was actually released on all four consoles simultaneously worldwide. Although 9/9/09 was a "Beatles Day" (isn't that meant to be 10th July?) where the video game and the remastering of all their studio albums were released, it really makes you wonder why there was a lack of consistency with releases for Rock Band 1 and 2. Who knows, maybe they'll do a better job with Rock Band 3 but it still seems like they're penalising non-American territories.

The only other things in mind are Rock Band Unplugged for the PSP and the recent controversy with Kurt Cobain on Guitar Hero 5. PSP lacks guitar, drums and vocal peripherals which makes the gameplay different to the main titles. However, when you look at it, it just seems like a poor cash-in attempt and nothing more. It makes sense to have a Guitar Hero game on the DS (even though there's a few too many) but these kind of games for the PSP? Doesn't sound like a great idea.

As for Kurt Cobain's appearance on Guitar Hero 5, this was actually going to be covered on the rant I was meant to make before this but due to lack of sufficient sources for the subject, the rant on how deceased people are treated in video games is put on held for the time being.

So that concludes all the missing points on the wrongdoings with Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Like I previously stated, I have regained some interest in these games but my points still stand with what's wrong with these games. Hopefully that's the last time I have to mention these games for a long time with the exception of the next two rants (NOT GUITAR HERO RANTS!). Be prepared, the next two rants will contain extreme rage and I might explode from it.

[INDEX PAGE]

Previous rants:

EA Sports
Electronic Arts
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Guitar Hero/Rock Band (Part 3)
Guitar Hero/Rock Band (Part 2)
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This is a gaming franchise we should all be familiar with, especially when it became extremely popular at the start of the 2000's with its debut. As a life simulation game where you can create your own characters in the house, design the house how you want it to be and having the opportunity to give them commands, it only made sense for a game like The Sims to become critically acclaimed.

I'll admit, I wasn't a big fan of The Sims but my parents got me the PS2 version of it ages ago. Of course, I may have been better off with the PC platform but that's how life goes. Although, the PS2 port didn't make you worry about expansion packs so to mess around with the family I created, it was fine.

Speaking of expansion packs, The Sims have a huge problem with them and that's having far too many of them. While it's only natural for a company to make more content in a few expansion packs, was it really necessary for Maxis to make SEVEN of them for the first game? Each one was £10 (possibly more) back then so that was £40 for the main game and then £10 for each expansion pack, making it at least £100 in total. Really. they should have reduced the amount of expansion packs by having up to three for each major title. As far as I know, no other game needed seven goddamn expansion packs for one game, so why The Sims?

It didn't stop there with the ridiculous amount of expansion packs, Maxis went even further with the sequel. Not only were there EIGHT expansions packs in total and each of them costing £20 RRP, there were also TEN "stuff packs" consisting of extra parts to use for The Sims 2 and each of them were £10 RRP. Again, way too many releases for one game and the most there should have been was three expansions and two stuff packs. Of course, that's still quite a lot but better that than eighteen additional packs.

The other problem here is the prices for them. No matter how much content you've put on the expansion packs, £20 is really too much, especially when the main title was originally at least £30. As for the parts pack, no more than £5 would have been fine. Since those aren't the prices Maxis thought would be best for them, to own everything in The Sims 2, the total could have been £250 if one bought each game on the day of release. TOTAL FUCKING RIP OFF MAXIS!

Now that The Sims 3 is out, Maxis are no longer making any more additional packs for The Sims 2 but now they're going to focus on expansion packs for The Sims 3. The third major title only came out earlier this year and now they're getting their first expansion pack in November. No stuff packs have been announced just yet but here's hoping Maxis will be more reasonable with expansion packs as well as making stuff packs DLC and if a fee is required for them, at least give them a fair price.

That's not all for the wrongdoings with The Sims franchise, there's one particular spin-offs which are Nintendo DS and Wii only called MySims. First of all, what an extremely horrible name. The amount of My_____ names I've come across over the past years are an atrocity and it all started with MySpace which was a stupid name to begin with. This is what I call the MySpace Disease (credit goes to Linkara for the similar idea of his own disease terms in his reviews).

Second, MySims is nothing more than an alternative to Mii characters as well as being a Sims game that's suitable for kids but looking at the gameplay footage, it's a good thing this is just a spin-off series. And yes, I do mean series as alongside the main MySims, there are four more games for the series and one of them I still can't get over what Maxis did and that is making a Mario Kart clone. Seriously, just looking at it for a few seconds was enough to tell it was a blatant Mario Kart ripoff. Why on earth did Maxis think this was a good idea when the same target audience most likely had Mario Kart WIi already? They could also do with slowing down with the amount of titles MySims will get as five titles in two years isn't a good sign at all.

In conclusion, The Sims as games themselves aren't bad, although MySims is exempt from that, but the amount of additional packs Maxis have made for the first two major titles is ridiculous, especially how much the recommended retail prices are. The Sims 3 will most likely suffer the same fate, even though they should consider DLC for the stuff packs and try not making too many expansion packs. After all, it should be quality over quantity. It's reasons like this that make me glad I was never a big fan of The Sims to begin with.

Hello, this is Bahamut, the writer of the series of rants known as Gaming Bullshit Rants (formerly Gaming Industry Bullshit Rants from 13th April - 24th September 2009). A few months before I started writing up these rants, I had thoughts on how many things are wrong with the video games industry and video games in general. I intended to make a list entitled "Top 10 things that are wrong with the video games industry today", but after reading and watching rants, I thought I should make a series of rants myself and here I am.

My main inspirations for these rants are TheArchfiend's video rants, Omega-2's text rants (a real life friend of mine) and The Angry Video Game Nerd and You Know What's Bullshit videos by James Rolfe. Although I mentioned two video makers, I have no intentions to make any video-based rants myself as I feel I don't have the right ranting voice as these guys do as well as a few others on top of my head. You can easily agree or disagree with that thought if you've seen any of my flashes on Newgrounds but at the end of the day, it's my decisions on what I should do with these rants.

Right now, these rants are exclusive to Newgrounds and Blogspot, so you're talking to the real deal right here.

Don't get me wrong, I love video games and of course, 99.9% of us do but unfortunately, there is far too much bullshit in the video games industry and with video games which resulted in myself having thoughts on the aforementioned lists as well as creating these rants later on. Usually there's a new rant posted weekly but some take longer due to either not being as motivated, needing more time to do some research or there's other things planned for the time being. Of course, having a writer's block is another thing to fear.

There's a possible chance of running out of ideas in the near future and when it happens, new rants will only be posted whenever something new comes up. All suggestions for new rant ideas are welcome but please keep in mind that I do have a lot of things to rant on and may already have your suggestion on the list. However, you're still free to suggest any ideas for me incase I actually overlooked something which is only natural considering the gaming world is humongous but please bear in mind that:

A) I'm trying to keep web-related rants to a minimum so I'd appreciate it if suggestions aren't flooded with shitty game reviewers on YouTube;
B) These rants are more focused on the recent years of gaming rather than the past and the earliest I'd like to talk about is the start of the seventh generation. However, I'll make a few exceptions from time to time.

Another thing, there are some topics which will simply be not ranted on at all. The one topic I will not go over on is Jack Thompson simply because not only will you find thousands of rants on him already but he's been disbarred and is no longer a problem to the gaming industry. The only other one that's not to be ranted on is the Irate Gamer, although that might end up changing if he manages to do something so horrific that it makes my blood boil (not too literally, of course since this is only the internet). However, it's a no for now.

THE RANTS

01 - 14/04/09 - Nintendo DSi
02 - 20/04/09 - Nintendo Wii
03 - 27/04/09 - Virtual Console
04 - 11/05/09 - Wii games
05 - 18/05/09 - Wii _____ games
06 - 25/05/09 - Nintendo DS
07 - 08/06/09 - Nintendo: Overview
08 - 15/06/09 - Guitar Hero/Rock Band (Part 1)
09 - 22/06/09 - Guitar Hero/Rock Band (Part 2)
10 - 20/07/09 - Guitar Hero/Rock Band (Part 3)
11 - 28/08/09 - The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
12 - 08/09/09 - Electronic Arts
13 - 18/09/09 - EA Sports
14 - 24/09/09 - The Sims
15 - 01/10/09 - Guitar Hero/Rock Band (Part 4)
16 - 05/10/09 - Activision/Robert A. Kotick
17 - 12/10/09 - Brutal Legend's publishing issues
18 - 09/11/09 - Pokémon (Part 1)
19 - 12/11/09 - Pokémon (Part 2)
20 - 23/11/09 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
21 - 07/12/09 - Credits
22 - 14/12/09 - Nintendo DSi XL
-------------------------
The introduction page will be updated whenever necessary.

- Bahamut

Previous rants:

Electronic Arts
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Guitar Hero/Rock Band (Part 3)
Guitar Hero/Rock Band (Part 2)
Guitar Hero/Rock Band (Part 1)
Nintendo: Overview
Nintendo DS
Wii _____ Games
Wii games
Virtual Console
Nintendo Wii
Nintendo DSi
--------------------
You've heard about EA Games themselves, now listen to what's bad about EA Sports. We all know what EA Sports are like with their annual releases. Now I'm not a fan of sports game and if someone else enjoys playing them, that's fine. I'm not going to say "Why play a sports video game when you could do this outside" since would I really want to try extreme sports with little to no practice? XD What's truly wrong with EA Sports is how they release their titles EVERY FUCKING YEAR with very little changes, most notably FIFA and Madden.

The annual releases from EA Sports is perhaps one of the lowest forms of scum in the whole gaming industry. Releasing the same goddamn games every year at full price for games which have very little differences to the previous title. It's even worse when there are hundreds of thousands who are willing to buy this shit yearly. No, this isn't made up, it's actually true since many FIFA/Madden titles have accomplished Platinum/Greatest Hits status. It's even more depressing when other games which deserve more recognition such as Tombi and Psychonauts don't even achieve this status, but that's another story.

The amount of copies each game are sold are part of the problem with the yearly releases. With getting aforementioned statuses for selling well, it only encourages EA Sports to keep making these games every year. It doesn't help either when supposedly these games HAVE to be made so often under contract with the NFL and FIFA. Sounds like both EA Sports and the football companies (the term football applies to both British and American here) want to suck as much money possible from their customers, doesn't it?

These games have become exploited so much that even if John Madden, the person the Madden series was named after retired from football altogether, EA Sports STILL insist on slapping his name on every professional football video game. Although he must have agreed with EA Sports to use his name on their games, you have to feel sorry for the man when a company still insists on exploiting his name even after retirement. It seems no matter what happens to the man, they still want to put his name on these games every year. Do they even have any respect towards him? It's not as bad as how EA Games are treating Tolkkien's Lord of the Rings franchise but still, this point stands.

The worst hasn't even been mentioned. Alongside annual releases of Madden, there's ANOTHER American Football video game series also made by EA Sports. This is no joke, have a look at NCAA Football. What are the real differences between this and Madden? Umm, this is college football and not professional? That's right, this is the same thing except with completely different teams. EA Sports are going as far as making TWO game series of American Football running at the same time with different teams.

The only reason why there's both Madden NFL and NCAA Football games is because of two different companies. There may be those who care more about college football than professional but still, is this necessary? This is money grabbing and plastic wasting to the fucking extreme. They could have found some way to merge the two into one game.

These games would be a lot more tolerable if they were released every few years and not every damn year. Whatever little changes they'd want to make in their games could have easily been saved for whenever they release their next installment and the differences between two games would have been a lot more significant. Whenever a new season starts, why not make a DLC pack to represent the latest teams? You don't see Super Smash Bros. releasing a new game every time Nintendo come up with a brand new idea and name it Super Smash Bros. 09, 10, etc and that's one of the many reasons why a franchise like Super Smash Bros. is highly respected amongst gamers.

Another thing that's rather annoying with EA Sports is how there's also an EA Sports Big. This additional name is rather pointless since they're still games by EA Sports. The only difference is EA Sports Big focuses more on extreme sports but the additional name still isn't necessary. It's like Square-Enix making an additional name for their online games and calling it Square-Enix Online. Besides the name, the other problem with EA Sports Big is making "simpler arcade style" FIFA games. This brings the question, why can't they just make an arcade mode in the main FIFA games? Do they really have to make another FIFA title just to have an alternative gameplay style which could easily fit in the main titles?

On the bright side, EA Sports Big have at least made some games that I enjoyed which are the SSX titles. As stated earlier, this is an extreme sport and it would takes years of practice to become a professional snowboarder in real life so a video game based on snowboarding is a nice substitute if you're not the sort of person who'll ever be able to compete in this sport in the outside world. Another thing that EA Sports Big should be given a pat on the back on for is not releasing their titles yearly. It's actually been 2 years since the last SSX title was released and I wouldn't mind a new title in a few years time. Now why can't all of EA Sports' titles be like this?

In conclusion, EA Sports have blatantly proven to be complete and utter scumbags in the video game industry and the fact that not only will they still keep making yearly games but they sell extremely well is very sickening. This has to be one of the lowest points of the gaming industry. Also, while the additional title of EA Sports Big being rather redundant, they have at least made some worthwhile titles and don't push their money-grabbing schemes to the extreme for SSX, NBA Street and any other games series of theirs. Still, that doesn't compensate the terrible actions the company has made.

There's one more EA rant to go, so stay tuned for whenever I'm not playing too much Oblivion and pay enough attention to write up the next rant. And no, the EA Sports rant was only delayed because of my previous news post which I wanted displayed on my main page for almost a week. Infact, I haven't even been playing Oblivion for a week now. Maybe later tonight, however since I stopped playing it temporarily to make way to watch through the entire Red Dwarf series.