No Resurgence Outside The Epic Store Equals No Buys For Me

Source: https://www.engadget.com/star-trek-resurgence-launches-may-23rd-on-most-platforms-170248699.html

A bit late to the game, but for those wondering, the new Star Trek: Resurgence game will be hitting stores on May 23rd and will be available for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series Whatever, and PC. Which is all well and good, but the PC version will be offered exclusively through the Epic Games Store.
Which means it’s a no-buy for me.
I hear someone decide not to buy the game based on Epic Store exclusivity and that got a snarky response about “taking a stand.” I can’t speak for that individual, but this is less to do with “taking a stand” and more to do with “I really don’t want another storefront to manage.” People may recall how long it took me to adopt Steam because of all the DRM and even now, I’d rather buy something off GOG if given the option due to the LACK of DRM. I’ve got a bunch of games on GOG that I still haven’t played and I’ve got even more games on Steam that I still haven’t played… and most of the Epic Game stuff that I’m even remotely interested in is shit from 20-30 years ago.
(It also doesn’t help that a lot of what I’ve seen of the game hasn’t wowed me. It’s one of those Telltale type things where a story plays out and you pick choices on how to react. I probably got one of those laying around somewhere and that’s all I needed.)
I don’t know… maybe once it hits Steam and it’s available on sale, I might consider it, but I don’t need a storefront to manage shit on unless it’s on another platform.

Same Shit, Different Writer…

I picked up a copy of the latest issue of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comic book from Boom Studios. I was a little late to the game, but apparently they’re in the middle of a major ground-breaking, history-defining storyline.

Again.

Let me guess; new take on an old villain, so let’s make a pre-existing character into a new Ranger form, take our old Rangers on an interstellar journey, and then for shits and giggles, let’s bring back that Drakkon character.

Sure enough, that’s what I got in this particular issue.

Apparently, this series has a new writer – Melissa Flores. I don’t know if she did any prior Power Rangers comic stuff in the past – as in, I genuinely don’t know because I haven’t bothered to check – but if her aim was to simply regurgitate what was produced by the previous two writers of this series, then mission accomplished.

People keep telling me that this stuff is better than it was before… but I just see the same shit that drove me away from this stuff in the first place. There isn’t anything that I’ve seen here that I probably haven’t read in someone’s fanfic years ago. Hell, there’s a couple story bits that were even conceived when I was writing fanfics years ago… and some of that stuff hasn’t even seen the light of day.

I’ll give Boom some credit; I’ve enjoyed a couple of their one-shots from their Power Rangers Unlimited line-up and graphic novels. Those are good, quick reads. Hell, I even enjoyed Kyle Higgins’ Tommy-centric one-shot, Soul Of The Dragon, and gave it a hearty reviews – even if I kept messing up the name of the title.

But as far as the mainline comic series is concerned, I’m sorry, but it’s still no buys for me. Maybe the Pinky-penned series coming out next year might change my tune, but for now… morphin time is some other time in some other place.

No Interest In Battle Network

Had a couple people inquire about the recently released Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collections and I might as well address it here to get it out of the way.

No, I did not buy either collection nor do I plan on it.

It basically boils down to a lack of interest. Battle Network was never something that caught my interest back in the day and even today, it’s not something that I’m interested in trying out. The fact of the matter is that it’s a style of play that doesn’t quite appeal to me and also when it comes to this particular franchise, there’s a certain style of Mega Man game that I prefer to play… if only because it’s a style of game that this series has often excelled at delivering.

Ironically enough, I only have one game linked to the Battle Network series and that’s the Gamecube-exclusive Network Transmission, which was more of a traditional Mega Man side-scroller… seemingly made by people who have no fucking clue on how to make a traditional Mega Man side-scroller. Did this one side game sour me on an entire subset of the Mega Man franchise? Nope; the style of game that Battle Network presented didn’t appeal to me. It did, however, sour me on Network Transmission as a game on its own merits… or lack thereof.

I still have that game somewhere… but don’t expect a video on that any time soon because… I really don’t want to play that game.

State Of The Blog – May 2023

Well, the month of May is upon us, which means we’re done with the daily A.I. Paint postings. I may bang out a few more of these every so often, but not in the frequency that we’ve seen last month. This thing could also be useful for some smaller stuff, but struggling artists can rest assured that when it comes to the bigger projects, I won’t be using any A.I. Paint Program to produce

That’s what the Google Search engine is for.

We’ll go into the “finer” details after the break, but to make a long story short, this month is going to be relatively light on material. On the video front, it’ll be your regularly scheduled review fodder to go along with a House Show gimmick and possibly one or two other videos if all the pieces fall in place. Written posts will be even more sporadic this month, but maybe things will pick up in June. We’ll see.

Continue reading “State Of The Blog – May 2023”