Nuts and bolts theory

HOLD THE PHONE

This was originally going to be a blog of me complaining about cancelled video games. Instead, I had my mind blown by myself. Now hear me out, Banjo Kazooie, nuts and bolts, is the bastard child of "banjo threeie" and "diddy kong racing 2"

Both are popular Rareware games that many fans demanded a sequel to. Diddy kong racing's main draw was a story mode which had an "overworld" where you drove around in either a car, plane, or boat just generally exploring, and collecting items. You would then go in doors to activate the quests and races which were in separate instances from the main adventure area. These quests varied from coin collecting, to gathering dinosaur eggs in nests. Now it's long been rumored that Nuts and bolts was originally going to be a new franchise, with new characters. This would make sense, because Rare would no longer have rights to Diddy Kong. So they start creating the concept for a multi terrain, build your own vehicle, story racing game.

Meanwhile, Banjo Threeie was in the works. They created a few worlds and 3D models but were running into issues. You can tell at least a few of the worlds in nuts and bolts were made for a traditional 3d platforming game. Some pieces of scenery are just asking for a beak slam, an egg shot through them, or ledges where you just know Kazooie would have had to run up. Also, if you've never played a Banjo Kazooie level, they're really spacious, made for flying with Kazooie as well as on foot with Banjo.

At this point in both games production they realize they can't release a new ip AND a new game concept. So "not diddy kong racing" looks to be dead in the water. At the same time Banjo threeie is met with criticism because the ceo's think 3d platforming is dead. The two teams grumble about it, and suddenly they come to the perfect solution. Take the concept of "not diddy kong racing", use the characters and the few worlds they created in anticipation for Banjo threeie to create Banjo kazooie, nuts and bolts.

But that's just a theory, A GAM *is instantly shot dead*

New cell phones

     After a week of being thoroughly distracted by Smash bros. I get a text saying that my free upgrade date is approaching. I of course know this means i'll just be getting a phone for $100 off or something, I start looking around. My old HTC EVO 3D needs an upgrade after all.

     I begin my search with my favorite activity, mocking the latest iPhone release. So I looked up the iPhone 6 specs as well as the Galaxy note 4 specs, I chose the Galaxy for comparison since it had the exact same price tag as the iPhone 6 plus. For those less spec savvy that aren't already chuckling after reading that I'll explain what those numbers mean. The phones cost the exact same. The Android's brain is 3x as big, and 2x as fast. They have the same amount of memory, but the Android can get more if you need it. The android's camera will take twice as clear pictures, though both can film at the best possible. Well, like usual, I won't be getting the iPhone.

But it's so pretty!

     Now, to what I actually wanted to rant about. Phones are amazing now-a-days. The previously mentioned Galaxy is almost as strong as my girlfriends laptop despite taking up about as much space as her touch pad. Nowhere near the storage capacity of course, but still, has no manufacturer stopped to think "hey, rather then having this phone be able to fit in someones wallet, maybe we should add a little more power, or an extra battery cell?". I've heard from more then one person that the reason they get a cell phone case is so the phone is a more manageable size. Double the thickness, throw some extra RAM in there, and you open incredibly new opportunities for applications. Fill the extra space with battery, and the times of batteries dieing in the middle of the day will no longer be an issue. Those 2 things would sell me a phone instantly.

     Which brings me to my final complaint. Why the hell can I not make my own phone? How is there no company that just sells spare phone parts? Just like building a computer, why is there no newegg section for phone cases, mobo's, ram cards, batteries, cpu's, etc? This would save so much money, and allow users to customize their phone exactly how they want it. For instance, I would want a lot of ram and battery power with powerful video so I could play games. While not worrying so much about storage, or camera power. SOMEONE GET ON THAT

     Until next time! Don't be a stranger!

Adventure capitalist made me start a blog!

     So tomorrow morning smash brothers comes out. In an attempt to speed up the night I try to come up with something that won't interfere with my job, but still keep me entertained. I remember a site I used to visit all the time in college and highschool, kongregate.com. I go straight to the "top games" section where I see a game called adventure capitalist. Not caring what I play as long as it was easy to pause (you'd be amazed at how busy it can get at night) I clicked.

     Here's how the game went. At the start you have a lemonade stand, you click the button to make lemonade, you get money. You then get a newspaper stand, which is on a different cooldown timer then the lemonade stand. I could see where it was going, judging by the unavailable things I would be eventually clicking on 10 different things with different timers. This seemed pretty fun, hectic click games are ok. After I had about 4 shops unlocked, and I was just starting to have fun, I'm told about managers, who click the buttons for you. 30 minutes of play later I get a bank, which has a cooldown of an hour and a half, which makes me realize I'm playing a facebook game. I later learned these are called "idle" games, which is a new genre, to me at least. You click something, wait, click something, wait, and if you're impatient you spend real life money to speed up the time between clicking.

5 real life dollars buys the guy in the upper left corner a suit

     I was disgusted at this point, and went over to my facebook chat to vent about how stupid this is. Realizing no one actually cares, and that it would take forever to compress my annoyance into a facebook post, I decided hell! Let's make a blog! This way I can vent, but no one who doesn't want to has to listen!

     Why did this game annoy me so much? Well first because it's a game in the same way filling up a pool is a game. You turn on the hose, eventually it fills up. You don't even have to be present for it to fill, just walk away, come back the next day and you've won. This game makes farmville look like half life 3. The saddest thing is, there are a ton like it. Even one of my favorite time wasters, learn to fly, has an "idle" version now. You don't have to learn to fly, just get the penguin set up, leave the room, come back the next day and he's flying!

 I guess I can just hope these games don't leak off phones and computers into consoles, though it doesn't look good. The next sonic game "sonic boom" has the usual sonic running sections, but they use slot mechanics. Think subway runner, temple escape, etc. There are 3 lanes, you switch between them with the L and R buttons, jumping to avoid ground obstacles, rolling to avoid high obstacles.

Before I get started on sonic games, I'm going to stop there. Hope you enjoyed the rant, don't be a stranger!