NEWS: Monday Update

Hi everyone. Bit of exciting news for you all this week, I'm heading back to Australia on Friday! Just for ten days though, a little bit of a holiday to see everyone again. Also, when I get back to Japan, I'm going to head up to Izu for a bit of a beach getaway (it's not a real summer vacation until I've been to the beach!)

As such, don't expect too much in the way of updates for the coming month! My Escapist news stories will also probably see a bit of a decline.

Last week was my "training week" for my day job as an English teacher. It was good to see all the Nasushiobara ALTs again, and to cap it off we had a poker night on Saturday. It's a very nice change of pace from my regular teaching work, and a good lead in to my lengthy summer vacation.

I bought a car this week! It may just be a Kei car, and it may have only cost me $500, but it's a car nonetheless. Even if I end up going back home in March, I'll have still saved money over renting every month, and if I do decide to stay another year, I'll end up saving a LOT of money.

On that front, it's looking more and more likely I will end up staying here one more year. Next year, my car, and my apartment's start up fees will be completely paid off, and with my current work pace at the Escapist I reckon I can save up a LOT of money. I do miss being home, and it's particularly hard with several of my best friends in the country having left Japan earlier this year, but at this stage in my life it may be best to just burrow down, save up a wad of cash, and then blow it all on a big vacation (or... sensibly save it with the intention of possibly buying a house...). It would be nice to visit all my friends in America...

My new car

Anyway, here are the last couple of week's stories (sorry about no update last week):

• Martian Manhunter Joins The Injustice: Gods Among Us Roster

• Evo 2013 Champions Revealed

• American McGee Cancels His OZombie Kickstarter

• Oculus Wants To Release The Rift For Free

• Good Old Games: Pirates Are Our Competition, Not Steam

• Skyrim Mod Adds Dishonored's Signature Abilities

• State of Decay PC Version Features Exclusive Enhancements

• Team Fortress 2 Update Kills Idle Servers

• League of Legends Unleashes Spirit Guard Udyr

• Battlefield 4's Buildings Have Advanced Falling-Over Mechanics

• 7 Days to Die Is DayZ Crossed With Minecraft

• Dead Rising 3 Ditches The Race Against The Clock

• How The Stick of Truth's Ambition Got Out of Control

• Street Fighter Live Action TV Show Starts Filming

• New Technology Lets You Physically Feel Virtual Objects

• Gearbox Announces HD Remakes of Homeworld 1 And 2

• Borderlands 2 Getting Level Cap Increase, Extra Missions, Raid Bosses

• Saints Row IV Had to Drop Bollywood Dance Number Ending

• Battlefield 4 Singleplayer Campaign Details

• First Saints Row IV DLC Detailed And Dated

• Nvidia Shield Ships On July 31

• Microsoft Vows To Fight Government Spying Via Kinect

• Nintendo Stock at a 2 Year High

• All Left 4 Dead 2 Maps Soloed On Expert By Crazy Person

• Pokemon Dev's New Game Combines Horse Riding and Solitaire

• EA Loses Lawsuit To Original Madden Creator

• Eidos Founder: Square Enix Needs to Learn How to Sell Games

• Saints Row IV Season Pass Includes Anal Probe Weapon

• "Project Logan" Brings Direct X 11 To Smartphones

• Super Smash Bros. 3DS And Wii U Drops Story Mode

• Ace Attorney 5 DLC Adds a Full New Case

• Don Mattrick Details His Plans to Turn Zynga Around

• Activision Blizzard to Buy Out Vivendi's Shares

• Battlefield 4's Battlelog is a Seamless Second Screen Experience

• Xbox 360 Gets Indie Self Publishing Too

• Saints Row IV Refused Classification in Australia (Again)

Top stories:

• Fez Dev Tells Media Member To Kill Himself

Fez director Phil Fish

• Skyrim Mod: Falskaar Adds 20 Hours of Gameplay
  

Okay guys, that's it from me for this week! Be sure to subscribe to my twitter for up-to-date news and blog updates, my youtube channel for gaming videos, and check back here every Saturday for a roundup of my Escapist news pieces!

NEWS: Sunday Update

PHEW! It's been a couple weeks since I last updated the blog! Really sorry about that, I've been in over my head at both of my jobs. At school, it's now week three of four straight weeks of elementary school. Anyone who's ever taught it knows that it's fun, but it's so exhausting! As for the Escapist, I've been commissioned to write a feature article about the history of mechs in videogames. Look forward to seeing that by the end of this week.

Last week, I went to Nasu Highland Park. It's a theme park near where I live that I shied away from going to for the longest time, because a friend of mine who has lived in Japan a lot longer than me told me it was "shit" and to "not bother." I'm really glad I disregarded that advice, because it turned out to be one of the best themepark experiences I've ever had! Sure, it wasn't as glitzy or glamorous as Disneyland, but it was half the price, had little to no lines, and still had some pretty freaking sweet rollercoasters.

Check out this video my friend Jerry made about the whole experience:

On to the last couple week's news posts! Sorry to give you such a big dump all at once:

• Xbox One's Launch Titles Include Dead Rising 3, Killer Instinct
• A Link Between Worlds Is Not a Sequel, But Not a Remake Either
• Xbox One Games Will Still be Playable When Servers Shut Down
• The Witcher 3 Features 36 Alternate Endings
• Update: Xbox One E3 Demos May Have Been On Windows 7
• Mad Max Won't be Set in Australia
• Smash Bros. Director Is Stressed Out Deciding The Roster
• 3DS System Update Brings New StreetPass Games
• Screen Australia Injects $6 Million Into Dying Games Industry
• Rumor: Game Sharing Coming To Steam
• The LEGO Movie Assembles in 2014
• Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition Pulled From Stores
• Adam Orth To Give Speech On Online Toxicity
• DoTA 2 Ditches Beta Keys
• Bethesda Hasn't Given up Hope on Wii U, Vita
• Dragon Quest X is Coming to PC
• Wolfenstein's Hardest Difficulty Will Make You Cry Blood
• Armikrog Wii U Version is on The Table
• Undertale Dev: "Every Monster Should Feel Like an Individual"
• Update: Saints Row IV Refused Classification in Australia
• State of Decay Also Refused Classification in Australia
• Smash Bros. Director Justifies New Character Choices
• Broforce Unites 80's Action Bros In 2D Side-scrolling Broship
• Blood Dragon Sells Over Half a Million Copies
• Xbox One Designed "With Advertising in Mind"
• Kirobo Will be Japan's First Robot Astronaut
• BioShock Infinite DLC Info Coming Soon
• Nintendo Loses Complaint Against "wiiu.com" Owner
• Former Dev: WoW Has Killed the MMO Genre
• Diablo III Console Version Makes it Easier to Get Loot
• Walking Dead: 400 Days Out This Week, Free on Telltale Store
• Minecraft Version 1.6 Out Now, Adds Horses
• Worms Dev: Why Bother With DLC When You Can Have Mod Support?
• Journey Dev is Excited For Kinect 2.0
• Real-Life Resident Evil Simulator Comes To Universal Studios Japan
• Natural Selection 2 Adds Female Marines
• Pokemon X and Y Trailer Shows Off New Features
• American McGee on Publishers: "News Flash: Things Cost Money"
• Final Fantasy VII is Now on Steam (But Not in Japan)
• New Study: No Link Between Games and Anti-Social Behavior
• ESEA Faces Lawsuit Over Bitcoin Mining Scandal
• Skullgirls PC Beta is Now Avalaible
• Satoru Iwata Refuses to Layoff Nintendo Employees
• Razer CEO: No PS3 Accessories Because I Barely Play Mine
• Microsoft Struggles to Adapt Xbox One to Japan

Top three stories:

Ellen Page: Naughty Dog Ripped Off My Likeness

Nintendo Fans Fight For Region-Free Consoles

League of Legends Oceanic Servers Now Available

Okay guys, that's it from me for this week! Be sure to subscribe to my twitter for up-to-date news and blog updates, my youtube channel for gaming videos, and check back here every Saturday for a roundup of my Escapist news pieces!

NEWS: Saturday Update

E3 is finally over. What a crazy week it's been. This was my first E3 that I covered for the Escapist and the increased workload I had to deal with was intense. It should all pay off in the end though (literally, as I get paid per article).

So what's my opinion on E3 this year? Obviously, there is the Microsoft thing, which completely baffles me. I am somewhat of a Microsoft fanboy (i own an Xbox 360, although how I came about owning one was more of an opportune than deliberate purchase) and even I have to admit that Sony wiped the floor with them. It was just one bad policy after another. I know Microsoft are trying to change the gaming world here, and they knew there would be resistance, but damn.

A lot of people compare what they are doing to what Steam did to PC gaming several years ago. I tend to agree with them there. Steam was met with just as much (if not more) resistance than is now facing the Xbox One, but at the end of the day it turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to PC gaming.

Microsoft wants to do the same thing with console gaming, but damn, they could have done a LITTLE bet better PR on it. Maybe eased people more into it rather than just dumping bad news after bad news.

Aside from that whole bru-ha-ha, a lot of cool stuff came out of E3. We got to see Titanfall from the guys who made Call of Duty back when Call of Duty was a competitive PC FPS and not a running joke. If they pull this off, it'll sit besides TF2 and NS2 as a go-to multiplayer FPS for me.

Watch_Dogs, with it's hide-and-seek multiplayer and crazy gameplay options looks set to really shake things up.

There was the announcement of the new Battlefront, which doesn't really need to have anything else said about it (fingers crossed for a PC release).

And then there was of course, Nintendo's direct, which pretty much hit everything right. Wii U has no games? OK. How about some big first party Nintendo games? Super Mario. BAM. Donkey Kong. BAM. Mario Kart. BAM. Oh? You are sick of the bog-standard Nintendo franchises you always see? Well here's Wonderful 101, a crazy new IP that's about controlling a whole mob of superheroes at once. You want third party? We got third party. Batman. Assasin's Creed. Bayonetta 2, which is a Wii U exclusive!

Ok we done. NO WAIT HERE'S SMASH BROS. Ok we really done now. NO WAIT HERE'S MEGA MAN IN SMASH BROS!! PEACE OUT BITCHES!

As you can imagine, I haven't had too many real-life adventures this week! Next weekend i'm planning on attending a 'scavenger hunt' in Fukushima, which sounds fun.

So anyway, here's the news for last week:

• DICE Exec: Military Shooter Market Isn't Oversaturated

• Battlefield 4 Won't Support Mods

• Super Smash Bros. For Wii U and 3DS Won't Have Cross-Platform Play

• Nvidia Says PS4 and Xbox One Are Good News For PC Gamers

• Nintendo's First Free-To-Play Title Will Launch Before March, 2014

• CliffyB Thinks Used Games Are Bad, Sony is "Playing Us"

• PS+ Not Required For Free-to-Play Online Games

• Pokemon X and Y Add Sky Battles, Horde Encounters, Fairy Type

• Super Smash Bros. Director Talks 3DS, Wii U Version Differences

• ESA Calls The Cops on Ouya's Parking Lot E3 Booth

• Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Sees Dixie Join Diddy and DK

• Super Mario 3D World Features Cat Mario

• Battlefield 3: Close Quarters DLC Now Free For All

• PS4 Online Multiplayer Requires PS+ Subscription

• Eat Doritos, Drink Mt. Dew, Win an Xbox One

• The Crew Adds Boss Fights To Racing Games

• Redbox Asks For Feedback on XBone, PS4 Rentals

• First CoD: Ghosts In-Game Footage Shows Dog Gameplay

• World Of Warcraft's Raids Get More Flexible

Story of the week:

• Mega Man Blasts Into Super Smash Bros. Wii U and 3DS

Okay guys, that's it from me for this week! Be sure to subscribe to my twitter for up-to-date news and blog updates, my youtube channel for gaming videos, and check back here every Saturday for a roundup of my Escapist news pieces!