A Black Image- HBCU's in America

 HBCU's in AMERICA

I watched Charlamagne Tha God's podcast earlier today, and I saw him whipping around the same agenda he has for the past couple of years. He may be a clout chaser in actuality, but one thing his is, is consistent. Some would call him avidly pro-black. However, nothing against him, the reason he would receive that label is what is disturbing. Blacks have a severe and systemic issue that is more mental than physical. And one great example is the HBCU situation.

 

 I'm not a political individual, as I've always stated, but I am a realist. Over the entire election period, I heard numerous cries from the black community that Charlamagne voiced on his radio show. With all of the issues that are existing in several communities across the country and for years, prior to the very latest police brutality and murder cases, especially George Floyd's, there was petitioning for reparations for slavery to be on the table, and legalization of marijuana. Those were the main voter issues according to Charlamagne at that time. It wasn't until the high-profile cases that erupted, where blacks saw other nationalities coming to the defense of the innocent, that the cry began to include those issues being fixed.

  This world and country are very focused on entitlement. And it isn't one that is earned. Everyone wants to be great without having to do anything great. You can't vicariously attach yourself to a progressive cause and identify with it by osmosis either. This generation has to learn to stand on their own feet. Have original ideas. There is far too much passive emotion, where people act outraged and go over the top to overcompensate for feelings they don't have or understand. Everyone wants to be on autopilot and follow a script or rhetoric on how they should process and receive anything.

  Why isn't there a push for free, quality education period? Not just education for demographics that is still out of the reach of a large portion. I've never benefited from these pushes. I have, however, gained a lot of knowledge. I would like to see a revolution where that can mean something. I mentioned to colleagues some time ago that there should be assessment examinations or series that you could apply your knowledge to and obtain respected degrees. Even if they charge a small fee for them, they would be worth it. You could still have universities, but this would be for those like me that obtained skills and credentials over a wide range of outlets. I appreciate how much you can learn from things like Udemy, Coursera, and even Youtube. But if you have practical knowledge in that discipline, you shouldn't have to double back to a college and pay $100,000 to legitimize it.

 The problem is that it is a scam from the ground up. Universities and the government have disgusting agreements, where you don't receive clearance for certain fields unless you show evidence that you paid the passing fee of a tuition. Once they know you are in debt for that in some way, and have the degree, only then can those doors open. And they don't care about knowledge. In my field, they have changed requirements so that you must show a bachelors in any field you want and you can sit for the license. They don't care if it is in bank robbing. They just want to see that you paid the passing fee.

  I've taken enough extra courses, and embarked on enough self-learning to fill at least a Master's Degree. But I can't even take my IT certifications to University of Texas, who sponsored my program, to finish a degree in an affordable way. Simple because, they can't risk me getting even a bachelors, if they know I wasn't gouged for it. Tell the HBCU's to fix that.

New Album- Maybe the Last- The People vs. J. Addae vol. 3

 

 To be released at the beginning of the year, somehow, I completed a somewhat complex project that I thought would be shelved for at least another year. There has been a great deal of stress lately, and while I thought that it would be a distraction, it was actually a catalyst. I had contemplated another novel, but then I realized I was long overdue to release a poetry collection. I had a few poems that I wrote over the last year, 1 that I meant to release with my first collection back in 2007, and several that were in my last couple of novels. The one from the 2007 collection was actually written in about 2005, and was entered into a collective compilation with other poets. Somehow, it  got lost, and the site went down. I literally had to remember the poem about 2 years ago, which took me a couple of weeks to do. So I started working on the collection. It will be released in the next few months hopefully.

  I had a concept for a 3rd People vs. J. Addae album, and I already had the title in mind, but I was thinking of doing a novel with it, as I want to make it a huge overall project. However, what deterred me from that is the fact that the story arc of the series is not cohesive or continuous. The first record is about my character standing on trial and falsely accused, while the second album and novel is about the inner laws that control claustrophobia and other social disorders that go unnoticed. There is not continuity there, so it made no sense to attempt bridging the story. This third record is about the title character of the 3 albums being on a far away island, contemplating time and saying farewell to everyone.

  The title is "This Man is an Island." It will be out January 1st.  The album cover is here.

The Walled in Yet Open World- Skyrim Review

 

 Okay, I admit, I took a very long time to getting around to completing the famous game known as Skyrim. Released in 2011 by my buddies at Bethesda, it is the fifth major entry in the new Elder Scrolls series. I played Morrowind, the first game, back in 2004 on Xbox. I heard about it and saw a review on Adult Swim while watching cartoons at night, and it looked interesting with how realistic the world was. In Morrowind, you could make your own spells, choose your own occupation, get any house to live in that you could find, and go anywhere in the huge world. 

   I completed the extra content when I finished the long journey, and it was satisfying to get very powerful during the course of the game. I remember developing a levitation power that I used to fly over mountains towards the end of the game. And there were so many ways to go about things. You could levitate, or you could develop a spell that let you leap like the Hulk with a slow-fall attribute that allowed you to land safely, almost like flying. It was endless what you could do.

 After that game, Oblivion was the next entry, and they began railing things in. You could still create spells, but you had to join a college of a particular school to unlock that ability. The combat was good in that game and it was an enjoyable experience. I heard great things about Skyrim, and I had completed Oblivion just around the time it came out. I had a copy some time ago, but sold it. I then purchased it again on the Nintendo Switch, eager to see what it had to offer. I was please in some areas, but had some issues.

  They once again railed in you ability to be free in this game. Right from the beginning, I have to say I was disgusted with the eradication of  certain spells. The main one missing is any form of levitation spell. the game has no spells that allow you to traverse the mountainous terrain at all. And it has plenty of hard to travel terrain. In fact, a long-time issue with this series is that you will have a hard time finding a location on the map. You follow directions, and wind up staring at a wall of a mountain having to spend potential hours getting around it. Sometimes there is no clear way to get up the mountain until you find some super hidden door. Even a leaping spell would have been welcome, but they took great care to eliminate any spells that allowed increased mobility which is ridiculous. Then many of the spells you learn are useless, such as the Dragonborn spells. 

 To backtrack, you start this game as a prisoner, not very different from other games in the series. You are summoned by Jarl leaders of the local villages for being believed to be a Dragonborn descendent of dragons. You are used for your ability to slay the powerful creatures. You begin working for some of the village leaders and there is far less freelancing in this game than others. I found that combat, which was as usual, stiff, forced me to rely on summons. I've never used summons in any other Elder Scrolls game, yet in this one, you absolutely must. In fact, it will be almost all you do, because fighting options are so stifled otherwise. You take damage heavily, there is supreme end lag on all movements, and your recovery state is slow, facing often dozens of enemies at once. 

    I must say the dialogue and story archs were interesting, from the different factions that hired you, to the greybeards, and even some common side quests. There were many powerful moments to be found in the game with gripping scenes and plots, including missions that had no bearings on the overall plot. It kept you engaged, and I spent quite a few hours doing just those. There were Dragon missions where I befriended the dragons and helped them with tasks. Missions going into Dwemer ruins to retrieve artifacts were always tense, because the Dwemer were an ancient civilization with advanced mechanical weaponry, and their science was being exploited by the Falmar. The ruins would alway be enormous, and the missions would take hours with many puzzles along the way. It was rewarding, but you would always run out of supplies while stuck in the middle of those journeys with no way to turn back, and an unusual boss at the end.

  Some of the boss battles, mainly the ones near the end were enjoyable, and perhaps done better than other games in the series, but I would have appreciated more variety and options. There is an alchemy system in the game that never made sense to me. No matter how I experimented with chemicals and plants, I never went beyond the same 2 useless elixirs. I did get pretty strong at the end of the game, and some of the shouts you learn as part of the Dragonborn powers were cool. I wish spells were more effective, and that the spell creation system was kept as it was. I did enjoy finishing the story, but the world is not the hugest and there is not as much content as they say. It will be a while before I play it again. It's a good looking game, with not much incentive to explore. A walled in score of 8/10

New Jokatech Art Gallery Presentation

 

I've been working on methods of presenting my artwork and music in an interactive collection, and I have put together a couple of galleries that I think you will all love. It amazes me to see so many pieces over my career, because I think back to my hesitance to start painting regularly. But here they are.

https://www.artsteps.com/view/6106e7dc4b8cb7f4798ba249/?currentUser&fbclid=IwAR2vjZK7vEGk16_np5FQ6H5juFJyPAq6SoNq_YVZLUn22UToNSFq_8JCkWY

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1r9yKv-Ckbr--gFkkUA0EIeSeYVI1x9iGCJEoq5zbwdQ/edit?usp=sharing

Ban it to Mars- Red Faction: Guerilla ReMarstered- Review

   

      This is the first review I have had to write like this in my life. As you know, I play very involved, and tough games, that require you to dig and to explore. This comes with its frustrations, but in the end there is a method to the madness. Then there are games that miss the mark, and just aren't meaningful enough. There is usually some kind of categorization that can be given to a game. However, Red Faction for the Nintendo Switch is in a category by itself for many reasons.

    I won't drag this review out, as it isn't necessary. I first heard about Red Faction years ago as a Playstation game, in passing, by a old-school gamer who frequented the store I went to in high school. It was a 3rd person shooter clone, with a story about a miner who is a member of a group of rebels of some sort. This latest installment takes place on Mars, after Earth has cultivated the planet, and a tyrannical group enslaves mankind known as the EDF- Earth Defense Force. Oddly, this is a name given to the heroes of earth's explorers in other games. The little I heard about this game to this day, are rave reviews about how well done this game is. I purchased it based off of that, and I have lost even more faith is the good sense of people.

 Every review is either 4.5 or 5 stars for this game. As it begins, you are put through an introduction movie picking up the continuing story of Mason, who lost his love interest in the previous game, and now lives as a miner on Mars. Rebels want him to join their faction, knowing his track record. He is reluctant, but gets pulled into the action. It plays out in a sandbox world, where you can go to open missions throughout the planet. This is the end of the intrigue. The game's mechanics, and premise are the most broken and idiotic I have ever seen in a video game in my life. This game is absolute trash, but not only that. It is completely broken and unplayable. The only way I can reconcile how it made it to market, is based on the name that the game has, which is extremely disturbing. It absolutely doesn't work. It crashes, and fails even when it doesn't literally crash.

  You are able to drive a number of land vehicles in the game and purchase upgrades for a small selection of weak weapons. The collision detection is insane. Mars is made up of red sand, and it reacts to every vehicle like jagged and dense metallic stone. These are not large rocks or walls. You will drive over literall flat sand or rolling hills, and the game reacts as if you slammed into a magnetic Iron wall randomly. Often you won't even see the obstruction at all, as if the undercarriage of your vehicle  dug into the ground itself. As for combat, you have a mining hammer and long distance weapons. The aiming reticle moves erratically and will float when trying to aim. This, along with the enemy's enormous durability, makes taking out one enemy such a task that it's laughable that you face dozens. When in combat, you never really see where troops come from, as they spawn from mid air at all sides. Their suppression fire spawns from random places as well, and you have extremely low health in this game. After being sieged upon, you will be dead or near death by the time you get your bearings.

  As I stated, the game is a sandbox, so you are up to guessing what the most viable option for you is. The landscape is divided into towns, with the influence meter showing how much is controlled by the rebel EDF forces, or your heroic faction rebels. You gain prominence by destroying EDF bases and facilities. Then, randomly, a story mission will appear at some points in the world, often surrounded by EDF forces. I did my best to increase my firepower and upgrades, but found that I never amounted to more than a small and weak character running alone in a huge world, severely outnumbered. Whenever I took on missions, it was like trying to trick the game into allowing a mission completion. Even if yo strategically weave through the EDF forces, the more success you have, the more forces pour in, until they annihilate you. So you end up having to scramble to clear the objective before the game over screen, so they autosave can act as a cheat code. This only got worse.

 As I soldiered on through the missions, the number of troops increased, and the effectiveness of my weapons such as rocket launchers and remote mines decreased. Many times, in missions where I was trying to get away, or race to a check point, my vehicle would drift and get stuck in the ground. Even on several occasions, the game crashed when this happened. There was a mission that led you to a bridge that you were supposed to destroy in one mission. As I got there, I was attacked by EDF from a distance. I had to hurl my car off the bridge to avoid getting exploded. I tried the mission several time, using remote mines to detonate the bridge, and guess what happened- nothing. The bombs bounce off of the bridge and do no damage at all, and the game gives no clue at all, as to what can damage it. Even running large vehicles into it did nothing at all.

 I scrambled to find some sense to this game, and completed one more crucial mission, before the game became completely unplayable. I was trying to complete a rescue mission after the bridge takedown failed, and simply had to go find the 3 hostages and bring them back to the base. As you approach the general area, I had no vehicle and was attacked by an enormous army including tanks and air strikes. Let me remind you, I am by myself, so my health gets stredded to nothing in less than 5 seconds, regardless of how I run and evade. Turing corners and ducking behind buildings is useless, as the shots rain down and up from every direction. It was overkill. And there is no steady way to even get a vehicle to aid you in this game. When you leave from a base, there may be a spare vehicle in the garage. If you take it on a mission and get obliterated, it's gone. If you run out, you have nothing. There is a mission where I thought you unlocked a mech suit, but after completing the mission, it's gone. It's the only powerful weapon I saw in the game. 

  Somehow, I continued playing this game and tackling main missions, trying to liberate the sector of the planet I was in. I was able to save up enough money to purchase a much needed armor upgrade to at least last longer in fights. There is just horrible physics to the game overall and no sense of direction. To make the game challenging, they break the controls and have vehicles veer off the road randomly during driving segments, and aiming reticles jolt across the screen while trying to aim. What this game uses as a difficulty tactic is the old method that was sometimes used in Uncharted and Mass Effect. Basically, when you enter a fight on a rescue mission or otherwise, you get surrounded by infinitely spawning troops. If you try to move to a safe vantage point, enemies not only spawn behind you, and in great numbers, but bullets will be aimed from the heavens and come around corners, and from assailants you cannot see, to keep the damage steady, keeping you from recovering. This whittles down you health and keeps it there until you're eliminated. It is such a cheap tactic.

  The sound and visuals are pretty low quality for what the system is capable of and it seems like it was not even remotely remastered. I find it very alarming that the presentation was so well received. There are cheats to unlock that give open abilities, but they can't be played in the storyline. I feel it is the name that carries this project, and after completing it, I can't see myself wanting to go through it again. I am a fanatic of completing what I start, but this one should have been banned to Mars. All in all, I'd say its a 6.9/10.

New Artwork 2021

 Hey all. More content coming soon. I've received requests from some of my loving fanbase. I'll be uploading in the coming weeks. As for now, I will be getting the latest album, "The People vs. J. Addae: The Trial of Jokatech," reviewed. And here is some artwork from another upcoming project. 

https://www.amazon.com/People-vs-J-Addae-Jokatech/dp/B08KKD6RF4

Also I'll be doing a new Smash Ultimate movie with commentary

Cleave the World in Two- Earth Wars- Review

 

  So here it is. This is a game called Earth Wars for the Nintendo Switch, that I got rather early in the lifecycle of they system back in 2018. I found nothing online whatsoever about the game when it came out, and almost nothing to this day. It is a very obscure game, especially by today's standards. It was developed by One or Eight Software, a quietly great company in Japan that is thorough with their approach to game content and context.

  This game follows the story of  earth's warriors in the future- the year 2020- lol. Earth has been dominated by alien creatures known as EBE, that have set up hives across North America from the North East to Alaska, and are growing in numbers and power. Earth has countered by developing super soldiers known as ANTI troops, that have been enhanced by fusing the EBE DNA with metallic implants and giving them enhanced strength and abilities. It only barely mitigates the onslaught of the alien forces, who have high level monsters divided into classes such as Baron and Elite, that continue to mutate.

  At the start there are a few dialogue cutscenes with extensive voice acting that explains the emotions and narrative behind the plot. You even begin to see scenes as the game progresses, where one of your fellow soldiers begins to be overcome by the influence of the EBE implants in his body, that make him slowly lose his mind. The game doesn't cover any events in that regards, as far as what becomes of him, but it is interesting to note. There are various abilities and weapons in the game. It is a 2D, anime style, combat action game, akin to a beat-em-up. It is classified as a survival action game, but I don't think that really fits. There are, however, survival levels and missions rarely. You dash with the right shoulder button, and attack with either hand/weapon using X and Y. You have a jump with the B button, and as your meter builds, you can activate an extension weapon in the form of a super-form with the A button. These can all be customized and empowered. You can wield dual swords, a large great sword, a large bow, a sword and gun combo, Axes, or hammers. Each setup combos and maneuvers very differently. At a point in the game, you can have 2 setups equipped, and switch back and forth. I had a sword-gun combo, with a backup great sword that ended up becoming my main weapon. Guns can be upgraded, and also built from scratch with items collected during levels and from defeated EBE. The effects are nicely lableled in the fusion factory, so you have a decent idea of the kind of weapon you want to make. You can also purchase weapons in the shop and armor, along with accessories that can boost stats and grant abilities.

  The leveling system is separated into different categories. You have defensive, offensive, balanced. and a custom weighted chart. They are very generous with bonuses and upgrades as you gain levels and abilities. You can spend points on the chart to add combos, abilities such as extra dash gauges and moves, and damage or tech boosts to attacks. Tech damage affects your opponents shield to get to a stun state, and raw damage affects health. You need both, but raw damage takes precedence, as stun is very hard to achieve or sustain with many of the enemies. I found that the defensive chart was the only one that made any sense. If you try any other mode, the loss in health and defense is nowhere near worth the slight buffs you gain. The game has a movement and physical mechanic system that suck tremendously.

  In games like this, you need what is known in the fighting game world, as Ukemi- or break fall. It allows you to recover and roll to a neutral position in the heat of intense combat from a hit, or an onslaught. There is nothing like that. Also, there is a huge amount of input lag. Many times, when I would hit the dash button, nothing would happen at all until I hit the dash again, and then there would be a super late double dash. There were some idiotically designed enemies in this game that accentuated this issue. There is a lizard like species of EBE that I believe the developers were either trolling in creating, or extremely high. That particular enemy never attacks alone, unless in boss form, which is even worse. They are always in a gang of about 5 or 6. They are extremely fast, and have no recovery frames or punish windows at all. They also hit for eternal combos and do massive damage. It is infuriating to face an enemy when trying to make it to a boss, who can either kill you outright, or take almost all of you lives based a wild lung combo that triggers into an infinite. It is a controller smasher for sure, but I never got to that point thankfully.

  I began enjoying the game as I developed my character and I enjoyed the story developing as well. Before I knew it, I was 70 hours into the game. That in itself was a marvel. I have never played a side scroller action game that I can recall that took that kind of time to work through. It was a very welcome surprise. It was a lot like a side-scroller version of Monster Hunter. But at a point, I was ready for the game to end. And finally, the end did approach. LOL

    I must say, the final level, even after level grinding, and getting powered up extensively, was inane and made no sense. I've seen difficulty spikes before, but nothing like this ever in my life. The game prides itself on being of the tough class of games, which is fine- it's why I bought it. But it goes from that to something out of this world just for the last level. I've never had to lower the difficulty like this in a game before. When I played Mass Effect Andromeda, I remember reducing the difficulty from the hardest setting to normal for a brief time near the end of the game. With Earth Wars, I ended up having to push it down to easy, and only then did I barely complete the last boss. I thought something was wrong with the game, and I may be right. For the last level, you locate the home base of the EBE on a distant moon. You land on the planet, and there isn't much explanation. A boss attacks you, and at first I assume it is a henchman. After about 10 minutes of nail-biter combat, I assume he must be the last boss. I even remember squinting at the screen due to the game's stupidly small text, to see what his name was. After he finally went down, the ground broke, and we fell down to another floor with a brute boss that looked like one from earlier in the game. I figured he would be manageable due to the animal we must fought, but he was super hard. Then, after making it past him, I was thinking that the last boss must be just walking up to some kind of gem and crushing it with ease for dramatics. But absolutely not!

    After him, is another boss that is missing its upper body, and can kick you for 50% damage. He killed me, and I buckled down defensively and planned for making it to him with as much health as possible. After several tries, I got past him. I was greeted by another, harder version of the brute boss. There is no way of making it to him, or past him with any kind of health left. That's 4 bosses, back to back, that are all Last-Boss difficult. I went at it for hours. Then I realized it was humanly impossible. I lowered the difficulty to Normal, which essentially just gives you another life. I made it the same distance. It was simply asking too much of the player. I began to feel as if it was designed to be an unbeatable level that would make people talk about the game. I failed for hours again. Then, embarassingly, I lowered the difficulty to EASY. I figured I just wanted to finish the plot and be done with the game. It was still an extreme struggle. When I got past the 4 horsemen, I met the last boss.....

  This was on easy mode... He had 3 forms, and you had to jump across platforms to the top of a room with lava to get to him. He had an array of guns, and the ability to juggle you for kill combos, or into the lava which does about 70% damage. I could not believe how hard he was. In his final form, he was a second away from giving me a kill combo, when I tricked the AI and got the last hit on the orb that he held, which took stupidly scaled damage to defeat. Half of a second, and it would have been a Game Over screen. I couldn't really enjoy the victory with that kind of nonsense, but the ending was very great, and left a cliff-hanger, after earth is restored and your team is thought dead. You stumble on a factory where soldiers like you are being manufactured for unknown means, and then it ends. The music and credits for the whole experience was solid, but I can't get over that difficulty jump and the poor mechanics. It feels like you can be kill-comboed at any moment when fighting certain enemies.

 All in all though, the game cut to the heart of the matter, and cleaved its way to a must buy, based on price and overall content. A sharp 8.5/10