Electronic license plates?

California is the home to everything famous, fresh and exciting. It's the best coast west coast, the Golden State, undeniable, and of course always has something new and interesting to offer. Just recently, the California State Senate approved a bill with Smart Plate Mobile that is going to allow a pilot program to test electronic license plates. Literally, pretty soon there will be .5% of California residents driving cars with iPads on the rear of them. This may sound crazy, and maybe even a little bit exciting (admit it), but there certainly are questions that need to be addressed before it's made a common car quality.
It does sound rather cool to have digital numbers on the back of your vehicle.
"The young and restless of tech will be able to have their new 'TE$LA1' plate beamed directly to their car." says CNET.
One of the problems that need to be addressed before fully launching this program would be tracking. There are a good majority of people who really don't care about with what the government interferes, but the suspicious (and the guilty) could be uncomfortable driving with these license plates. Tracking will most likely be as easy as being accessed through a mobile data network, which will let the powers know where you are, at all times. It's clear that Smart Plate Mobile will have access to everyone's location. Even, possibly, the DMV too. You have to admit, even if you don't have anything to hide, that is a little scary.
But imagine what else would come with it. It sounds comical to be riding on the freeway and in front of you is a car with a plate that says "EXPIRED." And what fun would it be to see Ferraris with the word "STOLEN"?
The news of this isn't very popular yet and the amount of Smart Plate users hasn't even reached .5%, but it is very possible that digital and electronic license plates will be a mandatory piece of our future vehicles.

Done Hibernating & More Pokemon

Alright, HI GUYS, I suppose I should explain to you all where I've been hibernating for the past six weeks. Well... I've been at school. And my computer broke. First, my computer broke. And yes, I tried hard-resetting it and rebooting it and all that but it still stubbornly refused to start up. So I had taken it to the Geek Squad (ikr) and three weeks later they brought it back to me in working condition but basically said it just got overheated...okay, whatevs lol it shouldn't take three weeks to repair overheated hardware but nonetheless cool it works. So, that explains the first half of my absence, but the second half is really just school's fault. I've started my junior year in American high school a few weeks ago and it really has kept me busy. My most interesting classes are trigonometry, programming and graphics. Programming has been my favourite. And, not to brag....but I'm a little teachers pet. Even though I'm one of the only two girls in there plus the youngest, I'm the most advanced. (ha-ha!) The class is starting off with basic web page HTML coding and I'm far off working on programming an indie game I'm making in Scratch. (you're a human trying to run away from a cow because you wanted to eat it. of course i'd make my game about that, right? have you found the vegan yet?) But whenever a student needs help with something, they don't even ask the teacher, they ask me and I always know what's up. It's a good boost of confidence! But anyway, that's what I've been doing and I apologise for slacking off. I'm getting back into the routine now though! Oh, and also, when I'm finished with my game which I should be within the next few months, I'm going to convert it into an iPhone app and I'll post a link for you to download it, if any of you are interested.

Meanwhile, I have some more potentially new Pokemon information for you. In the past weeks, some rumours have begun spreading, claiming that there is another new Pokemon game coming for the Wii U. At the Pokemon Game Show, a trailer was revealed, showing brief flashbacks of memorable moments throughout the entire game series, from the 90's trading card game to Black & White. Towards the end of the video, off-and-on you can see brief clips of two unfamiliar Pokemon in battle, foreshadowing the drop of another game, and then the screen faded away.

In previous portable Pokemon games, the battles were based around arena-style fights, like in Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Battle Revolution. However, it is unclear if this possible game will continue on that tradition.

What to expect from Pokemon X/Y

So what I can tell you about the new Pokemon X/Y is the awesome new 3D gameplay effects and dynamic battle camera. This sequel's experience will be nothing like the previous games in the series, thanks to it's new platform. For one, we will no longer be stuck behind our Pokemon while in battle, and the experience is now heightened with full 3D Pokemon and 3D attacks. There is also a new type of battle, called Sky Battles. Through this system, new Pokemon can now take flight to the sky. You can find trainers at the edge of cliffs or on top of buildings and challenge them to a sky battle - or, they'll challenge you, but for once (and for better), you can now flee from these kinds of trainers, only if you do not have the compatible Pokemon, though.
There's also been rumours about some new wild appearances called Horde Encounters. I'll come back on that when I gather more information.

Thank you, Nintendo.

Remember the gaming industry back in 1983? Well, I don't. I can't. I was born in 1997. But I've been playing some classic games lately and reading a lot, and I'm bringing back the memories of two important events that paved the way for the gaming landscape of today.
The first was the North American video game crash, set in motion by the failures of Pac-Man and ET on the Atari 2600. The market had been flooded with low-quality shovelware, and gamers started to abandon the hobby completely. The chances of a profitable, healthy industry seemed slim. But at the same time, halfway around the world, a little Japanese company named Nintendo geared up for the release of their first console, the Famicom, which sent the video game market booming and saved our hobby from going extinct.
I have to give a personal thanks to Nintendo for being a brilliant team, and saving the video game industry back in the day. You know, a lot of people hate on the Wii because it is family-oriented and most of us are seclusive hermits who cringe at the thought of social interaction. But we don't recognise, they've always kind of been family-oriented with their systems...? Maybe we gave them crap for the Wii because we were excited for a motion sensor platform (even though we knew about the PS Move years before). But I don't think they deserve it. We owe Nintendo a huge thanks and a huge "hell yeah, Nintendo kicks ass."
Thank you, Nintendo. You saved us in the 80's, kind of like how the fictional characters you created save worlds every day. Maybe you aren't so fictional. Or maybe I'm just really corny. Thank you.

Xbox One does a 360.

With some breaking news off Microsoft's website, the Xbox One is looking a lot less new and a lot more like the 360 with some major changes to it's performance.
The Xbox One we were all familiar with had a DRM, a built-in kinect, a region block, and it had to be online at least once every 24 hours, and you couldn't rent or sell any games. Now, Microsoft's headlines say, "we've listened to your feedback," and have changed the system almost completely. The "new" Xbox One does not have a DRM at all, it will not always have a built-in kinect, it won't have a region block, you won't have to be online every 24 hours, and you can rent, buy, trade, and sell any games you want. These are some pretty impressive improvements that may attract more attention to the Xbox One. GOOD FOR THEM, they might have just saved their asses. Still, a lot of fans have to think twice about choosing between a One or PS4.
I'm glad Xbox made these changes to their system, but I still don't really care about TV, and the only reason I'd move onto One is to play Halo 5 since it's going to be exclusive by its release year 2015. Meanwhile I feel like bringing out the PS2 so I can get back into Kingdom Hearts and God of War. And maybe even my DS to play some Animal Crossing. :3
If you guys have any thoughts or comments on this, feel free to let it out down below. I'm curious to see if this shifted anybody's minds from the PS4 back to Xbox.

The best of E3 2013.

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted in a while, especially with E3 going on. I've just been in the process of packing, moving and unpacking all week. However, I have been watching E3 live from my new home and I have been reading interviews so I do have a lot to cover in this blog. Side note, my new home is awesome! I live in a nice two-story duplex that's about five minutes away from the beach so I have a nice view as well. And I also now live in the same city that Melonie Mac lives in so maybe I'll run into her one day....? Totally not stalking her, no.
There were a few announcements from E3 that I'd really like to cover. First off, during E3's Nintendo Analyst Briefing, Nintendo revealed their plans on expanding StreetPass Network in hopes of achieving more popularity outside of Japan. They also want to release more software that's StreetPass compatible. They say, "This will involve taking a Nintendo 3DS system in sleep mode to an access point which will them connect automatically and send StreetPass data to a server. At the same time, the Nintendo 3DS system also receives the StreetPass data of another user from the server. In this setting, data is not exchanged directly, but rather through a StreetPass relay station. Previously, it required multiple 3DS systems in Sleep Mode to be in the same location at the same time, but in this framework, you can exchange data with others by visiting the same location even at a different time, so we can certainly expect the use rate of the StreetPass feature to grow significantly." This update is supposed to be available sometime later this year.
Bethesda Softworks also released some new info on The Elder Scrolls Online, which is making the MMORPG sound more like World Of Warcraft now. They announced that once you're done with one Alliance, you can start again with the other two, but with all your content set at lvl50. They explained, "You can level all the way from 1 to 50 with your character; that's 140 to 150 hours of content. Once you get to lvl50, maybe you don't want to participate in the PvP endgame or you're not interested in group dungeons, but you really want to play more of the game. You can take the character and go back through the remaining alliances, but all of the content is scaled to lvl50; so you can start playing through another chunk of content, but everything is harder. Once you've played through all of that, you can do it again through the last alliance, but everything is even harder. We call it 50+ and 50++." I honestly can't wait to get playing this. It sounds like a lot of fun, as a lover of fantasy games and MMO's, as well as a fan of both Skyrim and WoW!
Another huge announcement that I'm hugely excited for came from the Final Fantasy panel; if you haven't heard about it yet or you've only heard it in your dreams, it's true, Kingdom Hearts III is real and it's coming. As if that wasn't groundbreaking enough, it will also be historical because not only will it be released to PS4 as expected, but the franchise will also be making its debut with Microsoft when it's also made available for the Xbox - yeah, you read all that right! Kingdom Hearts, III, and Xbox! However, the game is still so early in the process of being developed, that even the game's trailer is immature and unofficial. It is seriously too early to plan even a release year. But, the promise alone of this game is huge, and will be worth any wait.
On top of everything I've already noted so far, I'm also excited to spread the word about the new Battlefield 4. It looks awesome! There will be tons of added features of course, like the new ability to direct squad mates. You can also shut up about the "omg, the xbox one has 500gb!!! that's enough for two battlefield maps!!1!11!" jokes because they're just annoying, and Battlefield is pretty cool and you know it. Like the previous Battlefields, it's expected to have a challenging online gaming experience as well as an engaging and interesting campaign. There is no set drop date for this yet either.
And last, but sure as hell not least, its safe to start getting excited for Halo 5. We haven't heard much about the game's plot, but from the trailer that played at Microsoft's Media Briefing E3 event, it looks engaging, and a lot more heavy/dark than the previous games in the series, which is cool. 343 Industries claims it will be "better than last time," referring to their beliefs that they had learned a lot from the experience of making Halo 4. (as if they had anything to apologise for?) They also tell us to expect Halo 5 to be a "next-generation title." If you haven't seen the trailer yet, watch it. Not only because the graphics are breathtaking but you can start to get pre-conceived ideas on what the game will be about. We were last left with the death of Cortana, Master Cheif's A.I., and in the trailer we see her data-core matrix chip, now on a dog chain. What does that imply? It's drop date falls in next year.
Oh- and before I forget, another cool E3 announcement from Microsoft was for Xbox Live Gold members. If you're an Xbox Live Gold member (the 12 month plan), Microsoft is giving away free games for download up until the release of the Xbox One. One free game every month until November. And not just stupid indie games. I mean, they even mentioned Assassins Creed 2 and Halo 3, just up for free download from the Xbox Marketplace. If you've never gotten Xbox Gold before, or just thought "nah, 60$ just ain't worth it," well now, it's pretty worth it.
I plan on getting back into my routine of frequently updating as I hear more on release dates and new games and such, so keep checking back. I can hardly wait to get ahold of some of these games! Till then, I'm going to be checking out more information, doing some gaming of course and then blogging. So stay following!
Also, if you want a new way to make fun of the Xbox One, go watch the IF XBOX ONE WAS A GIRL video on YouTube, it's pretty funny.

New Assassin's Creed books.

Just the other day, Ubisoft had announced their new books for Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag. The first one will be a novel based on the game; it will be published by Ace Books and release November 26th in the US and on November 7th by Penguin Books in the UK. The second book will be an official art book called The Art of Assassins Creed, and will be released by Titan Books on October 28th. The first 500 copies will come with a special slipcase including two exclusive Assassins Creed IV concept art prints signed by the artists. That's dope! Ubisoft claims that "highlights in the game, and in the art book, include one of the largest never-before-experienced nautical gameplay ever offered, with an amazing range of locations and action." 
The actual game will drop on October 29th for the 360, PS3 and Wii U, with Xbox One, PS4 and PC versions to follow.