Halo 360 Services Shut Down Preparation

This shouldn't be a surprise. Halo's first game on the Xbox 360 came in the fall of 2007 with Halo 3. After that were at least five more with the last one being Halo: Spartan Assault in 2013. These all have single player stuff, multiplayer that drives huge interest. Always has been since at least the second game. But plans have been set for the 360 games to be losing their servers. These will be taken off serves effective December 2021.

I've probably mentioned it in other blogs, but it bears repeating. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are consoles that still get a bit of play out of them. There's been updates for these two systems over the last two years or so. Beyond the games, some might still use them for Netflix machines. You got apps for certain products like YouTube and Amazon. With the exception of one PS3 game back in August, both haven't had games in about two years. You're still able to buy games through the digital stores. Over 1000 titles on 360 with mostly 360 and some original Xbox titles. PlayStation 3 is roughly the same number, maybe a little higher with a combo of games for that, PS2, and PS1. It's also the only way to buy PSP games digitally since you can't on a computer anymore.

People do still cling to older releases. That will never die out at any point. You'll have the followers who dedicate to playing an older title.  Think of some of the older Call of Duty games. That logic can be applied to Halo. Not everyone moves on to newer hardware and if some do, it might be well late into the generation. Even with backwards compatibility, that doesn't mean some were going to jump to Xbox One just to play certain 360 games along with the limited list of games.

The TL:DR of what I'm saying is, you have to get used to it. PlayStation has had over the course of the last couple of years, had servers shut off for a number of games. This is going to happen with 360 games if some of it hasn't happened already. The likelihood of 360 servers shutting down altogether, I don't know. There isn't a good prediction for it. I'd figure 2020 or 2021. I'm not sure anymore. But get your play out of it while you can for the online aspect. Inevitably, the two systems will be bowing out in terms of everything getting shut down. One day, it will happen. 

Geeks and Jocks: Episode 56

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The Final Adobe Days

Back in 2003, I found the site, Newgrounds. This was one I would visit for the next six, seven years in looking at video content, flash games. All of this being done with stuff like Adobe, flash players, what have you. Over the years, Apple went with html and it marked the end of flash as we know it. With it being days away, it will bring forth an end to an era that most will never forget.

There were issues with flash. It brought a lot of security issues and was easy to manipulate. For a number of people, it was a simple way to do cartoons, easy games in terms of using certain styles. I remember with Cartoon Network. Even for shows I don't like, they had some great flash games you didn't see on consoles or standard computer releases. I'm sure others have other memories from various sites, but that's what I remember from long ago.

Game memories include some stick figure games. Stick RPG being the most notable. Newgrounds with a handful of Sonic the Hedgehog games, several Mario stuff. Duck Hunt and a 1945 mod of it. A flash version of the first episode of Doom, which was very surprising. Pac-Man: White House Edition. A number of Cartoon Network games that I remember, but don't remember the title names. Never played much Nickelodeon stuff outside of SpongeBob flash games and one or two other games. 

Other sites I can't remember, but there was Homer's Beer Run from The Simpsons. A sneaking game that had you playing as O.J. Simpson. A farting game where you had to hide farts from another. Pac-Xon, a Qix type of game, but with Pac-Man. Yahoo and Microsoft had game sections. Collapse was one I played a lot of. Rocket Mania, Dyno-Might. Played 8-ball a bit. Multiple sites had Crush the Castle. Some of these may not be flash, but that's what I remember.

The last year or so has seen Internet Archive make sure the animations and games of flash are preserved. It's really nice to see this happen because I would assume there are a number of sites that are abandoned or they don't want to go a different route. Preserving history has become one of the big important things for a number of mediums. One generation in another lifetime will discover these and find it via the virtual archive.

Here's to Adobe. May it live peaceful in its final days. Apple, go fuck yourself.

YouTube Videos: Dec 18-24

 

Geeks and Jocks: Episode 55

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Saturday Night Addict

Saturday Night Live has had its share of writers and cast members that have had issues. When you look at drug issues, you think John Belushi and Chris Farley. Both passed away from speedballs in their early 30s. It's not just the sketch comedy show that has had to deal with this. But it feels like it gets out of control for some of them. This new one now includes John Mulaney going to rehab. Honestly, this is one of the last people I would think that would have issues. For him it's like a Farley situation. Cocaine and alcohol.

Mulaney was a writer for quite a bit of time on SNL. He has his own set of specials. And he's still young at 38. Still wowing audiences. I don't know what it is that makes comedians go loose and think they are invincible. Maybe it's the glamour of New York City. Maybe it's being recognized for either some of the writer, the sketches, the jokes. If I had to guess, the fame goes through some of these people's heads and they do crazy stuff. While not a stand up comedian, we're not too far from ten years ago when Charlie Sheen went nuts and went on a drug and alcohol binge that led to getting fired from Two and a Half Men.

Hell, we can go back to the 30s of The Three Stooges when Curly Howard was part of the group. Not drug related, but he boozed it up, ate a lot. It led to weight issues and a stroke in 1946 that ended his career. He wound up passing in 1952. Going back to Belushi for a second, his death in 82 was when he did drugs with Robin Williams and supposedly Robert De Niro. That sparked Williams to go clean for a very long time. Unfortunately, he relapsed and combined with bad depression, led to his death in 2014.

Comedy has its share of great moments and unfortunate bad behind the scenes moments. It's like the musicians that die young. Big names that include Mitch Hedberg for example. Better now than never for Mulaney to get this fixed. But it has to take a lot of willpower to give up addiction and do whatever is necessary to not want what led to your downfall. Here's hoping for no relapse. Same goes for anyone that is going cold turkey on whatever they are addicted to.

Optimizing Games

Cyberpunk came out. So far, nothing has been seen as good for this hyped release. Some have wondered if it was even being developed in mind for current hardware. This got me thinking. Has there ever been a point where a game was not developed well for older hardware but was for newer ones?

There aren't many games that get released simultaneously on multiple generations. The longest I can think is with PS3/PS4 and Xbox 360/One. But I can think of certain games and they are the common ones. Call of Duty Black Ops III had only online for PS3 and 360. Some of the EA Sports games had features that were exclusive to the newer hardware. I'd actually be curious about other titles like LittleBigPlanet 3. Something like a GTA V or a Minecraft, that doesn't count as being gimped because of support waning on older hardware. Minecraft had its last updates on a number of systems at the end of 2018 and other ones still get updated here and there.

With other generations, I don't feel like titles are being gimped on purpose. Something like Another World/Out of This World, the developers were working with limitations. Computers, Sega Genesis, SNES, Sega CD, 3DO. All radically different. A title such as NBA Jam Tournament Edition gets spruced up a little bit. Nothing intentional. Some games strive to improve some aspects. The Terminator and Earthworm Jim on Sega CD got reworked, more so Terminator, but both had stuff you didn't see on cartridge.

In the same generations, companies work within the specs of each console. You win some, you lose some when there's titles released on competing systems. An N64 game might be better than a PlayStation version and vice versa. Same with an SNES and Genesis release. Point being with this blog is that I don't think stuff is being made intentionally bad most of the time for older hardware. But developers have to realize what they are getting into before coding what they need for a retail release.

YouTube Videos: Dec 11-17

 

Disney Over Milk

In the midst of talking Warner Brothers and their app, it slipped past me about Disney last week. With their Plus app, they have a lot of plans set up. They also have a lot of questions on what could happen with their movies. This includes a new Houcs Pocus sequel and a new Sister Act sequel. Remakes on films like Willow and Three Men and Baby. All of this courtesy of Cnet. There's some other stuff hitting soon like Soul from Pixar and Hamilton. But that's not the main focus.

Disney is trying to do their best while still in this pandemic. But milking their Marvel and Star Wars stuff is not going to help. With the Cnet article, they are planning up to 20 new shows. That could be lower, but more than half a dozen from each side. I'm going to start with Star Wars. I don't have much inkling to see the films, but even fans are getting burnt out. I said this in a blog back in the summer of 2018 that there was too many films when the Solo film flopped horribly. Hard to tell if Episode IX would have had better numbers in the spring if the pandemic didn't happen, but who knows.

People love The Mandalorian. But I'm not sure there is any hype for something like a Lando show or Obi-Wan Kenobi. Not to say all their ideas are coming out at the same time, but Disney is over milking a franchise that hasn't had any breathing room. Prior to The Force Awakens, the franchise was still in the public eye, but in terms of books, games, and a few other things. I'm not sure if even the die hard fans will be on board.

The problem with the Marvel stuff isn't so much having different things to occur in the shows. There's plenty of development that can be made. But do you need that many? The glut of films and shows is one of the things I can see where it gets people burnt out on comic book films. It's something I've talked about for a long time now. With the properties Fox had now under their grasp, it could go overboard. It won't die painfully like what Batman and Robin did in the late 90s, but Disney and Kevin Feige don't think there is a fatigue. Let's see what happens with Black Widow, which some wonder if it will even do well. Or any of the films that don't have your mainstays like Iron Man and Captain America.

While I will not wish for these to fail, I hope a failure brings Disney back to reality. Too much of a good thing, even if its good, will turn even loyal fans away. Maybe try some original properties as well instead of pinning everything to overworked franchises and reboots.

Geeks and Jocks: Episode 54

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