Why you should be upset with the Entertainment Industry if you aren't already.

So three weeks ago we saw the release of The Expendables 2, which I have not seen and I do not plan seeing it.  But seeing as this is supposed to be somewhat of a big movie it would be an opportune time to express a few long standing thoughts of mine on the current state of the Entertainment Industry.  I'm not going to beat around the bush with this one either.  I'm not happy.  Not one bit.  And this is for a variety of reasons too, which wouldn't you know it, we're going to discuss here.  Oh and you might want to buckle in because were going to be covering a lot of ground here.

So as I stated earlier this whole deal really just started with The Expendables 2, but the problem stems much much deeper than that.  You see what is really the big thing to take away from the whole Expendables 2 thing is that with it Hollywood is essentially doing what the music industry did with their Supergroups, a nice a novel idea to bring a bunch of big names together in an effort of making something even more famous.  And while this worked in the music industry for a while it eventually fell apart because one thing can only have so much fame.  You see that is what The Expendables did.  They took just about every big name action star that they could get a hold of and put them into one movie, was it bad: no, was it good: no, it just kinda was, and now The Expendables 2 is rehashing what the music industry did getting out of the "Oh hey cool" and into the "Yea, we don't care."  Okay, okay I'm ranting here, but it needs to be said: Expendables 2 is what would amount to a quick cash grab.  The writing from the first one was so generic that you could have taken any movie that any of those actors have been in and write in a role for all of the other characters in the movie and you get The Expendables.  The writing is just that bad.

No, just no.

And speaking of the writing in The Expendables the book industry isn't exactly immune either.  You see over the past 6 to 7 years a few notable books have been taking heat from multiple sources.  yes of course I'm talking about Twilight, but we've all heard everything there is to hear about Twilight's one dimensional, at best characters.  So instead we take a look at a more recent book series, Fifty Shades of Grey.  For those of you who don't know Fifty Shades of Grey, FSG, is a book series about BDSM.  You see the issue here is where the books finds their roots.  The books were started off as a Twilight Fanfic, not to say there is anything that is wrong with fanfics, but there could easily be something wrong with a fanfic containing heavy sexual content based off of a series whose original target audience is 12-18 year old girls.  Now if that's not reason enough to hate these books then look at message.  As I said the whole series is pretty much about BDSM, and from what I understand in the later books straight out rape.  Part of it is the fact that the main character goes into a submissive state for the millionaire that she is willing to do anything he says.  Now is this what we want our society to idolize?  I certainly don't, why teach the female audience to regress back to an age where they had no rights, and that they should be okay with it.  We should be teaching about freedom of self and individualism, not submissive tendencies to give in to deep desires.

My thoughts exactly!

But oh ho ho videogame industry, don't think that you're quite free of any attention here.  Yea you know that game about six to seven weeks ago, Darksiders 2?  Yea about that, I'm going to need you to turn in your ID badge to my desk on Monday morning.  But in all seriousness games like Darksiders, Dantes Inferno, and Bayonetta, why do you exist?  Is it to torture me into reminding me of a time where Devil May Cry was one of the first titles to do it to a level of awesomeness that you so feel you must attempt to live up to?  Or is it to remind me of how there actually once was a good God of War game with a plot that wasn't just Kratos SMASH!!?  Now I'm all for a good platformer, and have played plenty in my years of playing games, and will probably play many more, but what some of these games have done is taken proven and good formulas for that worked for specific titles because of their fresh ideas, and thrown all of that away and pretty much told all of us to buy their games and not think twice.  I mean its kinda like Resident Evil games, where their not scary, just actiony.  Oh and Ubisoft, if after Assassins Creed 3 you don't call it a series I might have to punch you, because I don't want to buy anymore half-assed excuse for games, especially not if they're going to try and replicate the first 2, which were possibly 2 of the greatest games I've ever played, each for different reasons though.

Not really how I imagined Death to look like.

And thats pretty much why I'm pissed off, and you should be, with the current entertainment industry.  Yes, I know I didn't touch on all the good things happening these days, but when all of the bad things are doing so well you really don't want to think of the good things, mainly because its just that these problems are huge and out there and you're screaming that they need to be fixed, but no one is listening.  Oh and sorry Music Industry if I forgot to pick on you a little bit, but I don't really think much is going on with you.  I mean there's nothing wrong with Nicki Minaj or Justin Bieber right?  Or how the number one the Hot-100 right now is about Taylor Swift doesn't want to be with her ex anymore.  I mean, no, nothings wrong with any of that.  Right?

Developers vs Designers

So remember how a few weeks ago I told you something special was on its way?  As I told you, I will deliver.  Here at Breaking The Mold we value education of the general populace about quite honestly many things, from videogames to movies, entertainment to politics.  Now along with that I must also include awareness of issues and the encouragement to form your own ideas.  To us, this is paramount if we, as a society, are to advance and understand more.  It's like GI Joe put it, knowledge is power, and knowing is half the battle.  Think of it, the more we know, the more ready we are to form our own ideas and opinions.  So this is going to be kicking off a series of informational posts about pretty much whatever comes to the table and whatever we feel like.  So without further ado, I introduce the first topic: The Difference between Game Designers and Game Developers.

Okay so why cover this topic?  Well quite simple, many people don't know the difference.  People who play games and discuss games say they understand what the difference is, but in all reality they more than likely don't, and that's just fact.  I will admit it is a thin line and can be very hard to distinguish without looking closely.  But together were going to get to the bottom of it.

We all have our own skewed view of things.

Okay so Developers and Designers often get used as interchangeable words, but they're not, they are two completely separate entities what work in separate departments of a game company.  A good way to look at it is by looking at the words: designers create the rules, sculpt the setting, and see to it that players have the emotional experience they are supposed to.  While on the other hand a developer is in charge of the system that allows a designer to do this, from building the code to maintaining the database.  That doesn't really justify it though, so lets take a bit of a closer look.

Were going to start off with Designers since it does happen to be the more commonly used of the terms and also has the biggest variety.  Now a designer, like I said earlier, is the person that sits down and applies creativity to the game.  Designers design the game.  They are in charge of the rules, what the game does when a player performs an action, and the way the game looks and feels.  They are the artistic minds behind the game.  It is a designers sole responsibility to make sure that every creative aspect of a game is complete and concise, and to make sure that the game is well balanced and fair to all players.  Designers do everything from art, writing, rules, and even plot out the emotional journeys.

Spore lets the players do some designing.

On the flip side a Developer, like I said, is someone who sits down and actually works on the systems of the game.  These are your Computer Programmers, the Systems Engineers, and Engines Developers.  These are people who are constantly looking at code and taking what the designers make and translating that to a working and moving executable.  The Developers are the ones who are constantly staring at a computer screen, and are often the ones who will also be required to stay in late nights to meet deadlines.  All of the interactive physics, AI, hit detection, online communications, and even the scripting are responsibilities of the developers.

These are very easy to confuse and it honestly isn't hard to understand why.  A lot of people think that everyone in the game industry can do anything they want but that can't be any further from the truth.  I've had countless conversations with people where they say that the developers should change rule x, or the designers should have counted wind into the physics engine.  It just doesn't work that way, in order to do even a minor change to a basic element when the project is pretty far down the pipeline is very tough to implement a major change, but that gets down into software development which we wont discuss here.

One final thing that I would like to point out is that all good games are built in a specific way and not just in a manner of "I have an idea so lets run with it".  Usually the designers get to work on the games rules and systems while the developers do their setup processes so once the design documents and specifications are outlines all of the base coding, i.e. objects, data structures, system layout, are all done so the development team can dive head first into the game when the time comes.  Ideally you have your developers working on a project while the designers are polishing the final stages of story, levels, and endgame upgrades/abilities and when the designers finish they start working on the next project so the developers have something to do after they launch their current project.  But things don't always work out this way.  The image below should clarify some of this, the red is designers and blue is developers.

This is just a very brief overview of a few aspects of the game industry, and by no means is it a complete accurate telling of how everything works, mainly because it varies from company to company.  But hopefully now you under stand how these things are done and things are put together in a better light.  Peace out guys.

Coming Soon.....

So sorry for the lack of post this spring, it's been a very busy time for me.  However starting in two weeks I will be starting a new goal and setting for BTM.  It will be something for everybody to further their understanding, refresh on ideas, and generally become a more educated person.  Thats right folks, talks explaining some common misconceptions and revealing some truths.  Be prepared, knowledge is coming.

~The Mold Breaker

Monster Hunter

Okay so its been a while I know but what can you do?  Life is just busy, no two ways around that.  However this week I'm back and I wanted to do something in a bit of a different direction from just the usual identify a problem and offer insightful ways to solve or otherwise get around it.  Today I just want to point out a game that has been gaining steam in America slowly but surely, but still hasn't received the attention it deserves.  Today I want to tell you about Monster Hunter.

Can't beat the original.

So as some of you may know Monster Hunter is a game in which you create a Hunter from a small village in a land occupied by terrifying prehistoric beasts.  You start off small doing basic gathering quests going out getting meat and herbs for you village so you can learn about general game mechanics so you have some sort of survivability for the harder fight.  But after the whole jazz of having to run around do everyone errands for else in the village you hunting career begins.  You, needless to say, start off small with Velociraptor like creatures but quickly work your way up to Wyverns that will ruin your day should you make the wrong step.

The hunting does get really intense after you work your way up because not only are you fighting the Wyvern but your also fighting against the environment.  For example sometimes you'll fight in the desert which will continuously drain your health due to the heat, you can counteract this by items but it forces you to be prepared for every situation and really know where your fighting as well as what your fighting.  Of course in addition to this you have the ability to bring things to help you fight against these monsters such as traps and bombs.

Awesome armor to tide you over till high end plus hunts.

The game gets even better when you take it online (Monster Hunter for PS2, unfortunately the servers were taken down though) or linking via wifi with your friends (any of the Monster Hunters for PSP).  The fights are bigger, badder, and even deadlier than offline.  This includes fighting epic monsters that make you feel like your fighting a Navy SEAL team with spit wad launchers.  You also learn the value of using different weapons and having a balanced team in approaching these fights.

Long and short its a great game, that if you haven't, you should check out.  But that's not the big point that I'm trying to make here.  My big point is that the game, in recent years, has been gaining a lot of popularity, so much that people who appreciate the PSP games need to understand its roots, oh and don't even get me started on the Wii version, it doesn't exist in my mind.

The Rathalos, King of the Wyverns.

So many hunters now-a-days don't understand the fact that the first game was much harder, the weapons were more limited, the game was way more challenging and the monsters more deadly, I mean the first time you fight a Khezu you have no idea what was coming at you, and the Gravios was almost unpredictable.  The game had a much higher learning curve and there were no colored monsters.  There was just the regular ones offline, then the online ones.  Plus the secret hunt at the end of the game.

So I guess my point here is that if you call yourself a Monster Hunter fan and you haven't played the first one then you really should get out and play it to appreciate how difficult it is.  I tell my friends I hunt with about how hard it is and they only reply "Oh dude, I've killed those like 60 times."  Or the say "Well this isn't the original."  Yea it's not the original but at the same point in time there has to be an appreciation for where the game has come from.

So once again sorry about the infrequent posts lately, I've been really busy with midterms and preparing a special post for you guys that should hopefully be out later this week.  So yea guys, I'll get back to a more frequent posting here shortly.  Till next time.

My top 5 Most Anticipated of 2012

Okay so last week I revealed my top 5 games I played, for the first time, in 2011.  This week I'm going to broaden the issue a little bit and get out of the scope of gaming.  This week I will divulge to you my top 5 most anticipated things of 2012 in entertainment media.  Why entertainment media as a whole?  Well because games would be easy to do, my list just isn't that big yet and its kind of hard when not every release date for every game has been released yet.  So instead I'm going to just do top five of entertainment media.

5) Dev's First Studio Album
Okay, this thing has been a long time coming, and it better get here dammit.  Dev, for those of you who don't know, is an up and coming American Pop singer whose previous association has been with Electro Hip-Hop singers, The Cataracs.  Some of her more famous discographies include Like a G6 with the Far East Movement, On Top of the World with the Cataracs, and Dancing in the Dark.  The album was originally scheduled to be released in September of 2011, on the same day as Gears of War 3 but has since been pushed back, first to January 10th, 2012 under the reasoning of adding more songs to the American release of the album (the European and Australian releases were successful on September 5th, 2011).

Later in December Amazon announced that the album was being further delayed until March 27th, 2012 for reasons unknown.  My best speculation is due to the fact that she is pregnant, and doesn't want to have a release tour while still carrying.  Her Style and Lyrics are very similar to a mix between Ke$ha and Lady GaGa with a hit of Easy Listening thrown into the mix.  She has a couple of fast and upbeat party songs (Bass Down Low, Dancing in the Dark) and a couple of slower, more subtle songs (Kiss My Lips) on her upcoming album The Night the Sun Came Up.  Hopefully this years March release will be the last and official release date for the album because I, for one, could not take another push back in an album I've already been waiting for about 8 months already.

4) The Dark Knight Rises
Okay, so I'd be crazy not to be excited for this movie, especially with all the hype its been getting lately around the net with the whole "Bruce Wayne is going to die!!!1!!!1" thing.  But honestly that's not why I want to go see it, the biggest reason is because its going to wrap up the Batman Trilogy, with hopefully no cliffhangers.  Yes, I do not anticipate it to be better than Dark Knight, I do however anticipate it to be one of the best movies of the year.  Christopher Nolan has an unprecedented ability to add a very human side to Batman, yet still make him larger than life in the process.

From the first previews of it last summer to the launch of it July everyday the movie just keeps looking better and better.  The movie posters are out to which is only adding to the excitement.  Long story short, if it can hold up to the previous two installments this is going to be a great movie.  Oh and the inevitable return of Liam Neeson as Ra's Al Ghul makes me want to squeal like a school girl.

3) Mass Effect 3
Okay, I know what you thinking, why the hell is this at number 3 and not at number 1.  And well the reasoning is quite simple, the number 1 and 2 positions are filled with things I've been looking forward to for longer than I have for the end to the Mass Effect series.  Mass Effect is still fairly young and despite it being really awesome, there's more that I want to come out more.  But for those of you who don't know about Mass Effect 3 its BioWare's final installment in their epic space universe set around the player controlled hero Commander Sheppard.

Mass Effect 3 starts as the Reapers are now in the Milky Way about to gather the technology of the currently evolved races, and then proceed to destroy them.  As Sheppard you are the only man who stands in their way, you and your teammates.  The game launches in less than a month on March 6th, which when you think of it gives people not a whole lot of time if they don't like their Sheppard to get everything fixed.  Fortunately I do like my Sheppard so I don't really need to do a bunch of grooming.  If you haven't played Mass Effect before, now is the time to pick it up because you don't want to be left out when ME3 launches in March.

2) The Avengers
Yes, last years action hit Captain America finally spilled the beans of the first Avengers Trailer to be officially released, and we as the internet cheered.  The Avengers has been a long time coming, I think my first idea of an Avengers movie was when they released the first X-Men movie back in 2000.  With the new line up for 2012 The Avengers is going to be awesome, and I don't mean "Oh man the Simpsons are finally getting a movie" awesome, I mean "Oh hey look a South Park video game, and you get to make your own character!!!"  Yea, that awesome.

Lefts face it this has been at the top of everybody's wish list since the first Iron Man movie when Samuel L. Jackson showed up as Colonel Furry.  But this movie has an even bigger implication than that.  Its showing that even superhero movies are getting the positive attention that they deserve and that the comic book industry will be able to move forward as a whole because of it.  More awareness means more acceptance, which also leads to larger fan bases.  But regardless of its implications, its going to be awesome.

1) SSX
The worlds greatest Snowboarding Video Game franchise is finally back, and hopefully better than ever.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with SSX it's a snowboarding video game series whose first title launched in 2000 on the PS2.  It was much different from other snowboarding games till then in the fact that the most advanced tricks were unrealistic in nature and required the rider to often dismount his or her board in mid-flight.  The game was incredibly polished and smooth.  Since its release there have been 4 more to come after, SSX Tricky (still one of my top 10 games of all time), SSX 3, SSX on Tour, and SSX Blur.  This years release of SSX is particularly important to me because of the fact that its been a good 5 years since this game as seen light and its the first time that it will be available for XBox LIVE play.

Now I know I've said that I'm not a huge fan of sports games but for some reason I feel much different about SSX, especially this time around.  Its been a while since I've been able to really sink my teeth into a good SSX game and feel like its the first time so this is going to be pretty cool.  If you're looking for a really good, really high flying game I'd definitely recommend that you give this a go later this February (the 28th to be exact).  I know that I'll be playing this long into the coming months.

Definitely check these out, they're all gonna be pretty awesome, really fun and most importantly a great time.  This is just a small list too, there is no way that I could get everything I was looking forward to this year covered here so I had to pick and choose.  None the less this year will be a good year, and the end of February and Beginning of March will be a very hectic time for us all.   Till next time guys.