Community Chronicle: 20/09/15

Destiny is back with The Taken King, and in a big way. Obviously, I’ll not spoil any of it for you, but the new raid that’s been added has been an absolute corker, with puzzles and bosses that will have you scratching your head and then put you to the test and you battle to try and solve them before they kill you.

How about you? Have you managed to get into the raid just yet, are you still working through the expansion’s story content, or do you simply not give two flying figs about Destiny?

Konami brought up two of the largest points of discussion this week, with the biggest in terms of the overall industry being their move away from AAA titles outside of PES.

CrawFail said, “In a way I’m glad they’ve gone. The gaming world will probably be better without them at this point. It’s not like they were making good decisions or games lately.” However, while an outside chance, Kennykazey hoped that “they’ll be sensible enough to lend out or sell their IPs to other developers.”

On the other hand, the writing does seem to have been on the wall for quite some time. Light Liguria wrote that “With Japan picking up more games on Mobile, its not all surprising.” Similarly, Eldave0 quite bluntly said, “With the Metal Gear Solid series all wrapped up I doubt anyone will give a crap.”

It has, admittedly, been quite some time since anything but MGS and PES has been able to grab headlines for Konami, but it’s a shame to see what was once such an influential publisher moving on.

However, Metal Gear Solid V isn’t quite done yet, with more news, details and video from Metal Gear Online coming out of Tokyo Game Show. In particular, you can play as story characters from the game, including a practically bare bottomed Quiet. Her needlessly sexualised look and outfit is still more than enough to whip up a bit of a fuss.

MrYd wrote:

The MGS games really don’t interest me at all, so I’ve not actually seen much of it in action, but that really is just ridiculous. And previous comments from Hideo Kojima really don’t help. You’re supposed to be ashamed once you realise it’s for plot reasons, and not just an excuse for effectively naked ladies?

And yet somehow the game got good reviews, with hardly any mention of it? Or if it was mentioned, it didn’t affect the scores, when it really should have.

JR. added that he was “surprised there hasn’t been more of a thing made out of this,” and compared the reaction to the uproar surrounding the lack of female playable characters in Assassin’s Creed Unity.

Zakwhorules responded:

First of I’d just like to say I’m not trying to justify Quiet or saying it’s not sexist, however I think that there wasn’t a big deal made of this for the following.

It was created by a Japanese company and Japanese media (especially 2D) is know for being overly sexualised.

MGS has been this way for a long time. I recall there being a button prompt during MGS3 Snake Eater cut scenes that allowed you to stare at Eva’s breasts. Also there’s posters of women in swimsuits hidden in the inside of locker doors.

Could this also not be comparable to having “Bond-Girls” in James Bond movies, they are always seen in small amounts of clothing.

Where do you stand on the matter? Is it excessive, and if so, do you think that it has been swept under the rug during the game’s release coverage?

Of course, Amphlett has his eye on other matters. “All that diving around is really going to scrape her knees,” he said. Won’t somebody think of her knees!?”

Finally, Sony’s press conference at TGS covered a lot of ground, but also announced that Project Morpheus would now go by its final official name: PlayStation VR.

Avenger said, “What a highly original name.” While Starman also opined that “They spent a long time on that, didn’t they? Morpheus sounded better.”

Of course, it’s all done for the purposes of easy brand recognition, as MrYd wrote:

It might have sounded better, but the new name makes a lot more sense for Sony if they want to sell some.

We might all know what “Project Morpheus” is, but what about everyone else that might see it in a shop? What is it? Some Greek god of dreams? A character from The Matrix films? Oh, no, it’s a fancy expensive hat?

The new name says exactly what it is. It’s a VR thing. For the Playstation.

Then there are those crazy people who actually like the new name. Just take Youles, for example, who said, “I like the new name, fit’s into Sony’s current crop of products and services – it’s now a recognisable ‘thing’ to people who don’t follow sites actively like us lot.”

Personally, I know why they did it, but by golly, is that name dull as dishwater…

We’re terribly light on achievements this week, though people have been very busy. Youles and R1MJAW have, as usual, been playing about a dozen games across several platforms, Eldave0 has been making good progress in Bloodborne as he aims for the platinum trophy, while double-o-dave has had his fill of Metal Gear Solid V after 30-odd hours of play.

Carrot381 was the first to mention a trophy, having earnt the platinum for Lego Jurassic World, before finishing his first play through of The Last of Us. Blazt71 has been beavering away at Call of Duty: Ghosts on the PS3, and has just managed to get 100% of the trophies.

Nate, to round things out, has had a bit of a breakdown:

I recently Destiny MGSV and have been really Destiny, so much so in fact that I Destiny the Destiny while Destiny plays Destiny. *Twitches*

A inferior race has had to go AWOL from this week’s trophy leaderboard updates, so I’ll just leave you with the usual submissions form to finish: