Excatly, it shows they just rushed it to fullify a contract, like persona 5 strikers
Battle Royale: The Last Generation Of An SNES-CD Saga
- Thread starter RySenkari
- Start date
The code for those games are apparently a giant mess, specifically for the first two.
I assume the Xbox One ports were easier because it shares the same basic architecture as the PS4 (x86-84), but the PC ports were apparently a nightmare to work on, and they only managed to get them on there thanks to Epic's help.
Squaresoft had a bad habit of losing the code for many of their older games before they and Enix merged, so they probably had to reverse engineer the games from scratch when porting them.
I doubt Square wanted to utilize cloud versions either, considering every other game from the PS1/2 era that they ported to the Switch runs natively on it.
Especially that we got Kotor being a straight port show a straight port would have been feasible, still cloud game when the game is still available in freaking PS3 is indefensible, if anything was a rushed job.
This make me wonder if was real the rumor they needed Nintendo for seiken densetsu 3 remake as they even lacked the original art asset too... Square is a freaking mess
I didn't hear about that rumor, but what I do know is that the Collection of Mana is exclusive to Switch because Nintendo had the source code for all of the games (Final Fantasy Adventure, Secret of Mana, and Seiken Densetsu 3).
This isn't even just limited to Square; Konami lost the source code for Silent Hill 2 and 3, and because of this, the studio that did the HD Collection had to rebuild parts of both games from scratch.
Even our pals over at SEGA lost (or at least misplaced) the source code for Panzer Dragoon Saga, which is why that game hasn't gotten a port that wasn't emulated yet.
This depresses me to no end; Panzer Dragoon Saga is a game I would love to give a go, but Saturn emulation is difficult and the game's source code is lost.
November 2019 - Miraculous, The Luckiest
*The NBC News Special Report screen is displayed.*
Katie Couric: Good afternoon, I'm Katie Couric and we're coming on the air live to report that there has been an apparent attempt on the life of President Kennedy just moments ago. The president was at an event and was meeting with supporters when we're told that two shots rang out amongst the crowd, and right now we're going to go to our reporter on the scene, Maggie Serles, and Maggie, what can you tell us right now about what happened and if the president is all right at this time?
*The reporter's voice can be heard on the phone as the first images from the event in Miami are shown. Secret Service agents are swarming, people are just beginning to calm down, and there are paramedics tending to someone.*
Serles: Katie, right now I can tell you that there have been two shots fired, apparently toward the president as he was meeting with supporters.
Couric: Was the president struck by either of those shots?
Serles: I can report to you, what I'm hearing is that the president was not struck.
Couric: Was anyone else hit?
Serles: It appears that a bystander was hit, I'm not sure if it was Secret Service or if it was someone else, but the president appears to be all right at this time, he was whisked away very quickly and he's being looked at but it seems that that would be out of an extreme abundance of caution.
Couric: Right, and if our viewers remember, back in 1981, Ronald Reagan was shot by an attempted assassin, and at first wasn't believed to have been hit, but later on it was learned that he was.
Serles: I can confirm to you at this time that President Kennedy wasn't hit by either of the bullets. The attacker, I'm being told, fired one shot at the president, which missed, and was immediately tackled by security, at which time he attempted to fire another shot and that one is the one that struck the bystander.
Couric: It's a relief to hear that the president wasn't hit, certainly, considering the history the Kennedy family has had, and this actually 58 years to the day after that terrible day when the president's father, John F. Kennedy, Sr. was killed by an assassin's bullet.
Serles: And that was absolutely on everyone's mind, I can tell you that before it came out that the president indeed was all right, there were people... there were people very upset and crying here.
Couric: Of course, even though it's a great relief that President Kennedy will, seems to be okay, what about that bystander?
Serles: Again, I can't tell you... actually, I am getting word now, it appears to have been a young woman who was struck, and she's being tended to by paramedics, they're crowded around a young woman who looks to be conscious but in a lot of pain and that seems to have been the person who was hit by that second bullet. Also, I can tell you that the apparent attempted assassin, he was taken into custody...
Couric: You saw that happen?
Serles: Yes, he was set upon by the crowd and by these agents, who were very quick to apprehend him and also to make sure the crowd didn't harm him, he was taken into custody and apart from some blood coming down from his lip, he's not been harmed but of course I imagine there are a lot of people who want to have words with him as well.
Couric: Maggie, I want to say first of all thank you for the excellent reporting, I'm sure it was chaos there when the president was shot at, and still chaos there no doubt to some extent, so for you to be able to convey all this information in such a harrowing moment, thank you again for such good work. I'm being told now I have Miami's chief of police on the line, and he's likely got more information for us, I'm being told he's not there at the event but that he's been getting all kinds of information and really quickly I'd like to talk to him, sir, thank you for your time.
Chief: Thank you, Katie, I'll tell you everything I can.
Couric: And quickly, I imagine, I know you and your officers will have a lot of work over the next few hours and days as this all plays out... what can you tell us about what happened, what have you learned from your officers on the ground?
Chief: Right now I can say that two shots were fired, apparently at President Kennedy as he was meeting with people, the president is safe and the shooter has been apprehended at this time.
Couric: Can you tell us anything about the shooter?
Chief: Right now all I can say is that he's male, looks to be in his 30s, was very agitated as he was arrested, he was screaming at the president as he was being hauled into custody.
Couric: He was agitated, do you know if he was agitated as he fired those shots?
Chief: From what I'm being told, he didn't say anything as he fired, he only got agitated after he was grabbed after firing the first shot and that's when he began ranting and raving.
Couric: Can you tell us anything more about the victim, the woman who was hit?
Chief: We're keeping all information about the victim private at this time until their family can be notified, all I can say is that they're being treated and that their wound doesn't appear life-threatening.
Couric: The president is also being treated, can you say anything about his condition?
Chief: He wasn't hit, but he is being looked over.
Couric: Remembering back to Ronald Reagan in 1981, and... and this incident reminds me somewhat of the two assassination attempts on Gerald Ford back in 1975, where you had a shooter in a crowd attempt to fire on the president, and, it seems, thankfully that they were not successful in injuring the president or worse, thank goodness for that.
(...)
*More images are shown of the event, we're now getting cell phone footage of the shooter, playing out amongst images of frightened people and Secret Service agents swarming, as Katie Couric and others talk to various experts about the incident.*
Couric: What I want to know is how this shooter, this attempted assassin, was able to get a gun inside the event? Because presidential security is so tight these days, especially since the death of John F. Kennedy 58 years ago, and even though lapses do happen, there's no way a shooter should've gotten within a thousand feet of the president without the Secret Service stopping them.
Presidential Security Expert: And that's what the Secret Service, and I'm sure Congress and the FBI, will be asking and going over with a fine-toothed comb during these next few days and weeks, because you're right, Katie, this never should have happened, and thank God it didn't result in the president being harmed, but there will be an absolute reckoning for sure and very likely someone will lose their job over this or worse.
Couric: We've been hearing these last few years about trouble with the Secret Service, some scandals, a couple years ago you had those agents who got drunk and were on duty while drunk, you've heard about this... this sort of culture of "good old boys", people protecting each other when really they shouldn't, this sort of lackadaisical attitude...
Expert: And you know, if you remember back to... remember the Kadokawa attack in Japan, how there had been a culture of sort of, lax security, police slacking off there in that country, and it took that incident to sort of shake Japan out of its cultural daydreaming, so to speak, and now you have this incident where someone was able to bring a loaded weapon within 50 feet of President Kennedy and actually fire, and... it's a true miracle he wasn't struck.
Couric: You remember the video, you see here, the shooter firing that first shot... and we're being told the bullet passed within one foot of President Kennedy's head.
Expert: One foot away from a national tragedy.
Couric: You're absolutely right, people will lose their jobs over this because this cannot be allowed to happen.
(...)
*The shooter's picture is displayed on the screen.*
Couric: The more we learn about this shooter, this 39-year-old man named Rafael Perez, born in Cuba, we just learned that he came to this country when he was just two months old, brought here by his parents in that Mariel boatlift back in 1980... and we get a look at his social media postings, you know, you don't get any idea that he held such hate for the president, but you do get a sense of his politics, very economically right wing and a big supporter of the last president, Jon Huntsman... you have to imagine that politics had a lot to do with this attempt on the president's life today.
Analyst: Absolutely, Katie, and you know, this shooter's social media doesn't show a lot of anger and hatred, but his father, his father's social media shows a lot of animosity toward President Kennedy, you can see very strong criticisms of the 2017 public option healthcare law, and you can also see that both the father and son are big supporters of the Republican front-runner, Marco Rubio.
Couric: And by the way, um, senator Rubio... he's actually made a statement, and let me read part of it here, because I think that whatever political affiliation the shooter may or may not have held, we can all find agreement with what senator Rubio said about today's assassination attempt on President Kennedy. His statement reads: "I want to express my sincerest relief that President Kennedy was not harmed in today's shooting in Miami. I also want to say that my prayers are with the young woman, Nora Steiner, who was injured in the shooting, and I hope she makes a swift and full recovery. I take great pride that I live in a country where we settle our political differences with words and at the ballot box, and not with violence. I condemn in the strongest terms possible the actions of the shooter, who, in attempting to assassinate a fairly and democratically elected president of the United States, attempted to silence the voices of the millions of people who voted for him, and attempted to disrupt the greatest democracy in the world. America is a free country, and whether one agrees with the results of an election, it is never acceptable to use violence to achieve one's political goals. My family left a country where it is no longer possible to express one's political views freely, and whatever you might think of America's political system, we have the right to vote to change things that we disagree with. While I have deep disagreements with President Kennedy on a variety of issues, we both agree to these basic political beliefs, and I'm proud to live in a country where we can have a spirited debate on the issues and where the people can decide who is the best fit to lead them." And, a number of Republican candidates, including John James, Cindy McCain, Rick Santorum, Nick Freitas, George P. Bush, Lindsey Graham, and Stacey Dash have all issued similar statements today, and those who haven't, I expect will get around to it by the end of the day, because when it comes right down to it, you know, we all might disagree on the issues, but we can agree that political violence is unacceptable.
Analyst: And that belief is shared by most Americans on the right and the left, but there are of course those few bad apples who seek to do harm to those they disagree with, and that's what happened in Miami today.
Couric: And thank goodness the president wasn't hurt.
(...)
*President Kennedy appears on the screen in front of microphones about an hour and a half after the assassination attempt.*
Couric: And now the president is about to speak, let's listen in.
John F. Kennedy Jr.: Hello, good evening everyone, um... it's good to see you all. First of all, Carolyn and I, and our two kids, we all want to extend our deepest gratitude for all the thoughts and prayers today, but also, I want to ask everyone to keep the woman who was shot, Nora Steiner, in your prayers at this time as she goes into surgery for the injury she sustained. The doctors tell me that she's going to be all right, but that she'll need surgery to save her arm and I want to ask everyone to keep her in your thoughts, I plan to pay her a visit when she's feeling better and right now she's the one that everyone needs to be worried about, not me. She's just 23 years old, she could really use the positive energy. I also want to thank the Secret Service agents who put their lives on the line to protect me and to protect all the other people in attendance at today's event, they all put their lives on the line every day, and this is the day they've trained for their entire careers, and I'm very grateful not only for their bravery and courage, but also that none of them were injured in today's incident. I want to thank the Miami PD, the Miami fire department, and the paramedics, all the Miami emergency services who were also very brave and courageous today to protect innocent lives, because at the end of the day, it wasn't just my life that was in danger, this happened at an event where there were many people, and while I may have an important job, when it comes right down to it, every life is important and thankfully everyone got to go home to their families today, including Ms. Steiner when she comes out of surgery. I'm going to take a few questions now, after that I'll be going to spend some time with my family, they're understandably very very shaken up after what happened today.
Reporter: Mr. President, first of all I want to express how glad I am that you're okay, can you tell us how long you spent with the paramedics after what happened?
Kennedy: So, after the shooting, obviously, there was so much chaos and panic, and the Secret Service dragged me to safety, and immediately after, I went to be checked on by some doctors, who... well they just wanted to make sure I was all right, if some of you remember when President Reagan was shot back in 1981, they didn't know he was hit immediately, so they just wanted to make sure there wasn't any wounds that we didn't know about, and also wanted to check my vitals, just in case... we were all really shaken by what happened. I had to take off my clothes. *laughing, some laughter is heard in the crowd* They wanted to check for bullet wounds, so I had to strip down. It, uh, it wasn't very fun.
*Another reporter asks a question.*
Reporter: Do you have anything to say to the shooter? Did you know he was from Cuba?
Kennedy: Uh, I have been told about the shooter, and the only thing I have to say is that he failed in what he attempted to do, which was to use violence to affect political change because he was unhappy with my policies. And, you know, that's pretty much the definition of terrorism. That's what this was today, a terrorist act by a disgruntled individual who tried to use political violence and who failed to accomplish what he set out to do. And if you've been watching the news lately, there are more than a dozen people, currently running for the Republican nomination, who are doing things the right way, who are going out there and having a debate on the issues, and next year one of them will be running against me and we'll have a conversation, a conversation with words and not with violence, and then millions of Americans will get to make their voices heard. And also, I appreciate the well wishes from all of my Republican colleagues. I talked to two of them on the phone today, Cindy McCain and Senator Graham reached out and called me and we talked briefly and I am so grateful to everyone, whatever side of the aisle you're on, who expresses their feelings in a peaceful way, because this country is a democracy and that's how we do things here. As for the shooter being from Cuba... I came to Miami to have a dialogue with people, including the Cuban exile community, and we had a very productive and peaceful dialogue, even if we disagree. Cuba is a dictatorship, I've said that for years. I've looked into loosening the embargo, absolutely, because I think there are more productive ways to handle our relationship with Cuba, and I feel that it's time to have a real dialogue about economic freedom on both sides of the strait that separates our two countries. I've kept that boycott in place, but I think we should have better economic relations with Cuba, and we can do that while still condemning the fact that the people over there are not free and will not be free until they've abandoned communism. That's one issue that the shooter and I could have agreed on and it's a shame that instead of participating in the democratic process to settle our political disagreements that he chose violence and will be punished very, very harshly for it. It's a tragedy. Last question.
*Another reporter asks a question.*
Reporter: Do you have any plans to investigate the Secret Service for allowing the shooter to bring a weapon into the event?
Kennedy: Let me just re-iterate that the Secret Service absolutely did its job today. They kept me safe and they kept every person at that event safe, with the exception of Ms. Steiner who is expected to make a full recovery. They risked their lives today. Whatever issues, whatever problems, there will no doubt be a congressional investigation and that will need to be allowed to play out, but I'm not going to have anything but the utmost praise for the Secret Service today. They saved my life. They saved countless other lives. They did their job. Every American owes them a debt of gratitude today.
*After answering this last question, the president leaves, as reporters continue to shout questions at him and take pictures.*
Couric: And there you have it, the first statement by President Kennedy following the assassination attempt earlier today. Obviously, still looking a bit shaken up, and no doubt wants to be with his wife and kids after everything that's happened, but what we saw I think was a president who is still resolved to do his duty to the American people, and though shaken by today's incident, still projecting an image of strength in the face of what must have been the most trying day of his presidency thus far, 58 years after the death of his father at the hands of an assassin.
-from the NBC News Special Report, broadcast from 4:16 PM to 7:00 PM on November 22, 2019
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The assassination attempt on President John F. Kennedy, Jr. on November 22, 2019 remains the most recent serious attempt on the life of a United States president, and was the most serious attempt on the life of a president since the assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan in 1981. It took place in Miami, Florida, at a rally promoting Kennedy's proposed immigration bill (which was later passed in January 2020). A 39-year-old Cuban-American immigrant, Rafael Perez, shot twice at Kennedy as he was greeting supporters after his planned speech, with one of the bullets passing 11.4 inches from the president's head before continuing into the wall behind the president's speaking podium and embedding itself in the safety glass. The other bullet, which Perez fired as he was being tackled by two Secret Service agents, struck a young woman, 23-year-old Nora Steiner, in the left shoulder. Steiner would undergo emergency surgery immediately after the shooting and would make a full recovery. Kennedy was immediately whisked away by Secret Service agents and was taken to a secured mobile medical unit, where he was briefly examined for injuries before being released. Rafael Perez, who came to the United States as an infant in 1980 alongside his parents in the Mariel boatlift, cited opposition to Kennedy's domestic and foreign policies as his reason for the shooting. Perez had been working as a construction foreman in the Miami area, and was unmarried at the time, though he did have one child from a previous marriage. Perez, who was later said by friends and family to be a "calm, affable man" who "wasn't involved in politics", primarily voted for Republican and Libertarian candidates in elections, and had been a major supporter of former president Jon Huntsman, while also having voted for John McCain and John Kasich in the elections of 2000 and 2004 respectively. He had also briefly expressed a desire to move to Nevada after divorcing his wife in 2011, so that, in his words, he could "vote for Penn Jillette in 2014", according to one of his co-workers, and had considered writing in Jillette on his 2016 presidential ballot, though he later decided to cast a vote for Nikki Haley, Kennedy's opponent in that year's election. Though Perez had never publicly expressed strong opposition to President Kennedy, even in the months leading to the assassination attempt, his father, local business owner Ramon Perez, had been known to "vocally and angrily" express his disagreement with the administration's policies, at one point having been said to have gone on a "boisterous and frightening" rant session immediately after Kennedy signed the 2017 public option healthcare bill into law. The younger Perez was said to have "admired" his father, and the two were said to be very close, especially after Rafael Perez divorced his wife. The two had considered going into business together, though the younger Perez chose to remain in construction because he liked his job and liked many of the people he was working with. Ramon Perez, who was investigated "heavily" by both the FBI and Secret Service after the shooting, was found to have had nothing to do with the shooting itself, though research into his past brought up a number of incidents, including an incident where the elder Perez confronted a government worker in 1999, shouting that "you people have taken everything from me, just like that (expletive deleted) Castro did in Cuba!", an incident witnessed by Rafael Perez. After being taken into custody, Rafael Perez could be heard "ranting and raving" about the Kennedy administration's policies, and expressing anger that Kennedy had survived, though he was said to have calmed down later on, and instead of ranting, began to demand a lawyer. Perez was charged with numerous crimes, including the assassination attempt, as well as two counts of attempted murder (against both President Kennedy and Nora Steiner). He would plead guilty to all charges, avoiding a lengthy federal trial, and would be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The assassination attempt, which took place less than two months before the 2020 Republican primaries, would lead to all the presidential candidates temporarily suspending their campaigns out of a show of solidarity for the president. Marco Rubio, who was praised by the shooter in the weeks before the attack, would express strong and immediate condemnation of Perez's actions, and never once even mentioned his name, referring to him as either "the shooter" or "that terrorist" in media interviews and official statements. Rubio's condemnation would be joined by every other Republican candidate, as well as the Libertarian and Green Party candidates, in the days and weeks following the shooting, while the December 2019 Republican debate, the last debate before the 2020 Iowa caucus, would begin with the candidates all expressing their well-wishes toward the president and a further condemnation of the assassination attempt. Despite the candidates' strong disavowal of the shooter, the Republican Party would see its approval rating dip slightly following the shooting, while Rubio's poll numbers would take the greatest hit of any of the candidates. The Cuban exile community would also sharply condemn the shooter, with many leaders in the community comparing the shooter to Fidel Castro and his lieutenants and comparing his actions to the violent overthrow of the Cuban government in 1959. A notable commercial, which was played nationwide in the weeks leading to the January 2020 primaries, was a political ad funded by a group of Republican Cuban-Americans, praising America and showing solidarity with the president and condemning the attempted assassin, while also expressing disagreement with Kennedy's policies. Kennedy's approval ratings, which had dipped below 50 percent in the weeks leading up to the assassination attempt, briefly soared over 70 percent before dipping back down into the 50s by January. The incident would lead to a massive investigation of the Secret Service, as the government demanded to know just how they'd missed Perez's gun. They learned that he had acquired a 3-D printed gun, with a design specifically meant to fool metal detectors and even heavy security patdowns. Though it wasn't a completely detection-proof design, and the investigation concluded that the Secret Service absolutely still should have found it and arrested Perez before he'd gotten into the event, it did show how dangerous these new weapons had become, and that even the tough gun control laws passed by both the Huntsman and Kennedy administrations weren't effective enough in stopping these weapons from getting out into the community. In addition to the massive reforms that would take place in the Secret Service over the next few years, new gun control laws aimed at making it more difficult for these 3-D printed guns to be manufactured were also proposed, though in an election year, these laws had trouble making it through the Senate, and would ultimately have to wait to be passed. In the meantime, President Kennedy returned to work as he got ready for what would be a difficult 2020 campaign, shaken but determined to continue working for the American people as he ran for a second term.
-from an online article on presidential assassination attempts, accessed on April 14, 2021
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Game Spotlight: Secret Of Mana (Remake)
Squaresoft's remake of Secret Of Mana was released worldwide on November 18, 2019. The remake can be compared with OTL's Final Fantasy VII remake in terms of how it completely overhauls the game's graphics and presentation, though in terms of gameplay and plot alteration, it can be compared to OTL's Trials Of Mana remake, as it doesn't add a whole lot to or change a whole lot of what was already considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time. It remains an action RPG taking place in a vast, beautiful world governed by a powerful magical energy source called Mana, in which a hero named Randi and his two companions, the princess Purim and the sprite child Popoi team up to protect the world's Mana Seeds from the dangerous Emperor Vandole and his four powerful lieutenants. Like TTL's original Secret Of Mana, this remake is a massive expansion from OTL's game, going into much more detail on the plot and characters than OTL's game did while also featuring a much more complete and detailed journey. The remake not only improves the graphics to a modern standard for the Nintendo Reality (and, later on, for the Stadia and the Reality/Virtua successor consoles), but also adds full voice acting, with Zeno Robinson as Randi, Erica Lindbeck as Purim, and Michaela Dietz as Popoi. The game's action-RPG battle system also improves on that of the original game's, as you no longer have to wait to charge your weapon, but can swing (or shoot) as fast as you can hit the button. Weapons and magic have been rebalanced, with magic now delivering more pronounced effects as the player powers it up, and weapons able to be charged faster as well, while unleashing special attacks the more they're leveled up in combat. Powering up weapons and magic is a bit more intuitive as well, reducing the need to grind out spells as they're acquired (at least somewhat). Overall, this has the effect of making battles a lot more action packed and dynamic, while also keeping the difficulty around the same level as the original game. Bosses (and certain enemies) now have individual parts that can be targeted and destroyed, and these parts can be acquired for items and loot, which can be used to upgrade weapons.
The game's progression is somewhat "segmented" when compared to the TTL original. While the plot plays out very close to how it does in the original game, the game is now divided into four "chapters", in which the player is able to complete some story tasks in a different order, and can also complete new side quests, giving each area of the game its own distinct feel. The initial area, which the player roams around in and finds Undine and Gnome before going to the Upper Land, is one such area, while the Upper Land/Matango area is another, and has been slightly expanded to reflect this. Kakkara Desert and the Ice Country are now connected physically, allowing for more intuitive travel between them, while the Empire segment of the game also features more intrigue between the Empire and the rebels, with the player able to compete more quests for the rebels before going into the Emperor's Palace. The Underground City segment is also slightly expanded upon, though at the expense of a slightly shorter Sage Joch/Mandala quest segment, the expansion of the Underground City part of the game allows for a much stronger rebellion/Scorpion Army/imperial lieutenant quest section, in which we get major character development and arcs for Sheex, Geshtar, Fanha, Krissy, Phanna, and the Scorpion Army, even moreso than the original game, while also giving the player a detailed look at the Silviran civilization, the civilization that fell after the clash between the Mana Beast and the Mana Fortress prior to the events of the game. It's also important to note that the game no longer has multiple endings, but a single, canon ending in the biggest change from the original TTL game, which had three. The new ending combines elements from the original three endings, and is actually fairly close to the OTL game's ending, in which the players progress through the Grand Palace, then the Mana Holy Land ("Pure Land" in the OTL original) before storming the Mana Fortress to stop Thanatos. However, there are notable differences: the Emperor's other lieutenants (Sheex, Geshtar, and Fanha) are still redeemed and saved, the player still teams up with the Scorpion Army, who contribute their Silviran tech to the rebellion, allowing it to be overthrown, and Thanatos still seeks to take control of Dyluck's body, and eventually does so during the final confrontation in the Mana Fortress, forcing the player to battle him in the first stage of a three-part final boss battle, with stage 2 being a fight against Thanatos' true form, the Dark Lich, and stage 3 being a fight against the Mana Beast to prevent it from bringing down the Fortress. The game does end on a somewhat bittersweet note, as, just like in the OTL game, Dyluck dies from his wounds sustained by being forced to fight the heroes, and Popoi is forced to return to their world, though in the ending, which sees Randi and Purim begin a relationship, it is implied that Popoi will be able to return sooner rather than later, while mana is restored to the world and the old technology is slowly being brought back as well thanks to the Scorpion Army's efforts.
The Secret Of Mana remake is released to a wave of hype, and largely lives up to it, becoming one of the most successful and epic RPGs of its generation. Reviews average in the mid 9s, making it an easy Game of the Year contender, and though it doesn't quite have as big of an impact as the original game had back in 1993, it's still a huge critical and commercial success, becoming the Reality's second biggest release of the year behind only The Legend Of Zelda: Flight Of The Weathervane. It would be launched on the Stadia in 2020 and would come to the Reality and Virtua successors fairly soon after their releases, and would achieve success on those platforms as well. The success of the Secret Of Mana remake, comparable to the success of the OTL Final Fantasy VII remake, proves that even after all these years, the game remains one of Squaresoft's most beloved of all time, and that the company can still bring new life to an old classic. It would inspire a number of action-RPGs over the next few years, revolutionizing the genre, especially in Japan, and would lead to calls for more remakes of Squaresoft classics, with at least one game already in production....
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Game Spotlight: Miraculous Ladybug 3
Miraculous Ladybug 3 is an action/adventure title published by Ubisoft and Google exclusively for the Google Stadia platform. It would be primarily directed by creator Thomas Astruc, following a series of rocky production conflicts and scandals that would see co-producer Michel Ancel forced from the company amidst a wave of worker abuse scandals similar to what has embroiled him IOTL. It sees Marinette, Adrien, and their friends and allies return to battle a new villain named White Lightning, who has the power to bring inanimate objects to life and who doesn't seek the powers of the Miraculous like Hawkmoth did, but who seeks to gather Shadow Energy for her unseen masters. Though the game still features Ladybug and Cat Noir as the primary protagonists, there are a slew of brand new heroes, joining Alya/Rena Rouge, Chloe/Queen Bee, and Nino/Carapace as playable heroes in the game's big cast. They each have their own distinct powers, which definitely come in handy against White Lightning's army of living objects, and combat takes on a somewhat more offensive-based style than in previous games which had more of a focus on defense and rescue. This game, in which Ladybug and Cat Noir are frequently accompanied by several heroes, has a heavy emphasis on teamwork and combo attacks, and it's important to build their relationship with their friends to enable for these combos during battle. Rescuing civilians and fellow heroes is still quite important, and the Stadia's hardware allows these battle actions to flow seamlessly together, for elaborate mid-battle animations that work in perfect tandem with the player's attacks. The developers took a lot of cues from the recent Squad Four titles when designing this game's combat, and as a result, nearly every move is intuitive and context-sensitive, allowing for battles that play out like scenes from a movie, but are still 100 percent controlled by the player. The game continues the open-world design philosophy of previous games, allowing for Marinette and her friends to befriend and help people throughout the city, building their relationships and skills all the while. The new heroes all have their own quests as well, and it's important for players to try out every single character, as their quests help to enhance the game's story and character arcs significantly. As mentioned before, Miraculous Ladybug 3 utilizes the Google Stadia hardware better than any game before it, which is why the game ultimately couldn't be brought to the Nexus, as even the Nexus Pro wouldn't have been able to handle the game's gorgeous landscapes and vivid animations. Many who play the game compare it to a Pixar title, and indeed, OTL's Kena: Bridge of Spirits is perhaps the best reference for the look of this game, though its combat is much, much more fluid and complex than that title, with each character having dozens of different moves and actions that can be performed in fights.
Miraculous Ladybug 3 takes place a few months after the events of Miraculous Ladybug 2, with Hawkmoth being defeated and achieving redemption, and Marinette befriending Chloe, though some tensions still remain between them. The kids have gotten a new teacher: Ms. Freya Baudelaire (voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn), who has been overseas exploring and who immediately endears herself to the group with her kind nature and fantastical stories. However, just as everyone's lives seem to be going perfectly, a new villain arrives: White Lightning, who has the ability to transform inanimate objects into living monsters, and who is a great deal more dangerous than Hawkmoth ever was (she makes this quite clear by easily defeating Master Fu in an early game cutscene and injuring him so severely that he's forced to retire as a hero). She seeks to cause destruction in order to generate Shadow Energy that she gathers up for an unseen master, and unlike with Hawkmoth, after White Lightning's attacks, the destruction doesn't go away, which gradually causes more and more chaos in the city. To make matters worse, Lila continues to cause trouble for Marinette and her friends, and the return of Chloe's sister Zoe from overseas also leads to tension, as Chloe is incredibly jealous of the kind and instantly likable Zoe. After Zoe accidentally uses Chloe's Miraculous to transform into the heroine Vesperia, stealing Chloe's thunder, it leads to Chloe reverting mostly back to her old ways, and Marinette forces her to relinquish her Miraculous, leading to more tension. As all of this is going on, the kids confide in Freya, and eventually she learns of their identities. She's a mentor to them, and comforts them in their times of worry and fear... and none of them have any clue that she's White Lightning, the one bringing all of this terror and danger to Paris in the first place. She begins to subtly sow discord between the kids, ruining their chemistry during missions and allowing White Lightning to cause more and more damage to the city. However, as we learn more about Freya, her motivations become more complex... she genuinely does care about her students, and is torn between her friendship with them and her duties as White Lightning. We learn that during Freya's overseas trips, she was taken prisoner by a mysterious evil force, and was deeply traumatized by the shadow visions it forced upon her, twisting her mind and causing her to fear for herself and for the world, eventually taking on the White Lightning powers as a way to cope with her trauma, not knowing it would bind her to the shadow master who had tormented her for so long. The White Lightning powers are part of a group of magical stones called the Rainbow Lights, objects similar to Miraculouses but with more raw power, though at the expense of their power being less versatile, and also able to be exhausted easier. The Rainbow Lights were originally created to battle shadow monsters called the Shadow Sentinels, extradimensional beings who seek to inflict pain and torment on living beings, but when the Rainbow Light wielders were killed while sealing the Sentinels away, the Sentinels were able to corrupt them, and the White Rainbow Light was one of the corrupted stones, which was given to Freya by the shadow monsters in the hopes that she would bring them the energy they needed to break their seal. At the same time that Freya serves them and brings them power, she also seeks to break free of them by any means necessary, and though she cares deeply for her students, she's willing to kill them if it frees her from the Shadow Sentinels. All of this culminates in a heartbreaking mission in which Marinette learns that Freya is White Lightning, but rather than kill her, Freya lets Marinette escape. Soon after this, she accelerates her plans and launches a full-scale attack on the city, while at the same time, Chloe steals back the Queen Bee Miraculous. This enables Freya to take Zoe hostage when she suddenly finds herself powerless, and the Miraculous wielders are, for a time, rendered unable to fight White Lightning, lest she hurt Zoe. Complicating matters is the fact that Lila is also trying to sabotage the Miraculous wielders, having found the Red Rainbow Light and transformed herself into Red Smasher. Marinette and Adrien go to battle Red Smasher while the rest of the Miraculous wielders try to find a way to defeat White Lightning. Eventually, Chloe, who realizes how badly she messed up, battles White Lightning as Queen Bee to save her sister, taking a beating but managing to get the Miraculous to Zoe, who uses it to free herself and transform into Vesperia, fighting off White Lightning until the rest of the heroes jump in. They're defeated after a long and fierce battle until Ladybug and Cat Noir (who managed to take the Red Rainbow Light back from Lila) show up and jump in. Eventually, White Lightning exhausts her powers, but the heroes have done so as well, leading to a somewhat brutal physical fight between a mostly de-powered White Lightning and Ladybug in the Notre Dame cathedral, which ends in White Lightning managing to get her powers back and defeat Ladybug, only for her other friends to show up and scare her off. However, this fight had a tremendous impact on Freya's mental state, and after a speech from Marinette, she realizes that her actions have only helped her tormentors and haven't actually made her any stronger. She ultimately agrees to help Ladybug stop the Shadow Sentinels, who are coming into the world after their seal has been broken. The two eventually are the last left standing, and they work together to push back the Sentinels, with Freya ultimately sacrificing herself to seal them away. Ladybug is able to use her power to finally restore Paris after all the destruction, and the day is saved, though at a heavy cost: Freya is gone, and Chloe has given up her Miraculous for good, realizing that she's still got a lot of growing up to do and acknowledging her sister as the better hero. Also, the Shadow Sentinels are still a threat... despite being sealed away, their power is leaking into other parts of the world, and Ladybug, Cat Noir, and their friends know they have more fighting to do. The game ends with Marinette and Adrien finally admitting their true identities to each other after everything they've been through, and they share a kiss under the moonlight before resolving to continue the fight against evil.
Miraculous Ladybug 3 is released on November 4, 2019, exclusively for Google Stadia. Considered one of the biggest releases of the year, and quite possibly the biggest Stadia release to date, it proves a massive success, selling millions of copies (even though it's free for Stadia premium subscribers) in its first week of release alone. Reviews, though not QUITE as positive as the previous two games, are also excellent, mostly in the high 8s/low 9s, making the game another contender for Game of the Year, and definitely one of the Stadia's best games of the year alongside Nephilim II. It's another huge hit for the Stadia in a year of huge hits that has seen tens of millions of people subscribe to the platform's premium service, while tens of millions more have tried the platform out and have purchased games for streaming on their Nexus or other devices. The success of Miraculous Ladybug 3 reflects Google's success, and with every hit game, support for the platform only grows stronger. Meanwhile, the game itself would also be popular for years to come, thanks to no less than four DLCs that would further expand on the game's shared universe and introduce many more new characters to the story. It's easily Google's biggest exclusive IP, and the game's success would also serve to somewhat obscure Ubisoft's recent troubles (though it would help that the company had finally begun to push many of the worst figures in the scandals out).
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Other Significant Titles For November 2019:
Squad Four Discovery: Developed exclusively for the Game Boy Zero, Squad Four Discovery continues Raquel's story after the events of Squad Four Apocalypse, though it also flashes back to her past, both before and after the events of Rebellion. The game blends the on-rails style of early games in the series with the full 3-D exploration of games like Betrayal and Rebellion, creating a game that's not unlike the on-foot segments of OTL's Kid Icarus Uprising (though with much, much better combat controls, comparable to Squad Four Betrayal's). The game sees Raquel and her allies (including, at times, Rebecca) working to prevent an old associate of Raquel's from aiding a dangerous warlord in acquiring a powerful mineral from a desolate moon, and is one of the series' most intense games to date, keeping in line with the darker tone established by Betrayal and Apocalypse. Though somewhat short, and criticized a bit for its small stages, it's still one of the most beautiful titles ever featured on a handheld, and the combat gets high marks, making it one of the year's most successful handheld games and an early hit for the Zero.
Land Of Enchantment: Roswell: A late-year tentpole for the Apple Virtua, this game features a new group of young teenagers caught up in a dangerous game of intrigue and danger as they gain superpowers following the alien crash landing at Roswell in 1947, and must band together to protect their hometown from an invading alien empire, traversing time and space in order to do so. The game definitely leans heavily on the series' Spielbergian roots, and is maybe the closest thing TTL has to OTL's Stranger Things (though with a slightly older group of protagonists). It's a fun game and gets high marks from critics, but is a slight disappointment in terms of sales, much like Land Of Enchantment 2 was, and leaves the future of the series uncertain.
Call Of Duty: Covert Warfare: Activision brings another Call Of Duty game to consoles and PC, and this one even comes to the Zero and iPhone G in a graphically reduced but fully intact version at the same time as its console big brother. Taking place amidst the intrigue of the Cold War, it puts the player in the shoes of a secret squad of elite American soldiers who go around the world fighting proxy wars against Soviet squadrons doing the same. Critically, it's a fairly mediocre entry in the series, averaging in the low to mid 8s (a disappointment after Undead Warfare), but sales are massive, building off the excellent reception to 2018's zombie-themed entry, and this would ultimately become the best selling new game of the calendar year, topping even hits like Pokemon Earth and Sky and The Last Gift. Call Of Duty remains huge, both OTL and TTL, and nothing seems to be stopping that any time soon.
Katie Couric: Good afternoon, I'm Katie Couric and we're coming on the air live to report that there has been an apparent attempt on the life of President Kennedy just moments ago. The president was at an event and was meeting with supporters when we're told that two shots rang out amongst the crowd, and right now we're going to go to our reporter on the scene, Maggie Serles, and Maggie, what can you tell us right now about what happened and if the president is all right at this time?
*The reporter's voice can be heard on the phone as the first images from the event in Miami are shown. Secret Service agents are swarming, people are just beginning to calm down, and there are paramedics tending to someone.*
Serles: Katie, right now I can tell you that there have been two shots fired, apparently toward the president as he was meeting with supporters.
Couric: Was the president struck by either of those shots?
Serles: I can report to you, what I'm hearing is that the president was not struck.
Couric: Was anyone else hit?
Serles: It appears that a bystander was hit, I'm not sure if it was Secret Service or if it was someone else, but the president appears to be all right at this time, he was whisked away very quickly and he's being looked at but it seems that that would be out of an extreme abundance of caution.
Couric: Right, and if our viewers remember, back in 1981, Ronald Reagan was shot by an attempted assassin, and at first wasn't believed to have been hit, but later on it was learned that he was.
Serles: I can confirm to you at this time that President Kennedy wasn't hit by either of the bullets. The attacker, I'm being told, fired one shot at the president, which missed, and was immediately tackled by security, at which time he attempted to fire another shot and that one is the one that struck the bystander.
Couric: It's a relief to hear that the president wasn't hit, certainly, considering the history the Kennedy family has had, and this actually 58 years to the day after that terrible day when the president's father, John F. Kennedy, Sr. was killed by an assassin's bullet.
Serles: And that was absolutely on everyone's mind, I can tell you that before it came out that the president indeed was all right, there were people... there were people very upset and crying here.
Couric: Of course, even though it's a great relief that President Kennedy will, seems to be okay, what about that bystander?
Serles: Again, I can't tell you... actually, I am getting word now, it appears to have been a young woman who was struck, and she's being tended to by paramedics, they're crowded around a young woman who looks to be conscious but in a lot of pain and that seems to have been the person who was hit by that second bullet. Also, I can tell you that the apparent attempted assassin, he was taken into custody...
Couric: You saw that happen?
Serles: Yes, he was set upon by the crowd and by these agents, who were very quick to apprehend him and also to make sure the crowd didn't harm him, he was taken into custody and apart from some blood coming down from his lip, he's not been harmed but of course I imagine there are a lot of people who want to have words with him as well.
Couric: Maggie, I want to say first of all thank you for the excellent reporting, I'm sure it was chaos there when the president was shot at, and still chaos there no doubt to some extent, so for you to be able to convey all this information in such a harrowing moment, thank you again for such good work. I'm being told now I have Miami's chief of police on the line, and he's likely got more information for us, I'm being told he's not there at the event but that he's been getting all kinds of information and really quickly I'd like to talk to him, sir, thank you for your time.
Chief: Thank you, Katie, I'll tell you everything I can.
Couric: And quickly, I imagine, I know you and your officers will have a lot of work over the next few hours and days as this all plays out... what can you tell us about what happened, what have you learned from your officers on the ground?
Chief: Right now I can say that two shots were fired, apparently at President Kennedy as he was meeting with people, the president is safe and the shooter has been apprehended at this time.
Couric: Can you tell us anything about the shooter?
Chief: Right now all I can say is that he's male, looks to be in his 30s, was very agitated as he was arrested, he was screaming at the president as he was being hauled into custody.
Couric: He was agitated, do you know if he was agitated as he fired those shots?
Chief: From what I'm being told, he didn't say anything as he fired, he only got agitated after he was grabbed after firing the first shot and that's when he began ranting and raving.
Couric: Can you tell us anything more about the victim, the woman who was hit?
Chief: We're keeping all information about the victim private at this time until their family can be notified, all I can say is that they're being treated and that their wound doesn't appear life-threatening.
Couric: The president is also being treated, can you say anything about his condition?
Chief: He wasn't hit, but he is being looked over.
Couric: Remembering back to Ronald Reagan in 1981, and... and this incident reminds me somewhat of the two assassination attempts on Gerald Ford back in 1975, where you had a shooter in a crowd attempt to fire on the president, and, it seems, thankfully that they were not successful in injuring the president or worse, thank goodness for that.
(...)
*More images are shown of the event, we're now getting cell phone footage of the shooter, playing out amongst images of frightened people and Secret Service agents swarming, as Katie Couric and others talk to various experts about the incident.*
Couric: What I want to know is how this shooter, this attempted assassin, was able to get a gun inside the event? Because presidential security is so tight these days, especially since the death of John F. Kennedy 58 years ago, and even though lapses do happen, there's no way a shooter should've gotten within a thousand feet of the president without the Secret Service stopping them.
Presidential Security Expert: And that's what the Secret Service, and I'm sure Congress and the FBI, will be asking and going over with a fine-toothed comb during these next few days and weeks, because you're right, Katie, this never should have happened, and thank God it didn't result in the president being harmed, but there will be an absolute reckoning for sure and very likely someone will lose their job over this or worse.
Couric: We've been hearing these last few years about trouble with the Secret Service, some scandals, a couple years ago you had those agents who got drunk and were on duty while drunk, you've heard about this... this sort of culture of "good old boys", people protecting each other when really they shouldn't, this sort of lackadaisical attitude...
Expert: And you know, if you remember back to... remember the Kadokawa attack in Japan, how there had been a culture of sort of, lax security, police slacking off there in that country, and it took that incident to sort of shake Japan out of its cultural daydreaming, so to speak, and now you have this incident where someone was able to bring a loaded weapon within 50 feet of President Kennedy and actually fire, and... it's a true miracle he wasn't struck.
Couric: You remember the video, you see here, the shooter firing that first shot... and we're being told the bullet passed within one foot of President Kennedy's head.
Expert: One foot away from a national tragedy.
Couric: You're absolutely right, people will lose their jobs over this because this cannot be allowed to happen.
(...)
*The shooter's picture is displayed on the screen.*
Couric: The more we learn about this shooter, this 39-year-old man named Rafael Perez, born in Cuba, we just learned that he came to this country when he was just two months old, brought here by his parents in that Mariel boatlift back in 1980... and we get a look at his social media postings, you know, you don't get any idea that he held such hate for the president, but you do get a sense of his politics, very economically right wing and a big supporter of the last president, Jon Huntsman... you have to imagine that politics had a lot to do with this attempt on the president's life today.
Analyst: Absolutely, Katie, and you know, this shooter's social media doesn't show a lot of anger and hatred, but his father, his father's social media shows a lot of animosity toward President Kennedy, you can see very strong criticisms of the 2017 public option healthcare law, and you can also see that both the father and son are big supporters of the Republican front-runner, Marco Rubio.
Couric: And by the way, um, senator Rubio... he's actually made a statement, and let me read part of it here, because I think that whatever political affiliation the shooter may or may not have held, we can all find agreement with what senator Rubio said about today's assassination attempt on President Kennedy. His statement reads: "I want to express my sincerest relief that President Kennedy was not harmed in today's shooting in Miami. I also want to say that my prayers are with the young woman, Nora Steiner, who was injured in the shooting, and I hope she makes a swift and full recovery. I take great pride that I live in a country where we settle our political differences with words and at the ballot box, and not with violence. I condemn in the strongest terms possible the actions of the shooter, who, in attempting to assassinate a fairly and democratically elected president of the United States, attempted to silence the voices of the millions of people who voted for him, and attempted to disrupt the greatest democracy in the world. America is a free country, and whether one agrees with the results of an election, it is never acceptable to use violence to achieve one's political goals. My family left a country where it is no longer possible to express one's political views freely, and whatever you might think of America's political system, we have the right to vote to change things that we disagree with. While I have deep disagreements with President Kennedy on a variety of issues, we both agree to these basic political beliefs, and I'm proud to live in a country where we can have a spirited debate on the issues and where the people can decide who is the best fit to lead them." And, a number of Republican candidates, including John James, Cindy McCain, Rick Santorum, Nick Freitas, George P. Bush, Lindsey Graham, and Stacey Dash have all issued similar statements today, and those who haven't, I expect will get around to it by the end of the day, because when it comes right down to it, you know, we all might disagree on the issues, but we can agree that political violence is unacceptable.
Analyst: And that belief is shared by most Americans on the right and the left, but there are of course those few bad apples who seek to do harm to those they disagree with, and that's what happened in Miami today.
Couric: And thank goodness the president wasn't hurt.
(...)
*President Kennedy appears on the screen in front of microphones about an hour and a half after the assassination attempt.*
Couric: And now the president is about to speak, let's listen in.
John F. Kennedy Jr.: Hello, good evening everyone, um... it's good to see you all. First of all, Carolyn and I, and our two kids, we all want to extend our deepest gratitude for all the thoughts and prayers today, but also, I want to ask everyone to keep the woman who was shot, Nora Steiner, in your prayers at this time as she goes into surgery for the injury she sustained. The doctors tell me that she's going to be all right, but that she'll need surgery to save her arm and I want to ask everyone to keep her in your thoughts, I plan to pay her a visit when she's feeling better and right now she's the one that everyone needs to be worried about, not me. She's just 23 years old, she could really use the positive energy. I also want to thank the Secret Service agents who put their lives on the line to protect me and to protect all the other people in attendance at today's event, they all put their lives on the line every day, and this is the day they've trained for their entire careers, and I'm very grateful not only for their bravery and courage, but also that none of them were injured in today's incident. I want to thank the Miami PD, the Miami fire department, and the paramedics, all the Miami emergency services who were also very brave and courageous today to protect innocent lives, because at the end of the day, it wasn't just my life that was in danger, this happened at an event where there were many people, and while I may have an important job, when it comes right down to it, every life is important and thankfully everyone got to go home to their families today, including Ms. Steiner when she comes out of surgery. I'm going to take a few questions now, after that I'll be going to spend some time with my family, they're understandably very very shaken up after what happened today.
Reporter: Mr. President, first of all I want to express how glad I am that you're okay, can you tell us how long you spent with the paramedics after what happened?
Kennedy: So, after the shooting, obviously, there was so much chaos and panic, and the Secret Service dragged me to safety, and immediately after, I went to be checked on by some doctors, who... well they just wanted to make sure I was all right, if some of you remember when President Reagan was shot back in 1981, they didn't know he was hit immediately, so they just wanted to make sure there wasn't any wounds that we didn't know about, and also wanted to check my vitals, just in case... we were all really shaken by what happened. I had to take off my clothes. *laughing, some laughter is heard in the crowd* They wanted to check for bullet wounds, so I had to strip down. It, uh, it wasn't very fun.
*Another reporter asks a question.*
Reporter: Do you have anything to say to the shooter? Did you know he was from Cuba?
Kennedy: Uh, I have been told about the shooter, and the only thing I have to say is that he failed in what he attempted to do, which was to use violence to affect political change because he was unhappy with my policies. And, you know, that's pretty much the definition of terrorism. That's what this was today, a terrorist act by a disgruntled individual who tried to use political violence and who failed to accomplish what he set out to do. And if you've been watching the news lately, there are more than a dozen people, currently running for the Republican nomination, who are doing things the right way, who are going out there and having a debate on the issues, and next year one of them will be running against me and we'll have a conversation, a conversation with words and not with violence, and then millions of Americans will get to make their voices heard. And also, I appreciate the well wishes from all of my Republican colleagues. I talked to two of them on the phone today, Cindy McCain and Senator Graham reached out and called me and we talked briefly and I am so grateful to everyone, whatever side of the aisle you're on, who expresses their feelings in a peaceful way, because this country is a democracy and that's how we do things here. As for the shooter being from Cuba... I came to Miami to have a dialogue with people, including the Cuban exile community, and we had a very productive and peaceful dialogue, even if we disagree. Cuba is a dictatorship, I've said that for years. I've looked into loosening the embargo, absolutely, because I think there are more productive ways to handle our relationship with Cuba, and I feel that it's time to have a real dialogue about economic freedom on both sides of the strait that separates our two countries. I've kept that boycott in place, but I think we should have better economic relations with Cuba, and we can do that while still condemning the fact that the people over there are not free and will not be free until they've abandoned communism. That's one issue that the shooter and I could have agreed on and it's a shame that instead of participating in the democratic process to settle our political disagreements that he chose violence and will be punished very, very harshly for it. It's a tragedy. Last question.
*Another reporter asks a question.*
Reporter: Do you have any plans to investigate the Secret Service for allowing the shooter to bring a weapon into the event?
Kennedy: Let me just re-iterate that the Secret Service absolutely did its job today. They kept me safe and they kept every person at that event safe, with the exception of Ms. Steiner who is expected to make a full recovery. They risked their lives today. Whatever issues, whatever problems, there will no doubt be a congressional investigation and that will need to be allowed to play out, but I'm not going to have anything but the utmost praise for the Secret Service today. They saved my life. They saved countless other lives. They did their job. Every American owes them a debt of gratitude today.
*After answering this last question, the president leaves, as reporters continue to shout questions at him and take pictures.*
Couric: And there you have it, the first statement by President Kennedy following the assassination attempt earlier today. Obviously, still looking a bit shaken up, and no doubt wants to be with his wife and kids after everything that's happened, but what we saw I think was a president who is still resolved to do his duty to the American people, and though shaken by today's incident, still projecting an image of strength in the face of what must have been the most trying day of his presidency thus far, 58 years after the death of his father at the hands of an assassin.
-from the NBC News Special Report, broadcast from 4:16 PM to 7:00 PM on November 22, 2019
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The assassination attempt on President John F. Kennedy, Jr. on November 22, 2019 remains the most recent serious attempt on the life of a United States president, and was the most serious attempt on the life of a president since the assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan in 1981. It took place in Miami, Florida, at a rally promoting Kennedy's proposed immigration bill (which was later passed in January 2020). A 39-year-old Cuban-American immigrant, Rafael Perez, shot twice at Kennedy as he was greeting supporters after his planned speech, with one of the bullets passing 11.4 inches from the president's head before continuing into the wall behind the president's speaking podium and embedding itself in the safety glass. The other bullet, which Perez fired as he was being tackled by two Secret Service agents, struck a young woman, 23-year-old Nora Steiner, in the left shoulder. Steiner would undergo emergency surgery immediately after the shooting and would make a full recovery. Kennedy was immediately whisked away by Secret Service agents and was taken to a secured mobile medical unit, where he was briefly examined for injuries before being released. Rafael Perez, who came to the United States as an infant in 1980 alongside his parents in the Mariel boatlift, cited opposition to Kennedy's domestic and foreign policies as his reason for the shooting. Perez had been working as a construction foreman in the Miami area, and was unmarried at the time, though he did have one child from a previous marriage. Perez, who was later said by friends and family to be a "calm, affable man" who "wasn't involved in politics", primarily voted for Republican and Libertarian candidates in elections, and had been a major supporter of former president Jon Huntsman, while also having voted for John McCain and John Kasich in the elections of 2000 and 2004 respectively. He had also briefly expressed a desire to move to Nevada after divorcing his wife in 2011, so that, in his words, he could "vote for Penn Jillette in 2014", according to one of his co-workers, and had considered writing in Jillette on his 2016 presidential ballot, though he later decided to cast a vote for Nikki Haley, Kennedy's opponent in that year's election. Though Perez had never publicly expressed strong opposition to President Kennedy, even in the months leading to the assassination attempt, his father, local business owner Ramon Perez, had been known to "vocally and angrily" express his disagreement with the administration's policies, at one point having been said to have gone on a "boisterous and frightening" rant session immediately after Kennedy signed the 2017 public option healthcare bill into law. The younger Perez was said to have "admired" his father, and the two were said to be very close, especially after Rafael Perez divorced his wife. The two had considered going into business together, though the younger Perez chose to remain in construction because he liked his job and liked many of the people he was working with. Ramon Perez, who was investigated "heavily" by both the FBI and Secret Service after the shooting, was found to have had nothing to do with the shooting itself, though research into his past brought up a number of incidents, including an incident where the elder Perez confronted a government worker in 1999, shouting that "you people have taken everything from me, just like that (expletive deleted) Castro did in Cuba!", an incident witnessed by Rafael Perez. After being taken into custody, Rafael Perez could be heard "ranting and raving" about the Kennedy administration's policies, and expressing anger that Kennedy had survived, though he was said to have calmed down later on, and instead of ranting, began to demand a lawyer. Perez was charged with numerous crimes, including the assassination attempt, as well as two counts of attempted murder (against both President Kennedy and Nora Steiner). He would plead guilty to all charges, avoiding a lengthy federal trial, and would be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The assassination attempt, which took place less than two months before the 2020 Republican primaries, would lead to all the presidential candidates temporarily suspending their campaigns out of a show of solidarity for the president. Marco Rubio, who was praised by the shooter in the weeks before the attack, would express strong and immediate condemnation of Perez's actions, and never once even mentioned his name, referring to him as either "the shooter" or "that terrorist" in media interviews and official statements. Rubio's condemnation would be joined by every other Republican candidate, as well as the Libertarian and Green Party candidates, in the days and weeks following the shooting, while the December 2019 Republican debate, the last debate before the 2020 Iowa caucus, would begin with the candidates all expressing their well-wishes toward the president and a further condemnation of the assassination attempt. Despite the candidates' strong disavowal of the shooter, the Republican Party would see its approval rating dip slightly following the shooting, while Rubio's poll numbers would take the greatest hit of any of the candidates. The Cuban exile community would also sharply condemn the shooter, with many leaders in the community comparing the shooter to Fidel Castro and his lieutenants and comparing his actions to the violent overthrow of the Cuban government in 1959. A notable commercial, which was played nationwide in the weeks leading to the January 2020 primaries, was a political ad funded by a group of Republican Cuban-Americans, praising America and showing solidarity with the president and condemning the attempted assassin, while also expressing disagreement with Kennedy's policies. Kennedy's approval ratings, which had dipped below 50 percent in the weeks leading up to the assassination attempt, briefly soared over 70 percent before dipping back down into the 50s by January. The incident would lead to a massive investigation of the Secret Service, as the government demanded to know just how they'd missed Perez's gun. They learned that he had acquired a 3-D printed gun, with a design specifically meant to fool metal detectors and even heavy security patdowns. Though it wasn't a completely detection-proof design, and the investigation concluded that the Secret Service absolutely still should have found it and arrested Perez before he'd gotten into the event, it did show how dangerous these new weapons had become, and that even the tough gun control laws passed by both the Huntsman and Kennedy administrations weren't effective enough in stopping these weapons from getting out into the community. In addition to the massive reforms that would take place in the Secret Service over the next few years, new gun control laws aimed at making it more difficult for these 3-D printed guns to be manufactured were also proposed, though in an election year, these laws had trouble making it through the Senate, and would ultimately have to wait to be passed. In the meantime, President Kennedy returned to work as he got ready for what would be a difficult 2020 campaign, shaken but determined to continue working for the American people as he ran for a second term.
-from an online article on presidential assassination attempts, accessed on April 14, 2021
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Game Spotlight: Secret Of Mana (Remake)
Squaresoft's remake of Secret Of Mana was released worldwide on November 18, 2019. The remake can be compared with OTL's Final Fantasy VII remake in terms of how it completely overhauls the game's graphics and presentation, though in terms of gameplay and plot alteration, it can be compared to OTL's Trials Of Mana remake, as it doesn't add a whole lot to or change a whole lot of what was already considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time. It remains an action RPG taking place in a vast, beautiful world governed by a powerful magical energy source called Mana, in which a hero named Randi and his two companions, the princess Purim and the sprite child Popoi team up to protect the world's Mana Seeds from the dangerous Emperor Vandole and his four powerful lieutenants. Like TTL's original Secret Of Mana, this remake is a massive expansion from OTL's game, going into much more detail on the plot and characters than OTL's game did while also featuring a much more complete and detailed journey. The remake not only improves the graphics to a modern standard for the Nintendo Reality (and, later on, for the Stadia and the Reality/Virtua successor consoles), but also adds full voice acting, with Zeno Robinson as Randi, Erica Lindbeck as Purim, and Michaela Dietz as Popoi. The game's action-RPG battle system also improves on that of the original game's, as you no longer have to wait to charge your weapon, but can swing (or shoot) as fast as you can hit the button. Weapons and magic have been rebalanced, with magic now delivering more pronounced effects as the player powers it up, and weapons able to be charged faster as well, while unleashing special attacks the more they're leveled up in combat. Powering up weapons and magic is a bit more intuitive as well, reducing the need to grind out spells as they're acquired (at least somewhat). Overall, this has the effect of making battles a lot more action packed and dynamic, while also keeping the difficulty around the same level as the original game. Bosses (and certain enemies) now have individual parts that can be targeted and destroyed, and these parts can be acquired for items and loot, which can be used to upgrade weapons.
The game's progression is somewhat "segmented" when compared to the TTL original. While the plot plays out very close to how it does in the original game, the game is now divided into four "chapters", in which the player is able to complete some story tasks in a different order, and can also complete new side quests, giving each area of the game its own distinct feel. The initial area, which the player roams around in and finds Undine and Gnome before going to the Upper Land, is one such area, while the Upper Land/Matango area is another, and has been slightly expanded to reflect this. Kakkara Desert and the Ice Country are now connected physically, allowing for more intuitive travel between them, while the Empire segment of the game also features more intrigue between the Empire and the rebels, with the player able to compete more quests for the rebels before going into the Emperor's Palace. The Underground City segment is also slightly expanded upon, though at the expense of a slightly shorter Sage Joch/Mandala quest segment, the expansion of the Underground City part of the game allows for a much stronger rebellion/Scorpion Army/imperial lieutenant quest section, in which we get major character development and arcs for Sheex, Geshtar, Fanha, Krissy, Phanna, and the Scorpion Army, even moreso than the original game, while also giving the player a detailed look at the Silviran civilization, the civilization that fell after the clash between the Mana Beast and the Mana Fortress prior to the events of the game. It's also important to note that the game no longer has multiple endings, but a single, canon ending in the biggest change from the original TTL game, which had three. The new ending combines elements from the original three endings, and is actually fairly close to the OTL game's ending, in which the players progress through the Grand Palace, then the Mana Holy Land ("Pure Land" in the OTL original) before storming the Mana Fortress to stop Thanatos. However, there are notable differences: the Emperor's other lieutenants (Sheex, Geshtar, and Fanha) are still redeemed and saved, the player still teams up with the Scorpion Army, who contribute their Silviran tech to the rebellion, allowing it to be overthrown, and Thanatos still seeks to take control of Dyluck's body, and eventually does so during the final confrontation in the Mana Fortress, forcing the player to battle him in the first stage of a three-part final boss battle, with stage 2 being a fight against Thanatos' true form, the Dark Lich, and stage 3 being a fight against the Mana Beast to prevent it from bringing down the Fortress. The game does end on a somewhat bittersweet note, as, just like in the OTL game, Dyluck dies from his wounds sustained by being forced to fight the heroes, and Popoi is forced to return to their world, though in the ending, which sees Randi and Purim begin a relationship, it is implied that Popoi will be able to return sooner rather than later, while mana is restored to the world and the old technology is slowly being brought back as well thanks to the Scorpion Army's efforts.
The Secret Of Mana remake is released to a wave of hype, and largely lives up to it, becoming one of the most successful and epic RPGs of its generation. Reviews average in the mid 9s, making it an easy Game of the Year contender, and though it doesn't quite have as big of an impact as the original game had back in 1993, it's still a huge critical and commercial success, becoming the Reality's second biggest release of the year behind only The Legend Of Zelda: Flight Of The Weathervane. It would be launched on the Stadia in 2020 and would come to the Reality and Virtua successors fairly soon after their releases, and would achieve success on those platforms as well. The success of the Secret Of Mana remake, comparable to the success of the OTL Final Fantasy VII remake, proves that even after all these years, the game remains one of Squaresoft's most beloved of all time, and that the company can still bring new life to an old classic. It would inspire a number of action-RPGs over the next few years, revolutionizing the genre, especially in Japan, and would lead to calls for more remakes of Squaresoft classics, with at least one game already in production....
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Game Spotlight: Miraculous Ladybug 3
Miraculous Ladybug 3 is an action/adventure title published by Ubisoft and Google exclusively for the Google Stadia platform. It would be primarily directed by creator Thomas Astruc, following a series of rocky production conflicts and scandals that would see co-producer Michel Ancel forced from the company amidst a wave of worker abuse scandals similar to what has embroiled him IOTL. It sees Marinette, Adrien, and their friends and allies return to battle a new villain named White Lightning, who has the power to bring inanimate objects to life and who doesn't seek the powers of the Miraculous like Hawkmoth did, but who seeks to gather Shadow Energy for her unseen masters. Though the game still features Ladybug and Cat Noir as the primary protagonists, there are a slew of brand new heroes, joining Alya/Rena Rouge, Chloe/Queen Bee, and Nino/Carapace as playable heroes in the game's big cast. They each have their own distinct powers, which definitely come in handy against White Lightning's army of living objects, and combat takes on a somewhat more offensive-based style than in previous games which had more of a focus on defense and rescue. This game, in which Ladybug and Cat Noir are frequently accompanied by several heroes, has a heavy emphasis on teamwork and combo attacks, and it's important to build their relationship with their friends to enable for these combos during battle. Rescuing civilians and fellow heroes is still quite important, and the Stadia's hardware allows these battle actions to flow seamlessly together, for elaborate mid-battle animations that work in perfect tandem with the player's attacks. The developers took a lot of cues from the recent Squad Four titles when designing this game's combat, and as a result, nearly every move is intuitive and context-sensitive, allowing for battles that play out like scenes from a movie, but are still 100 percent controlled by the player. The game continues the open-world design philosophy of previous games, allowing for Marinette and her friends to befriend and help people throughout the city, building their relationships and skills all the while. The new heroes all have their own quests as well, and it's important for players to try out every single character, as their quests help to enhance the game's story and character arcs significantly. As mentioned before, Miraculous Ladybug 3 utilizes the Google Stadia hardware better than any game before it, which is why the game ultimately couldn't be brought to the Nexus, as even the Nexus Pro wouldn't have been able to handle the game's gorgeous landscapes and vivid animations. Many who play the game compare it to a Pixar title, and indeed, OTL's Kena: Bridge of Spirits is perhaps the best reference for the look of this game, though its combat is much, much more fluid and complex than that title, with each character having dozens of different moves and actions that can be performed in fights.
Miraculous Ladybug 3 takes place a few months after the events of Miraculous Ladybug 2, with Hawkmoth being defeated and achieving redemption, and Marinette befriending Chloe, though some tensions still remain between them. The kids have gotten a new teacher: Ms. Freya Baudelaire (voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn), who has been overseas exploring and who immediately endears herself to the group with her kind nature and fantastical stories. However, just as everyone's lives seem to be going perfectly, a new villain arrives: White Lightning, who has the ability to transform inanimate objects into living monsters, and who is a great deal more dangerous than Hawkmoth ever was (she makes this quite clear by easily defeating Master Fu in an early game cutscene and injuring him so severely that he's forced to retire as a hero). She seeks to cause destruction in order to generate Shadow Energy that she gathers up for an unseen master, and unlike with Hawkmoth, after White Lightning's attacks, the destruction doesn't go away, which gradually causes more and more chaos in the city. To make matters worse, Lila continues to cause trouble for Marinette and her friends, and the return of Chloe's sister Zoe from overseas also leads to tension, as Chloe is incredibly jealous of the kind and instantly likable Zoe. After Zoe accidentally uses Chloe's Miraculous to transform into the heroine Vesperia, stealing Chloe's thunder, it leads to Chloe reverting mostly back to her old ways, and Marinette forces her to relinquish her Miraculous, leading to more tension. As all of this is going on, the kids confide in Freya, and eventually she learns of their identities. She's a mentor to them, and comforts them in their times of worry and fear... and none of them have any clue that she's White Lightning, the one bringing all of this terror and danger to Paris in the first place. She begins to subtly sow discord between the kids, ruining their chemistry during missions and allowing White Lightning to cause more and more damage to the city. However, as we learn more about Freya, her motivations become more complex... she genuinely does care about her students, and is torn between her friendship with them and her duties as White Lightning. We learn that during Freya's overseas trips, she was taken prisoner by a mysterious evil force, and was deeply traumatized by the shadow visions it forced upon her, twisting her mind and causing her to fear for herself and for the world, eventually taking on the White Lightning powers as a way to cope with her trauma, not knowing it would bind her to the shadow master who had tormented her for so long. The White Lightning powers are part of a group of magical stones called the Rainbow Lights, objects similar to Miraculouses but with more raw power, though at the expense of their power being less versatile, and also able to be exhausted easier. The Rainbow Lights were originally created to battle shadow monsters called the Shadow Sentinels, extradimensional beings who seek to inflict pain and torment on living beings, but when the Rainbow Light wielders were killed while sealing the Sentinels away, the Sentinels were able to corrupt them, and the White Rainbow Light was one of the corrupted stones, which was given to Freya by the shadow monsters in the hopes that she would bring them the energy they needed to break their seal. At the same time that Freya serves them and brings them power, she also seeks to break free of them by any means necessary, and though she cares deeply for her students, she's willing to kill them if it frees her from the Shadow Sentinels. All of this culminates in a heartbreaking mission in which Marinette learns that Freya is White Lightning, but rather than kill her, Freya lets Marinette escape. Soon after this, she accelerates her plans and launches a full-scale attack on the city, while at the same time, Chloe steals back the Queen Bee Miraculous. This enables Freya to take Zoe hostage when she suddenly finds herself powerless, and the Miraculous wielders are, for a time, rendered unable to fight White Lightning, lest she hurt Zoe. Complicating matters is the fact that Lila is also trying to sabotage the Miraculous wielders, having found the Red Rainbow Light and transformed herself into Red Smasher. Marinette and Adrien go to battle Red Smasher while the rest of the Miraculous wielders try to find a way to defeat White Lightning. Eventually, Chloe, who realizes how badly she messed up, battles White Lightning as Queen Bee to save her sister, taking a beating but managing to get the Miraculous to Zoe, who uses it to free herself and transform into Vesperia, fighting off White Lightning until the rest of the heroes jump in. They're defeated after a long and fierce battle until Ladybug and Cat Noir (who managed to take the Red Rainbow Light back from Lila) show up and jump in. Eventually, White Lightning exhausts her powers, but the heroes have done so as well, leading to a somewhat brutal physical fight between a mostly de-powered White Lightning and Ladybug in the Notre Dame cathedral, which ends in White Lightning managing to get her powers back and defeat Ladybug, only for her other friends to show up and scare her off. However, this fight had a tremendous impact on Freya's mental state, and after a speech from Marinette, she realizes that her actions have only helped her tormentors and haven't actually made her any stronger. She ultimately agrees to help Ladybug stop the Shadow Sentinels, who are coming into the world after their seal has been broken. The two eventually are the last left standing, and they work together to push back the Sentinels, with Freya ultimately sacrificing herself to seal them away. Ladybug is able to use her power to finally restore Paris after all the destruction, and the day is saved, though at a heavy cost: Freya is gone, and Chloe has given up her Miraculous for good, realizing that she's still got a lot of growing up to do and acknowledging her sister as the better hero. Also, the Shadow Sentinels are still a threat... despite being sealed away, their power is leaking into other parts of the world, and Ladybug, Cat Noir, and their friends know they have more fighting to do. The game ends with Marinette and Adrien finally admitting their true identities to each other after everything they've been through, and they share a kiss under the moonlight before resolving to continue the fight against evil.
Miraculous Ladybug 3 is released on November 4, 2019, exclusively for Google Stadia. Considered one of the biggest releases of the year, and quite possibly the biggest Stadia release to date, it proves a massive success, selling millions of copies (even though it's free for Stadia premium subscribers) in its first week of release alone. Reviews, though not QUITE as positive as the previous two games, are also excellent, mostly in the high 8s/low 9s, making the game another contender for Game of the Year, and definitely one of the Stadia's best games of the year alongside Nephilim II. It's another huge hit for the Stadia in a year of huge hits that has seen tens of millions of people subscribe to the platform's premium service, while tens of millions more have tried the platform out and have purchased games for streaming on their Nexus or other devices. The success of Miraculous Ladybug 3 reflects Google's success, and with every hit game, support for the platform only grows stronger. Meanwhile, the game itself would also be popular for years to come, thanks to no less than four DLCs that would further expand on the game's shared universe and introduce many more new characters to the story. It's easily Google's biggest exclusive IP, and the game's success would also serve to somewhat obscure Ubisoft's recent troubles (though it would help that the company had finally begun to push many of the worst figures in the scandals out).
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Other Significant Titles For November 2019:
Squad Four Discovery: Developed exclusively for the Game Boy Zero, Squad Four Discovery continues Raquel's story after the events of Squad Four Apocalypse, though it also flashes back to her past, both before and after the events of Rebellion. The game blends the on-rails style of early games in the series with the full 3-D exploration of games like Betrayal and Rebellion, creating a game that's not unlike the on-foot segments of OTL's Kid Icarus Uprising (though with much, much better combat controls, comparable to Squad Four Betrayal's). The game sees Raquel and her allies (including, at times, Rebecca) working to prevent an old associate of Raquel's from aiding a dangerous warlord in acquiring a powerful mineral from a desolate moon, and is one of the series' most intense games to date, keeping in line with the darker tone established by Betrayal and Apocalypse. Though somewhat short, and criticized a bit for its small stages, it's still one of the most beautiful titles ever featured on a handheld, and the combat gets high marks, making it one of the year's most successful handheld games and an early hit for the Zero.
Land Of Enchantment: Roswell: A late-year tentpole for the Apple Virtua, this game features a new group of young teenagers caught up in a dangerous game of intrigue and danger as they gain superpowers following the alien crash landing at Roswell in 1947, and must band together to protect their hometown from an invading alien empire, traversing time and space in order to do so. The game definitely leans heavily on the series' Spielbergian roots, and is maybe the closest thing TTL has to OTL's Stranger Things (though with a slightly older group of protagonists). It's a fun game and gets high marks from critics, but is a slight disappointment in terms of sales, much like Land Of Enchantment 2 was, and leaves the future of the series uncertain.
Call Of Duty: Covert Warfare: Activision brings another Call Of Duty game to consoles and PC, and this one even comes to the Zero and iPhone G in a graphically reduced but fully intact version at the same time as its console big brother. Taking place amidst the intrigue of the Cold War, it puts the player in the shoes of a secret squad of elite American soldiers who go around the world fighting proxy wars against Soviet squadrons doing the same. Critically, it's a fairly mediocre entry in the series, averaging in the low to mid 8s (a disappointment after Undead Warfare), but sales are massive, building off the excellent reception to 2018's zombie-themed entry, and this would ultimately become the best selling new game of the calendar year, topping even hits like Pokemon Earth and Sky and The Last Gift. Call Of Duty remains huge, both OTL and TTL, and nothing seems to be stopping that any time soon.
I don't know which is better: The survival of JFK Jr., or Marinette and Adrien revealing their true identities to each other.
On the one hand, there was a lot of fear at the wheel when that attempt was made.
On the other hand, the double reveal was something that the OTL show is too profitable to attempt without a premature ending.
It's quite a contest here.
On the one hand, there was a lot of fear at the wheel when that attempt was made.
On the other hand, the double reveal was something that the OTL show is too profitable to attempt without a premature ending.
It's quite a contest here.
It is, but hopefully now that the fan projects have finally made some progress reverse-engineering that overcomplicated piece of crap it'll get better soon.
Oh thank God!
Thank God for piss-poor aim..
Oh? So Inez was a fake-out? She wasn't hit after all?
No middle name?
Lone gunman assassins usually get the three-name treatment.
Awww!
(What can I say, I'm a sucker for a romantic ending!)
Nope, she's just fine, a little shaken up maybe but she'll be okay.
Usually if they fail, they don't. John Hinckley and Squeaky Fromme didn't.
Oops! I'll fix it.
December 2019 - The More Things Change
Zuckerberg Departs Maxis, SimSociety 2 In “Early” Stage Of Development
As Maxis remains hard at work on not one, but two massive upcoming projects, it has undergone a series of internal shake-ups that will no doubt alter the landscape at the studio. The biggest is the departure of Mark Zuckerberg, who worked as the director of SimSociety's community features for more than a decade, and has been credited as a major part of the game's success, being the developer of the algorithms that allowed the game to not only thrive as a society simulator, but to become one of the internet's leading social networks as well. Zuckerberg headed the team that allowed players to connect with one another and form communities within the game, many of which developed into thriving online networks. Zuckerberg himself announced his departure, citing “burnout” and that he wanted to leave development of SimSociety 2 to newer developers, including a few who worked under him on the original game. Will Wright, who continues to lead the company and who actively worked on SimSociety during its 11 years of existence, issued a statement expressing that he and Zuckerberg talked extensively before the latter's departure, and though he was sad to see him go, he accepted that it was for the best and that he wished Zuckerberg luck and success in his future endeavors. Zuckerberg indicated in his statement that he would be taking a “long sabbatical” from the games industry, but would seek to work on “new ventures” when he felt the time was right.
As for SimSociety 2, the game has been in development since 2018, and Wright has been discussing the game on his blog for the past year. He anticipates a “multi-year” development cycle, and that he's also been working on another game alongside SimSociety 2, which is further along in development and could be released as early as 2021 (though Wright has mentioned 2022 as a more likely release date). This new game is said to be an epic adventure title, something Wright has mentioned as his “homage to The Legend Of Zelda”. Electronic Arts is expected to formally announce the game at next year's E3, along with, perhaps, a teaser of SimSociety 2. As for the original SimSociety, it's expected to continue being populated well into the 2020s, and will be on consoles for the first time, as it launches on the Stadia streaming service next year. Wright has said that SimSociety's Stadia version will be “fully compatible” with the PC version of the game, and players will be able to immediately access all of the communities and societies that have been cultivated on the PC version over the years.
-from a December 7, 2019 article on Games Over Matter
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Brad Bird's epic historical drama, 1906, is on pace to be the highest grossing film of the year in North America, after three straight weeks atop the box office charts. The film, an adaptation of James Dalessandro's novel about the San Francisco earthquake, has already brought in more than $300 million domestically in its first 17 days of release, and it's poised to top the box office for at least two more weeks if it maintains its current financial trajectory. The film had been in development hell for more than a decade while Bird worked on other projects and while studios scrambled to fund what would ultimately be one of the most expensive films of all time at a production cost of $250 million, but that gamble seems to have paid off, as the film, which grossed $65 million in its opening weekend, has maintained strong performances throughout its second and third weeks, declining to $59.1 million in its second weekend and $54.8 million in its third, continuing to generate business based on word of mouth and excellent critical reviews while also generating massive amounts of Oscar buzz. The film is expected to cross the $500 million mark domestically, and has an outside shot at reaching $2 billion worldwide, though the records set by Star Wars Episode IX appear to be out of reach. 1906 is expected to be the highest grossing film in a year that's seen several films cross the $400 million domestic mark, including X-Men: Brother vs. Brother, Justice League: The Battle For Infinite Earths, and Melody Of The Night, the highly acclaimed Disney musical film featuring the first ever Latina Disney Princess. In the biggest year ever for the North American box office, the fact that a critically acclaimed historical epic could win the box office crown is a bit of a surprise, but Bird has expressed humility when asked about his film's box office performance, telling Drew Barrymore on a recent Late Show that "I'm just happy it got made."
-from an article on Cinemath, posted on December 29, 2019
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Over the past 20 years, the restaurant landscape of America has shifted and evolved, and while old favorites like McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut are doing as well as they ever have, there have been plenty of new players in the industry, some achieving massive success in a relatively short time. When talking about some of the most successful of these new establishments, one has to mention Rico, the company that started in 1998 and has grown to be Taco Bell's biggest rival in Tex-Mex fast food. Having expanded to 1,417 locations in 49 different states (only Alaska is without a Rico restaurant, though the company may be expanding to the Anchorage area within the next couple of years), Rico has made a name for itself with its selection of sauces and toppings, with 18 different spicy sauces in all that go perfectly with the chain's popular enchiladas and quesadillas. Though Rico sells plenty of food to go, the restaurants, which from the very beginning were designed for comfort and style, encourage people to sit down and enjoy their meals, and the restaurant's staff (among the highest paid in the industry, with starting wages at $15/hr even before the recent federal minimum wage increase) are known for providing excellent customer service and making customers feel welcome. Among burger chains, perhaps the most successful newer chain is The Mile-High Grill, which started in 2000 in the Denver area before expanding to the rest of the Western states and eventually nation-wide. With 900 locations in all, the Mile-High Grill specializes in hearty, filling food, with big burgers piled high with toppings. The company's signature burger, the Mile-High Burger, features two quarter-pound patties and is definitely one of the most unhealthy fast food items you can eat, but despite an increasingly health conscious consumer public, there are plenty of people who still have an appetite for these types of dishes, and the Mile-High Grill expects to open its 1,000th location sometime before 2022. And if pizza is your thing, Pizza Arena is likely one of the first places you'll think about, as it now has 1,000 locations, one of the fastest expanding restaurant chains since its 2004 debut. Pizza Arena was inspired by places like Chuck E. Cheese's and Dave and Buster's, but you won't find any arcade machines, as all the gameplay takes place at the player's table, with tablets that can communicate with one another to host trivia and other games on TVs scattered throughout the restaurant. The chain has been a major investor in bar-trivia mainstay Buzztime, utilizing their devices for the chain's interactive entertainment, and Pizza Arena has grown to such an extent that the company bought Buzztime last year, forcing competing chains Buffalo Wild Wings and TGI Friday's to find a new provider of interactive entertainment, and leaving Pizza Arena with a monopoly on Buzztime's devices. Of course, even if you don't stop in the restaurant, Pizza Arena also delivers, and the company's pizza has been rated highly against the offerings of other national chains, consistently beating out Pizza Hut and Papa John's in nationwide taste tests and surveys.
If many of these chains have one thing in common, it's that they're trying to lure people into the establishment to sit down and enjoy their food, rather than pushing customers toward delivery or takeout. This blend of fast food and fast casual chains has been a trend in the market since the early-2010s, after the country began to come out of the economic downtown at that time, with the cheaper fast food establishments like Rico trying to occupy the niche that many of the fast casual chains were unable to fill due to being too expensive for the average consumer. The end of chains like Olive Garden and Red Lobster around that time left a gap in the market for fast food chains to fill, and while some more expensive restaurants like Pizza Arena survived due to their promotions and gimmicks, others fell by the wayside and were replaced by these new restaurants that put more of a focus on food quality and customer service. With consumer spending rising, these new chains have been able to expand rapidly, though only time will tell if they'll be able to maintain such growth and even challenge the biggest players in the restaurant industry.
-from an article in the December 2019 issue of Forbes magazine
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Game Spotlight: The Witcher
The Witcher is a WRPG exclusive to the Stadia, and its development history was fairly tumultuous, as the game initially began as a game that would have been called The Witcher III (albeit a far different game than OTL's Witcher III). It would have served as a follow-up to 2013's The Witcher: Shrouded Silence. However, TTL's CD Projekt Red, which had largely been a developer of PC titles along with TTL's Witcher games, ran into severe financial difficulties, and ended up folding in 2015, partway into development of The Witcher III. This led Google to purchase up the license to produce games based on the books, and would use some of what had already been completed as the foundation for a rebooted Witcher game series, developed with a team of Polish and American staff. The first game in the new series would see Geralt of Rivia join forces with Triss Merigold to root out a conspiracy of assassins seeking to kill an old friend of Geralt's who had risen into a high position in politics and who was negotiating a high-stakes treaty with a prince who sought to invade and annex a massive amount of territory within the realm. As Geralt and Triss work together to protect their friend and preserve these tricky negotiations, Geralt learns that his old flame Yennefer has been working alongside the assassins for unknown reasons, and that one of the assassins happens to be Geralt's adoptive daughter Ciri, who had been abducted several years before. The Witcher plays less like OTL's Witcher III and more like a slower-paced and deliberate action RPG, in which combat must be carefully plotted out and which stealth comes at a premium. It's possible to negotiate with certain enemies in mid-fight, adding a strategic element to battles and enabling Geralt to end many conflicts with words instead of with his sword. These negotiations also add different dialogue options that take the plot in different directions, depending on how the player chooses to engage with certain characters in certain situations. Negotiations and politicking are at the heart of much of what the player can do in the game, and aligning one's self with the right people is key to progressing the plot in certain ways, while simply charging into battle and killing everything one sees can usually result in some negative consequences. The developers were somewhat inspired by the Rise A Knight series when developing the rebooted Witcher, and that game's hallmarks can be seen in many different aspects of the game, including the many different ways that Geralt's attributes and equipment can be customized. Geralt will gain skills as the player chooses to use them, offering lots of freedom in how the player chooses to approach leveling and skill-building, while the game's skill tree is quite comprehensive and allows players to develop Geralt pretty much any way they choose to do so. The player's interactions with major NPCs, particularly Triss, can also be quite important, as these NPCs can join Geralt and fight alongside him in battle, and can also be deployed to perform certain tasks such as unlocking doors and finding treasures. The game's world isn't quite as big as Witcher games of the past (and certainly not as big as OTL Witcher III), but there's a lot of detail and exploration possible in individual areas, and the game can feature some truly large dungeons to explore as well.
Released on December 2, 2019, The Witcher is the last major Stadia exclusive of the year, and while it's not as big of a tentpole for the Stadia as Miraculous Ladybug 3, it's expected to appeal heavily to the Stadia's more mature players (featuring plenty of violence, sex, and swearing, much like OTL's Witcher III). However, reviews for the game, which average in the low to mid 7s, are considered to be somewhat disappointing. While The Witcher is a gorgeous game, with great animations and detailed backgrounds, the combat, which is meant to test the player's mind but oftentimes just tests their patience, is considered inferior to much of the action-RPG combat out there. In addition, the main quest is considered too short, only taking about ten hours to complete, and that's with all the branching paths and choices that the player can engage in. While the game is praised for its characterization of the main characters, especially Ciri, getting the "best" choices is somewhat of a finicky process, and many times, the player won't be able to see the full story due to picking the wrong choices early on. The Witcher does end up selling decently well, proving that the IP still has lots of room to grow, and many critics say that The Witcher does lay the foundation for a good game, it's just not quite there yet. Rather than focusing on DLC, Google instead has its developers launch headlong into a sequel, hoping to correct everything that wasn't well received about their 2019 effort. In the meantime, people do enjoy The Witcher for what it is, and in the years to come, many players would see it as an underappreciated gem, setting the stage for a fantastic sequel effort in 2022 or later.
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Other Significant Titles For December 2019:
Little Town Hero: The only other major title of the month is this Game Boy Zero game that IOTL was a Game Freak title for Nintendo Switch. It comes to TTL with little changed from the OTL version, even Toby Fox remains the game's composer (ITTL, even though he didn't become a game developer, he's still a decently respected game composer with work on a number of indie titles and even a game or two in the Sonic series). The game gets a slightly stronger reception than OTL's version, thanks to a slightly larger world to explore and an improved combat system, and would become one of the bigger hits of the year for the Zero, though its sales would be slightly low at first due to low availability of the Zero in stores at this time, and only later would it achieve strong sales as more people got the device in their hands and discovered this gem.
As Maxis remains hard at work on not one, but two massive upcoming projects, it has undergone a series of internal shake-ups that will no doubt alter the landscape at the studio. The biggest is the departure of Mark Zuckerberg, who worked as the director of SimSociety's community features for more than a decade, and has been credited as a major part of the game's success, being the developer of the algorithms that allowed the game to not only thrive as a society simulator, but to become one of the internet's leading social networks as well. Zuckerberg headed the team that allowed players to connect with one another and form communities within the game, many of which developed into thriving online networks. Zuckerberg himself announced his departure, citing “burnout” and that he wanted to leave development of SimSociety 2 to newer developers, including a few who worked under him on the original game. Will Wright, who continues to lead the company and who actively worked on SimSociety during its 11 years of existence, issued a statement expressing that he and Zuckerberg talked extensively before the latter's departure, and though he was sad to see him go, he accepted that it was for the best and that he wished Zuckerberg luck and success in his future endeavors. Zuckerberg indicated in his statement that he would be taking a “long sabbatical” from the games industry, but would seek to work on “new ventures” when he felt the time was right.
As for SimSociety 2, the game has been in development since 2018, and Wright has been discussing the game on his blog for the past year. He anticipates a “multi-year” development cycle, and that he's also been working on another game alongside SimSociety 2, which is further along in development and could be released as early as 2021 (though Wright has mentioned 2022 as a more likely release date). This new game is said to be an epic adventure title, something Wright has mentioned as his “homage to The Legend Of Zelda”. Electronic Arts is expected to formally announce the game at next year's E3, along with, perhaps, a teaser of SimSociety 2. As for the original SimSociety, it's expected to continue being populated well into the 2020s, and will be on consoles for the first time, as it launches on the Stadia streaming service next year. Wright has said that SimSociety's Stadia version will be “fully compatible” with the PC version of the game, and players will be able to immediately access all of the communities and societies that have been cultivated on the PC version over the years.
-from a December 7, 2019 article on Games Over Matter
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Brad Bird's epic historical drama, 1906, is on pace to be the highest grossing film of the year in North America, after three straight weeks atop the box office charts. The film, an adaptation of James Dalessandro's novel about the San Francisco earthquake, has already brought in more than $300 million domestically in its first 17 days of release, and it's poised to top the box office for at least two more weeks if it maintains its current financial trajectory. The film had been in development hell for more than a decade while Bird worked on other projects and while studios scrambled to fund what would ultimately be one of the most expensive films of all time at a production cost of $250 million, but that gamble seems to have paid off, as the film, which grossed $65 million in its opening weekend, has maintained strong performances throughout its second and third weeks, declining to $59.1 million in its second weekend and $54.8 million in its third, continuing to generate business based on word of mouth and excellent critical reviews while also generating massive amounts of Oscar buzz. The film is expected to cross the $500 million mark domestically, and has an outside shot at reaching $2 billion worldwide, though the records set by Star Wars Episode IX appear to be out of reach. 1906 is expected to be the highest grossing film in a year that's seen several films cross the $400 million domestic mark, including X-Men: Brother vs. Brother, Justice League: The Battle For Infinite Earths, and Melody Of The Night, the highly acclaimed Disney musical film featuring the first ever Latina Disney Princess. In the biggest year ever for the North American box office, the fact that a critically acclaimed historical epic could win the box office crown is a bit of a surprise, but Bird has expressed humility when asked about his film's box office performance, telling Drew Barrymore on a recent Late Show that "I'm just happy it got made."
-from an article on Cinemath, posted on December 29, 2019
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Over the past 20 years, the restaurant landscape of America has shifted and evolved, and while old favorites like McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut are doing as well as they ever have, there have been plenty of new players in the industry, some achieving massive success in a relatively short time. When talking about some of the most successful of these new establishments, one has to mention Rico, the company that started in 1998 and has grown to be Taco Bell's biggest rival in Tex-Mex fast food. Having expanded to 1,417 locations in 49 different states (only Alaska is without a Rico restaurant, though the company may be expanding to the Anchorage area within the next couple of years), Rico has made a name for itself with its selection of sauces and toppings, with 18 different spicy sauces in all that go perfectly with the chain's popular enchiladas and quesadillas. Though Rico sells plenty of food to go, the restaurants, which from the very beginning were designed for comfort and style, encourage people to sit down and enjoy their meals, and the restaurant's staff (among the highest paid in the industry, with starting wages at $15/hr even before the recent federal minimum wage increase) are known for providing excellent customer service and making customers feel welcome. Among burger chains, perhaps the most successful newer chain is The Mile-High Grill, which started in 2000 in the Denver area before expanding to the rest of the Western states and eventually nation-wide. With 900 locations in all, the Mile-High Grill specializes in hearty, filling food, with big burgers piled high with toppings. The company's signature burger, the Mile-High Burger, features two quarter-pound patties and is definitely one of the most unhealthy fast food items you can eat, but despite an increasingly health conscious consumer public, there are plenty of people who still have an appetite for these types of dishes, and the Mile-High Grill expects to open its 1,000th location sometime before 2022. And if pizza is your thing, Pizza Arena is likely one of the first places you'll think about, as it now has 1,000 locations, one of the fastest expanding restaurant chains since its 2004 debut. Pizza Arena was inspired by places like Chuck E. Cheese's and Dave and Buster's, but you won't find any arcade machines, as all the gameplay takes place at the player's table, with tablets that can communicate with one another to host trivia and other games on TVs scattered throughout the restaurant. The chain has been a major investor in bar-trivia mainstay Buzztime, utilizing their devices for the chain's interactive entertainment, and Pizza Arena has grown to such an extent that the company bought Buzztime last year, forcing competing chains Buffalo Wild Wings and TGI Friday's to find a new provider of interactive entertainment, and leaving Pizza Arena with a monopoly on Buzztime's devices. Of course, even if you don't stop in the restaurant, Pizza Arena also delivers, and the company's pizza has been rated highly against the offerings of other national chains, consistently beating out Pizza Hut and Papa John's in nationwide taste tests and surveys.
If many of these chains have one thing in common, it's that they're trying to lure people into the establishment to sit down and enjoy their food, rather than pushing customers toward delivery or takeout. This blend of fast food and fast casual chains has been a trend in the market since the early-2010s, after the country began to come out of the economic downtown at that time, with the cheaper fast food establishments like Rico trying to occupy the niche that many of the fast casual chains were unable to fill due to being too expensive for the average consumer. The end of chains like Olive Garden and Red Lobster around that time left a gap in the market for fast food chains to fill, and while some more expensive restaurants like Pizza Arena survived due to their promotions and gimmicks, others fell by the wayside and were replaced by these new restaurants that put more of a focus on food quality and customer service. With consumer spending rising, these new chains have been able to expand rapidly, though only time will tell if they'll be able to maintain such growth and even challenge the biggest players in the restaurant industry.
-from an article in the December 2019 issue of Forbes magazine
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Game Spotlight: The Witcher
The Witcher is a WRPG exclusive to the Stadia, and its development history was fairly tumultuous, as the game initially began as a game that would have been called The Witcher III (albeit a far different game than OTL's Witcher III). It would have served as a follow-up to 2013's The Witcher: Shrouded Silence. However, TTL's CD Projekt Red, which had largely been a developer of PC titles along with TTL's Witcher games, ran into severe financial difficulties, and ended up folding in 2015, partway into development of The Witcher III. This led Google to purchase up the license to produce games based on the books, and would use some of what had already been completed as the foundation for a rebooted Witcher game series, developed with a team of Polish and American staff. The first game in the new series would see Geralt of Rivia join forces with Triss Merigold to root out a conspiracy of assassins seeking to kill an old friend of Geralt's who had risen into a high position in politics and who was negotiating a high-stakes treaty with a prince who sought to invade and annex a massive amount of territory within the realm. As Geralt and Triss work together to protect their friend and preserve these tricky negotiations, Geralt learns that his old flame Yennefer has been working alongside the assassins for unknown reasons, and that one of the assassins happens to be Geralt's adoptive daughter Ciri, who had been abducted several years before. The Witcher plays less like OTL's Witcher III and more like a slower-paced and deliberate action RPG, in which combat must be carefully plotted out and which stealth comes at a premium. It's possible to negotiate with certain enemies in mid-fight, adding a strategic element to battles and enabling Geralt to end many conflicts with words instead of with his sword. These negotiations also add different dialogue options that take the plot in different directions, depending on how the player chooses to engage with certain characters in certain situations. Negotiations and politicking are at the heart of much of what the player can do in the game, and aligning one's self with the right people is key to progressing the plot in certain ways, while simply charging into battle and killing everything one sees can usually result in some negative consequences. The developers were somewhat inspired by the Rise A Knight series when developing the rebooted Witcher, and that game's hallmarks can be seen in many different aspects of the game, including the many different ways that Geralt's attributes and equipment can be customized. Geralt will gain skills as the player chooses to use them, offering lots of freedom in how the player chooses to approach leveling and skill-building, while the game's skill tree is quite comprehensive and allows players to develop Geralt pretty much any way they choose to do so. The player's interactions with major NPCs, particularly Triss, can also be quite important, as these NPCs can join Geralt and fight alongside him in battle, and can also be deployed to perform certain tasks such as unlocking doors and finding treasures. The game's world isn't quite as big as Witcher games of the past (and certainly not as big as OTL Witcher III), but there's a lot of detail and exploration possible in individual areas, and the game can feature some truly large dungeons to explore as well.
Released on December 2, 2019, The Witcher is the last major Stadia exclusive of the year, and while it's not as big of a tentpole for the Stadia as Miraculous Ladybug 3, it's expected to appeal heavily to the Stadia's more mature players (featuring plenty of violence, sex, and swearing, much like OTL's Witcher III). However, reviews for the game, which average in the low to mid 7s, are considered to be somewhat disappointing. While The Witcher is a gorgeous game, with great animations and detailed backgrounds, the combat, which is meant to test the player's mind but oftentimes just tests their patience, is considered inferior to much of the action-RPG combat out there. In addition, the main quest is considered too short, only taking about ten hours to complete, and that's with all the branching paths and choices that the player can engage in. While the game is praised for its characterization of the main characters, especially Ciri, getting the "best" choices is somewhat of a finicky process, and many times, the player won't be able to see the full story due to picking the wrong choices early on. The Witcher does end up selling decently well, proving that the IP still has lots of room to grow, and many critics say that The Witcher does lay the foundation for a good game, it's just not quite there yet. Rather than focusing on DLC, Google instead has its developers launch headlong into a sequel, hoping to correct everything that wasn't well received about their 2019 effort. In the meantime, people do enjoy The Witcher for what it is, and in the years to come, many players would see it as an underappreciated gem, setting the stage for a fantastic sequel effort in 2022 or later.
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Other Significant Titles For December 2019:
Little Town Hero: The only other major title of the month is this Game Boy Zero game that IOTL was a Game Freak title for Nintendo Switch. It comes to TTL with little changed from the OTL version, even Toby Fox remains the game's composer (ITTL, even though he didn't become a game developer, he's still a decently respected game composer with work on a number of indie titles and even a game or two in the Sonic series). The game gets a slightly stronger reception than OTL's version, thanks to a slightly larger world to explore and an improved combat system, and would become one of the bigger hits of the year for the Zero, though its sales would be slightly low at first due to low availability of the Zero in stores at this time, and only later would it achieve strong sales as more people got the device in their hands and discovered this gem.
Zuckerberg has left Maxis, with SimSociety 2 in very early development. I think that's code for "If this game isn't presentable by E3 Season, it'll get cancelled."
I'm not gonna lie. I would have been a Mile-High Grill fanboy ITTL. Nevertheless, this was a nice surprise.
So, we get a Witcher reboot in exchange for Google having the license altogether. Sounds reasonable.
Well, that's a slight downpour on the weather forecast to see Undertale get butterflied away. I just hope Megalovania is still around, as that was the high point in the game's music department.
I'm not gonna lie. I would have been a Mile-High Grill fanboy ITTL. Nevertheless, this was a nice surprise.
So, we get a Witcher reboot in exchange for Google having the license altogether. Sounds reasonable.
Well, that's a slight downpour on the weather forecast to see Undertale get butterflied away. I just hope Megalovania is still around, as that was the high point in the game's music department.
Does anyone know the links of all the tl (including playe two start and massively multiplayer) updates for Rise of a Knight?