I’m the World’s worst Imagineer, and I didn’t even mean to!

I always liked to think that I would make a good Imagineer.  After visiting Disneyland Paris fourteen times in sixteen years you start to notice the little things in the parks, the great attention to detail Tony Baxter and the rest of the guys put into when creating their masterpiece and appreciate the art of storytelling which they have done through their attractions and experiences.  Although I always wanted to pursue my dream of working at the great WDI, the likelihood of it becoming a reality grew further and further and now it lies shattered in the corner gathering dust.  Or does it?

Several months ago I read on a popular DLP forum some of you may know (yeah I post on a number of Disney related message boards, deal with it) that Disney’s Hotel Santa Fe is to receive a re-theme to Pixar’s Cars.  For our non DisneyNut friends, Hotel Santa Fe is a Disney hotel situated on the Parisian resort which is themed to a Mexican village in the middle of the Navajo desert, complete with cacti, Rio Grande river and a great Clint Eastwood mural at the entrance, resembling a drive-in movie theater.

Anyway this news, although annoyed me because I liked the strictly non Disney character theme (something that makes WDI great), I wasn’t too upset because this re-theme was only “subtle”, a new picture here, a Cars bedsheet there, nothing big.  In my reply to the news regarding the re-theme I added this to the end of my post:

“One last thing entered my mind, if Santa Fe get’s an all round Cars retheme, would it mean that Cars billboard we saw on Studio 1 will replace the Clint Eastwood one? Now that’s ascary thought.”

The Cars billboard I was referring to was dreadful thing we say cover up our beautiful Studio 1 building a few years back, I’m sure I speak for every DLP fan when I say we breathed a sigh of relief when it was gone, even if it were just to be replaced by another billboard!

Fast forward to this morning and I was checking up on the same forum I mentioned above for the latest news regarding the resort, and these images appear on my screen:

Yep, got it in one.  That sarcastic post I made turned out to be true!  Now, I’m not going to bore you with my views on the Eastwood poster being covered up and why I’m appalled by it, but I do feel somewhat worried.  I hope for my sake, and the sake of WDI, that the Imaingeer in charge of the Santa Fe re-theme didn’t go onto that forum, saw my post and say “Yeaah, I like the way this guy’s thinking.  Now, where I did put that soggy old billboard?”  If that were the case, judging by the reception this billboard is getting my the DLP community, I think I’ll have to change my name and move, anyone know a good place in Asia I could hide?

Still, at least they didn’t put forward another great idea sarcastic Breeno once came up with.

Another name change.. But this time it’s staying.

It’s been a difficult birth to my blog really.  I created it back in July but then ignored and forgotten it, I remembered and thrown it out into the public with little content, and despite having a number of half complete drafts on here I haven’t found myself to bother writing anything of interest.  For the past week exactly this place hasn’t seen anything new, and I don’t want that to turn into a common matter.

Usually whenever I make or become a part of something that doesn’t start well I begin to lose interest and give up.  I’ve been a member and moderator of a large number of internet forums that started well but died a slow painful death, my Youtube is about as popular as a kid in a Jar Jar Binks t-shirt at a Star Trek convention and don’t get me started on that ruddy twitter of mine.  From where I’m sitting at the moment it looks like this blog ticks all the boxes for me to run and dismiss, but I’m not waving the white flag yet.

Although I haven’t posted a lot here at the moment I do visit the blog daily to check out two things, comments and views.  On the comments side I’ve only received one comment from a James character (thanks for sharing your views, James!) but it is the views that has me interested.  From the day I posted my first article there has only been a single day this blog hadn’t got at least a one viewer, meaning that nearly everyday since then at least one person has thought “Hmm what’s this?  A blog?  I should check it out!”  When you know that at least someone has an interest in whatever you’re doing that’s the best motivator I can think of, so that’s why this blog will survive.  I’m going to do this for you, anonymous viewers!

Anyway, on with the show.  Since I thought up this blog I’ve been debating with myself about one very important matter, what to name it?  I wanted something that sounded good and not as boring as ‘Breeno’s Blog’ but I also wanted to put in a little reference of some sort, whether it be from the gaming world, movie world or Disney world.  At the start I simply had the blog named as “Title Not Yet Decided” which I admit was tempted on keeping as a sort of running blog gag, but thought against it.  Then due a lack of creativity I went with “Breeno Blog” hoping that something better would pop into my mind like a Prothean Beacon vision, and, somehow, just that has happened!

So I am happy to officially introduce you to Blog B8!… Alright, it’s not exactly as interesting or catchy as I hoped but like it, and here’s why.

B8 could stand for Breeno 8, a name and number I have used for quite a while now as my PSN ID, Xbox  Live Gamertag and hotmail address.  Before the 8 at the end of my nickname has no meaning other than an extra character because ‘Breeno’ was taken, until now…

What I plan to do is make the 8 in the name stand for the eight subjects I will be talking about in this blog, which are;

• Disney (Parks, movies, you name it!)
• Gaming (Playstation Xbox, Nintendo and more!)
• Movies (Action, Sci-Fi, Classics and all the rest!)
• Internet (Youtube, Facebook, this very blog, the list goes on!)
• Rants (Anything that put me into a moaning mood!)
• Praises (Anything that puts me into a ‘clappy chappy’ mood!)
• And Everything Else! (Yes, I am such a sell-out)

Also, B8 could be seen as a reference to N7, the armour and special training Commander Shepard has in Mass Effect, I told you I could get any conversation around to it!

And, for now, that’s the newly christened Blog B8!  I plan to make more articles very soon so keep an eye out for them.  Until then why not leave me a comment of what you think, especially if you have any suggestions of stuff I should talk about or things I should do.

Is Online Ruining Video Games?

‘Connecting to servers, please wait’, ‘Downloading file from network’, “Finding online match, please wait’. These are just some messages we’ve all seen before and probably do on a regular day-to-day gaming fashion. Virtually every single new game you can find will either have an online multiplayer mode, downloadable add-ons or both. Developers are relying on the online services more and more for their games, but is this always a good thing?

Downloadable content is all the range now in video gaming. Whether it be something as simple as a character costume for your favourite action game or an entire game altogether game makers really do see DLC as the way forward. But is this approach leading to un-finished products hitting the shelves? Last year Capcom released the latest sequel to their zombie shooter series Resident Evil 5, the game was a success and recieved good reviews all around. However, shortly before the release of the game it was announced that a ‘Verus Mode’ would be available as Downloadable Content for £3.99 on the PSN store and whatever that is equal to in Microsoft points. For those who don’t know, ‘Verus Mode’ is nothing more than a cover-up name for multiplayer mode. When I first heard that would will have to pay more cash on top of the game for this I thought it was a joke. For Capcom to expect you pay more for multiplayer mode, a basic mode which should already be in the game and nearly every other game created now, is disgraceful. They must have been drinking milk from the cash cow when they thought up of that.

On the subject of downloadable extensions adding new missions and levels to games is something that I feel needs to be carefully thought about especially if you’re going to change or continue the game’s story. Like me, my cousin is a huge Mass Effect fan, he was actually the person who told me about the game and whenever we meet there’s a pretty safe bet we’ll end up chatting about the series. Unfortunatly though due to where he lives he can’t get a decent internet connection so there’s no way he can get Xbox Live, which means he is missing out on all the Mass Effect 2 content that is forever being added to the Marketplace. Many times my cousin has asked me “What’s the Normandy Crash mission like?” or “Is that new character’s loyalty mission any good?” Luckily for him these missions are more like side quests which follow a linear story and don’t really effect the story. But, BioWare have recently stated they plan to release new missions to download which are going to take place after the final mission and link up the gap between Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 and focus heavily on the story. This means my cousin could be missing out on important backstory when Mass Effect 3 does be released. Of course I could try and explain to him what happens when I buy the content but in Mass Effect, your decisions can make a big different, so there’s a very small chance that what will happen for me would be the exact same as to what would happen for him. When this DLC does eventually happen, I hope that the BioWare will release it on a disc to buy along with the option to download, the same what they did with Dragon Age’s expansion Awakening or Fallout 3′s list of new content. That way both online and offline gamers can go into the end of the science fiction trilogy on the same playing field, and some won’t be missing out purely because of not having an internet connection.

Aside from DLC, a game’s actual online multiplayer mode is something that could be causing the standards of single player slip. Modern Warfare 2 is a prime example of this in my eyes. Although everything from the story mode in the game has been improved; the graphics are brilliant, the action is great, the story is gripping and so on, it’s ridiculously short. I managed to finish the game in just two sittings of playing it which is a record for me, and it wasn’t like I was up all night playing it either, just your basic evening in front of the Playstation. The reason I feel why the story mode was so short is because the guys at Infinity Ward wanted to up their game on the online mode. There’s no doubt about it that Call of Duty 4′s online is the reason why it was so popular and is still played by many to this day, so Modern Warfare 2 had to try and match it, and sadly the story mode had to be sacrificed in order for this to happen. What worries me is will this thing of putting multiplayer over single player become a trend? Are we going to see games that have an overhauled online mode but a short, unfinished story that will be patched up with DLC you need to pay for? As much as I enjoy meeting up with friends and playing other people from across the planet I’d much rather perfer a game where a detailed and fun story is the key. Many of my games I haven’t even looked at the online mode simply down to the fact that I’m hooked on the single player mode. I think I’m starting to become part of a minority with this opinion because almost all of my friends spend their gaming time playing online mode of a game and one goes as far as to say “hardcore gamers only care about online these days.” Personally I think saying that is a bit sad and if that where to happen, it would be the death of video games.

Well, that’s my views on the matter of online in the world of gaming. I’m not saying that online is a bad thing and should be boycotted, I like online and think there is a lot of potential in it. I just want games developers everywhere to be careful when thinking how online will play a part of their product. Think of the people who don’t have the service and don’t let it take over everything you planned to do from the beginning. Hopefully they do already know this otherwise I could be seeing myself going backwards to a simpler time of old-gen gaming when single player was the thing everyone cared about.

Hello World! (generic topic titles FTW!)

You wanted it (and when I say that I mean one person) and now you got it!  I’ve dived into the great piranha pool that is internet blogging!

From this day forward you’re going to be forced to put up with all my stupid gibberish even if it exceeds the character limit on Twitter and Facebook, oh you lucky dogs, you.  My evil plan to take full control of the World Wide Web makes a step closer today.

If you are new the slow and quiet world of Breeno (not the best way to advertise your blog, is it?) then here’s what you can expect from me!

• Disney (that includes the movies, merchandise, the history and most importantly, the theme parks)

• Gaming (From the NES to the PS3 you can bet you’re bottom dollar I’ll find a way to talk about it, I hope you like stupid Mass Effect references!)

• Movies (You might be able to find some film reviews here.  Don’t worry though, they aren’t going to have any standards at all, let alone high ones!)

• And anything else that pops into my head (that includes rants, praises, desperate advertising, questions and just random stuff.  I bet you can’t wait can’t you?)

And, for now, that’s my blog!  If you’ve got this far down reading this then thank you (I myself would have gave up by now, probably would have changed to youtube to watch some AVGN).  If you have any questions or suggestions (because believe me I need some), then feel free to ask!