Twitch Milestone, Nintendo Switch and Pokemon Shield: Oh My!

This week we hit the 1000 follower mark over on my Twitch channel, and we celebrated by following through on a plan I put in place back at the end of February to add a Nintendo Switch (and how I managed to get one when they are pretty scarce), my reaction to the button layout and what was it like playing a Pokemon game for the first time in nearly 20 years!

New Art Work From DarkWolf Creative

I once again commissioned new artwork from DaemonsWolf over at DarkWolf Creative (https://www.darkwolfcreative.com) and this time, it was some two cross over pieces. While both features my infamous sidekick, one sees him pondering how to get an idol with Indiana Jones and Lara Croft. The little detail of having the Bunny wearing a shirt the same color as Lara's top was real neat. The second piece sees the Bunny hanging out in a bar with Wrex from Mass Effect and Marcus Phoenix from Gears of War. The bar location is of course Purgatory seen from Mass Effect 3 and that setting location was determined by DaemonsWolf, and is a great example of why I often just give a general idea of what I'm looking for when I commission anything because I don't think I could've came up with that in my original pitch.

Art From My Youth

My aunt sent me these pictures that I drew way back in I think 1991 or 92 (time frame is based on the fact I tried to draw Darkwing Duck), and man I guess what colors I had to work with were really limited LMAO

Ghostbusters: A Big Part Of My Life

As we all know, prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, the movie Ghostbusters: Afterlife was supposed to be hitting theaters next month... and so I thought why not write a piece about what Ghostbusters means to me. Being born in late 1982 means I got to grow up with a lot of things, a lot of different influences that in many way shaped me into the person I am today, in terms of how I look and respond to things, what I look for in a show, movie television or video game. Now the earliest franchise I remember absolutely loving was Ghostbusters. Not because of the movie, but because of the REAL Ghostbusters animated series, which aired in syndication and on Saturday mornings on ABC.

Now I can't recall when I first saw the movie, which I know was on VHS, because the version of the film we had was in the RCA red border box... but I do remember the first episode I saw, or one of the earliest episodes, it was 'Knock, Knock', the episode where a Subway construction crew accidentally opens a door that unleashes all sorts of ghosts into our world, and Ghostbusters have to go down into the Subway to seal it, but I think the scene in it that connected with me the most was when they get on a Subway train to head towards the disturbance, with the lights going out and then suddenly our heroes are surrounded by skeletons dressed like passengers and they close in on the boys... then the lights go out again, and suddenly the scene lights up with the Ghostbusters firing their proton streams. What follows if I remember right is a scene of seeing the train on the tracks, with the windows being blown out, obviously indicating the Ghostbusters are fighting off the monsters, but we don't see what's happening in the train, and it's the first time I can really think I imagined what was happening... are they running from car to car, do they remain back to back and firing wildly, we don't know... and it was exciting. So that hooked me. At some point I saw the movie and while not fully understanding as a young kid how come the characters look different than the cartoon (cause I was an idiot, which is something I still claim to be today lol), the spirit of what I saw in the cartoon certainly was reflected in the source material. I think it was the first time I saw something can exist in different forms, a live action movie, a cartoon, and eventually comic books. I remember getting a whole bunch of REAL Ghostbusters merchandise, in fact I still have my Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (the hat was lost a long time ago). I remember having the Proton Pack, all of the original figures, the firehouse, the Ecto-One and other vehicles (Ecto-2 gyro-chopper, the Ecto-3, and a Volkswagon Beetle type car that transformed into a monster if I remember right). It's a shame I moved around so much that a lot of those toys became lost over time... but I still got My. Stay Puft! Hell one of the first comic books I remember having was issue number one of The REAL Ghostbusters published by NOW Comics in I think 1990/1, and I made sure to get it again when I got back into comic book collecting a few years ago. So yeah I was a big fan. I remember seeing Ghostbusters 2 in theaters in 1989 (which was the best summer of movies ever!) and loving it, cause by that point I understand the relationship between the films and the cartoons and I was super-stoked when there was an episode of the cartoon that mentioned Vigo. Hell I remember seeing The REAL Ghostbusters Halloween special along with the Garfield Halloween special in the same night and thinking that Peter Venkman and Garfield sounded the same. Yes this was Dave Coulier's Venkman, but to me as a kid, his take on Venkman sounded close to Garfield

Now of course I will admit that I kind of migrated towards The Ninja Turtles in the early 90s when The REAL Ghostbusters faded out from view, but I think it was 1991 I discovered Star Trek and I remembered there being a Real Ghostbusters episode that made so many references to Star Trek which I had no clue what it was until I saw Spock and saw the character similarities to Egon. So yeah I got into Star Trek because of Ghostbusters, go figure and Star Trek became the big franchise I was into...for the duration of the 90s. But when I read in an issue of Disney Adventures that there was a new Ghostbusters cartoon coming in the fall of 1997, I instantly returned to my original fandom. Extreme Ghostbusters was different than REAL Ghostbusters, but it was a sequel, the original Ghostbusters were disbanded, everyone was older... and so a new generation who were being mentored by Egon was going around busting ghosts, and this was real cool to me. Not only because by that point I was entering High School, but the new characters of Kylie, Roland, Eduardo and Garrett were depicted as being not to much older than I was. The stories were in many regards, a lot more darker than many of the REAL Ghostbusters episodes, and the references to pop culture in the show were more in-line with what I was familiar with,. But here's something you won't believe, but its true Extreme Ghostbusters was the first time I understood what antisemitism and racism was in the episode "True Face Of A Monster'. Of course most people remember Extreme Ghostbusters for the two-part episode Back in the Saddle that saw Ray Winston and Peter return... and of course there was that mention of a third movie, which lead me really discovering the internet. I remember going to my High School's library every day at lunch time to search for news of Ghostbusters 3... sadly that never happened. But much like REAL Ghostbusters, Extreme Ghostbusters stuck with me for a long period of time... hell my first attempts of fan fiction were based on Extreme Ghostbusters, and I submitted some artwork to the Ghostbuster Fan Forum back in 2001 during my failed army career. I did get some of the toys associated with Extreme Ghostbuster, namely the Ecto-1 and I think I managed to find the Kylie, Roland and Eduardo figures.... and those got destroyed when my grand-parents basement got flooded in 2003.

Fast Foward to the mid-2000s with Ghostbusters The Video Game, which obviously was a continuation of the films, but including a few nods to the cartoons, and I loved it. It was a day-one pre-order for me and I remember taking off work, waiting for a FedEx truck and playing it on my PlayStation 3 from like 3 in the morning because of how good it was. I have sense bought the game three times, once the original Steam version for PC, then the re-mastered for PC *which I streamed on Twitch earlier this year) and also for Xbox One just to cover all my basis. The multiplayer on the PS3 version was a ton of fun and I'm hoping it gets implemented at some point for the remastered versions, but I'm not holding my breath. I checked out several of the IDW Published Ghostbusters comics and I love the fact that Kylie Griffin was apart of them in a key supporting role, since Kylie was for me, the star of Extreme Ghostbusters. So now can you take a wild guess of what my reaction was to Ghostbusters 2016 was based on not only growing with the REAL Ghostbusters as a kid, and having Extreme Ghostbusters as a teenager? While I was excited when a third Ghostbusters film was announced... that excitement started to die a quick death when I saw that Paul Feig was the director, and all of his work was basically just 'gender swapped parodies' of other films. So to make this quick, for me Ghostbusters 2016 is a rotten film that has only one redeem quality and that is the character of Jillian Holtzman. Clearly Kate McKinnon didn't intended for this, but with what she did with Holtzman made it seem like she was the only character that could fit in with the two previous Ghostbusters films and the animated series, and it's the only reason why I bought the Funko Pop and Action figures of the character because the idea of Holtzman connected with me the way everything prior to the release of Ghostbusters 2016 had. Also of note that same day I also watched the Ghost Heads documentary to watch to basically wash the taste out of my mouth as soon as I got home (and yes I did contribute to that Kickstarter campaign and got the DVD along with the Funk Pop of Winston in an Ecto-1)

With all that said, I'm looking forward to Ghostbusters: Afterlife with cautious optimism and hopefully, the next big Ghostbuster experience to come along will be a positive one like the majority of things with the franchise has been with regards to me. I'm actually hoping that the COVID-19 stuff will be under-control by next year so I can see it in theaters, but we'll just have to wait and see won't we.

Camden's Police Is Certainly Not A Little Passeri

This is more or less inspired by my back and forth with fellow Twitch streamer YourStarling over on Twitter these past few weeks, and let me begin that I totally get that she is very passionate about her stance on things, and like with everyone in this world, it does not mean she's wrong or that I'm right, or that I'm wrong and she's right. We all have our different points of view on various situations, we all want to see things improve, however the road to get there is not always clear cut.

Now obviously the topic of Defunding The Police, a battle cry of many protestors and politicians in the United States is triggering bit of conversation in the wake of everything that has happened since the murder of George Floyd up in Minnesota, but the thing is, you don't want to Defund the Police in a period of social unrest, you want to start rebuilding it.

Just about seven years ago, my home town of Camden, New Jersey fired everyone associated with the city police at that time and began the long process of rebuilding it from the ground up. It was a complete wipe out of the old guard and the union that basically was holding up progress. In the time since then, I have seen more police officers patrolling neighborhoods, crime has dropped over 40% since, complaints of the police using excessive force has dropped from over 60 complaints in 2015 to only 3 in 2019. Hell the obvious sign there was a difference made is that I don't hear gun shots every night anymore. The police are now a staple of the community, there is no where near the animosity seen towards out police force as compared to what's seen across the Delaware River in Philadelphia as of late. It's really a night and day approach, 

Now is Camden's more community approach perfect, well no, nothing is perfect, but compared to complete anarchy in letting citizens police themselves and leaving things as they were, Camden certainly is giving an example of how to do things. We went from having half the police force with none of the proper training to one that specializes in deescalation of trouble, after all there has to be a reason why over 130 other law enforcement agencies are looking for new ways of doing things, because it's clear the old ways aren't working and you don't want chaos in the streets. And sure as a city Camden has a long way to go, but guess what, we're on our way and with our improving police department that is changing with the times, we'll get there.

Of course that's just my opinion

How Sony Killed My Interest In Console Gaming For 6 Years

For many, their first video game console was a Nintendo Entertainment System in the 1980s, for me, however the first time I ever played a video game was on an IMB Tandy 1000 from Radio Shack and I didn't get my first console until 1994, when my father got me and my younger bother a Sega Genesis. We had a few games, things like Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Ghostbusters, Mortal Kombat 3, Alien 3, Street Fighter II (the one with Cammy, Fei Long, T-Hawk and DeeJay). Now I was always more of a Computer gamer, as I had the mentioned Tandy 1000, and then was given a Compaq in 1992/3 so I could play Star Trek 25th Anniversary and a lot of the Lucas Film Games... but there was something cool about console gaming that I liked, where I didn't have to be sitting at my desk to play games, I could be in front of the TV which had a bigger screen than my computer at the time.

So fast forward a few years, my PC gaming was upgraded to an IBM PC with Windows 95 and there were plenty of Sega ports of games for it that I could play, so it wasn't until 1998/9 when I was given PlayStation to replace my Sega Genesis which developed a bad fault. The PlayStation was awesome, I didn't have to worry about my PC being able to run games and there were a lot of stuff on the original PlayStation that appealed to me, like Grandia, Chrono Cross, WWF Attitude, Rival Schools and others. When the PlayStation 2 was announced, I was like whoa, a whole new system that could also play my old games. I didn't waste time, hell I was in the middle of my failed military career and got a PlayStation in the Fall of 2001, making it the first time I bought a console on my own. Again the great appeal was being able to get the new games while still being able to use my old ones. This was really damn cool to me.

And I stood with the PS2 all the way up until 2008, two years after the initial release of the PS3 which I in the summer of that year, primarily because I was really into the WWE at the time, and the PS2 version of SmackDown vs RAW 2008 was a little... underwhelming. A big reason why I was so hesitant of getting a PS3 at the time was because I could use my PS2 games with it... unless I basically bought them again from the PlayStation Network Store (such was the case with Beyond Good and Evil), this was really a kick in the crotch for me. The only saving grace was that the PS3 could still run the PS1 era games that I had so there was that... but man, My PS3 lasted until October of 2013, one month before the release of the PlayStation 4...

Which was when I basically said fuck console gaming. You see I saw the news that the PS4 would not be backwards compatible with any games from the previous three eras of the system. We went from having the best way to do things with the PS2... to the disappointment of the PS3... and now the PS4 wouldn't have any way to play the games I purchased. No what Sony basically did was selling HD remasters of PS2 games.. which people bought and that carried over into how the planned to do things with the PS4. You want to play your favorite games from the previous three generations... well now you'll have to purchase them AGAIN. Now I have no problem buying multiple versions, but what I am against is being exploited as a consumer... and Sony basically was giving the big fuck you to loyal customers.

Obviously Microsoft responded to this by selling games digitally from its catalog to have them be backwards compatible, so folks could play Original Xbox on their Xbox 360, and of course games from both systems on on their Xbox One's.. or if they still had the disc they could (what a shock) insert the disc into their system and a re-license of the game was assigned so someone didn't have to buy the game again. But since I was not an Xbox gamer, this didn't appeal to me at the time... because well Sony pissed me off that much.

So what brought me back to console gaming... well I have to credit the likes of Iceman7667 and Lunar_Princess for that. Iceman who has been apart of the my Wednesday night streams over the past several months, wanted me to join in playing The Division 2 was a big reason why I went with the Xbox One. And Lunar_Princess has teased me about just playing PC games and missing out on all the stuff that was on console only. Microsoft's backward compatible library also was a huge factor for me as well, Now will I give Sony another chance with the PS5... well only if it can match what Microsoft does with allowing for players to use their existing PS1/2/3 disc to get the latest version of the older games other than that I'm just not seeing that in my future....

But what about Nintendo... well... as a Streamer I'm always looking for ways to Switch things up and added to my lineup. The biggest drawback with Nintendo is that all the games I would want to play are basically the first party in house developed games. But maybe we'll address that at some point in the future.

Highlights From June 7 to 13 2020

This video features highlights from my Twitch channel from June 7 to 13, 2020. Clips are from Overwatch, Mass Effect Andromeda, Gears of War, Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle, Star Trek Online, Trials of Mana and Twitch Sings!