Florida Joker’s Done Playing, Rockstar – Carlos’s News Speedrun #2

Dec 29, 2023

Happy Friday!

Considering we’re still in the middle of holiday milieu, news is light, but! That means it’s a perfect time to keep tinkering with the format of this here “Carlos’s News Speedrun.”

First Up…

1. As brought to my attention by We Got Comms’s own Luis Mendez, Florida Joker is done messing around and has given Rockstar a firm deadline to meet his demands:
   • 5. Million. Dollars. The price of the brick has sure gone up!

And…that’s it?

“He started at 1 mill and didn’t have purple hair,” says Luis.

Local Florida man gives Rockstar til January 11th — his birthday y’know? — to get him his ends. Rockstar is most likely having quite a laugh at something parody’d, and lawyer-vetted, I’m sure, in their latest Grand Theft Auto VI trailer.

Are console VR head-mounted displays a thing of the past?

• Michael Pachter, on the latest Pachter Factor, posits that very — grim? — possibly.

My take: It may very well be. As mentioned on “Salient Points” before: I’ve played with my PlayStation VR 2 a grand total of *counts*… 20 minutes soon after opening the damn thing. Granted, I had been “out of practice” and it quickly produced a headache, but I never went back. If I ever get my hands on Gran Turismo 7 (for it’s VR mode) or if the amazing-looking Asgard’s Wrath 2 ever comes to PlayStation 5…I’ll jump back in.

The Small Bytes…

• 🦾 Xbox gets slammed for using AI-generated art to promote indie games, says Kotaku. Unfortunately, it looks to be a trend we’ll continue to grapple with in the future…
• ⚔️ Christopher Judge — yes, the same actor who compared his 8 minute TGA 2022 speech to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III’s length — says he “would have said no” to voicing a younger Kratos even if asked. Out of respect for original actor Terrence C. Carson. (Via IGN)
• 💰 On the MWIII tip… Hogwarts Legacy is on track to becoming the best-selling game of 2023 in the U.S. It would mean knocking off a “Call of Duty” or Rockstar title from the top spot for the first time since 2009. (Via GameSpot)
• 🇲🇽 Suda51 promises that Lollipop Chainsaw RePop and Shadows of the Damned Remastered will both drop next year making “2024 […] a lively year for Grasshopper.” I’m particularly hyped to replay the latter considering it stars Garcia Hotspur, a Mexican demon hunter. Something you don’t see/play every day!

Watchu Been Playin’ Preview…

👽 So — in what would likely be considered 100% logical logic — I’m playing through Control at the moment to get ready for Alan Wake 2. I know, I know. It’s probably not necessary, but one random tweet online set me off saying that it helps to get into some of the interesting gameplay mechanics presented in AW2.

And I’m all in! I’m probably three-quarters of the way through and…it’s incredible. It’s full of trippy, kinetic action that I enjoy from my games along with a puzzle-like story that I hope *crosses fingers* wraps up nicely. It’s one worth going back to it if you’ve never played it.