Matt has his eye on the PSVR but as a Vive owner, can't quite justify the purchase. There are many positives with the latest VR system, but how does it stack up to it's albeit more expensive counterparts.

Daily Arcade Gaming Podcast

PSVR reaction from a VIVE owner!

Dating sims have been around since gamers have been lonely. A new spin on this frequently strange pass time is the element of virtual reality. VR Dating sims were shown off at (OF COURSE) the Tokyo Game Show. Matt is perplexed by their existence while Krysti is eager to try them. Website: http://www.Equityarcade.com Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/equityarcade Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/equityarcade Twitter: http://twitter.com/equityarcade Instagram: http://instagram.com/equityarcade

VR Dating Sims are NOT Weird???

This week we talk about all the new hardware Sony has recently released and announced. Who in the office will be getting the PS4 Pro? Matt found a pretty good deal on a 4K TV and PS4 Pro combo. Also covered was Pokemon Go. Is the game an empty rotting corpse of its former glory? Will the new additions in game play mechanics bring you back to the game?

Pokemon Go is DEAD???

Today the guys discuss certain games that almost were, but ended up getting swept under the carpet.

11 Games That Were Alluded To But Ended Up Fading Away

Today the guys discuss the life of a game reviewer and that it may not be all it seems to be. Check out the Article.  Subscribe Today! ► http://www.youtube.com/equityarcade

Daily Arcade - Your Guide To Soliciting Video Games For Review

Today the guys discuss overhyped games and how reviews can really hurt large releases.

Daily Arcade - Early Game Copies Should Be Played And Not Reviewed

Daily Arcade - How Can A Voice Actor Break Into The Gaming Industry?

Daily Arcade - Rumor Has It Niantic Slated To Develop Harry Potter Go

Daily Arcade - Nintendo Reports Hefty Operating Loss for Q1 2016

Daily Arcade - Video Gaming Is Now A Mature Entertainment Business

Who do you believe are the top three developers in the world right now? Not just from a subjective viewpoint, but also an objective one? Well, if you ask Marcin Iwinski, CEO of CD Projekt RED, he might be able to tell ya. About a month ago, during an interview at infoShare 2016, he named the world’s top three game developers… and whatdya know, he didn’t bellow CDPR at the top of his lungs; the developers were Blizzard, Bethesda, and Rockstar Games. Yes, he might have been extremely critical of his company, but his reasons for the top three were actually quite justified. Anyway, here was his response:   “Yeah, I actually think I said the best. The goal for the last five years was to be among the best three roleplaying game developers and I think we got there. The Witcher 3 is the proof. For the top three, this is our perception: I’d definitely put there Blizzard, I’d definitely put there Rockstar, and I think I would put them at number one, and probably Bethesda as well. We want to get there, so one will have to go.” Oh, dem’s fighting words right thar. But is his statement true? Well, thanks to a little analysis and speculation, I would have to say yes, these three developer giants are certainly top in the world, but that’s only if we’re excluding Sony Computer Entertainment, Nintendo, and Microsoft as developers (especially from a financial point-of-view, but do note that the link provide is from the end of 2014). Seriously, I’m sure Nintendo has been lately duking it out for the top spot thanks to the advent of Pokemon GO! and several other clever business strategies. Then again, Nintendo didn’t exactly develop Pokemon GO!, only published it. Anyyyyywaaaaaay… the reasons as to why these three developers might have earned the crown? Well, let’s check it out: Blizzard Entertainment It’s probably important to first note that as of the 2015 fiscal year ending March 31, Blizzard raked in $1.1 billion USD in revenue. Yes, that’s a gargantuan amount of revenue right there! How does Blizzard continuously rake in the riches? Two words: quality games. Not to mention it often boasts a very clever and accurate business model for its titles. It seems that every game released by Blizzard thus has been eaten up by gamers worldwide. In fact, I can’t think of a game that hasn’t been popular with the crowd! To drive the point home, every game and DLC scored at least a 73 on Metacritic, with the overall average being 87. That’s pretty damn good for Blizzard’s career. Not to mention, this year, one Blizzard game managed to win the hearts of gamers everywhere. Which game? Overwatch, duh! Just recently,Overwatch was home to over 7 million players within just a week. A WEEK. That makes the game one of the most successful global game launches of all time. Holy shit, that’s a lot of players. So now, you see exactly why Blizzard would be a prime candidate of “the top three devs.” Not one game of theirshasn’t been popular. Rockstar Games Net revenue of $1.083 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015. But it was down $2.351 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014.   I mean, look at freakin’ Grand Theft Auto V! As of May 18, 2016, the game shipped over 65 million copies across all platforms and it’s still chugging along. It doesn’t need to release a lot of games, and it will continue raking in the moolah. Sure, it’s Metacritic score chart isn’t as flashy as Blizzard’s, but it’s still pretty high. 75 games have positive ratings, with 21 games wielding mixed, and finally, two being completely negative. Overall, the average Metascore for Rockstar Games’ profile is 81, with the highest rating going to Grand Theft Auto IV (98). Yet, Grand Theft Auto V, being only one point lower, obliterated Grand Theft Auto IV’s sales. Hell, Grand Theft Auto V’s online mode, Grand Theft Auto Online, generated well over $500 million, when it was reported back in April of 2016. The studio is pretty much set money-wise until the release of Grand Theft Auto VI… whenever that will be! Bethesda I don’t know how much revenue Bethesda pulled from its games for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015, but Zenimax Media managed to rake in $86.565611 billion for that year. But for now, we’re going to focus on two particular hits of this year and late last year: DOOM and Fallout 4. On May 31, 2016, 500,000 copies were sold just on the PC. It was also considered the second best-selling retail game in its week of release in the UK, right behind Uncharted 4. By late June of 2016, it took the number one spot on the UK charts, ahead ofUncharted 4 and Overwatch. Not too bad! Of course, its sales didn’t exactly hold a candle to one of the most highly anticipated games of 2015: Fallout 4, which manage to turn people away from porn the day of its release. Within the first 12 hours alone, the game shipped over 12 million copies worldwide. And as of February of 2016? Well, according to SteamSpy, the Steam PC sales alone crossed the 3 million mark. Just on Steam. STEAM. Never mind the other PC platforms, physical copies, etc. Really amazing, isn’t it? Still, I’m excited as to how the newest Quake will play out in terms of sales. So you see why these three developers/publishers are top-tier? I mean, again, it’s partially subjective and new competitors are fighting for the tiers; again, just look at Pokemon GO! and Nintendo. I still can’t believe it has managed to rake in an estimated $1.6 million per day in revenue since its launch. Anyway, this is just from Iwinski’s viewpoint, but I believe that from a financial point of few, if we’re not counting the big three companies: Sony Computer Entertainment, Microsoft, and Nintendo as developers, that Blizzard, Bethesda, and Rockstar would certainly indeed be the top especially thanks to its successes over the past year. But the real question is: could CDPR catch up to the developing behemoths? It will honestly depend on how Cyberpunk 2077 plays out, but for now, I think the giants will stay where they are. Check out the article being discussed on the live streaming podcast Daily Arcade: 

Who are the TOP 3 Developers in the World - Daily Arcade 07.21.16

Every sport has championship-tier athletes. Every instrument has skilled musicians. So it should go without saying that every video game will have talented gamers that have completed some tremendously impressive feats of gaming. Here are a few of our favorites. Perhaps what’s most impressive about this accomplishment isn’t so much that Darbian beat the former fastest time–it’s that the former fastest time was also his own former record! That’s right, Darbian beat the record, then beat his own record, making himself a two-time world record holder. Now THAT’S truly an admirable feat! READ FULL ARTICLE HERE: http://equityarcade.com/2016/05/16/very-impressive-feats-in-gaming/

AMAZING FEATS IN VIDEO GAMES - Daily Arcade

I can still recall the time, at the ripe and impressionable age of 13, I pulled my first-ever all-nighter with my older cousin to beat Diddy Kong Racing on his Nintendo 64. No, it wasn’t the greatest game ever made for the N64 (though I’ll still argue that it was criminally underrated), but it didn’t need to be. The thrill resided in simply staying up all night, hanging with my older cousin, and finally beating Wizpig as the sun was coming up. Fortunately for me, relatively strict parenting and a knack for socializing prevented these all-nighters from becoming a regular occurrence (I will admit that later on in college I had a couple more restless nights when Skyrim was released). But still, some diehard gamers go down into this sleepless rabbit hole of video game addiction and are unable to pull themselves out. Now, we all probably have our stories about staying up late on a school night to beat that last mission, but for some, this has led to an unhealthy and potentially dangerous lifestyle. A new study conducted by the Hamilton, Ontario-based McMaster University took an in-depth look at how video game addiction is a proponent of sleep deprivation, which in and of itself can bring about a number of health-related issues. The research, which was recently published in the academic journal PLOS One, was pioneered by Dr. Katherine Morrison, an associative professor at McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. The case study, which was a collaborative effort by researchers from both McMaster and California State University, Fullerton, featured data analyzed from a group of 94 children and teens between the ages of 10 to 17. These young subjects all played video games and were enrolled in lifestyle management programs for either obesity or lipid disorders. The focus of the study was to research the extent that the video game habits of the group had impacted their sleep habits, obesity risks, and cardio-metabolic health. The research team used fitness trackers to monitor the sleep habits of the participants, which was then compared to their video game usage. What the research showed, unfortunately and— in my opinion— unsurprisingly, was that video game addiction habits did indeed result in a shorter amount sleep, which in turn increased chances of having elevated blood pressure, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high triglycerides, and high insulin resistance. Still, as Dr. Morrison acknowledges, this sample set of kids was both specific and quite small, it’s uncertain how these numbers would relate to the general population. But that didn’t prevent Dr. Morrison from finding strong evidence in her research. “That said, we were amazed that amongst gamers, video game addiction scores explained one-third of the differences in sleep duration,” Dr. Morrison said. “Sleep is emerging as a critical behavior for cardio-metabolic health, and this data shows that gaming addictions can cause numerous health issues in at least a segment of the population.” The research team plans to expand their study further, looking to study the effects of video game addiction in more general populations, while also analyzing video game usage and addiction tendencies of gamers over a longer period of time. But what can we, as gamers, do to prevent ourselves, our friends, and our family from falling into the rabbit hole of addiction? As someone with quite the addictive personality, I can sympathize with those who have fully replaced a bulk of their sleep schedule with gaming, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a viable lifestyle alternative. According to Dr. Morrison, those avid and sleepless gamers who are dealing with obesity or some type of lipid disorder should take part in some type of intervention, for their cardio-metabolic health is vital to their long-term well-being. It’s something that some of us, as major video game advocates, hate to admit or deal with as a real issue. Although Dr. Morrison’s study does cast gaming under a relatively negative light, I think it’s important to note that addiction comes in all types of forms, and indulging too much in anything will lead to negative side effects. So, next time I power up my PS4 to get my Phantom Pain on, I’ll try and keep the words my Grandfather has said to me so much, that it’s basically become his motto at this point. “Everything in moderation my boy, everything in moderation.” FULL ARTICLE HERE: http://equityarcade.com/2016/05/14/study-on-video-game-addiction-hints-at-harmful-and-sleepless-consequences/

ARE YOU ADDICTED TO VIDEO GAMES? - Daily Arcade 009

Doom’s back. Again. Last week, players had the opportunity to try out a multiplayer beta for the upcoming reboot of the Doom franchise – a game that’s been in the works for many years now after an initial sequel, titled Doom 4, was unceremoniously cancelled late into development. In spite of the fact that over ten years have passed since the launch of the last main title Doom game, gamers eagerly rushed back to the series, thrilled at the chance to play the latest reimagining of the series. Yet while the new Doom definitely draws inspiration from its predecessors, it’s clear that the upcoming game takes a very different direction in terms of style and tone than previous installments within the series. The violence, monsters, and gore of the upcoming game are rounded, colorful and cartoonish, in spite of the gratuitous use of blood. While this doesn’t necessarily make for a bad game, there’s not much to differentiate the Doom reboot as being distinct and stylistically connected to the games that have come before. Part of the problem that id Software faces in making their newest Doom game feel like previous games in the series is that there’s not much iconography throughout the series that comfortably sums up the Doom experience. While the Super Mario series sticks mostly to a few reoccurring enemy design choices and the Street Fighter roster features the same costumes in every new game, Doom doesn’t have a powerful, standout set of images that connects its games and clearly lays out the style of the series (except possibly for the severed head of John Romero). This lack of unique, identifiable imagery that spans all Doom games isn’t actually because of a failure on the part of former teams at id Software – in fact, if anything, it’s a testament to the cultural impact of the series as a whole. The original Doom, and to a lesser extent many of its sequels, has influenced gaming culture so thoroughly that every visual from the game has been replicated, expanded upon and lampooned by generations of game designers. To this day, first-person shooters set on blood-soaked science fiction space stations are among the most common genres of AAA gaming. Everything that made the original Doom unique has been explored in wave after wave of games that continue to saturate the market, to the point that upon returning to the world of Doom, nothing from the original formula stands out as anything more than a generic space shooter. It’s possible that this problem – the overabundance of Doom tribute acts – is what led to the cancellation of the original version of Doom 4. Long before the upcoming game was in development, id Software worked on a numbered sequel to the series, which was brought nearly to completion before the project was ultimately scrapped and work began on a series reboot. In speaking about why Doom 4 was cancelled, id Software’s director, Tim Willits, explained that the series was having an ‘identity crisis’, stating that ‘everyone knows the feeling of Doom, but it’s very hard to articulate’. Speaking about the cancelled Doom 4, he said, ‘It wasn’t like the art was bad, or the programming was bad. Every game has a soul. Every game has a spirit… [Doom 4] did not have the spirit, it did not have the soul, it didn’t have a personality’. It’s likely that this desire to push to create a unique personality for the Doom franchise that has led the developers to focus so heavily on a colorful lighting system and stylized visual which, while paying tribute the Doom games of the past, look very different to anything that’s come before. The horned skull monsters of the new game are clearly inspired by the classic Doom aesthetic, but the specific approach that id Software have chosen to take involves a Wind Waker-esque method of distilling the core essence of the franchise and then wrapping it in a brightly colored, tonally distinct shell that can’t be mistaken for any other space shooter. So why use the Doom name at all? If id Software is moving this far away from the Doom series aesthetic with their new game, and if the gameplay and visual style have been built from the ground up, why not create a new intellectual property and avoid potentially upsetting fans of the original series? If there’s one thing from the original Doom series that’s not been watered down by hundreds of imitators in the years since its initial release, it’s the name of the series itself. The Doom brand is powerful – strong enough not just to inspire a movie starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, but also capable of withstanding the negative press that the movie generated. Doom’s impact on gaming is so significant that even over twenty years since the original game’s release, players still trust the name to stand for well-built, engaging gameplay. READ FULL ARTICLE BY Matthew Loffhagen HERE:

DOOM BRANDING IS STRONG - Daily Arcade 009

We’re about three years into eighth generation consoles and the landscape for our gaming future seems to grow wilder and wilder by the minute. But on enigmatic, foggy nights, my mind is sent into a haze where I long for games of yore and wonder why they’ve yet to appear in my hands once again. So I’ve decided to compile a list of 10 franchises that for one reason or another, haven’t joined us on this new frontier. When considering candidates for this list, I thought about a few things: how much fun I had playing it, how the game would translate over time, how underrated it was (in the grand scheme of things), and I also disregarded any sequel they may have produced thereafter. What I’m envisioning are remakes of these games influenced heavily by the original with a few tweaks and next gen charm sprinkled in. The most wonderful thing about Crazy Taxi is the pure joy that comes from doing a mundane job like dropping people off at their destinations. Something about the simplicity of whisking people off whilst trying to avoid pedestrians and objects, all while racing against the clock. It makes you feel like the most important person on earth. The creator, Kenji Kanno, hinted a few years ago that he would be rather open to bringing Crazy Taxi to next gen consoles, and was surprisingly candid in his thought process and why he hasn’t done so yet: “There are two things I want to achieve but I haven’t yet. The first is time changing in the game, but it’s more than a simple day/night cycle. Passengers attitudes, the environments, the whole atmosphere of the game needs to change. I really want how you play the game to transition as time does. I haven’t managed to achieve that to a level I’m happy with yet, but I hope to in future.” So here it is, a completely non-subjective list of unappreciated franchises from the 90’s and early 2000’s that I would love to see return to the present day — and by completely non-subjective, I mean it’s subjective as hell. You’ve been warned. READ FULL ARTICLE BY Nick Zappulla HERE: http://equityarcade.com/2016/05/09/10-unappreciated-9000s-franchises-wed-love-to-see-revived-for-the-next-gen/ CHECK OUT http://equityarcade.com

UNAPPRECIATED GAMES FROM THE 90's - Daily Arcade 008

Daily Arcade is a live discussion show you can catch every day at Noon Eastern. We'll be talking about a chosen article from equityarcade.com with topics ranging from all over the gaming community. Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo, and PC gaming news brought to you every day as soon as we get to work.

hubhopper

Daily Arcade Gaming Podcast

hubhopper