Russian Propaganda Targets Gamers Using AI Generated Content

What’s old is new again.


A hefty price tag for a Sony console about to launch? Why I Never!

Looks like there is more going on under the hood then initial reports suggested with the PS5 Pro, after watching the technical presentation Sony used to unveil the mid-gen refresh with the PS5 Pro, which is assuredly a good thing, as a seven hundred dollar price point for only an incremental upgrade for a new game console feels like a no from me, dog.


To channel the wisdom of a prophet from a bygone era

In other news, I had been meaning to share and comment on some other pressing news for a few days now, as the news itself is not necessarily a huge surprise to me, but a shocking reminder that this kind of stuff is still going on now, with both a gaming public and a regular public not quite as aware of the happenings as they ought to be. To that point, Wired reported on a massive disinformation campaign led by Russian operatives, using bot accounts, fake news, and AI generated propaganda to target and influence a number of affected groups, gamers included, to help sabotage the 2024 election:

“In late August 2023, Ilya Gambashidze was in a conference room at the office of Social Design Agency, a Russian IT company he founded that is based in Moscow, close to the world-renowned Moscow Conservatory. Gambashidze was relatively unknown in Russian politics at the time, but just a month earlier his name had appeared on a Council of the European Union’s list of Russian nationals subjected to sanctions for playing a central role in a sprawling disinformation campaign against Ukraine.

In the conference room, Gambashidze was laying out his plans for a new target: Along with his colleagues, he began drafting what would become known as the Good Old USA Project. The project was supposed to influence the outcome of the US presidential election in favor of former president Donald Trump, specifically targeting certain minorities, swing-state residents, and online gamers, among others, in a scheme that included a full-time team dedicated to the cause.

On Wednesday, Gambashidze and his company were named by the US Department of Justice among the architects of a disinformation campaign known as Doppelganger that has for the past two years been targeting Ukraine and, more recently, US elections. The Doppelganger campaign uses AI-generated content on dozens of fake websites designed to impersonate mainstream media outlets such as The Washington Post and Fox Business, using a network of fake social media accounts to disseminate pro-Russian narratives targeting audiences across the globe. Doppelganger is a Kremlin-aligned disinformation campaign that was first linked to the Kremlin in 2023 by the French government.“

Wild stuff, needless to say. The whole article is worth reading, as Wired does a good job of going over a lot of what the court documents reveal. As I said from the get go, if you’ve been following along the past decade or so, this stuff is actually pretty par for the course in the world of online bastard-like behavior and general troll wankery, though the implications of the bad actors in these scenarios are wide reaching and can’t be understated or dismissed out of hand. Gamers are a group of people who are considered politically marginalized to the point of being easily radicalized for political gain through manipulation via propaganda online, and spreading awareness of these insidious misinformation campaigns is key in helping to combat them.

~Pashford

Daily Dose of Video Game Awesomeness

Amidst the chaos, comfort can yet be found.


I.E: Anywhere this thing isn’t

That ye olde son of a bitch is from Elden Ring, they’re called Finger Creepers fyi, something we both just learned about in the last five seconds, as Elden Ring doesn’t really have a Pokédex of sorts, which is surprising to me. I feel as if a bestiary or compendium of some sort available is extras 101 in the realm of video games, but I guess the lack of immediate knowledge in regards to something like Elden Ring just adds to the whole eldritch horror vibe. The FInger Creepers aren’t actually that difficult to contend with in terms of enemies, but they do have a striking visualization about them, which is ideal for both scaring the shit out of clueless newbies and provoking laughs from strangers on the internet alike. In any case, I was poking around for some kind of headline to report on, but nothing jumped out at me in terms of immediate interest or concern. I’m not sure if this is due to today being kind of a lull of content in the gaming world, or a general lack of energy on my part as a result of what’s felt like a jam packed work week, but it definitely feels a bit more at ease this day, so R&R sounds far more tempting than screwing with insane headlines or the maddening horrors that Elden Ring has to provide. One can only spend so much time confronting the unsettling essence of hyper-fucked death incarnate knocking at one’s door before you simply need a little downtime from the absurd.


Don’t worry, this guy just wants to borrow all of your teeth
forever, no need to make such a big stink about it

I figured since there was no news I wanted to report on, and I unfortunately haven’t really had much time to generate any ideas with new games I’ve been playing…(on top of the tiredness), I would just take a second to talk about gaming in my every day in general. One of the reasons I still haven’t finished say, Portrait of Ruin, which is just one of my focuses in a multi-part article series I’ve been writing recently, is not just because the days are short and the games long, but due to the fact that I still have some of my own regular gaming habits I enjoy tending to. I realize dedicating myself to a single game with every spare second of my day would see it through to completion on a faster basis, but then I really wouldn’t be taking any time to myself when choosing how I want to enjoy my time within the world of gaming, which I imagine would start to grate on my soul fairly quickly, especially if some of the characters above were the guys I was hanging out with on a regular basis.


Dude, we just met. Can we slow it down a touch, here? Why
is everyone in the Lands Between always so 0 to 100?

I’m not a one game man, in any case, and I can’t even remember the last time I regulated myself to only a single title at a time. I wonder if there are many out there who have such singular focuses? Gaming has become so large in many ways, and since I feel so out of the loop inspite of interacting with gaming everyday, I don’t even know what the “average” gamer would look like anymore, so their supposed habits are equally baffling to me. There is a deep seeded interest in maybe doing more of a deep dive into the finer semantics involving such tidbits, but I digress. As I have alluded to thus far, I am still playing Elden Ring, the DLC now to be precise, but it is one of those titles that it’s nigh impossible to play casually in a reasonable manner, so unless you have a solid chunk of time at your disposal, there ain’t going to be much time for dying that you will be able to fit into your schedule.


Sorry guys, I don’t think I’ll be able to fit in being Deathblighted
tonight around 6, I had a bike ride I was planning on going on

Among my daily plays, I do start at 24 hour cycle with some Smash Bros during breakfast, which even after six years of playing Ultimate, I still love the piss out of the game. There is not much to discuss in terms of the title I find, as I feel as if any relevant articles about the game would likely involve the higher end competitive scene, which I don’t keep up with, but I can’t always just focus on games I want to play that will generate articles. It is nice not to have to be highly deconstructive when playing a game from time to time, and ultimately just lose myself in the art of fighting.


It’s always a real high class bout

I have recently written about Mario Kart, which is always a good time. As mentioned in my previous article, the mobile adaptation of MK (Tour) is a delight, and with regularly rotating content and a very active online community, it’s never hard to randomly jump into a race during a lunch hour to get your power sliding rocks off. Plus, you can race as Poochy, which automatically makes this game top tier.


13/10 driver right here

I did Beat Cadence of Hyrule this past week, which turned out to be a massive delight from start to finish. There is still a shit ton of content that remains to be enjoyed within the game, even before I mention the DLC, and I look forward to seeing as much of it as I can before Echoes of Wisdom comes out on the 26th, at which point I will have to move on to the latest and greatest in Zelda offerings. Even though Echoes looks to be more of a safe bet than anything revolutionary, not every game in the series can be Breath of the Wild levels of influential.


Wanting every game to be Breath of the Wild is
definitely a beaten dead horse kind of topic these days

I also usually finish my day with the One, Two punch of gamings greatest pairing, and that’s the Doom/Animal Crossing back to back matchup. I’ve been a big fan of both forever, so playing either series is certainly a creature comfort. With the near endless number of high intensity player created levels for Doom to play, and the effortlessly relaxed nature of the AC games to contend with, they represent a definitional of the peanut butter and chocolate dichotomy in gaming format.


And I’m not the only one who thinks the pairing is completely
metal, either.

And I think that about wraps her up. I usually like to impart some friendly words of wisdom or greater insight as a take away to share with you the dear reader, and days like these where one is lucky enough to enjoy some more relaxed downtime, is a good reminder that success sometimes isn’t any grand spectacle or some epic moment of monumental note. Sometimes, success is just a small moment of joyous piece and quite. Let yourself enjoy it: you’ve earned it.

~Pashford

Peter Molyneux: Habitual Line Stepper

I’m always quite excited to write about video games and entertain you readers, as my pursuits within the realm of gaming are never ending.


A lot like this, but with more fun horse related content involved

Though sometimes, not quite as fun as one would hope. I was reading some news posted by Rock Paper Shotgun commenting on a Eurogamer piece involving interviewing a bunch of industry vets about where games are going to be in 25. A great article I thoroughly recommend, and one that RPS seemed to concur with me that it was of an informative and entertaining worth in their follow up news. As RPS pointed out, unsurprisingly, Peter Molyneux was not thinking before speaking once again.


Pictured: Peter Molyneux, in a rare moment of self-reflection

The quote in question is in reference to the capabilities of AI, and coming from Peter’s mouth, you’ve gotta have a hunch it comes laced with frenzy:

“AI is going to be a real game changer. There will come a time where AI will be used to create huge parts of a game – AI-generated characters, animations, dialogue, VO, there is so much that AI will be able to tackle.

“And finally, I think that AI will open the doors to everyone and allow anyone to make games. You will be able to, for example, create a game from one single prompt such as ‘Make a battle royale set on a pirate ship’ and your AI will go and do that for you.“

While I will only briefly point out as an aside Shinji Mikami in the Eurogamer piece mentions AI as well, he does so with the qualifying word daunting, so there is some respect towards the frightening nature of it’s application in the coming years, so he gets a pass in my book. Molyneux, on the other hand, once again proves his mouth works faster than his brain, as he didn’t stop to think about the horrific ramification AI in general will have on the gaming industry, and the already negative impact it currently has in our very real present day situation.


And here I am usually excited to bring up DOOM out of the blue

Among many issues with AI, for example, is that many including myself, have recently reported on the troubling strike going on with SAG-AFTRA about protecting voice actors against AI usage, involving rights for workers in a field where publishers and developers are increasingly opting to use generative AI for their games, cutting out the middle man and forgoing the need to pay creative talent and hard workers for their talent in a field they helped to create. If you dive even deeper into the issue, and focus on the thousands of layoffs that have occurred in the industry just this year, and games failing from moment one without massive numbers behind them, and it paints a grim picture for many workers struggling just to make ends meat in a competitive market, let alone one that can be dominated by the horror that is AI generated content.


Maybe the Resident Evil movie did have a point about what
was the real monster we should fear all those years ago

I will take this moment to point out the obvious: yes, Molyneux did not directly champion people losing their jobs or the industry being dominated by AI usage in his quote, but the complete lack of premeditated consideration with so many hot button issues surrounding what comes off as a misguided flippancy….uh just staggers me. An exec over at Amazon games division just got called out the other day for his thoughts on AI, and the whole topic is just steeped in negative rhetoric, why Molyneux wouldn’t stop for two god damn seconds and just think about the inherent issues with what he is promoting would…be totally uncharacteristic of him, so all of this tracks.


The man is a habitual line stepper. It is a known known.

Even if you put aside for a second (and with amazingly patient grace, I may add), the ever prevalent issue of workers being put in increasing jeopardy due to the implications of AI, and that’s even beyond the gaming industry, his comments are just so naively unrealistic and delusionally off point. I’m all for giving people they keys to the kingdom in terms of allowing them to create content for games or using better tools to do so, but you do need people with experience, and practice, and creativity, and skill, and dedication etc to make games that are worth a damn. Being able to “push a button” and a game of your preference is made is such a depressing thought for so many obvious reasons, it is absurdly unfathomable to me outside of the realm of finance why Molyneux would ever think this is a remotely reasonable and competent idea to share with anyone on the planet.


Old habits die hard: just ask Milo

I feel like there is a possibility in regards to a more creative deconstructionism involving these comments, and said idea is beginning to germinate within my mind of how Molyneux’s ideas and the reality of AI should likely be discussed at more length in the foreseeable future and beyond. Realistically speaking, we should have already been legislating on AI a decade ago, to put forth the idea we need to continue having more of a dialogue about the dangers inherent with it’s usage in the here and now is an emphatic understatement.

~Pashford

The Sensation of Alienation

All works and no play makes Pash a dull boy.


I can’t help but feel Marx warned us about this

Super Paper Mario for the Wii did indeed have you briefly engage in menial work in order to progress the story at one point, which was a phenomenal surrealism to me at the time in terms of gaming getting real with it. Maybe not so much in the way that it falls in line with a regular bemusement of mine “it always starts out as a joke”, but that Nintendo was actually ready to run with said joke and make it a real thing you did in a real video game. This isn’t a post about that, but the thought did pop into my mind as I decided how much time I had to write about anything before more or less needing to get ready for work while I was indeed having fun.


Fun might be a strong word

Which is fair, in a sense, as depending on what one is doing in the world of gaming, “playing” can indeed take on different kinds of tenuous forms of relevancy, and these new or less traditional forms of play evolve or devolve, depending on how you look at things, into a more tedious form of labor, I suppose. A labor of love could be a sentiment used to pad the blow of some of the monotony involved with grinding, for example, whether it be just for levels or for a rare gear drop, but the idea stands firm, I would conclude. In my case, playing in the form of work is very literal in a sense, as while I may not care about monetizing Active Time Event, I do try to treat it as a labor of love, and respectfully tackle the subject material with as much gusto as I can feasibly muster given the circumstances.


What I look like after a night of work totally sleep deprived
dying to the same boss in Elden Ring for the 50th time thinking
of a way to transmute tears into punchlines for my next article

Which is why today’s post feels so meandering, I gather. Time is of the essence, this much is always true, when one is fighting against a self-imposed deadline, it would be quite easy to just wipe clean the slate of responsibility with the dry erase marker with the word “Exception” emblazoned upon the side, but then where would the challenge in that be? That does remind me of another great example of non-traditional play in the form of practicing hard games, which can completely deviate from any idea of traditional fun and go full on straight up ludicrous in terms of just how painstakingly difficult the entire session becomes.


Don’t look at the time playing games like Super Meat as insane
bloodletting, view it through the lens of having spilled gallons
of dedication into the experience

I think I did kind of derail my own point there, but I am obviously feeling ranty. Writing about games in essence has a certain burden of proof attached to it within the regards of authenticity or legitimacy I suppose one could say. There is the idea of that extreme efficiency is needed in a number of facets, as one has to get through games, pouring many hours into them, maybe experimenting with multiplayer, testing the title even of sorts, just to finally know what to really hone in on when writing about the game in it’s finalized conceptual form within one’s own brain. That same idea is part of the reason I find writing about either really high quality video games or “safe bets” as it were, almost difficult in a mundane sort of way, as the difficulty lies in the inherent lack of challenge in discussing the title, cause everything just works, is top notch, tons of fans, everyone is looking forward to it, nearly flawless etc. The whole process nearly strains the imagination to even come up with some legitimate feedback that doesn’t come off as apple polishing or at the very least, intellectually worthy on some basic level.


Some games struggling with that worthy merit more than others

To wit: I recently beat Cadence of Hyrule the other day, which is kind of what I wanted to talk about, but between a lack of energy and time, didn’t really feel like I was going to do the title justice in my writings. However, it does relate to the topic at hand here, as while I find myself delighted by the game in it’s entirety, I find that it’s almost inherently less interesting to talk about than the game it was based off of, Necrodancer, as the title is just more polished and ultimately more enjoyable to play, leaving a lot less room for interesting critique involved with the imaginary world I have contended with. I know I might be a bit of a weirdo in that regard, but I can’t help but feel in order for one to feel truly engaged in whatever their doing, gaming or not, they must be fundamentally discontented while doing so, in order to achieve some new form of thought, act of becoming, state of being etc, as traveling outside of one’s comfort zone, even if not literally speaking, pushing one towards a new level of understanding or perspective.


Think this, but less strange

So in the idea of not having more time to do fuller write ups involving Castlevania or Zelda related material, and wanting to issue myself a mini challenge by doing something more creatively endeavoring than just a small report on a headline, I leave you with just a few of these brief thoughts to ponder in your moments to come. Cheers.

~Pashford

Legendary Wisdom

Yesterday, we delved *briefly* into the world of Castlevania, as we continued to scratch the surface of what the everyday of Wallachia looks like when the Belmont’s take the day off.


Shenanigans, it turns out

Which is highly appropriate in many ways, more so speaking to how I riffed on the idea that my first article, which was totally suppose to be about Portrait of Ruin, was totally not about PoR. In that spirit, how else is one suppose to make a faithful follow up to such a fun concept through any other means than making the follow up as equally not about Portrait of Ruin, and having a laugh while doing so. In my defense, there were quite a few elements that at least alluded to my appeal of the grandeur that PoR effortlessly emanates, and I look forward to finalizing some thoughts on it in my ongoing series involving the Dominus Collection. However, just to spread things out a bit to avoid the idea I’m a one trick pony, I figured we could muse about Hyrule for a spell, and look at one of the most recent gameplay videos for Echoes of Wisdom.


Mario doesn’t have the copyright on the phrase, people.
Simmer down.

I’ve already horsed around briefly about how I am excited for Echoes of Wisdom, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to regular readers, as the Zelda franchise still stands as my favorite. DS games aside, the series has always found a way to reinvent itself, and influence the entire gaming industry while doing so. There are of course, times when you get the occasional side adventure or two which kind of brings everything back to basics, and Echoes of Wisdom looks to be more in that realm, as the title is a top down experience in the vein of Link’s Awakening, which Echoes looks to be borrowing the engine of as a basis for the adventure itself.


More like Zelda’s Awakening, am I right?

I was a bit late to the party on watching the most recent gameplay footage (one of the downsides to being so intimately entangled with Dracula related affairs), but we’ve got some good looking content to look forward to. As mentioned, EoW looks to borrow the engine for Link’s Awakenings remake, aesthetic and all, which I’m totally jazzed about. I thought the look the LA remake offered was charming as all hell, and the engine felt just as familiar as the best isometrically based Zelda game for the past, so it gets my thumbs up.


They’re even bringing back the side scrolling bits from Link’s
Awakening, which I’m totally vibing with

Zelda has never been big on story per-say, but the atmosphere, overall world and it’s inhabitants are usually the reasons to stay awhile to keep exploring your little Hylian face off. Both the King of Hyrule and Link have been shanghaied, in any case, so it’s up to Zelda to finally put foot to ass and take care of Hyrule herself this time. To all of you gamers out there who were asking yourselves the age old question “what if Zelda was a girl?”, your question will finally be answered.


I reached out to Nintendo for a comment on the rumors involving being able to play as Zelda transformed into a grill, they were unable to respond by the time this article was published.

The gameplay video emphasized a few major points to look forward to. The Still World is fairly par for the course in the land of Zelda, as it is this games version of the Dark World, Twilight Realm, Lorule etc, which are realms that usually take the place as a dimension adjacent to Hyrule itself in any given game, but where everything is popping off and where one generally you gets to discover what happens when keeping it real goes wrong.


Regardless of whether or not this is just a doppleganger or truly
Link just possessed, he is about to enter the “find out” phase of fucking around

The Still World is available via rifts in Hyrule through the overworld, and looks to be a bit harder to traverse, adding extra challenge to the navigation of the to and fro EoW will be providing. Both traversal and puzzle solving have been key elements running through the hype surrounding the lead up to the games launch, showcasing there are a number of ways to go about getting around. Not only does the gameplay showoff Zelda being able to replicate a number of objects at her disposal for regular every day use, but at one point it looks like she just nopes out of bounds, probably wondering to herself how Link even tolerates Hyrules bullshit mostly on foot most of the time.


Going by speedrunning logic, the answer is: he actually doesn’t
put up with Hyrule’s bullshit on foot most of the time, either.

The gameplay footage does emphasize that you will be able to acquire a Swordfighter Form at some point, reassuring fans that traditional combat will still be a regular part of the experience. I get why they went out of there way to underline this reality, as some Zelda fans are just old school sword swingers, if I’m granting a severely dubious side-eyeing benefit of the doubt as to the cries of push back of change, so the option to essentially play EoW as “Link in drag” does exist.


Which honestly, has been a very popular way to enjoy the series as of late

It is times like these where I do almost feel as if the reporting on these events almost writes themselves in terms of excitement levels, as Echoes of Wisdom easily checks all of my boxes in what the game has to offer, but I’ve been a fan of the series for a few decades at this point, so as long as I don’t see any trains kicking about, I’m likely to be head over heels excited for a new Zelda title. Nintendo is releasing a special edition console to celebrate the launch of the game, which I’m sure has already sold out in the pre-order phase as it is, so good luck finding one at all, let alone for a non-scalpers jacked up price.


You don’t need both kidneys to survive. I’m certain I read that somewhere.

Echoes of Wisdom launches on the Switch September 26th.
~Pashford

Fate Beyond Destiny

In the grand journey that is life, there are always many choices involving which roads to travel.


Some dangerous paths worth it for the soundtrack options alone

Though, there is something to be said that fate is beyond us, as choosing what always seems like the right path does not always get us to the best outcome. In only a semi-related note, this post marks a brief departure from my currently ongoing multipart series involving the Castlevania series, and the end of a self-issued challenge to post everyday for a month straight. Having successfully done so, I can say completing the endeavor was of great satisfaction, and provided some valuable insight into a lot of different facets of both my own machinations, and into the gaming industry in general. While I do intend to maintain consistency in the immediate future by continuing my Castlevania articles, I will likely shift into a more concentrated but more spaced out approach to posting write-ups, as I feel as if ATE is not as suited for smaller one off headline pieces, and more solidly geared to more succulent feasts of considered creativity.


I’ve learned from the best: know your judo well

Which translates to me as live your best life, in any case. Speaking of democracy manifest, the boss of the Xbox Phil Spencer seems to be on quite the kick of interesting rumblings as of late, with recent comments made at PAX West providing some invaluable information into his time as the head of the Xbox division, involving some of the hard choices he had to make over the years in terms of franchises that would remain exclusive to the Xbox brand:

“There’s so many mixed emotions and stories for me around Destiny, Obviously, Bungie was part of Microsoft when I started at Xbox, and I shared a floor with Alex Seropian [and] Jason Jones in the building that we were in Redmond. I learned a ton from just being around Bungie.“


Not capable of the 30 seconds of fun Spencer thought it would be

the Xbox head honcho would go on to decide against keeping Bungie around, by passing on keeping Destiny exclusive to the brand, mentioning the game didn’t really “click” for him, which was a sentiment he shared involving another game where a lot of “clicking” was involve:

“An interesting one is when this team came down to Redmond and Alex Rigopulos, he pitches a game where they’re actually going to make plastic guitars, and they’re going to plug into consoles, and then they’re going to sell tracks where you’re going to play Simon on this guitar and I’m like, really? Do we really think that’s going to work?

“I hear that turned into a pretty good game…”

Wonder if this will take off?

You heard it from the man himself folks: Destiny is not the vibe. While I tend to agree with Spencer on Destiny, there’s no denying the looter shooter genre in general exploded in popularity in part due to Destiny’s success, and even though the music game genre is dead in the water now, the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games would go on to make billions of dollars, so that is definitely one of those big oopsie-daisy moments. However, Spencer would go on to comment he is not a big regrets guy, and just focuses on how proud of the work he is of the teams he’s been involved with over the years have done, Bungie included.

Spencer discusses all this and more in a lengthy conversation he held at PAX west. You can find all of those sentiments and more in the video below.

~Pashford

Old Snake, New Tricks

Discussion involving the Metal Gear Solid series has not graced the presence of ATE for awhile now, which makes sense, as the series has been effectively dead since MGS V launched way back in 2016.


An ironically named entry in the post-mortem of the series

That doesn’t mean we don’t get the random morsel or tasty tidbit detailing the scraps that remain of the series in which we pathetically feast on what little is left to dine on. Last year, the master collection for the MGS series (Vol.1) dropped to some mixed reviews, as people were predictably celebrating what is arguably one of the best trilogies of all time getting a new repackaging, but the release itself was plagued with technical difficulties. The Vol.1 involved always had people looking towards the future at the potential Vol.2 in what it would contain, as the other three major installments, Peace Walker, MGS V and 4 would most certainly be the titles Vol.2 would feature.


Just don’t expect to see Act 3 of MGS V included as some kind
of bonus content included with the bundle due to some delusional
pipe dream as some maniacs online surely will

Vol.2 would be a big deal, as many before me have pointed out, due to MGS 4 being stuck in non-porting purgatory hell, as the title has remained stuck on the PS3 since 2008, not having seen a release on the PC in the following 16 years of it’s release. Many were excited by not only the prospect of Vol.2 for this very reason, but fuel has been added to the fire with a choice quote from Konami producer Noriaki Okamura chiming in with some not so cryptically comforting news:

“We definitely are aware of this situation with MGS4,”…”Unfortunately we can’t really say too much at the moment with Vol. 1 containing MGS 1-3 dot dot dot… you can probably connect the dots! “Right now we still are internally concerned about what we should be doing for the future of the series. So sorry, we can’t really reveal anything at the moment. But stay tuned!”


Seen here: Old Snake, seemingly channeling the entire MGS
fan base shouting “finally!” up towards the heavens

So…good news everyone! That is about as confirmed as it can get without directly coming out and saying it is happening, which is extremely exciting news. Since V and Peace Walker are still available to play on many recent systems, the big get here is obviously 4, with the Master Collection of Vol.2 being the first time the game will have received a new release and any update of any kind since 2008. The release date for Vol.2 has not been announced quite yet, so the earliest we may suspect it to be out is *maybe* mid 2025, though I think late next year would be considered highly doable with the context of the information surrounding the title. I doubt we will see any significant improvements involving 4’s inclusion into the collection, though considering how many bugs and technical hiccups plagued Vol.1 at launch, fans may be crossing their fingers that Konami does as little as possible to alter the title, so that it is largely problem free and just runs smoothly by the time it sees release.

Konami doing some heavy lifting in getting me to want to play their back catalog, as I also recently reported on the Castlevania DS collection seeing the light of day in the form of the release of Dominus, featuring Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia. All I have to do now is convince myself I have the time to go back and replay, think on, and write about six classic Konami games amidst a hectic schedule of already hype bullshit I have to attend to. Where there is a will, there is a way.

I leave you with a reminder that a mini MGS retrospective featuring David Hayter was released this year, and thusly provide you with a link to part 1 you can find here.

~Pashford

After The Money’s Gone

Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground…


Same as it ever was

I had about one bi…*trillion ideas I wanted to write about today, so of course I spent most of it absolutely not executing on a single god damn one. Certainly ideal for a day off, me thinks. In the future, look forward to a couple of article concepts I’ve concocted, involving at least some rambling about the recent Nintendo indie info dump, including some more thoughts on Cadence of Hyrule, which I’m totally vibing with, a fun little speedrun of a shorter rando I stumbled upon, and probably more nonsense involving the Belmonts, as I continue to celebrate the ridiculous bastards they truly are.


A clan of willy little shits, the lot of them

That’s next time of course. For now, I’ll just bring to your attention something potentially interesting if done correctly. Though, knowing the company involved, that’s a Death Egg sized if* involved. According to recent reports, Gamestop is looking to make some of their locations nationwide hearken back to the days of yore, by providing some retro offerings to old school aficionados. The retro gaming array of older offerings will include the NES, SNES, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy, N64, DS, Wii, Wii U, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS Vita, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, and Dreamcast.


Gamers the nation over weep for the severity of this revisionist
injustice done this day in the name of the Virtual Boy

I have some immediate questions, but based on some of what’s been listed, I already have some unfortunate answers. Checking out Gamestop’s website only revealed four different locations that carry the retro product that I will have access to within 100 miles of my location, not a promising sign to put it lightly. And while the potential selection sounds great *if* it was across the board, this early rollout, if we are assuming there ever will be a greater expansion of stores that will carry the older product, which stores are going to include, if any will, the majority of the old games from every system? Browsing some more common titles and being familiar with their prices, used Pokemon titles are going for more than when they came out new. Which, again, doesn’t surprise me an iota, but given the profit margin Gamestop will no undoubtedly be aiming for, how many people are going to casually drop $50 bucks on a game, especially when one considers the possible cheaper digital version. And what of the trade in prices?


Gamestop customer: I brought a copy of Gale of Darkness to trade in! I heard it goes for like 800 bucks these days!
Gamestop employee: We can give you 8 dollars in store credit for this.

I like the idea in theory, but the execution of this has to clear such a high bar of financial irrationality for it to end up being an appealing offer my nose started bleeding just thinking about it In any case, it looks as if Gamestop is starting a rollout on the strategy already, so if you’re interested, be sure to cross your fingers that you’re near a bigger city to see if there will be any reasonable chance a store around you will be carrying some retro fare, but get ready to pony up for some old school pleasures.

~Pashford

The Belmont’s Day Off

(EDIT: Article no longer glitched: now with 100% more article appearing.)

Anyone who’s followed my writing for any length of time has probably picked up on the idea that I like Castlevania. As in like…like like.


Most of the time…

To that point, I’m actually quite surprised at the lack of more robust writing pieces involving the infamous Castle and the Belmont Clan that serves as the Wallachian health and safety regulators to condemn it time and time again. One day, I will correct that injustice, as the series stands as one of the more deserving of prestige in the gaming realm. Today is not that day, however, but it is not all woe and misery, as a new collection was both announced and stealth launched on the very same day.


A veritable Belmont’s day off

That’s right! The infamous non-connected trilogy that headlined the DS era, and arguably the strongest stretch of quality Castlevania titles ever released, has *finally* seen a refresher port, and made it off of the original system they launched on. The three games, Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia, have been stuck in old hardware hell, as they have never once been re-released on another system, making it more than a solid decade since their domineering relevancy was able to rock gamers faces.


Emphasis on faces

(A fourth title, an early arcade title in the vein of Castlevania 1 called Haunted Castle has also been included as a bonus as well.)

Konami has finally bundled all of them together in one collection, following in the footsteps of the Castlevania Anniversary Collection and the Advance Collection, updated the lot, and are all now available to play on The Switch, Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles. Annoyingly, they are unavailable to download on the Xbox One or PS4, so if you don’t have Sony or Microsoft’s latest offerings, I would suggest looking elsewhere. Trailer below:

~Pashford

May The Power of Gaming Compel You

With Gamescom wrapping up, it’s acted as a nice reminder that gaming has still retained some of it’s old Je ne sais quoi that larger gaming conventions use to apologetically remind us about.


Truly priceless moments you just couldn’t slap a dollar value on

Which is ridiculous in and of itself, as unlike years in my own past where I was able to physically cover an event like E3 on multiple occasions,this time I had to take a backseat and wait for the news to be reported like everyone else not having been at Gamescom myself. I always wanted to go, and even got invites to the event when I was working as an Editor-in-Chief back in the day, but Germany is a lot further than California when you live in the US.


If only there were a cheaper way of travel

And from reading many articles about opening night, the overlook of the entire event, and the write-ups of both the games on display and the culture that was surrounding them, I got a sense of whimsy about the industry, which is a refreshing feeling after a crushing year of layoffs impacting the industry in a brutal way. With as cut throat as the video game industry can be, and any protections that have been put in place and *still* need to be put in place to make sure the workers have stability to make the games people want to play, news coming out of Gamescom seemed to have a genuine sense of a breath of fresh air in celebrating all of the positive aspects of our favorite hobby.


Unless you were a Monster Hunter fan, apparently. Hope you had
someone to hold your spot to go to the bathroom for that 10 hour long wait

In terms of some of the things that interested me, was that inspite of the horrendous timing involving the movie totally bombing, the Borderlands 4 teaser trailer still has me excited about the prospects of the next follow up to the acclaimed looter shooter franchise. Will they finally expand the scope of the game and have a larger player cap to go on adventures at once? Say perhaps maybe like like an 8 person party system all adventuring and looting and shooting together? Whatever route Gearbox takes, and as solid as the original trilogy was, I think it’s about time the Borderlands series tries something new, and pushes into unfamiliar territory to really up the ante in making 4 feel bigger and bolder in a fresh way, without losing it’s atmosphere or sense of humor about it.


They definitely have a good idea of what not to do, in anycase

While I have a tendency to get down on Peter Molyneux for his history of talking shit about upcoming games, I am still genuinely interested in Masters of Albion, in whatever form it is going to take. I have absolutely no doubts the man is going to fall prey to his old habits once again and completely over promise on just how much the game is going to offer, but MoA still has a good shot at being something of note, as Molyneux’s team does look to be sticking to their strong suits and focusing on a core experience that falls comfortably within their wheelhouse. I think that a reasonable budget and a refined focus with a smaller scope intact, and Masters of Albion may be one of the first games Molyneux has been involved with in more than a decade that may actually be worth a damn.


One would argue that after rock bottom, the only place left
to go is up in any case.

Though Black Myth: Wukong seemingly came out of absolutely nowhere during Gamescom, winning both hearts and minds (as well as awards) during the show, the title in reality has been in development for years in the capable hands of a previously unknown developer known as Game Science. Looking at both the impressive Steam stats of the immense popularity of the title in such a short time, in combination with ridiculous sales numbers of it’s launch in the past week, and it looks as if there may be a new industry darling on our hands. With both fast paced action oriented gameplay and slick visuals, Wukong has everyone in the industry talking with intense fervor about the souls-like formula from a Chinese perspective. Will the success of Wukong help expand the boundaries of the relevancy of the Chinese gaming market in the AAA space, and is this a sheer sign that souls-like titles are here to stay? With both this and the smashing success of the recently released expansion of Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree, I think the gaming public has spoken.


Gamers: give it to us hard and fast

Another interesting point of note, which I even questioned myself on when I originally posted about it, going back and forth on the article as a possible non-gaming news piece(?), only to be vindicated in the following days with others following suit with further thoughts on the matter, was the announcement that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was coming to the PS5, which seemed shocking to some. The decision does continue to signal that Microsoft is wanting to branch out in setting new precedents within the gaming industry. With major acquisitions in the past few years in the form of Activision and Bethesda, two massive publishers with some of gamings biggest franchises in tow, it’s hard to imagine Microsoft leaving so much money on the table by keeping their games an Xbox only exclusive. Though, it leaves one to ponder on whether or not between both the success of Gamepass, having access to such a stable of impressive IP’s, and the continually evolving technological landscape of the gaming industry as a whole, is this the beginning of a slow pivot by Microsoft to go more into a software predominant position ala SEGA, but with the added benefit of having the PC market in their corner and massive publishers on their side? Only time will tell.


Pictured: A dramatization of Microsoft’s business strategy
in the coming years

Truth be told, keeping up with Gamescom was delightfully exhausting this week, as opposed to the regular kinds of tried I have been from just working my day job and playing the games I already have. With so much content announced in such a short period of time, I’m still slogging through it all, as there are still plenty of games to check out that debuted at Gamescom, which is the best kind of problem to have. I’m sure we will all still have even more info to look forward to about the slew of titles that showcased this year in Germany, even after the convention hall has officially closed it’s doors tomorrow night.

~Pashford