Xbox E3 2017 Conference

Microsoft is out the gate as the second company to have their conference. Lets look at what all they presented, shall we?

First off was the elephant in the room, Project Scorpio, or as it is now known, Xbox One X. Would it kill them to use the code names for actual product names? I really like a lot of the code names. The system will be out on 11/7 world wide at $499. The system has a 6 tereflop GPU at 1.172 Ghz, 12 GB of RAM, and 32GB/s of bandwidth. What this basically comes down to is the system is super powerful and supports 4K in the truest sense of the word. Also the accessories and games will be backwards compatible with the the new system. They are also reporting that if you don't have a 4K TV games will look great on a 1080P TV. In order to keep the infamous red ring of death at bay they have introduced a liquid cooled vapor chamber. And the blasted thing is also pretty small. It is barely bigger then the controller.

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EA Play E3 2017 Conference

Today E3 was thrown into full gear by the EA Play Conference. There were some impressive announcements made, the biggest being the the most expected. So lets jump into things.

I am going to start with the last thing they announced as it was the one that I was looking forward to the most, and the one that almost made me forget about the rest of the conference, Star Wars Battlefront II

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The Professional Gamer - January 2, 2016

Hello and Happy New Year to my fellow geeks! I hope that you have all had a good holiday break and are ready to head back to work, school, or just continuing to laze about the house. I'm heading back to work tomorrow, but that still gives me some precious time in order to play a few more games, read more comics, or watch more anime. What have I been doing for the past few weeks? Lots!

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Blizzard Supports "Make a Wish" with a Fel Kitten

Every so often (probably more than I think), Blizzard comes up with a new pet that they sell in order to benefit charities. And this year they have created a new being of pure evil and chaos to fill your stocking with, Mischief the Fel Kitten. Now normally I would have probably been pretty lazy and just let this pass without writing about it, again. But this year I really like the way they are doing it. First you have the digital version of Mischief, which is pretty normal. But now their is also a plush version. So you can pick one for your character or one for the stocking, or both. Just keep in mind you only have until the end of the year to snag one.

Ah, I also can't forget the wonderful video Blizzard made to push this little cat. It calls back to my child in a way I think many of you will recognize.

Pokémon GO - Halloween Special

Last night you may have noticed that Pokémon GO updated their loading screen. Gone is the Gyarados, and now you have Gengar ready to spring on you. And with this change comes an event! For the next week you will see an increase in ghost types spawning, meaning Gastly, Haunger, and Gengar will start showing up more often. You will also be seeing double candy from pokémon you catch and sent to the professor! Enjoy this short event while you can folks.

The Professional Gamer - October 3, 2016

Hello readers! I've very much had a anime more than anything else; so, let's start with the one thing that isn't anime. In Elite: Dangerous, I'm continuing my work towards a Type 9 Transport. This work has generally consisted of booting up the game and looking for a good trading route; finding that the nearest good route is about 100 light years away; traveling to the target systems while trading and exploring; and finally, running out of time to play and going to bed. All of this means that I'm not making progress very quickly. However, I love cruising through new systems to pick up data about all the little planets and icy rocks.

First up on the anime docket: Food Wars! I watched the last episode on Saturday. The final episode offered a good conclusion to the series; giving some resolution to the main plot line, but leaving lots of room for the audience to imagine the future adventures of all the characters. In the end, I recommend the show for its over-the-top humor and delicious food ideas.

Next, I spent much of the weekend binge watching Sweetness and Lightning (Amaama to Inazuma). The series is not quite what I was expecting and had me periodically tearing up from the first episode. Sweetness and Lightning is a heartwarming, slice-of-life story about Kohei Inuzuka and his daughter Tsumugi. Kohei is a recent widower, and is worried about the relationship between himself and his young daughter. He therefore decides that he should start cooking for her so that they can eat dinner together. Kohei makes some more friends along the way and, in a way, forms a new family. The series is very lovely and emotional. And the acting (both voice and character animation) of Tsumugi is remarkably believable as a child. 

Last, I've started watching Himouto! Umaru-chan. This series is a few years old at this point, but I've just finally had the time to watch it. Umaru appears to be a perfect high school student: good grades, athletic, and pretty. But once she gets home, she transforms into a lazy, chibi gamer. The show is rather full some rather sterotypical tropes, but still ends up being a lot of fun. I'm about halfway through currently, but I doubt that my opinions about the series are likely to change much as I finish. It's worth a watch if you need a break from something with a high degree of emotional investment (like Sweetness and Lighting), or just generally want something that's a little silly.

That's all that I have for now. Have a great week and game on!

 

The Professional Gamer - August 22, 2016

Back to a relatively normal week at work, and I've had a bit more time to have fun again this week. Even with biking to work, which takes about twice as long as driving, I was able to make some substantial progress in video games. And I'm looking forward to some fun convention time in the next few weeks. Ready? Let's go!

In the world of Elite: Dangerous, I've finally saved enough money for my next ship. I'm at the point of spending the next hours or so cruising around the universe to find my new ship and all the equipment that I need to outfit it to my needs. I'm excited that I'll be increasing my earning potential, and spending some time in a slightly more manuverable and fun ship again.

Next week, I'll be heading up to the Fort Collins Comic Con with Crystal, where she'll be selling some of her art and comics and I'll be helping her out.  I'm also hoping to spend a little bit of time looking around the convention, meeting some artists, and talking about comics with other fans.  This is only the conventions second year, but hopefully everything goes fairly well.

With that in mind, I hope to see you all again next week.  Have a great time, and game on!

The Professional Gamer - August 15, 2016

Hello readers! This has been the week were I spent most of my time away from home.  In fact, I was in Hawaii to visit a project site.  But, I was away from most of games and media for the week.  But let's talk a little bit about what I did do.

Hilo reminded me a lot of my time in the smaller towns of New Zealand, just a little more tropical and with more palm trees.  But there are lots of tiny roads, including one lane bridges, and the underlying current of a Polynesian culture.  I was able to spend some time hunting for Pokemon while I was there.  And due to the different real world environment, I was able to catch a lot of pokemon that I haven't seen near my home.

That's all I've really had time for this week.  Have a great week, and game on!