Geeks and Jocks: Episode 85

New episode.

https://anchor.fm/ryan-sullivan1gaj/episodes/Episode-85-Everyone-Remasters-e18mfpe

GTA Trilogy Remaster

There was news back in the summer about the PlayStation 2 Grand Theft Auto games getting a remaster. While III, Vice City, and San Andreas are still excellent games, some aspects could have been finely tuned to be better. The news is confirmed that they are getting a re-release this year. Downside is that the original versions are getting delisted on PS3, PS4, and Xbox 360. The same is going to happen for the HD San Andreas game on 360. At the time of this blog on a Monday night, they probably have be taken off the digital stores already. If not, this week. 

These are coming out on everything. Xbox One, Xbox Series, PS4, PS5, PC, iOS, Android, and the Switch. The fact that Nintendo is getting these is a huge surprise. Only their handhelds had GTA games with ports of the first two and two original releases. Rockstar has shown some support with Manhunt 2, Table Tennis and Bully on the Wii and L.A. Noire on Switch. Having GTA is a benchmark for the developer. From all assumptions, these will play roughly the same, but have better visuals. I have a feeling it will get cleaned up quite a bit to retain their looks but utilize the hardware of everything.

As far as delisting goes, I'm not sure if this is going to be permanent or not. I wouldn't think so, but weird things do happen in gaming. With the PC, you can find copies of them. You can also find copies for the PS2 and original Xbox. These were mega sellers. Millions upon millions, especially on PS2. Very common and going for 10 to 25 dollars. Maybe more if people are trying to popularize theme even more. There is that talk of game preservation, but the discs are not inaccessible. GTA is in a strange spot and I don't have an easy answer on how to solve the issue of digital stuff being taken away.

These should do decently and the price will hover around 40 to 60 dollars. You're getting 200 plus hours worth of content with these three games. I'll have to wait and see how it fares and see some gameplay to see if it's worth getting. For now, it's a decent way of celebrating 20 years since GTA III released and changed how games could be played.

YouTube Videos: Oct 1-7

PS3/Vita Payment

I see a lot of complaining right now on this. A little shortsighted given it is three weeks away from the intended date, but not anything out of the ordinary. Sony is winding down on their PlayStation Store for PlayStation 3 and Vita. They will be open until whenever they deem is necessary to shut it down. By when, I don't know. They are looking at October 27th as the day they don't accept credit cards, debit cards, and PayPal payments.

This isn't new by any stretch of the imagination. Ending certain form of payments started with stuff such as the Wii, Nintendo DS, and PSP. To expect console storefronts to function forever is impossible. The PC, I can't comment. Yet, I see this uproar. I wouldn't be surprised if it's people that want to make the PlayStation brand look awful. Nintendo and Microsoft are going to do the same thing. Whenever the 360 finishes up in terms of its online, there will be upset people. Credit and debit cards won't be usable on the 3DS and Wii U after mid January 2022 in Japan. Anywhere, I don't know. And those systems had decent lifespans, but not as long as PS3.

Certainly, the announcement of the store shutdowns earlier in the year have people on edge despite the decision to keep the PS3 and Vita ones open. There are parts of the world where a credit card is necessary when it regards to buying specific games with specific ratings according to a GameSpot article. These console manufacturers can't risk their old infrastructures taking hits if they were to be hacked. There are also computer games that no longer have multiplayer due to their infrastructures.

PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 have a lot of digital games that will be lost unless there is someone that dedicated to preserving them. I hope someone has done that for the Wii, DS, and PSP, too. Because once PS4 and Xbox One are finished them along with the Wii U and handhelds are going to need major preservation immediately. We're talking thousands of titles digitally that could be lost. My ending point is to not make Sony out as the only bad guy. A lot has to be done to make sure a number of games can be played. Doesn't matter if the game is good or bad, having access to the full library is what will be important for the future.

Geeks and Jocks: Episode 84

New episode.

https://anchor.fm/ryan-sullivan1gaj/episodes/Episode-84-Chex-Mix-e18booj

Revitalizing PlayStation 3

I have been a lot more appreciative of the PlayStation brand as a whole for the last ten years despite my first experience with it being in late 1997. With PS3, it was something my family got into in 2012 and had on and off spans of playing it until early October of 2016. Prior to that, the last time I really was playing it was that April and gaming also took a backseat somewhat that summer. I played some stuff like Blasto and the original Zelda, but nothing too substantial. Getting back into PS3 revitalized an interest in playing it and playing games a lot more.

The game that kicked it off for me was Ducktales Remastered. I bought it that summer and didn't get into until the start of October. I don't know what drove me to play it, but I did and blew through it within a couple of days, beating it on every difficulty, unlocking everything as well. Immediately after that, I revisited Back to the Future, the last game I really played on there that April. Went back and got the rest of the trophies I missed out on. Definitely felt good to get back into the system.

I played the original Uncharted a very tiny bit when my family got the PS3, but at this point with revisiting, played through it all. Got every treasure and every trophy. The hardest difficulty was not anything to take lightly. In between that was Madden 13, Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, and Wolfenstein 2009, either starting with getting trophies or cleaning up a little bit on ones I missed. Not too long before completing the trophy list for Uncharted, I got back into Jetpack Joyride, a fun phone type game that can be rather addictive and played on my own profile Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12. One of the last games I played that month was Splatterhouse 2010 and got back into that during that October and November.

During this time, I would flip flop between both PS3 and Xbox 360 up until I bought my PlayStation 4 in June 2017. I also found myself getting back into doing YouTube at the very end of 2016 and doing videos on a consistent basis in 2017. Without this revitalization, I don't know how much more gaming I would have done or stuck to older hardware. PlayStation 3 may not be the best system out there of all time, but getting back into it will hold a special place for me for the rest of my life. 

YouTube Videos: Sep 24-30

 

Geeks and Jocks: Episode 83

 New episode

https://anchor.fm/ryan-sullivan1gaj/episodes/Episode-83-Rolling-the-64th-Way-e181l74

Super Mario ManBabies

I always have the impression of The Legend of Zelda or Super Smash Bros. fans being the biggest babies for Nintendo franchises. I think Super Mario might have just eclipsed it for the time being. There have been plans for an animated Super Mario movie for quite a bit of time. Going back to around 2017 or 2018 did I hear something about it. Illumination and Universal have their cast. Chris Pratt and Charlie Day are Mario and Luigi. Anya Taylor-Joy I believe is the Princess. Bowser will have Jack Black's voice, and Seth Rogen will be Donkey Kong.

I've seen worst casting, but it's not a slam dunk. The only one I'd feel any confidence in is Black. He could seriously give Bowser a menacing presence. Rogen seems like a very weird choice for Donkey Kong. I can't comment on Taylor-Joy, but at 25 years old, maybe her voice is suitable for the Princess. Day, I hope the production crew are looking beyond just the Charlie Kelly personas that he does on Always Sunny. Maybe he does a surprisingly good job, but I need to see a trailer first before being critical.

Pratt being Mario I'm not sure I like. Sure, he's done Parks and Recreation, but when's the last time he did anything that was full on comedy? The problem is the fans being the absolute worst in reacting to the casting. Almost universally panned. A lot of them wanted the game series' voice actor, Charles Martinet, to do the role. I know he's had a very long tenure as it, but Martinet's voice of Mario is very awful and has been since the GameCube days. It is the definition of very generic and trying to be very high pitched. Mickey Mouse, he is not. And it is very grating to hear. There was a sweet spot during the Nintendo 64 days, but that was long ago.

Voice actors are also not recognizable outside of the gaming community. Cartoons, maybe, but not in video games. And Martinet doesn't have a huge resume, either. Not to mention he is in his mid-60s. It's like asking Mel Blanc to keep doing Yosemite Sam into his 70s and 80s. I can't imagine him doing Mario's voice for 90-100 minutes. Also, who can you get that is recognizable and do the voice? Not saying Pratt is the best choice, but fans don't seem to want to see other alternatives beyond Martinet.

My final word is this. Let's wait for a freaking trailer to drop before we fly off the rails. If the trailer doesn't impress you, don't see the film and vice versa. But the fans are acting like the most spoiled rotten children on the planet. Let's hold off on the rage meter before we even get a shred of footage. It's just a kids film. I'm sure Nintendo is paying attention to what Universal and Illumination are doing, casting or not.

YouTube Videos: Sep 17-23