Looking at EVO 2018 Announcements

It's strange to have EVO at the beginning of August instead of the beginning of July, but this allowed an entire month for me to be productive.



I was able to finish one Remix and then work on an original composition (which I can't upload quite just yet).  I've started working on some original work to put together for a new portfolio so I can start looking for jobs again with something new to show.  After finishing the original composition, it was so embedded into my mind that I was hearing it in my sleep and was thinking about ways I could change or improve it in my dreams.  It became so exhausting that I knew I needed a break before I try to compose anything else.  So I took the past week off of work of any kind and focused on getting through some games.  I had been staying up late a lot throughout the month trying to progress in some games and finish them.  I realized this wasn't working out so I really wanted to take some time to actually sit down and get through some of these games so I'd stop having the urge to stay up late to make progress.  Unfortunately, I only managed to get through three of them as the 4th games I was working through happened to be twice as long as I thought it'd be.  Also, EVO was this past weekend so I didn't have as much time to play as I was focused on watching streams.

EVO was a lot of fun to watch this year and it had way more streams on main stage side and AnimEVO side.  I was anticipating some exciting announcements to be made during EVO, but nothing really compared to the reveal of BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle from last year.

[Dead or Alive 6]

Other than showing us a new character, they hinted at the return of Hitomi and Leifang
 

Diego is their attempt at attracting more Western audiences to their game.  With making the statement of wanting to make the characters less sexualized and creating and culminate an acceptance to the competitive scene, they aim to have their game be part of the list of games featured at next year's EVO event.  I'm excited for a new installment in the DoA series, but everything they've shown and said so far has been killing my excitement for it.  It's like they have an identity crisis and they're trying to find a way to be part of the cool kids.  Only time will tell how this pans out.

[SNK Heroines ~Tag Team Frenzy~]
They've revealed the last character for the game and it's not who I was expecting at all.

I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity.  There are plenty of female characters to choose from in the SNK series, and they ended up choosing one of their most well known male characters to turn into a female for the game.  I had hoped and expected it to be Fio from the Metal Slug series based on the silhouette looking like someone saluting with a ponytail blowing in the wind.  I'm okay with this turn of events, but a lot of fans are quite upset about it.  I just hope the game will come to PC and soon.

[Fighting EX Layer]
Terry shows up again in another game in his original male form.


He looks so good.  He looks way better than he did in King of Fighters 14.  Pullum Purna and Vulcano Rosso are also back.  I'm hoping and waiting for Fighting EX Layer to come to PC.

[BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle]
As expected, the only real news is that the last 9 remaining DLC characters were announced.


They come out today, so at the very least I was excited about that.  Then they go and teased us at the end of the trailer that a new franchise is coming to the game, but didn't say which one and when they'll talk about it.  It could be part of the datamined information of Asuka and Yumi from Senran Kagura, or the hinted inclusion of Neptune from Hyperdimension Neptunia.  But for all we know, it could be something that wasn't datamined or rumored like the Arcana Heart series.  I'm excited, but I'm also mad we have to wait for more information.

[Guilty Gear]
They announced a World Tour for Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, BlazBlue Central Fiction, and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle.  They showed nothing new and said that Daisuke Ishiwatari is working on something Guilty Gear related, but that's it.

[Super Smash Bros.]
This is all they left us with:
Thanks, Nintendo........at least it's something for once.

[Soul Calibur 6]
Two more returning characters.  Seong Mi-Na is looking great.


[Tekken 7]
Two returning characters with 3 more characters will release in the future.  The sixth character is a guest character and I can't say I'm all too thrilled about it.  It's not an appropriate character for the game so I'm rather disappointed.


[Dragon Ball FighterZ]
As found in the datamine, Cooler was revealed.


[Street Fighter V]
G and Sagat are available now.  I don't have any Fight Money left to buy anyone.....




Thus ends another year for EVO.

Getting back into productive mode

The past 2 weeks, I had decided that I would take a break from working and focus on enjoying the games I recently bought and try to get through as many games I can so I can cycle in some new games to play.  It's not so much as stepping away from work as it is allowing my mind to be at ease and actually enjoy free time.  Despite not actually being in a work environment with strict deadlines, getting up early, and having the same pressure as a job, my mental state of mind prevents me from enjoying games during the day on weekdays because it feels necessary to be productive.  Even on weekends, I feel like I need to make the most of my time to play or do what I want before the weekdays arrive once more for me to stay productive.  This often leads to indecisiveness when choosing which game to play.  Because of this, I often try to play games to finish them rather than to simply enjoy them.

These past two weeks have been blissful peace with my own mind and being able to enjoy many different games.  I was able to get through two dozen games this past month.  The problem is that I accumulated three dozen games within the past month.  A majority of the games I finished were games I bought during the Steam Summer Sale.  I have to say that the discounts weren't the best this year, and so this is possibly the most I've ever spent in a single sale.  I also bought a lot of videogame soundtracks with those games which added to the cost.  Along with playing all those games, I was watching Summer Games Done Quick on the side.  There were some interesting runs this year, but I noticed that I pay less and less attention to the runs now.  It's not like EVO where I put all my focus into watching the streams.  I suppose an entire week worth of watching people play videogames is rather exhausting, especially when I'm focused on playing games myself.  I also received a Nintendo Switch just last Tuesday which added another option to a selection of games I could play.  All-in-all, it was a really fun vacation for my mind to sit down and actually play some games.  I honestly want to extend it and continue playing more since I have a ton more games waiting to be played, but I have too many things I want to finish this year to lollygag any further.

I might work on a few more remixes (if it doesn't take too long) before I get to creating original audio work.  I have a lot planned for this month, so hopefully I can knock some projects down.


Games I really enjoyed playing this past month:
-BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle
-Metroid: Other M
-NOISZ
-Nex Machina
-Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition
-Front Mission Evolved
-Livelock
-Nidhogg 2
-Pocket Rumble
-Mighty Gunvolt Burst
-Ruiner

Games I really enjoyed playing but didn't finish this past month:
-Agents of Mayhem
-Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition
-It Lurks Below
-Wizard of Legend
-Fire Emblem Warriors