Control: Titanusgojira

 

Titanusgojira was a new profile to me only last week. One thing I love about Instagram is constantly bumping into new talent and skill sets. Everyone shoots games differently and that is what keeps me there. Inspiration and variation to me are key.

Titanusgojira aka Tom, shows us a wide wealth of vibrant content from a selection of photo mode games. Constantly positing new and varied content he is one to follow. 

I especially like the impact of his Control shots. Turning away from the typical dreamy, Lynchian dreamscapes and moving into brighter pastures. Each shots brings a punch of colour and sheds a different perspective on the Control experience. Frenetic action coupled with immense power. Sheer beauty. 

For more of Titanusgojira's work check out his page here. 

Fallout 76: Ghostly Fog Crawler

Ghostly Fog Crawler is easily one of my favourite Fallout photographers. Fallout 76 was not well received but despite this it has a solid fan base that embrace it with all their heart. 

In her work we can see just how much Ghostly Fog Crawler adores the world and the characters that she has created. 

Each shot brings with it both the grit of the post apocalyptic setting but also juxtaposes this with bright and vibrant colours, giving it a powerful comic book feel.

A lot of virtual photographers shoot the fallout worlds drab and depressing or the opposite and make it totally madcap and silly. Both of course are cool, but what makes Ghostly Fog Crawler stand out is that she turns it into a vibrant and slick world that I would want to be a part of.  

For more of their work check out the Instagram profile here.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy - Jet Black Gaming

Jet_black_gaming excels at portraiture. Across their virtual photography gallery you see not only a whole host of photo mode content games, but also an array of amazing characters shot in many different locations, atmospheres and poses. 

Today's feature focuses on Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and like many of his followers, I would have to say that Jet Black's shots of Chloe really are the best out there. From treasure hunter to cover model, we see Chloe in a variety of provocative poses drenched in water. For more of Jet Black's work check out their page here.

Call of Duty Warzone Gets an Update

 

Modern Warfare has an update on Friday that fixes some of the graphical issues players have been experiencing. On the Xbox this will set players up to the task of downloading 66GB while PS4 and PC users will content with a mere 2GB. 

Infinity Ward have said that the reason the Xbox update is so huge is due to an issue with the patch delivery system on that platform. The games size should not increase to much but this means a lot of the content already on the system has to be reinstalled.

Sorry Xbox users, looks like you are in for a long haul.

Community, the Internet and Hidden Agendas

This blog to me is about many things, gaming, virtual photography and highlighting points of interest for anyone like myself out there that has a thirst for gaming and creativity. My first rule that I try to abide by is avoiding negativity. The world is full of it. You can visit any game new website and it will be full of click bait and negative posts. Right now in lock down I feel it has nose dived into waffle, allegations and lawsuits. While the latter two are important if I posted the same content it would just be passing on that negativity. It's pointless.

The internet can sometimes be a confusing and dangerous place.

Instead I choose to try and push forward the things to look forward to and the beauty of the hobby and gaming community. The Instagram and Twitter VP communities for many have been a great lift during lock down and long before. As the Gaming is Wonderful posts show, the internet and gaming allow us to pull through harder times. This year it has been a godsend to me personally and many others I have spoken to out there. 

Communities can also be a perfect way to connect and find ourselves.

Being an active member of the community and fairly social I end up chatting with a lot of people online. Over the past two weeks I have spoken to a variety of people about issues they have had within the community. Of course out of confidentiality I won't divulge names or even the more sensitive of issues but I think it is important that I reflect on these matters.

The first was a prominent Instagram member who got involved in a discussion about The Last of Us Part 2, let down his guard and went on a racist tirade about how awful the game is. Not due to the narrative but more due to the fact Ellie and Dina are gay, that it involves a Asian guy and that Dina is of the Jewish faith. In a post last week I briefly covered the outrage against Naughty Dog for The Last of Us Part 2. The game has challenged perceptions and made many of the more ignorant reveal their racism, homophobia and sexism. 

One game, so much divide and hostility.

Along with this another person was targeted by abuse by a follower of mine that I had had for over a year. I talked to them fairly often, they seemed decent. One of my other followers contacted me and showed me screenshots of their conversation. Again this was caused by their views of Kassandra on Assassins' Creed Odyssey in comparison to Bayek in Origins. They did not accept that Ubisoft had given freedom to the player and said that "the company deserve the abuse they get" and went on to say many unpleasant things regarding men and their position in society. 

Kassandra an icon for many.

The third was an artist on Instagram. I approached them regarding an interview about their craft and inspirations. The first thing they wanted was unfiltered shots of my face and body "if possible" (I hadn't asked for artwork to be drawn or indulged the sharing of personal experiences). On my refusal they said they would not do the interview. This set alarm bells off and I shut the conversation down. This week, it turns out the artist, who posed as a young woman, is actually a man from the other side of the world, begging and taking peoples money. 

To end this, today I was tagged in a post along with someone that was also not the person they said they were some time ago. Here lies the problem with anonymity of the internet. It makes us feel safe but also it can be a dangerous place.

Anonymity keeps us safe but also creates danger.

My advice as I have said to people whenever I am approached with issues like these is block them, report them if they have been offensive. Sadly the likely-hood anything will be done by social media companies is slim. They don't seem to care. 

On of my followers said this to me and I think it sums up how most of us feel in this situation:

"The painful part is then seeing these people still operate, getting love they perhaps do not deserve. These people look loving and decent, it is not until you happen to take a glimpse behind the monitor at the real person that the facade falls away."

Squash them, block them and move on.
Try to forget, hate campaigns will not get you anywhere.

Just be careful. We hear it all the time but at some point we all let our guard down to those who we trust. How much can you trust someone you've never met? I like to think you can but many would say that is a naive viewpoint. Be cautious, be careful and always have that healthy segment of doubt in the back of your mind. You come first.

* * *

All shots in this article were taken by me from a variety of games. 

Professional Team

 

Back in 2017 the BBC did a news report on the Ghanaian Pallbearers, a group of guys that lifted the mood at funerals by dancing while carrying the deceased's coffin. It went viral, people put it to different tracks.  Now thanks to Professional Team we have a game under the same name inspired by these dancers. Except now you can dance yourself, with bikini clad anime girls, knights and even sharks. 

The information on Steam is pretty poorly translated but here it is for your interest/amusement:

"The popular global coffin carrying culture is coming. Many different coffin carrying heroes, DIY coffin system. Come and hold an unforgettable funeral for him in your heart!"

"Professional team" is a simulation of coffin culture game, a strong coffin carrying team, a variety of coffins, a number of geomantic treasures for your choice. So that you can hold a funeral for him in your mind.
Professional team

As a professional team, we have different heroes. No matter whether he liked imperial sister or cute sister, or wanted to sleep forever under the ocean. We all have professional coffin carrying heroes to take him off. At present, there are six coffin carrying heroes, including the imperial sister, Laurie, female officer, knight, black man and shark. In the future, we plan to launch more heroes according to the needs of players. Mod function is under development. In the future, players can import external role models to form their own professional teams in the game.

DIY coffin system

There are three different coffins in the game: Chinese classical sandalwood coffin, European cross coffin, and Pharaonic gold coffin. If you are not satisfied with these, you can customize a coffin. DIY system allows you to write and draw with different pigments on the coffin, import pictures from your computer and paste them on the coffin.

Different coffin carrying cultures in different geomantic sites

We know that most people pay great attention to the location of funerals. Our team has traveled all over the world and prepared many geomantic sites for you to choose from. In addition to traditional burial, we have also followed the trend of cremation and sea burial, and will launch celestial burial in the future."

Are Ubisoft Bringing Back Scott Pilgrim?

Brian Lee O'Malley the creator of Scott Pilgrim mentioned on Twitter that Ubisoft has been in contact.  While this is probably regarding the now exiled video game adaptation of the 2010 film, it could perhaps be something new. The film approaches its tenth anniversary and many fans have been expressing their disappointment that the game was removed from sale back in 2014.

I had the game on the Xbox 360 and it was everything you could have hoped for in a side scrolling beatem-up, certainly more than I expected it would be. Hopefully we shall see a return of the arcade emulating treasure.

Plat Runner 08: Fall Guys

Fall Guys for all of us with a PS Plus membership was a free delight. While it may still be having teething problems Mediatonic expected, at a best case scenario to have 100,000 users on at once and at day one the PS4 had 300,000. Servers were unstable and it was near impossible at times to get a game. 

Despite this Fall Guys is not only a real joy to play but the perfect battle royal game for all ages. It is cute, fast, fun and rewarding. The customisation is perfect and the trophies for the most part attainable.

So far only a handful of people have the platinum, a platinum of which I shall probably never attain. However those that have achieved the hardest trophy: Infalillible say that it actually was not too bad.

Infalillible How to Guide: 

• What you need for the unlock is win 5 games in a row.

• After the first win all you gotta do is leave the game before getting eliminated so it doesnt count as losing. 

• Then just win the last 4 games and you are done.

• Beware there are some game modes that can be very hard to leave before getting eliminated like jump club or jinxed.

• Only go for the most comfortable starts.

• Also you can have your party members sabotage others so you have better chance of winning.

As far as getting all the trophies in the game as fast as possible check out the advice from Antivist, self proclaimed no-lifer, who has already done it all. 

His guide is here.

For those of you attempting this long road I wish you the best of luck. Sooner is better for the Platinum as the longer you leave it the better everyone will get at the game.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 Delayed

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 like many things in life right now, has been delayed. In a statement released this morning, developer Hardsuit Labs and publisher Paradox Interactive confirmed that the launch date has been pushed back to 2021.

Grounded Mode in The Last of Us Part 2

For many purists and the more hardcore gamers, The Last of Us' Grounded Mode was seen as the way the game should be played. No Hud, no listen mode, the most brutal combat and scarce resources it tested even the most patient of survivors. 

Many fans were upset at the lack of a Grounded Mode in the sequel. Perhaps Naughty Dog left it out as they wanted to attach a prestigious trophy to it and not perturb those after an easier platinum trophy. 

Never fear as Naughty Dog have now announced that it is coming to The Last of Us Part 2, along with a permadeath mode... yay.

In what form Grounded Mode will take we do not know but it will be a treat I am sure.

Xbox Game Pass Hitting Android

On the 11th of August Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will be able to start playing a number of Game Pass games via their phones as part of a new xCloud beta streaming service.

“We’re entering a limited beta period to ensure a smooth transition of the cloud gaming experience to the Xbox Game Pass app on Android,” a Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge in a statement. 

The beta will allow gamers who are subscribed to Game Pass Ultimate to use the service’s existing Android app to stream a few titles to their phones. Regretfully Apple have a ban on streaming game services, so iOS users cannot partake in this experience.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Ubisoft like many games companies has been under the hammer of allegations claims and accused of inequality of race and gender within their games. Sadly media runs on negativity and while people do need to atone for their wrongdoings, I do not feel that the trailer for Assassin's Creed Valhalla made me feel inferior as a woman or angry at the lack of a female lead. 

Despite this Ubisoft being one of the main forerunners for equality and inclusiveness in their games have made a second version of the reveal trailer, replacing our male protagonist with the female alternate.

We have seen death threats levelled at a huge host of Naughty Dogs team as well as various other outcries over other games and their content.  

Games are transcending the boundaries of just being games now. We have cinematic masterpieces such as Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima and The Last of Us Part 2, among others. I think it is time to look inward at ourselves and question whether challenging such boundaries should really cause so much upset. With the next gen consoles on the horizon we are entering a world of gaming never seen before. New exciting ideas, different directions and increasingly challenging narratives. If this upsets and disturbs you, perhaps stick to other great titles that do not challenge the boundaries and take as many risks.

We are supposed to be progressing as a society. Being inclusive of sexual orientation, faith, gender and race, yet while the world is still suffering and we have campaigns such as Black Lives Matter, I still see so much racist abuse and hate within the gaming community.

Love the hobby, love the creativity and the journey, turn your hate where it can be used more productively. If a game offends you rather than reacting on gut instinct look inward, maybe you'll discover something.  

It is time to change.

Feed Your Warframes to Your Ship!

One of my favourite reveals of Tennocon was the Helminth Chrysalis System. This allows you to tweak the abilities of your warframe's, for even greater customisation. Each Warframe can be fed to the system to donate a permanent ability. This ability can then be given to any of your other warframes at the cost of resources.

It is a wonderfully morbid idea that I cannot wait to try out.