#googlesearch — Public Fediverse posts

https://winbuzzer.com/2026/07/17/eu-orders-google-to-open-android-and-search-to-rivals-xcxwbn/

The EU requires Google to open Android AI features and anonymized Search data to eligible rivals under phased rules with privacy and security safeguards.

#AI #Android #SearchEngines #GoogleSearch #EUDigitalMarketsAct #EuropeanCommission #EuropeanUnion #AIAssistants #GoogleGemini #AIRegulation

https://winbuzzer.com/2026/07/17/eu-orders-google-to-open-android-and-search-to-rivals-xcxwbn/

The EU requires Google to open Android AI features and anonymized Search data to eligible rivals under phased rules with privacy and security safeguards.

#AI #Android #SearchEngines #GoogleSearch #EUDigitalMarketsAct #EuropeanCommission #EuropeanUnion #AIAssistants #GoogleGemini #AIRegulation

https://winbuzzer.com/2026/07/17/eu-orders-google-to-open-android-and-search-to-rivals-xcxwbn/

The EU requires Google to open Android AI features and anonymized Search data to eligible rivals under phased rules with privacy and security safeguards.

#AI #Android #SearchEngines #GoogleSearch #EUDigitalMarketsAct #EuropeanCommission #EuropeanUnion #AIAssistants #GoogleGemini #AIRegulation

https://winbuzzer.com/2026/07/17/eu-orders-google-to-open-android-and-search-to-rivals-xcxwbn/

The EU requires Google to open Android AI features and anonymized Search data to eligible rivals under phased rules with privacy and security safeguards.

#AI #Android #SearchEngines #GoogleSearch #EUDigitalMarketsAct #EuropeanCommission #EuropeanUnion #AIAssistants #GoogleGemini #AIRegulation

https://winbuzzer.com/2026/07/17/eu-orders-google-to-open-android-and-search-to-rivals-xcxwbn/

The EU requires Google to open Android AI features and anonymized Search data to eligible rivals under phased rules with privacy and security safeguards.

#AI #Android #SearchEngines #GoogleSearch #EUDigitalMarketsAct #EuropeanCommission #EuropeanUnion #AIAssistants #GoogleGemini #AIRegulation

A Look Back at Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #107 (1985)

Disclaimer: This is my original work with details sourced from reading the comic book and doing personal research. Anyone who wants to use this article, in part or in whole, needs to secure first my permission and agree to cite me as the source and author. Let it be known that any unauthorized use of this article will constrain the author to pursue the remedies under R.A. No. 8293, the Revised Penal Code, and/or all applicable legal actions under the laws of the Philippines.

Welcome back superhero enthusiasts, 1980s arts and culture enthusiasts, Spider-Man fans and comic book collectors! Today we go back to the year 1985 to examine a small part of the Marvel Comics shared universe through a tale of the Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man monthly series.

As I was not a regular reader of Spectacular Spider-Man comics, I missed out on the Sin-Eater storyline. I first learned about the Sin-Eater while reading a key flashback in Amazing Spider-Man #300. That particular detail boggled me for some time, and it was only recently I decided to start reading the comic books about the Sin-Eater.

With those details laid down, here is a look back at Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #107, published in 1985 by Marvel Comics with a story written by the late Peter David (Spider-Man 2099) and by the late Rich Buckler.

Early story

The story begins with Jean DeWolff recalling several important details from her past as well as her family background. Her father was a police inspector who never forgave her mother for giving birth to her. She was only six months old when her parents split up. Sometime later, her mother married a patrolman named Carl Weatherby and Jean herself admired her stepfather.

As she grew into adulthood, Jean was very influenced by her patrolman stepfather and she went on to go into police academy and graduated. Jean went on to become a fast-rising policewoman.

In the present day, New York police officers barged into a private residence searching for captain DeWolff and the place had bad odor. A dead woman was found inside a bedroom….

Quality

The first thing I will say about this comic book is that the writing done by Peter David is very grounded with reality and this resulted in a dark and gritty approach to storytelling. The heart of the story is the sudden murder of policewoman Jean DeWolff and its impact on the city of New York is strong and evident.

The story here is ultimately a detective story with a good amount of mystery, suspense and intrigue laced all over it. Along the way, Spider-Man here is barely the protagonist as the impact of Jean DeWolff’s murder has been dramatized through multiple characters in the city from J. Jonah Jameson to Matt Murdock (Daredevil).

This comic book also examines how the justice system in Marvel’s fictional portrayal of New York City works and it actually showed Peter Parker attending witnessing a court room arraignment to see how the bad guys he dealt with (as Spider-Man) were handled by the system. Again, this shows how grounded in reality the story is and the details should be seen. There is also a strong sense of local community dramatized.

The art by Rich Buckler is excellent and he really brought to life Peter David’s script with a heavy emphasis on realism. It seems to me that the illustrator took inspiration from TV shows and movies to achieve a unique visual style fitting for this particular tale.

Conclusion

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #107 (1985) is indeed a very powerful tale that has to be seen if you want a gritty 1980s Spider-Man story. The David-Buckler creative duo delivered a very grounded story about murder in New York City that impacted its people which serves as a reminder that violent crime can cause waves of disturbance and disruption. That said, this first chapter of Sin-Eater storyline is pretty believable. As the creative team emphasized the murder’s impact on a wide scale, it is not surprising that Spider-Man’s share of the spotlight was sacrificed somewhat to achieve it. As of now, I am looking forward to the next chapter of the Sin-Eater storyline.

Overall, Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #107 (1985) is recommended.

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Trump Administration Trashes Biden-Era LGBTQ Foster Care Rule

Remember a few years ago when the administration of failed US President Joe Biden came up with a foster care rule that sought to require children who identify as LGBTQ be placed with families willing to accept them through gender identity? That outrageous rule was never implemented but the Trump administration formally eliminated it which is good for the United States, according to a news report by Newsmax.

To put things in perspective, posted below is the excerpt of the Newsmax report. Some parts in boldface…

The Trump administration on Tuesday formally eliminated a Biden-era foster care rule that sought to require children who identify as LGBTQ be placed with families willing to affirm their stated gender identity or sexual orientation.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) removed the April 2024 regulation from the Code of Federal Regulations, saying the move will provide clarity and help recruit more foster families nationwide.

The rule never took effect after it was struck down by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, but the administration said removing it entirely closes the door on the policy.

Assistant HHS Secretary Alex Adams told The Daily Wire the decision reflects the administration’s belief that more families should feel welcome to foster children.

“The message that we think it sends is that all families are welcome,” Adams said. “We have too few foster families nationally. We must roll out the red carpet, and we must ensure that there’s homes waiting on kids, not kids waiting on homes.”

The Biden administration’s rule directed federally funded child welfare agencies to ensure that children who “self-identify with an alternative sexual orientation or self-identify as something other than their sex in foster care” were placed with families that would affirm those identities.

The Trump administration said rescinding the regulation supports first lady Melania Trump’s “Fostering the Future” initiative and a related executive order calling for a government-wide effort to strengthen the nation’s foster care system.

Adams said the administration has also launched its “Home for Every Child” campaign to increase the number of foster homes available for children entering the system.

“Nationally, we have a shortage,” Adams said. “We only have 57 homes for every 100 kids coming in, so we can and must do better to ensure that there’s enough homes for kids because when there’s not enough homes, kids end up in short-term rentals, hotels, government office spaces, etc.”

Adams said families with strong religious beliefs and moral convictions make up a large share of those willing to foster children, making it critical that the federal government not discourage them from participating.

Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this development? Are you delighted that US President Donald Trump and his administration scrapped the Biden-era rule and made sure it would not be revived soon? Do you think the woke, the SJWs and LGBTQ mob will react violently to this development?

You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Trump Administration Trashes Biden-Era LGBTQ Foster Care Rule

Remember a few years ago when the administration of failed US President Joe Biden came up with a foster care rule that sought to require children who identify as LGBTQ be placed with families willing to accept them through gender identity? That outrageous rule was never implemented but the Trump administration formally eliminated it which is good for the United States, according to a news report by Newsmax.

To put things in perspective, posted below is the excerpt of the Newsmax report. Some parts in boldface…

The Trump administration on Tuesday formally eliminated a Biden-era foster care rule that sought to require children who identify as LGBTQ be placed with families willing to affirm their stated gender identity or sexual orientation.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) removed the April 2024 regulation from the Code of Federal Regulations, saying the move will provide clarity and help recruit more foster families nationwide.

The rule never took effect after it was struck down by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, but the administration said removing it entirely closes the door on the policy.

Assistant HHS Secretary Alex Adams told The Daily Wire the decision reflects the administration’s belief that more families should feel welcome to foster children.

“The message that we think it sends is that all families are welcome,” Adams said. “We have too few foster families nationally. We must roll out the red carpet, and we must ensure that there’s homes waiting on kids, not kids waiting on homes.”

The Biden administration’s rule directed federally funded child welfare agencies to ensure that children who “self-identify with an alternative sexual orientation or self-identify as something other than their sex in foster care” were placed with families that would affirm those identities.

The Trump administration said rescinding the regulation supports first lady Melania Trump’s “Fostering the Future” initiative and a related executive order calling for a government-wide effort to strengthen the nation’s foster care system.

Adams said the administration has also launched its “Home for Every Child” campaign to increase the number of foster homes available for children entering the system.

“Nationally, we have a shortage,” Adams said. “We only have 57 homes for every 100 kids coming in, so we can and must do better to ensure that there’s enough homes for kids because when there’s not enough homes, kids end up in short-term rentals, hotels, government office spaces, etc.”

Adams said families with strong religious beliefs and moral convictions make up a large share of those willing to foster children, making it critical that the federal government not discourage them from participating.

Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this development? Are you delighted that US President Donald Trump and his administration scrapped the Biden-era rule and made sure it would not be revived soon? Do you think the woke, the SJWs and LGBTQ mob will react violently to this development?

You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Trump Administration Trashes Biden-Era LGBTQ Foster Care Rule

Remember a few years ago when the administration of failed US President Joe Biden came up with a foster care rule that sought to require children who identify as LGBTQ be placed with families willing to accept them through gender identity? That outrageous rule was never implemented but the Trump administration formally eliminated it which is good for the United States, according to a news report by Newsmax.

To put things in perspective, posted below is the excerpt of the Newsmax report. Some parts in boldface…

The Trump administration on Tuesday formally eliminated a Biden-era foster care rule that sought to require children who identify as LGBTQ be placed with families willing to affirm their stated gender identity or sexual orientation.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) removed the April 2024 regulation from the Code of Federal Regulations, saying the move will provide clarity and help recruit more foster families nationwide.

The rule never took effect after it was struck down by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, but the administration said removing it entirely closes the door on the policy.

Assistant HHS Secretary Alex Adams told The Daily Wire the decision reflects the administration’s belief that more families should feel welcome to foster children.

“The message that we think it sends is that all families are welcome,” Adams said. “We have too few foster families nationally. We must roll out the red carpet, and we must ensure that there’s homes waiting on kids, not kids waiting on homes.”

The Biden administration’s rule directed federally funded child welfare agencies to ensure that children who “self-identify with an alternative sexual orientation or self-identify as something other than their sex in foster care” were placed with families that would affirm those identities.

The Trump administration said rescinding the regulation supports first lady Melania Trump’s “Fostering the Future” initiative and a related executive order calling for a government-wide effort to strengthen the nation’s foster care system.

Adams said the administration has also launched its “Home for Every Child” campaign to increase the number of foster homes available for children entering the system.

“Nationally, we have a shortage,” Adams said. “We only have 57 homes for every 100 kids coming in, so we can and must do better to ensure that there’s enough homes for kids because when there’s not enough homes, kids end up in short-term rentals, hotels, government office spaces, etc.”

Adams said families with strong religious beliefs and moral convictions make up a large share of those willing to foster children, making it critical that the federal government not discourage them from participating.

Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this development? Are you delighted that US President Donald Trump and his administration scrapped the Biden-era rule and made sure it would not be revived soon? Do you think the woke, the SJWs and LGBTQ mob will react violently to this development?

You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

What To Watch On YouTube Right Now – Part 146

Welcome back my readers, YouTube viewers and all others who followed this series of articles focused on YouTube videos worth watching.

Have you been searching for something fun or interesting to watch on YouTube? Do you feel bored right now and you crave for something to see on the world’s most popular online video destination?

I recommend you check out the following videos I found.

#1 Varied Scary Movie 3 Reaction Videos – After enjoying Scary Movie (2000), I eventually saw Scary Movie 2 in a California cinema and it was disappointing due to its rushed and uninspired presentation. More than two years later, I saw Scary Movie 3 in a packed cinema here in the Philippines. Directed by David Zucker – part of the famous Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker (ZAZ) – Scary Movie 3 does not quite match the fun and quality of the original film of 2000 but it was still a huge improvement over Scary Movie 2. Not only that, the 2003 film had Anna Faris back as Cindy Campbell while the legendary comedian Leslie Nielsen was a notable addition. To see how much of an impact Scary Movie 3 has with YouTubers, watch and selected video reactions below.

https://youtu.be/6oA14JOzpYI?si=t2vc_eXaRQYo-VjD

https://youtu.be/N1zuVJjqKpY?si=ZBTmYfNUfz61iZL4

https://youtu.be/AsbHUv6kYx8?si=T4gcdBn2Iq9Y6qTe

https://youtu.be/_6zNbl6fyU0?si=buEAmGCt92WCKfnl

#2 A Korean Comic Café – If you are visiting South Korea and if you want to spend time in a place that allows privacy, access to digital entertainment, comic books and a variety of food and drinks during the day, try visiting a comic café. Watch and learn from the video below.

https://youtu.be/_SjDkz13eJg?si=RH2_z-dYS7j-_ero

#3 Ranting For Vengeance Looks At Great Comics That Actually Suck – What do you think makes a comic book great? Could it be because of the creators’ work, the storytelling style, real-world events that inspired the creative process, or the reputation of the creators who made it? In his video from 2025, Ranting for Vengeance examines that comics that were perceived to be great but sucked. Watch his video and pay close attention to the details and his explanations.

https://youtu.be/5_yhbVLv9Xg?si=c6sEH1HE4eSKOEis

#4 Ashleigh Burton Reacts To Weird Science – If you have read comic books of Weird Science, could you see their connection with the 1985 science fiction teen comedy film Weird Science? Directed by the late John Hughes, Weird Science follows two nerdy social outcast high school students who have had enough of being humiliated by others and enduring disappointing lives. Together, the two plan to make the perfect dream woman come true using a computer while hacking a government computer system. As it is loosely based on the Weird Science series of EC Comics, the film was a notable product of its time and it remains a memorable part of 1980s Hollywood cinema. To see if it has any entertainment impact, watch Ashleigh Burton’s reaction video now.

https://youtu.be/8wKX18W3ynI?si=-Xj-h24vUPYYzvat

#5 Sega’s F355 Challenge Revisited – During a visit to Gameworx inside Festival Mall in 1999, I saw the arcade game F355 Challenge from Sega. After marveling at its graphics during the first several minutes, I bought arcade tokens to play it. To my surprise, F355 Challenge was a racing simulation as it was designed with in-depth driving realism in mind. Yu Suzuki (Virtua Fighter) was the man who produced and directed the game, and in my opinion F355 Challenge has to be played in its original arcade form while the Sega Dreamcast port is the alternative. To see what F355 Challenge has to offer gamers, watch the video below.

https://youtu.be/LEhqR2RA6kY?si=OirSKt1Oe4iCOonV

#6 Penalties On Littering At Shibuya – Shibuya is one of the most lively urban spots in Japan. Located in Tokyo, is a special ward where visitors can enjoy the immense commercial joints and it is now the premiere hub for youth culture. Sadly, as Japan is attracting tens of millions of foreign tourists each year, littering at Shibuya has gone up tremendously. Fortunately, the local authorities are taking action again littering and those who littered will be penalized when they are caught. Learn from the Nippon TV video below.

https://youtu.be/6d-JRA-o1OQ?si=xfd4hn4OLXKuMpBt

#7 GoodBadFlicks Reviews The Bees – Way back in the late-1980s, the 1978 horror movie The Bees was shown on local TV and it drew a large audience. I cannot forget the time when a classmate of mine got so scared watching it. The Bees is a Mexican production that had the late John Saxon in a major role. To see the quality and production details of The Bees, watch the video of GoodBadFlicks below.

https://youtu.be/2A-UZSsjGL8?si=jVtYyJ-WHi-GBd9u

#8 Steakhouse In Tokyo – If you are touring Tokyo right now, there is this particular place that serves customers with really delicious and satisfying steaks. This video shows very enticing meals and I would love to visit once I return to Japan someday. Enjoy the video!

https://youtu.be/81dhoQGn-ww?si=ZQWSRh9d-8NxkKVG

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

What To Watch On YouTube Right Now – Part 146

Welcome back my readers, YouTube viewers and all others who followed this series of articles focused on YouTube videos worth watching.

Have you been searching for something fun or interesting to watch on YouTube? Do you feel bored right now and you crave for something to see on the world’s most popular online video destination?

I recommend you check out the following videos I found.

#1 Varied Scary Movie 3 Reaction Videos – After enjoying Scary Movie (2000), I eventually saw Scary Movie 2 in a California cinema and it was disappointing due to its rushed and uninspired presentation. More than two years later, I saw Scary Movie 3 in a packed cinema here in the Philippines. Directed by David Zucker – part of the famous Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker (ZAZ) – Scary Movie 3 does not quite match the fun and quality of the original film of 2000 but it was still a huge improvement over Scary Movie 2. Not only that, the 2003 film had Anna Faris back as Cindy Campbell while the legendary comedian Leslie Nielsen was a notable addition. To see how much of an impact Scary Movie 3 has with YouTubers, watch and selected video reactions below.

https://youtu.be/6oA14JOzpYI?si=t2vc_eXaRQYo-VjD

https://youtu.be/N1zuVJjqKpY?si=ZBTmYfNUfz61iZL4

https://youtu.be/AsbHUv6kYx8?si=T4gcdBn2Iq9Y6qTe

https://youtu.be/_6zNbl6fyU0?si=buEAmGCt92WCKfnl

#2 A Korean Comic Café – If you are visiting South Korea and if you want to spend time in a place that allows privacy, access to digital entertainment, comic books and a variety of food and drinks during the day, try visiting a comic café. Watch and learn from the video below.

https://youtu.be/_SjDkz13eJg?si=RH2_z-dYS7j-_ero

#3 Ranting For Vengeance Looks At Great Comics That Actually Suck – What do you think makes a comic book great? Could it be because of the creators’ work, the storytelling style, real-world events that inspired the creative process, or the reputation of the creators who made it? In his video from 2025, Ranting for Vengeance examines that comics that were perceived to be great but sucked. Watch his video and pay close attention to the details and his explanations.

https://youtu.be/5_yhbVLv9Xg?si=c6sEH1HE4eSKOEis

#4 Ashleigh Burton Reacts To Weird Science – If you have read comic books of Weird Science, could you see their connection with the 1985 science fiction teen comedy film Weird Science? Directed by the late John Hughes, Weird Science follows two nerdy social outcast high school students who have had enough of being humiliated by others and enduring disappointing lives. Together, the two plan to make the perfect dream woman come true using a computer while hacking a government computer system. As it is loosely based on the Weird Science series of EC Comics, the film was a notable product of its time and it remains a memorable part of 1980s Hollywood cinema. To see if it has any entertainment impact, watch Ashleigh Burton’s reaction video now.

https://youtu.be/8wKX18W3ynI?si=-Xj-h24vUPYYzvat

#5 Sega’s F355 Challenge Revisited – During a visit to Gameworx inside Festival Mall in 1999, I saw the arcade game F355 Challenge from Sega. After marveling at its graphics during the first several minutes, I bought arcade tokens to play it. To my surprise, F355 Challenge was a racing simulation as it was designed with in-depth driving realism in mind. Yu Suzuki (Virtua Fighter) was the man who produced and directed the game, and in my opinion F355 Challenge has to be played in its original arcade form while the Sega Dreamcast port is the alternative. To see what F355 Challenge has to offer gamers, watch the video below.

https://youtu.be/LEhqR2RA6kY?si=OirSKt1Oe4iCOonV

#6 Penalties On Littering At Shibuya – Shibuya is one of the most lively urban spots in Japan. Located in Tokyo, is a special ward where visitors can enjoy the immense commercial joints and it is now the premiere hub for youth culture. Sadly, as Japan is attracting tens of millions of foreign tourists each year, littering at Shibuya has gone up tremendously. Fortunately, the local authorities are taking action again littering and those who littered will be penalized when they are caught. Learn from the Nippon TV video below.

https://youtu.be/6d-JRA-o1OQ?si=xfd4hn4OLXKuMpBt

#7 GoodBadFlicks Reviews The Bees – Way back in the late-1980s, the 1978 horror movie The Bees was shown on local TV and it drew a large audience. I cannot forget the time when a classmate of mine got so scared watching it. The Bees is a Mexican production that had the late John Saxon in a major role. To see the quality and production details of The Bees, watch the video of GoodBadFlicks below.

https://youtu.be/2A-UZSsjGL8?si=jVtYyJ-WHi-GBd9u

#8 Steakhouse In Tokyo – If you are touring Tokyo right now, there is this particular place that serves customers with really delicious and satisfying steaks. This video shows very enticing meals and I would love to visit once I return to Japan someday. Enjoy the video!

https://youtu.be/81dhoQGn-ww?si=ZQWSRh9d-8NxkKVG

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

America Goes After Financiers And Shadow Business Networks Of Terrorist State Iran

As the military conflict between the United States and the Islamic terrorist state of Iran intensifies, the State Department announced that action has been taken to cut off the financial lifelines of the evil regime.

To put things in perspective, posted below is the entire announcement by the State Department. Some parts in boldface…

The United States is taking decisive action to cut off the financial lifelines sustaining Iran’s ruling elite. Today’s action targets Ali Ansari, a Dubai-based Iranian national who has built a sprawling global network of real estate and commercial holdings — spanning Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Cyprus, the UAE, and beyond — on behalf of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and other regime insiders.

The United States also sanctioned three Iran-based currency exchange houses — Mohammad Darbani and Partners, Lavasani and Partners, and Mohsen Khandan and Partners — along with their managing partners and associated front companies. By targeting these networks, the United States is directly disrupting the regime’s ability to access foreign currency and conduct international financial activity.

These actions reflect the Trump Administration’s commitment to holding accountable all those who enable the regime’s corruption and regional aggression. The United States will continue to pursue sanctions against individuals, companies, and financial institutions — including foreign entities — that facilitate illicit Iranian commerce, and will not relent until the Iranian regime ends its destabilizing behavior and its exploitation of the Iranian people.

Today’s action is being taken pursuant to E.O. 13902, which targets persons operating in Iran’s financial and petroleum sectors, E.O. 13876, which focuses on the Supreme Leader of Iran and his affiliates, and the counterterrorism authority E.O. 13224, as amended by E.O. 13886. These designations build on a series of OFAC actions targeting Iranian shadow banking and currency exchange house networks

Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this development? Do you think the US will be able to cut off Iran’s links to all financial sources around the world? Could it be possible that the sinister financiers behind LGBTQ and transgender mobs and human traffickers (involved with mass migration targeting Europe) could secretly be funding the Islamic terrorist regime of Iran?

You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

America Goes After Financiers And Shadow Business Networks Of Terrorist State Iran

As the military conflict between the United States and the Islamic terrorist state of Iran intensifies, the State Department announced that action has been taken to cut off the financial lifelines of the evil regime.

To put things in perspective, posted below is the entire announcement by the State Department. Some parts in boldface…

The United States is taking decisive action to cut off the financial lifelines sustaining Iran’s ruling elite. Today’s action targets Ali Ansari, a Dubai-based Iranian national who has built a sprawling global network of real estate and commercial holdings — spanning Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Cyprus, the UAE, and beyond — on behalf of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and other regime insiders.

The United States also sanctioned three Iran-based currency exchange houses — Mohammad Darbani and Partners, Lavasani and Partners, and Mohsen Khandan and Partners — along with their managing partners and associated front companies. By targeting these networks, the United States is directly disrupting the regime’s ability to access foreign currency and conduct international financial activity.

These actions reflect the Trump Administration’s commitment to holding accountable all those who enable the regime’s corruption and regional aggression. The United States will continue to pursue sanctions against individuals, companies, and financial institutions — including foreign entities — that facilitate illicit Iranian commerce, and will not relent until the Iranian regime ends its destabilizing behavior and its exploitation of the Iranian people.

Today’s action is being taken pursuant to E.O. 13902, which targets persons operating in Iran’s financial and petroleum sectors, E.O. 13876, which focuses on the Supreme Leader of Iran and his affiliates, and the counterterrorism authority E.O. 13224, as amended by E.O. 13886. These designations build on a series of OFAC actions targeting Iranian shadow banking and currency exchange house networks

Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this development? Do you think the US will be able to cut off Iran’s links to all financial sources around the world? Could it be possible that the sinister financiers behind LGBTQ and transgender mobs and human traffickers (involved with mass migration targeting Europe) could secretly be funding the Islamic terrorist regime of Iran?

You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

America Goes After Financiers And Shadow Business Networks Of Terrorist State Iran

As the military conflict between the United States and the Islamic terrorist state of Iran intensifies, the State Department announced that action has been taken to cut off the financial lifelines of the evil regime.

To put things in perspective, posted below is the entire announcement by the State Department. Some parts in boldface…

The United States is taking decisive action to cut off the financial lifelines sustaining Iran’s ruling elite. Today’s action targets Ali Ansari, a Dubai-based Iranian national who has built a sprawling global network of real estate and commercial holdings — spanning Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Cyprus, the UAE, and beyond — on behalf of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and other regime insiders.

The United States also sanctioned three Iran-based currency exchange houses — Mohammad Darbani and Partners, Lavasani and Partners, and Mohsen Khandan and Partners — along with their managing partners and associated front companies. By targeting these networks, the United States is directly disrupting the regime’s ability to access foreign currency and conduct international financial activity.

These actions reflect the Trump Administration’s commitment to holding accountable all those who enable the regime’s corruption and regional aggression. The United States will continue to pursue sanctions against individuals, companies, and financial institutions — including foreign entities — that facilitate illicit Iranian commerce, and will not relent until the Iranian regime ends its destabilizing behavior and its exploitation of the Iranian people.

Today’s action is being taken pursuant to E.O. 13902, which targets persons operating in Iran’s financial and petroleum sectors, E.O. 13876, which focuses on the Supreme Leader of Iran and his affiliates, and the counterterrorism authority E.O. 13224, as amended by E.O. 13886. These designations build on a series of OFAC actions targeting Iranian shadow banking and currency exchange house networks

Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this development? Do you think the US will be able to cut off Iran’s links to all financial sources around the world? Could it be possible that the sinister financiers behind LGBTQ and transgender mobs and human traffickers (involved with mass migration targeting Europe) could secretly be funding the Islamic terrorist regime of Iran?

You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Xbox Reset Is Very Painful But Absolutely Necessary

Welcome back Xbox fans and fellow geeks!

As a long-time Xbox fan and owner of three Xbox game consoles, I can say that this current console generation has been disappointing and the current state of Xbox gaming is a huge letdown.

With the approval of Microsoft’s leadership, Team Xbox acquired a lot of game companies that include the giants Activision-Blizzard-King (ABK) and Bethesda, going right down to the smaller game studios. Those were acquired with the promise of new and exciting games that would make Xbox gaming really great in the form of exclusive games, new content for Game Pass subscribers and more.

Sadly, things turned out really disappointing and now the new Xbox head Asha Sharma has the tremendous challenge of making drastic reforms, downsizing and correcting the cases of mismanagement by the previous leadership. That said, she declared a hard reset of the Xbox business and the changes are being implemented already.

To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt from the Xbox announcement focused on Asha Sharma’s message to the entire team. Some parts in boldface…

We are beginning the most significant restructure in XBOX history. After careful consideration, I’ve made the difficult decision to reduce our team by approximately 3,200 throughout FY27. This will include approximately 1,600 role eliminations today, and in addition, four studios will leave XBOX to new management. I recognize that a year-long restructuring creates additional challenges. Unfortunately, it is not possible to make all the necessary changes in a single day, and I wanted to be direct about the scale.

I know this is painful. These changes will directly affect people who have poured their creativity into building XBOX. Many joined us through acquisitions, while others were recruited here, or sought us out because they loved this industry and loved XBOX. Today’s decisions do not reflect their talent or dedication.

Our business today is not healthy. We are operating at margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses. We entered Gen 9 with a smaller install base and a higher cost structure. To grow, we bet on Game Pass, multi-platform, and a broader portfolio of content. While those businesses have created meaningful value, they did not grow at the pace we expected. As that happened, our core business weakened, and we added more teams, more investment, and more time, hoping for a better outcome. And now the industry is facing the most severe hardware crisis in its history. We must reset XBOX.

First, we will reset our content portfolio.

Since 2018, we have aggressively expanded our studio portfolio while the number of games created each month across the industry now outpaces the last ten years combined. We now find ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios. It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio. We have also learned that we are not the best home for every type of studio; in a typical year, we lost 64 cents for every dollar we invested. As we reset XBOX, we will help independent creators succeed by providing open development tools and audiences to realize their vision.

Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions will return to management and transition to independent studios with their IP, catalog, and runway for their next games. Ninja Theory and Undead Labs have entered terms to join new ownership with funding to complete and grow Senua and State of Decay 3. In France, Arkane’s management is beginning required consultation with its Works Council to review potential strategic options.

We are also making reductions across other units, and in some cases, shifting investment to focus on higher priority projects. These changes vary in size across Activision, Bethesda/ZeniMax, Blizzard, King, Mojang, and XBOX Game Studios. None of our first party publicly announced games or projects are being cancelled as part of these reductions.

In addition, Mojang and King will now report directly to me. These two studios have increasingly become platforms and are our largest by monthly active players. They bring critical geographic, demographic, and differentiation to XBOX.

Second, we will reset our platform.

We know that great technology gets better when it gets simpler, not bigger. Today, in some parts of the company, work passes through as many as 14 layers of management. Our platform teams are 40% larger than they were at the start of this generation, even as our player base and playtime have declined. That complexity has slowed decisions, blurred accountability, and made it harder to deliver for players. As we reset XBOX, we will simplify.

We will reduce management layers to no more than 5, and where possible, 3. We will deliver success through a flatter organization that is built around makers (individual contributors focused on building), player-coaches (leaders who remain deeply involved in the work while developing their teams), and directly responsible individuals (DRIs) who own key decisions and outcomes. And we will streamline how we work across our tools, with a cleaner code base, shared services, and 50% reduced vendor spend.

Third, we are resetting how we operate.

As XBOX grew our headcount, we became more fragmented. Teams, studios, and functions often operate independently, and it became harder to work towards a shared goal, make the right tradeoffs, and get things done.

For the first time, we are establishing a Chief Operating Officer with end-to-end P&L responsibility across content, hardware, platform, and services. Helen Chiang has been promoted to this role and will report directly to me. Over nearly two decades at XBOX, Helen has helped build some of our most important businesses, from XBOX Live to leading Mojang and the Minecraft franchise. She will bring our businesses together under one operating model, making sure we make clear investment decisions, learn from our successes and failures, and hold ourselves accountable for results.

Thank you, Dave McCarthy, who is retiring after 17 years with XBOX. Dave has played a defining role in building the platform that millions of players rely on every day and has been a trusted partner through many of the biggest moments in XBOX’s history. We wish him all the best.

These changes are about a bigger future for XBOX, not a smaller one. The next decade of gaming will be larger, more global, and more creative than anything we’ve seen before. This year, we’ll invest as much in XBOX as we ever have, but we’ll invest with greater focus, greater discipline, and greater clarity, all in service of making XBOX where the world plays and creates.

I want XBOX to be one of the few companies that entertains more than a billion people each day and gives everyone the opportunity to create and connect.

To see the full message, click https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/07/06/resetting-xbox/

Indeed, the Xbox business model deteriorated financially and became much harder to manage. The billions of Dollars spent on Xbox gaming over the past several years did not result in the great gaming experiences for fans and gamers, nor did it compel the Xbox game studios to become productive and disciplined.

First-party games of Xbox in the generation of Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S have been lackluster in quality and enjoyment overall. I played Starfield a lot on my Xbox Series X via Xbox Game Pass and my enjoyment of it has been limited compared with other games of Bethesda. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II was fun at first but it ended up being hollow. As the said Ninja Theory-developed game lacked depth with its gameplay and game design, I never bothered to replay it after finishing it. Obsidian Entertainment, a company that specialized in making role-playing games (RPGs), produced new RPGs under the Xbox umbrella but none of them were great. In fact, Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 ended up as commercial failures.

Going back to Asha Sharma’s message, I can say that letting go of Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions was the right move as the huge amount of money Team Xbox spent of them did not result in great games. Compulsion Games’ South of Midnight was a $100,000,000 production that ended up with sales of way below one million copies. More notably, Compulsion Games has a discriminating woke and hateful community manager who goes by the handle @PikaChulita. Look at the captured evidence below.

Speaking of wokeness and discrimination, the controversial Matt Hansen has been laid off from Obsidian Entertainment. Hansen was heavily involved in the huge disappointment called Avowed. That being said, Team Xbox should really REMOVE all the untalented woke activists among its many game developers. Those activists – the feminists, the LGBTQ mob, the Islamists, the Black Lives Matter zealots and others – do not care about making great games at all and they have been misusing Microsoft’s money to turn new Xbox games into vehicles of Leftist/woke/socialist propaganda. Xbox should also cut off any ties with the super woke Sweet Baby Inc.

When it comes to the larger entities like Activision, Bethesda/ZeniMax, Blizzard, King and Mojang, the layoffs are painful but it makes sense to shift investment to focus on higher priority projects. Activision should regain focus on ensuring quality and great fun with its continued productions of Call of Duty (COD) games. Bethesda has to deliver new Fallout and The Elder Scrolls games faster and with the highest quality possible.

With the way things are right now, I am not certain if I will pursue the next-generation Xbox console called “Project Helix”. Memory has gotten much more expensive in recent times due to extremely high demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and the memory manufacturers’ deals with AI companies. How much memory could the next-generation Xbox have and could its retail price exceed $1,000 at launch?

Indeed, the future of Xbox gaming is really clouded and I can only hope that the hard reset of the Xbox business under Asha Sharma will create positive changes and results. To say the least, the reforms have started and only time will tell what will happen next.

In ending this blog post, posted below are selected YouTube videos about the state of Xbox for your enlightenment.  

https://youtu.be/2BZBoBAZGsc?si=aL2iNzIiW6It6zvF

https://youtu.be/G7gFcdPmUeM?si=RjfV62K2TEgK4W4c

https://youtu.be/B8jITSU6IfM?si=npeGI3VDmYPRoX4n

https://youtu.be/qWFSICcym9c?si=OVgz7K77aGsISa2N

https://youtu.be/DeUV3IqEZRU?si=U4mZnmOQGY2V6CKO

https://youtu.be/O_1YpnEKkxA?si=yKa24vue7V60KilE

https://youtu.be/FGFD1W415FE?si=NI380YIxmaw2CNBg

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Xbox Reset Is Very Painful But Absolutely Necessary

Welcome back Xbox fans and fellow geeks!

As a long-time Xbox fan and owner of three Xbox game consoles, I can say that this current console generation has been disappointing and the current state of Xbox gaming is a huge letdown.

With the approval of Microsoft’s leadership, Team Xbox acquired a lot of game companies that include the giants Activision-Blizzard-King (ABK) and Bethesda, going right down to the smaller game studios. Those were acquired with the promise of new and exciting games that would make Xbox gaming really great in the form of exclusive games, new content for Game Pass subscribers and more.

Sadly, things turned out really disappointing and now the new Xbox head Asha Sharma has the tremendous challenge of making drastic reforms, downsizing and correcting the cases of mismanagement by the previous leadership. That said, she declared a hard reset of the Xbox business and the changes are being implemented already.

To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt from the Xbox announcement focused on Asha Sharma’s message to the entire team. Some parts in boldface…

We are beginning the most significant restructure in XBOX history. After careful consideration, I’ve made the difficult decision to reduce our team by approximately 3,200 throughout FY27. This will include approximately 1,600 role eliminations today, and in addition, four studios will leave XBOX to new management. I recognize that a year-long restructuring creates additional challenges. Unfortunately, it is not possible to make all the necessary changes in a single day, and I wanted to be direct about the scale.

I know this is painful. These changes will directly affect people who have poured their creativity into building XBOX. Many joined us through acquisitions, while others were recruited here, or sought us out because they loved this industry and loved XBOX. Today’s decisions do not reflect their talent or dedication.

Our business today is not healthy. We are operating at margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses. We entered Gen 9 with a smaller install base and a higher cost structure. To grow, we bet on Game Pass, multi-platform, and a broader portfolio of content. While those businesses have created meaningful value, they did not grow at the pace we expected. As that happened, our core business weakened, and we added more teams, more investment, and more time, hoping for a better outcome. And now the industry is facing the most severe hardware crisis in its history. We must reset XBOX.

First, we will reset our content portfolio.

Since 2018, we have aggressively expanded our studio portfolio while the number of games created each month across the industry now outpaces the last ten years combined. We now find ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios. It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio. We have also learned that we are not the best home for every type of studio; in a typical year, we lost 64 cents for every dollar we invested. As we reset XBOX, we will help independent creators succeed by providing open development tools and audiences to realize their vision.

Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions will return to management and transition to independent studios with their IP, catalog, and runway for their next games. Ninja Theory and Undead Labs have entered terms to join new ownership with funding to complete and grow Senua and State of Decay 3. In France, Arkane’s management is beginning required consultation with its Works Council to review potential strategic options.

We are also making reductions across other units, and in some cases, shifting investment to focus on higher priority projects. These changes vary in size across Activision, Bethesda/ZeniMax, Blizzard, King, Mojang, and XBOX Game Studios. None of our first party publicly announced games or projects are being cancelled as part of these reductions.

In addition, Mojang and King will now report directly to me. These two studios have increasingly become platforms and are our largest by monthly active players. They bring critical geographic, demographic, and differentiation to XBOX.

Second, we will reset our platform.

We know that great technology gets better when it gets simpler, not bigger. Today, in some parts of the company, work passes through as many as 14 layers of management. Our platform teams are 40% larger than they were at the start of this generation, even as our player base and playtime have declined. That complexity has slowed decisions, blurred accountability, and made it harder to deliver for players. As we reset XBOX, we will simplify.

We will reduce management layers to no more than 5, and where possible, 3. We will deliver success through a flatter organization that is built around makers (individual contributors focused on building), player-coaches (leaders who remain deeply involved in the work while developing their teams), and directly responsible individuals (DRIs) who own key decisions and outcomes. And we will streamline how we work across our tools, with a cleaner code base, shared services, and 50% reduced vendor spend.

Third, we are resetting how we operate.

As XBOX grew our headcount, we became more fragmented. Teams, studios, and functions often operate independently, and it became harder to work towards a shared goal, make the right tradeoffs, and get things done.

For the first time, we are establishing a Chief Operating Officer with end-to-end P&L responsibility across content, hardware, platform, and services. Helen Chiang has been promoted to this role and will report directly to me. Over nearly two decades at XBOX, Helen has helped build some of our most important businesses, from XBOX Live to leading Mojang and the Minecraft franchise. She will bring our businesses together under one operating model, making sure we make clear investment decisions, learn from our successes and failures, and hold ourselves accountable for results.

Thank you, Dave McCarthy, who is retiring after 17 years with XBOX. Dave has played a defining role in building the platform that millions of players rely on every day and has been a trusted partner through many of the biggest moments in XBOX’s history. We wish him all the best.

These changes are about a bigger future for XBOX, not a smaller one. The next decade of gaming will be larger, more global, and more creative than anything we’ve seen before. This year, we’ll invest as much in XBOX as we ever have, but we’ll invest with greater focus, greater discipline, and greater clarity, all in service of making XBOX where the world plays and creates.

I want XBOX to be one of the few companies that entertains more than a billion people each day and gives everyone the opportunity to create and connect.

To see the full message, click https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/07/06/resetting-xbox/

Indeed, the Xbox business model deteriorated financially and became much harder to manage. The billions of Dollars spent on Xbox gaming over the past several years did not result in the great gaming experiences for fans and gamers, nor did it compel the Xbox game studios to become productive and disciplined.

First-party games of Xbox in the generation of Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S have been lackluster in quality and enjoyment overall. I played Starfield a lot on my Xbox Series X via Xbox Game Pass and my enjoyment of it has been limited compared with other games of Bethesda. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II was fun at first but it ended up being hollow. As the said Ninja Theory-developed game lacked depth with its gameplay and game design, I never bothered to replay it after finishing it. Obsidian Entertainment, a company that specialized in making role-playing games (RPGs), produced new RPGs under the Xbox umbrella but none of them were great. In fact, Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 ended up as commercial failures.

Going back to Asha Sharma’s message, I can say that letting go of Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions was the right move as the huge amount of money Team Xbox spent of them did not result in great games. Compulsion Games’ South of Midnight was a $100,000,000 production that ended up with sales of way below one million copies. More notably, Compulsion Games has a discriminating woke and hateful community manager who goes by the handle @PikaChulita. Look at the captured evidence below.

Speaking of wokeness and discrimination, the controversial Matt Hansen has been laid off from Obsidian Entertainment. Hansen was heavily involved in the huge disappointment called Avowed. That being said, Team Xbox should really REMOVE all the untalented woke activists among its many game developers. Those activists – the feminists, the LGBTQ mob, the Islamists, the Black Lives Matter zealots and others – do not care about making great games at all and they have been misusing Microsoft’s money to turn new Xbox games into vehicles of Leftist/woke/socialist propaganda. Xbox should also cut off any ties with the super woke Sweet Baby Inc.

When it comes to the larger entities like Activision, Bethesda/ZeniMax, Blizzard, King and Mojang, the layoffs are painful but it makes sense to shift investment to focus on higher priority projects. Activision should regain focus on ensuring quality and great fun with its continued productions of Call of Duty (COD) games. Bethesda has to deliver new Fallout and The Elder Scrolls games faster and with the highest quality possible.

With the way things are right now, I am not certain if I will pursue the next-generation Xbox console called “Project Helix”. Memory has gotten much more expensive in recent times due to extremely high demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and the memory manufacturers’ deals with AI companies. How much memory could the next-generation Xbox have and could its retail price exceed $1,000 at launch?

Indeed, the future of Xbox gaming is really clouded and I can only hope that the hard reset of the Xbox business under Asha Sharma will create positive changes and results. To say the least, the reforms have started and only time will tell what will happen next.

In ending this blog post, posted below are selected YouTube videos about the state of Xbox for your enlightenment.  

https://youtu.be/2BZBoBAZGsc?si=aL2iNzIiW6It6zvF

https://youtu.be/G7gFcdPmUeM?si=RjfV62K2TEgK4W4c

https://youtu.be/B8jITSU6IfM?si=npeGI3VDmYPRoX4n

https://youtu.be/qWFSICcym9c?si=OVgz7K77aGsISa2N

https://youtu.be/DeUV3IqEZRU?si=U4mZnmOQGY2V6CKO

https://youtu.be/O_1YpnEKkxA?si=yKa24vue7V60KilE

https://youtu.be/FGFD1W415FE?si=NI380YIxmaw2CNBg

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Xbox Reset Is Very Painful But Absolutely Necessary

Welcome back Xbox fans and fellow geeks!

As a long-time Xbox fan and owner of three Xbox game consoles, I can say that this current console generation has been disappointing and the current state of Xbox gaming is a huge letdown.

With the approval of Microsoft’s leadership, Team Xbox acquired a lot of game companies that include the giants Activision-Blizzard-King (ABK) and Bethesda, going right down to the smaller game studios. Those were acquired with the promise of new and exciting games that would make Xbox gaming really great in the form of exclusive games, new content for Game Pass subscribers and more.

Sadly, things turned out really disappointing and now the new Xbox head Asha Sharma has the tremendous challenge of making drastic reforms, downsizing and correcting the cases of mismanagement by the previous leadership. That said, she declared a hard reset of the Xbox business and the changes are being implemented already.

To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt from the Xbox announcement focused on Asha Sharma’s message to the entire team. Some parts in boldface…

We are beginning the most significant restructure in XBOX history. After careful consideration, I’ve made the difficult decision to reduce our team by approximately 3,200 throughout FY27. This will include approximately 1,600 role eliminations today, and in addition, four studios will leave XBOX to new management. I recognize that a year-long restructuring creates additional challenges. Unfortunately, it is not possible to make all the necessary changes in a single day, and I wanted to be direct about the scale.

I know this is painful. These changes will directly affect people who have poured their creativity into building XBOX. Many joined us through acquisitions, while others were recruited here, or sought us out because they loved this industry and loved XBOX. Today’s decisions do not reflect their talent or dedication.

Our business today is not healthy. We are operating at margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses. We entered Gen 9 with a smaller install base and a higher cost structure. To grow, we bet on Game Pass, multi-platform, and a broader portfolio of content. While those businesses have created meaningful value, they did not grow at the pace we expected. As that happened, our core business weakened, and we added more teams, more investment, and more time, hoping for a better outcome. And now the industry is facing the most severe hardware crisis in its history. We must reset XBOX.

First, we will reset our content portfolio.

Since 2018, we have aggressively expanded our studio portfolio while the number of games created each month across the industry now outpaces the last ten years combined. We now find ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios. It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio. We have also learned that we are not the best home for every type of studio; in a typical year, we lost 64 cents for every dollar we invested. As we reset XBOX, we will help independent creators succeed by providing open development tools and audiences to realize their vision.

Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions will return to management and transition to independent studios with their IP, catalog, and runway for their next games. Ninja Theory and Undead Labs have entered terms to join new ownership with funding to complete and grow Senua and State of Decay 3. In France, Arkane’s management is beginning required consultation with its Works Council to review potential strategic options.

We are also making reductions across other units, and in some cases, shifting investment to focus on higher priority projects. These changes vary in size across Activision, Bethesda/ZeniMax, Blizzard, King, Mojang, and XBOX Game Studios. None of our first party publicly announced games or projects are being cancelled as part of these reductions.

In addition, Mojang and King will now report directly to me. These two studios have increasingly become platforms and are our largest by monthly active players. They bring critical geographic, demographic, and differentiation to XBOX.

Second, we will reset our platform.

We know that great technology gets better when it gets simpler, not bigger. Today, in some parts of the company, work passes through as many as 14 layers of management. Our platform teams are 40% larger than they were at the start of this generation, even as our player base and playtime have declined. That complexity has slowed decisions, blurred accountability, and made it harder to deliver for players. As we reset XBOX, we will simplify.

We will reduce management layers to no more than 5, and where possible, 3. We will deliver success through a flatter organization that is built around makers (individual contributors focused on building), player-coaches (leaders who remain deeply involved in the work while developing their teams), and directly responsible individuals (DRIs) who own key decisions and outcomes. And we will streamline how we work across our tools, with a cleaner code base, shared services, and 50% reduced vendor spend.

Third, we are resetting how we operate.

As XBOX grew our headcount, we became more fragmented. Teams, studios, and functions often operate independently, and it became harder to work towards a shared goal, make the right tradeoffs, and get things done.

For the first time, we are establishing a Chief Operating Officer with end-to-end P&L responsibility across content, hardware, platform, and services. Helen Chiang has been promoted to this role and will report directly to me. Over nearly two decades at XBOX, Helen has helped build some of our most important businesses, from XBOX Live to leading Mojang and the Minecraft franchise. She will bring our businesses together under one operating model, making sure we make clear investment decisions, learn from our successes and failures, and hold ourselves accountable for results.

Thank you, Dave McCarthy, who is retiring after 17 years with XBOX. Dave has played a defining role in building the platform that millions of players rely on every day and has been a trusted partner through many of the biggest moments in XBOX’s history. We wish him all the best.

These changes are about a bigger future for XBOX, not a smaller one. The next decade of gaming will be larger, more global, and more creative than anything we’ve seen before. This year, we’ll invest as much in XBOX as we ever have, but we’ll invest with greater focus, greater discipline, and greater clarity, all in service of making XBOX where the world plays and creates.

I want XBOX to be one of the few companies that entertains more than a billion people each day and gives everyone the opportunity to create and connect.

To see the full message, click https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/07/06/resetting-xbox/

Indeed, the Xbox business model deteriorated financially and became much harder to manage. The billions of Dollars spent on Xbox gaming over the past several years did not result in the great gaming experiences for fans and gamers, nor did it compel the Xbox game studios to become productive and disciplined.

First-party games of Xbox in the generation of Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S have been lackluster in quality and enjoyment overall. I played Starfield a lot on my Xbox Series X via Xbox Game Pass and my enjoyment of it has been limited compared with other games of Bethesda. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II was fun at first but it ended up being hollow. As the said Ninja Theory-developed game lacked depth with its gameplay and game design, I never bothered to replay it after finishing it. Obsidian Entertainment, a company that specialized in making role-playing games (RPGs), produced new RPGs under the Xbox umbrella but none of them were great. In fact, Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 ended up as commercial failures.

Going back to Asha Sharma’s message, I can say that letting go of Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions was the right move as the huge amount of money Team Xbox spent of them did not result in great games. Compulsion Games’ South of Midnight was a $100,000,000 production that ended up with sales of way below one million copies. More notably, Compulsion Games has a discriminating woke and hateful community manager who goes by the handle @PikaChulita. Look at the captured evidence below.

Speaking of wokeness and discrimination, the controversial Matt Hansen has been laid off from Obsidian Entertainment. Hansen was heavily involved in the huge disappointment called Avowed. That being said, Team Xbox should really REMOVE all the untalented woke activists among its many game developers. Those activists – the feminists, the LGBTQ mob, the Islamists, the Black Lives Matter zealots and others – do not care about making great games at all and they have been misusing Microsoft’s money to turn new Xbox games into vehicles of Leftist/woke/socialist propaganda. Xbox should also cut off any ties with the super woke Sweet Baby Inc.

When it comes to the larger entities like Activision, Bethesda/ZeniMax, Blizzard, King and Mojang, the layoffs are painful but it makes sense to shift investment to focus on higher priority projects. Activision should regain focus on ensuring quality and great fun with its continued productions of Call of Duty (COD) games. Bethesda has to deliver new Fallout and The Elder Scrolls games faster and with the highest quality possible.

With the way things are right now, I am not certain if I will pursue the next-generation Xbox console called “Project Helix”. Memory has gotten much more expensive in recent times due to extremely high demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and the memory manufacturers’ deals with AI companies. How much memory could the next-generation Xbox have and could its retail price exceed $1,000 at launch?

Indeed, the future of Xbox gaming is really clouded and I can only hope that the hard reset of the Xbox business under Asha Sharma will create positive changes and results. To say the least, the reforms have started and only time will tell what will happen next.

In ending this blog post, posted below are selected YouTube videos about the state of Xbox for your enlightenment.  

https://youtu.be/2BZBoBAZGsc?si=aL2iNzIiW6It6zvF

https://youtu.be/G7gFcdPmUeM?si=RjfV62K2TEgK4W4c

https://youtu.be/B8jITSU6IfM?si=npeGI3VDmYPRoX4n

https://youtu.be/qWFSICcym9c?si=OVgz7K77aGsISa2N

https://youtu.be/DeUV3IqEZRU?si=U4mZnmOQGY2V6CKO

https://youtu.be/O_1YpnEKkxA?si=yKa24vue7V60KilE

https://youtu.be/FGFD1W415FE?si=NI380YIxmaw2CNBg

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Google adds Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube data to Search Console: Creators with no website can now track which search terms drive clicks to their Instagram, TikTok or YouTube posts. Full access rolls out over the coming weeks. https://ppc.land/google-adds-instagram-tiktok-x-and-youtube-data-to-search-console/ #GoogleSearch #SearchConsole #DigitalMarketing #Creators #TikTok

Google adds Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube data to Search Console: Creators with no website can now track which search terms drive clicks to their Instagram, TikTok or YouTube posts. Full access rolls out over the coming weeks. https://ppc.land/google-adds-instagram-tiktok-x-and-youtube-data-to-search-console/ #GoogleSearch #SearchConsole #DigitalMarketing #Creators #TikTok

What To Watch On YouTube Right Now – Part 145

Welcome back my readers, YouTube viewers and all others who followed this series of articles focused on YouTube videos worth watching.

Have you been searching for something fun or interesting to watch on YouTube? Do you feel bored right now and you crave for something to see on the world’s most popular online video destination?

I recommend you check out the following videos I found.

#1 Street Fighter III: New Generation Revisited – Way back in 1994, I had a blast of fun playing Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) plus other Street Fighter II games in the arcades. Naturally, I had a personal anticipation for Street Fighter III. However, Capcom released Street Fighter Alpha (Street Fighter Zero) and follow-up games over the next few years. In the 1st quarter of 1997, I saw Street Fighter III: New Generation in the local arcade and quickly inserted tokens to play it. I was very impressed with its super-smooth animation and enjoyed it. Still, something about the game felt hollow and weird as well which is related to the fact that Ryu and Ken were the only established Street Fighter characters who returned. Indeed, there was something odd that happened behind the scenes at Capcom when Street Fighter III: New Generation was made. Watch and learn from the videos below.

https://youtu.be/L-SzM8xqzZw?si=cCVk5NShDVxX5J_E

https://youtu.be/tvFUkk-3sCI?si=7lrhELujY7SXh_J4

#2 EOM Reacts’ Saving Private Ryan Video – Twenty-eight years ago, Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan was released in cinemas and eventually achieved both critical and commercial success. While its story was not true to life nor a solid record of World War II history, its presentation of the extreme violence of the era and American brotherhood captivated a lot of moviegoers. To find out how much impact the movie has on anyone who views it, watch EOM React’s reaction video below.

https://youtu.be/l5qvVrC9nhA?si=P3egjL2Ic2TK6sYd

#3 Farm-Raised Eels Launched In Japan – In Japanese cuisine, eels are a popular delicacy and they make a great choice of meat to consume with rice. Due to the sharp decline of eels at sea, farms that spent a lot of time and resources of breeding eels provided the alternative for Japanese demand. That said, farm-raised eels were commercially launched recently for public consumption and you can learn so much more about them in the Nippon TV video below.

https://youtu.be/-_KokIB9pYw?si=2flFfbep9yQJRmpW

#4 Shenmue Retrospective – Shenmue, the most defining game ever released on the short-lived Sega Dreamcast, has long been featured in countless articles and retrospective videos over the past twenty-six years. Under the leadership and design of the legendary Yu Suzuki, Shenmue turned out to be a very groundbreaking video game when it comes to exploration, adventuring and interactions with characters (including non-playable characters or NPCs) and items. Now is a good time to look back at Shenmue with the in-depth retrospective video below. Viewing it felt like an adventure.

https://youtu.be/vgP4h-iFlUw?si=JppH2tQ13uh9yGZ1

#5 You, Me And The Movies React To The Philadelphia Story – When was the last time you saw a romantic comedy film released in the 1940s? The 1940 movie The Philadelphia Story is notable not only because it was nominated for several Academy Awards (it won two) but also because it was the successful comeback of actress Katharine Hepburn who had several failures. To find out if The Philadelphia Story is truly impactful and worthy of preservation in the United States National Film Registry, go watch You, Me and the Movies’ reaction video below.

https://youtu.be/WHzYcZAkiUQ?si=GdXfYWNA5M8hQFKe

#6 Ashleigh Burton Reacts To Lethal Weapon 4 – What is there to say about 1998’s Lethal Weapon 4? It is the one film that has Asian superstar Jet Li as the action-packed villain. In addition, it marked significant changes in the respective lives of Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) when it comes to family matters and getting old as law enforcers. I can hardly believe it has been twenty-eight years since I first saw this movie in the local cinema and it was indeed a thrilling viewing experience. To see if it still has any entertainment value and impact, watch and learn from Ashleigh Burton’s reaction video below.

https://youtu.be/aruSpkxOeMQ?si=ObpagaUU0UijyRlH

#7 The 2003 California Recall Election Revisited – Decades after former actor Ronald Reagan led the state of California as its governor, another actor got elected to the same position via a recall election…Arnold Schwarzenegger! Back in 2003, the incumbent governor Gray Davis was very unpopular and a lot of Californians got fed up with the many problems that affected them. When the move to recall Davis grew tremendously, several people filed their candidacies for Governor of California but it was Schwarzenegger who outmaneuvered them. Given the fact that he starred in three Terminator movies – all of which were filmed in California – he would later be called as “the Governator” after taking office. To find out what really happened and what the factors were behind his recall election victory, watch the in-depth video below.

https://youtu.be/slZSl5ufmXk?si=aUkZMJaozvMaRAGm

#8 The Remake Trend Of Video Games – Like Hollywood, the video game industry has an obsession with remaking video games. The difference is this…the obsession on remaking video games is pretty strong as video game publishers need something “new” to sell to gamers while their other game projects could not be completed fast enough. Still, there is something twisted or intriguing behind the game companies’ focus on remaking games and you can find out more by watching the video below.

https://youtu.be/AO90OiaPNBk?si=xMHQTGLd73_fZwX4

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

What To Watch On YouTube Right Now – Part 145

Welcome back my readers, YouTube viewers and all others who followed this series of articles focused on YouTube videos worth watching.

Have you been searching for something fun or interesting to watch on YouTube? Do you feel bored right now and you crave for something to see on the world’s most popular online video destination?

I recommend you check out the following videos I found.

#1 Street Fighter III: New Generation Revisited – Way back in 1994, I had a blast of fun playing Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) plus other Street Fighter II games in the arcades. Naturally, I had a personal anticipation for Street Fighter III. However, Capcom released Street Fighter Alpha (Street Fighter Zero) and follow-up games over the next few years. In the 1st quarter of 1997, I saw Street Fighter III: New Generation in the local arcade and quickly inserted tokens to play it. I was very impressed with its super-smooth animation and enjoyed it. Still, something about the game felt hollow and weird as well which is related to the fact that Ryu and Ken were the only established Street Fighter characters who returned. Indeed, there was something odd that happened behind the scenes at Capcom when Street Fighter III: New Generation was made. Watch and learn from the videos below.

https://youtu.be/L-SzM8xqzZw?si=cCVk5NShDVxX5J_E

https://youtu.be/tvFUkk-3sCI?si=7lrhELujY7SXh_J4

#2 EOM Reacts’ Saving Private Ryan Video – Twenty-eight years ago, Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan was released in cinemas and eventually achieved both critical and commercial success. While its story was not true to life nor a solid record of World War II history, its presentation of the extreme violence of the era and American brotherhood captivated a lot of moviegoers. To find out how much impact the movie has on anyone who views it, watch EOM React’s reaction video below.

https://youtu.be/l5qvVrC9nhA?si=P3egjL2Ic2TK6sYd

#3 Farm-Raised Eels Launched In Japan – In Japanese cuisine, eels are a popular delicacy and they make a great choice of meat to consume with rice. Due to the sharp decline of eels at sea, farms that spent a lot of time and resources of breeding eels provided the alternative for Japanese demand. That said, farm-raised eels were commercially launched recently for public consumption and you can learn so much more about them in the Nippon TV video below.

https://youtu.be/-_KokIB9pYw?si=2flFfbep9yQJRmpW

#4 Shenmue Retrospective – Shenmue, the most defining game ever released on the short-lived Sega Dreamcast, has long been featured in countless articles and retrospective videos over the past twenty-six years. Under the leadership and design of the legendary Yu Suzuki, Shenmue turned out to be a very groundbreaking video game when it comes to exploration, adventuring and interactions with characters (including non-playable characters or NPCs) and items. Now is a good time to look back at Shenmue with the in-depth retrospective video below. Viewing it felt like an adventure.

https://youtu.be/vgP4h-iFlUw?si=JppH2tQ13uh9yGZ1

#5 You, Me And The Movies React To The Philadelphia Story – When was the last time you saw a romantic comedy film released in the 1940s? The 1940 movie The Philadelphia Story is notable not only because it was nominated for several Academy Awards (it won two) but also because it was the successful comeback of actress Katharine Hepburn who had several failures. To find out if The Philadelphia Story is truly impactful and worthy of preservation in the United States National Film Registry, go watch You, Me and the Movies’ reaction video below.

https://youtu.be/WHzYcZAkiUQ?si=GdXfYWNA5M8hQFKe

#6 Ashleigh Burton Reacts To Lethal Weapon 4 – What is there to say about 1998’s Lethal Weapon 4? It is the one film that has Asian superstar Jet Li as the action-packed villain. In addition, it marked significant changes in the respective lives of Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) when it comes to family matters and getting old as law enforcers. I can hardly believe it has been twenty-eight years since I first saw this movie in the local cinema and it was indeed a thrilling viewing experience. To see if it still has any entertainment value and impact, watch and learn from Ashleigh Burton’s reaction video below.

https://youtu.be/aruSpkxOeMQ?si=ObpagaUU0UijyRlH

#7 The 2003 California Recall Election Revisited – Decades after former actor Ronald Reagan led the state of California as its governor, another actor got elected to the same position via a recall election…Arnold Schwarzenegger! Back in 2003, the incumbent governor Gray Davis was very unpopular and a lot of Californians got fed up with the many problems that affected them. When the move to recall Davis grew tremendously, several people filed their candidacies for Governor of California but it was Schwarzenegger who outmaneuvered them. Given the fact that he starred in three Terminator movies – all of which were filmed in California – he would later be called as “the Governator” after taking office. To find out what really happened and what the factors were behind his recall election victory, watch the in-depth video below.

https://youtu.be/slZSl5ufmXk?si=aUkZMJaozvMaRAGm

#8 The Remake Trend Of Video Games – Like Hollywood, the video game industry has an obsession with remaking video games. The difference is this…the obsession on remaking video games is pretty strong as video game publishers need something “new” to sell to gamers while their other game projects could not be completed fast enough. Still, there is something twisted or intriguing behind the game companies’ focus on remaking games and you can find out more by watching the video below.

https://youtu.be/AO90OiaPNBk?si=xMHQTGLd73_fZwX4

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

What To Watch On YouTube Right Now – Part 145

Welcome back my readers, YouTube viewers and all others who followed this series of articles focused on YouTube videos worth watching.

Have you been searching for something fun or interesting to watch on YouTube? Do you feel bored right now and you crave for something to see on the world’s most popular online video destination?

I recommend you check out the following videos I found.

#1 Street Fighter III: New Generation Revisited – Way back in 1994, I had a blast of fun playing Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) plus other Street Fighter II games in the arcades. Naturally, I had a personal anticipation for Street Fighter III. However, Capcom released Street Fighter Alpha (Street Fighter Zero) and follow-up games over the next few years. In the 1st quarter of 1997, I saw Street Fighter III: New Generation in the local arcade and quickly inserted tokens to play it. I was very impressed with its super-smooth animation and enjoyed it. Still, something about the game felt hollow and weird as well which is related to the fact that Ryu and Ken were the only established Street Fighter characters who returned. Indeed, there was something odd that happened behind the scenes at Capcom when Street Fighter III: New Generation was made. Watch and learn from the videos below.

https://youtu.be/L-SzM8xqzZw?si=cCVk5NShDVxX5J_E

https://youtu.be/tvFUkk-3sCI?si=7lrhELujY7SXh_J4

#2 EOM Reacts’ Saving Private Ryan Video – Twenty-eight years ago, Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan was released in cinemas and eventually achieved both critical and commercial success. While its story was not true to life nor a solid record of World War II history, its presentation of the extreme violence of the era and American brotherhood captivated a lot of moviegoers. To find out how much impact the movie has on anyone who views it, watch EOM React’s reaction video below.

https://youtu.be/l5qvVrC9nhA?si=P3egjL2Ic2TK6sYd

#3 Farm-Raised Eels Launched In Japan – In Japanese cuisine, eels are a popular delicacy and they make a great choice of meat to consume with rice. Due to the sharp decline of eels at sea, farms that spent a lot of time and resources of breeding eels provided the alternative for Japanese demand. That said, farm-raised eels were commercially launched recently for public consumption and you can learn so much more about them in the Nippon TV video below.

https://youtu.be/-_KokIB9pYw?si=2flFfbep9yQJRmpW

#4 Shenmue Retrospective – Shenmue, the most defining game ever released on the short-lived Sega Dreamcast, has long been featured in countless articles and retrospective videos over the past twenty-six years. Under the leadership and design of the legendary Yu Suzuki, Shenmue turned out to be a very groundbreaking video game when it comes to exploration, adventuring and interactions with characters (including non-playable characters or NPCs) and items. Now is a good time to look back at Shenmue with the in-depth retrospective video below. Viewing it felt like an adventure.

https://youtu.be/vgP4h-iFlUw?si=JppH2tQ13uh9yGZ1

#5 You, Me And The Movies React To The Philadelphia Story – When was the last time you saw a romantic comedy film released in the 1940s? The 1940 movie The Philadelphia Story is notable not only because it was nominated for several Academy Awards (it won two) but also because it was the successful comeback of actress Katharine Hepburn who had several failures. To find out if The Philadelphia Story is truly impactful and worthy of preservation in the United States National Film Registry, go watch You, Me and the Movies’ reaction video below.

https://youtu.be/WHzYcZAkiUQ?si=GdXfYWNA5M8hQFKe

#6 Ashleigh Burton Reacts To Lethal Weapon 4 – What is there to say about 1998’s Lethal Weapon 4? It is the one film that has Asian superstar Jet Li as the action-packed villain. In addition, it marked significant changes in the respective lives of Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) when it comes to family matters and getting old as law enforcers. I can hardly believe it has been twenty-eight years since I first saw this movie in the local cinema and it was indeed a thrilling viewing experience. To see if it still has any entertainment value and impact, watch and learn from Ashleigh Burton’s reaction video below.

https://youtu.be/aruSpkxOeMQ?si=ObpagaUU0UijyRlH

#7 The 2003 California Recall Election Revisited – Decades after former actor Ronald Reagan led the state of California as its governor, another actor got elected to the same position via a recall election…Arnold Schwarzenegger! Back in 2003, the incumbent governor Gray Davis was very unpopular and a lot of Californians got fed up with the many problems that affected them. When the move to recall Davis grew tremendously, several people filed their candidacies for Governor of California but it was Schwarzenegger who outmaneuvered them. Given the fact that he starred in three Terminator movies – all of which were filmed in California – he would later be called as “the Governator” after taking office. To find out what really happened and what the factors were behind his recall election victory, watch the in-depth video below.

https://youtu.be/slZSl5ufmXk?si=aUkZMJaozvMaRAGm

#8 The Remake Trend Of Video Games – Like Hollywood, the video game industry has an obsession with remaking video games. The difference is this…the obsession on remaking video games is pretty strong as video game publishers need something “new” to sell to gamers while their other game projects could not be completed fast enough. Still, there is something twisted or intriguing behind the game companies’ focus on remaking games and you can find out more by watching the video below.

https://youtu.be/AO90OiaPNBk?si=xMHQTGLd73_fZwX4

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Trump Honors American Heroes And Founding Fathers During 250th Independence Day Celebration

The United States of America (USA) celebrated its 250th anniversary and during his 4th of July speech at the National Mall, US President Donald Trump honored the American heroes as well as the Founding Fathers of the nation, according to a news report by Newsmax.

To put things in perspective, posted below is the excerpt from the report of Newsmax. Some parts in boldface…

President Donald Trump celebrated America’s 250th anniversary in a rousing speech on the Fourth of July at the National Mall on Saturday night.

Trump delivered his remarks after 11 p.m. ET, after being delayed by over an hour due to lightning and heavy rains. But Trump said he would not be deterred in celebrating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

“If we have to speak in front of one person at four in the morning I’m going to be here,” Trump said in a speech streamed live on Newsmax. “There’s no way we can be deterred.”

“Tonight we come together for one of the most joyous and glorious milestones of all time,” Trump added. “For two and a half centuries, our American Republic has stood as the crowning achievement of human history.

“This country is the home of freedom. This is the land of liberty. And this is a flag that’s the banner of the most extraordinary, most exceptional, most incredible nation ever to exist on the face of the Earth.”

The president said the American people have shown more courage, done more good, righted more injustice and achieved more greatness than anyone else.

“For 250 years, the United States of America has been the hope, the promise, the light and the glory among all of the nations of the world, all over the world, they try and be like us,” Trump said.

“Nobody can be like us, and with God’s help, we will always be this,” Trump added. “Or even better. We’re going to be better.”

Trump used his speech to honor numerous veterans who fought in American wars, bringing them on stage to salute the flag while telling their tales of heroism.

Among those honored were 104-year-old Ken Schrubing, who was just 19 years old when he survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and 101-year-old Don Graves, who fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima.

“These are the fighters and the banners of the Greatest Generation,” Trump said. “They are the greatest generation. They saved the world and they made America very, very proud. We’re very proud of you, heroes all.“

Marine Corporal Pat Finn and Private First Class Rudy Meekins, who fought in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War, were also honored, along with astronaut Jack Schmitt, the last American to walk on the moon, and the Artemis II flight crew.

Eleven Gold Star families were also presented with flags during Trump’s speech.

Speaking in front of the first American flags produced, Trump praised the Founding Fathers and the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

“Those 56 patriots put everything at risk, stepped onto the stage of destiny, and seized a victory for the ages,” Trump said.

Trump said the Founding Fathers have allowed America to thrive for 250 years.

“Our cause was just. Our people are brave, our culture is exceptional, and our destiny is written by God,” Trump said.

“And as we can see here tonight, after 250 years, the spirit of 1776 still lives within us all,” Trump added.

Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this development? Are you delighted with the way America’s 250th anniversary was celebrated this year? Are you thankful to America’s Founding Fathers, war veterans and other brave heroes who kept the US a shining light on the world? Do you think the unpatriotic Americans will eventually realize they are wrong with their current beliefs and make a drastic change to love the United States again?

You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Trump Honors American Heroes And Founding Fathers During 250th Independence Day Celebration

The United States of America (USA) celebrated its 250th anniversary and during his 4th of July speech at the National Mall, US President Donald Trump honored the American heroes as well as the Founding Fathers of the nation, according to a news report by Newsmax.

To put things in perspective, posted below is the excerpt from the report of Newsmax. Some parts in boldface…

President Donald Trump celebrated America’s 250th anniversary in a rousing speech on the Fourth of July at the National Mall on Saturday night.

Trump delivered his remarks after 11 p.m. ET, after being delayed by over an hour due to lightning and heavy rains. But Trump said he would not be deterred in celebrating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

“If we have to speak in front of one person at four in the morning I’m going to be here,” Trump said in a speech streamed live on Newsmax. “There’s no way we can be deterred.”

“Tonight we come together for one of the most joyous and glorious milestones of all time,” Trump added. “For two and a half centuries, our American Republic has stood as the crowning achievement of human history.

“This country is the home of freedom. This is the land of liberty. And this is a flag that’s the banner of the most extraordinary, most exceptional, most incredible nation ever to exist on the face of the Earth.”

The president said the American people have shown more courage, done more good, righted more injustice and achieved more greatness than anyone else.

“For 250 years, the United States of America has been the hope, the promise, the light and the glory among all of the nations of the world, all over the world, they try and be like us,” Trump said.

“Nobody can be like us, and with God’s help, we will always be this,” Trump added. “Or even better. We’re going to be better.”

Trump used his speech to honor numerous veterans who fought in American wars, bringing them on stage to salute the flag while telling their tales of heroism.

Among those honored were 104-year-old Ken Schrubing, who was just 19 years old when he survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and 101-year-old Don Graves, who fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima.

“These are the fighters and the banners of the Greatest Generation,” Trump said. “They are the greatest generation. They saved the world and they made America very, very proud. We’re very proud of you, heroes all.“

Marine Corporal Pat Finn and Private First Class Rudy Meekins, who fought in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War, were also honored, along with astronaut Jack Schmitt, the last American to walk on the moon, and the Artemis II flight crew.

Eleven Gold Star families were also presented with flags during Trump’s speech.

Speaking in front of the first American flags produced, Trump praised the Founding Fathers and the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

“Those 56 patriots put everything at risk, stepped onto the stage of destiny, and seized a victory for the ages,” Trump said.

Trump said the Founding Fathers have allowed America to thrive for 250 years.

“Our cause was just. Our people are brave, our culture is exceptional, and our destiny is written by God,” Trump said.

“And as we can see here tonight, after 250 years, the spirit of 1776 still lives within us all,” Trump added.

Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this development? Are you delighted with the way America’s 250th anniversary was celebrated this year? Are you thankful to America’s Founding Fathers, war veterans and other brave heroes who kept the US a shining light on the world? Do you think the unpatriotic Americans will eventually realize they are wrong with their current beliefs and make a drastic change to love the United States again?

You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Retro Gaming Ads Blast – Part 44

Welcome back readers, fellow geeks and electronic gaming fans!

In this edition of the Retro Gaming Ads Blast (RGAB) series, we will take a look at another batch of retro gaming print ads from the 1980s to the early 2000s.

For the newcomers reading this, Retro Gaming Ads Blast (RGAB) looks back at the many print ads of games (console, arcade, computer and handheld) that were published in comic books, magazines, flyers, posters and newspapers long before smartphones, social media, the worldwide web and streaming became popular. To put things in perspective, people back in the 1980s to the 1990s were more trusting of print media for information and images about electronic games and related products.

With those details laid down, here is the newest batch of retro gaming print ads for you to see and enjoy…

1. Berzerk Arcade Flyer

Could you imagine being trapped deep within a maze surrounded by dangerous robots (plus one other unstoppable enemy) capable firing laser blasts at you? This was the concept behind the design of Berzerk, an arcade game released by Stern Electronics in 1980. Released at a time when science fiction became wildly popular in American entertainment, Berzerk was immersive for gamers and the multidirectional gameplay feature was captivating for many. To promote the game, Stern Electronics came up with a customized visual design that blended 2D sprite elements with a photograph of two people and some hand-drawn art pieces. The front of the flyer emphasized accurate the core concept of the game while the rear explained the technical details. They even played with their company name with the line “Stern goes berzerk!”

2. Rush’n Attack North American Arcade Flyer

During the late stages of the Cold War, Konami made a lot of military-themed video games which resonated not only with those who were already aware about the global conflict but also with gamers who craved for action and excitement. One of those games was Rush’n Attack (alternative title: Green Beret) which was released in American arcades in late-1985. Konami came up with an arcade flyer showing four people (looking like an American family) having a good time in front of an arcade cabinet, and three screenshots of the game were displayed on the lower half. Rush’n Attack – which was deliberately titled to resemble the phrase “Russian attack” due to its obvious Cold War setting – went on to succeed commercially and critically. One notable game review compared Rush’n Attack favorably with the movie Rambo: First Blood Part II.

3. Turbo Out Run North American Arcade Flyer

Following the massive success Sega achieved with Out Run in 1986, the company went on to release the follow-up Turbo OutRun three years later. As seen in their North American flyer, Sega emphasized the in-game locations, the look of the machine with the driver’s seat and steering wheel, and the excitement they can expect. Turbo OutRun went on to become successful in the arcades worldwide and it got ported to a variety of consoles and computer systems in the years that followed. On its own, the arcade flyer sparked excitement for gamers.

4. Air Duel Japanese Arcade Flyer

Released in Japanese arcades in 1990, Air Duel from Irem is an intense and fast-paced 2D sprite vertically scrolling shooter that attracted a lot of players. It had a war theme and its aesthetic has a mix of military and somewhat futuristic science fiction elements. The game’s arcade flyer featured a very intriguing artwork by Takashi Yamasaki showing two aircrafts flying over a city heading towards a massively large enemy in the distance. In my opinion, the artwork alone is pretty engaging to see and it’s more than enough to make me think about playing the game.

5. Spellbound Adaptor Print Ad

Remember back in the old days when there were hardware lockouts on game consoles that prevented users from playing games imported from different regions? In Europe, a special cheat and regional bypass cartridge called the Spellbound Adaptor was released and it allowed Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) users to bypass the lockouts and play games from overseas. The Spellbound Adaptor was notably advertised in European print media showing two sexy ladies posing with the adaptor itself (on the SNES), the television and many SNES games. The ad even includes a promo of buying the adaptor with a game of choice for only £69.95. The ad is still impactful to look at.

6. Contra III: The Alien Wars North American Print Ad

By the time the SNES was launched in America in 1991, a lot of gamers who enjoyed Contra games on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) have been craving for a sequel on the newer console. Their dreams finally came through in early 1992 when Konami released Contra III: The Alien Wars on the SNES, and it was a lot more than visual upgrade as it had groundbreaking features connected with the game developers’ clever use of the console’s technology. Konami was already aware of Contra’s huge following in America, so they came up with an aggressive looking print ad promoting Contra III: The Alien Wars. With a red-and-black background, the ad had a variety of screenshots that were tilted to look 3D (showing what the game offered) and used a minor space for the descriptive text and image of the game box. This old print ad is one of the finest ways to promote a sequel while also emphasizing the next-generation experience fans can enjoy. This ad is a classic!

7. Apocalypse Print Ads

Believe it or not, Hollywood legend Bruce Willis actually starred in the ambitious video game titled Apocalypse. Before its 1998 released on PlayStation, Apocalypse started with the player character having an AI-controlled partner named Trey Kincaid to be played by Willis. Publisher Activision signed a multi-million Dollar deal with Bruce Willis to use his likeness and voice for the Trey character. Eventually the Trey Kincaid role was modified to be the playable character. Given the huge deal signed with the super star and the additional costs that came with game design revisions, Activision launched an aggressive marketing campaign for Apocalypse and they heavily used Bruce Willis’s name and imagery. Ultimately the game sold less than one million copies and yet Activision was satisfied with the sales which convinced them to go back to Apocalypse developer Neversoft for a new project.

8. R-Type Delta North American Print Ad

R-Type, the long-running series of 2D side-scrolling shooters by Irem, fully embraced 3D polygons with R-Type Delta on PlayStation in 1998. To promote the game in North America, Irem and their partner Agetec went all-in emphasizing their series shift into 3D polygonal graphics while promising new in-game weapons. Very smartly, they included positive quotes from Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), PlayStation Magazine (PSM) and Official PlayStation Magazine (OPM) to show credibility. In recent times, an enhanced version of R-Type Delta (R-Type Delta: HD Boosted) was released on modern game console and PC.

9. Racing Lagoon Japanese Print Ad

Released in 1999 for PlayStation only in Japan, Racing Lagoon was one of many games SquareSoft made for a genre other than role-playing games (RPGs). Released at a time when the PlayStation already had lots of racing games available from around the world, Racing Lagoon was a racing game that had role-playing elements mixed in. To promote it, SquareSoft made a print ad that had a night-time city vibe and they showed some screenshots with a unique visual style. The in-game story was influenced by the illegal street racing trend that happened in Japan during the 1980s.

10. Resident Evil – Code: Veronica North America Print Ads

When Resident Evil – Code: Veronica was released on the Sega Dreamcast in Japan in February 2000, it delivered a next-generation survival horror experience to die-hard RE fans and it was easily one of the must-have games for Dreamcast owners of the time. Along the way, RE fans and Dreamcast owners in America were already anticipating the game. Capcom had an aggressive ad campaign for the game with US gamers in mind and this particular single-page print ad showed the fan-favorite characters Claire and Chris Redfield on one corner, six selected screenshots and quotes from the published game reviews of Game Informer, Next Generation and the Official Dreamcast Magazine. The 2-page print ad had the same elements but had the Redfield siblings on the 2nd page. I remember seeing these ads on a few gaming magazines and they made me think about buying a Dreamcast just to play RE – Code: Veronica. These old ads emphasized the strong business trust between Capcom and Sega (which itself lost a lot of money and credibility with the Sega Saturn consoles and many add-on devices released years prior).  

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Retro Gaming Ads Blast – Part 44

Welcome back readers, fellow geeks and electronic gaming fans!

In this edition of the Retro Gaming Ads Blast (RGAB) series, we will take a look at another batch of retro gaming print ads from the 1980s to the early 2000s.

For the newcomers reading this, Retro Gaming Ads Blast (RGAB) looks back at the many print ads of games (console, arcade, computer and handheld) that were published in comic books, magazines, flyers, posters and newspapers long before smartphones, social media, the worldwide web and streaming became popular. To put things in perspective, people back in the 1980s to the 1990s were more trusting of print media for information and images about electronic games and related products.

With those details laid down, here is the newest batch of retro gaming print ads for you to see and enjoy…

1. Berzerk Arcade Flyer

Could you imagine being trapped deep within a maze surrounded by dangerous robots (plus one other unstoppable enemy) capable firing laser blasts at you? This was the concept behind the design of Berzerk, an arcade game released by Stern Electronics in 1980. Released at a time when science fiction became wildly popular in American entertainment, Berzerk was immersive for gamers and the multidirectional gameplay feature was captivating for many. To promote the game, Stern Electronics came up with a customized visual design that blended 2D sprite elements with a photograph of two people and some hand-drawn art pieces. The front of the flyer emphasized accurate the core concept of the game while the rear explained the technical details. They even played with their company name with the line “Stern goes berzerk!”

2. Rush’n Attack North American Arcade Flyer

During the late stages of the Cold War, Konami made a lot of military-themed video games which resonated not only with those who were already aware about the global conflict but also with gamers who craved for action and excitement. One of those games was Rush’n Attack (alternative title: Green Beret) which was released in American arcades in late-1985. Konami came up with an arcade flyer showing four people (looking like an American family) having a good time in front of an arcade cabinet, and three screenshots of the game were displayed on the lower half. Rush’n Attack – which was deliberately titled to resemble the phrase “Russian attack” due to its obvious Cold War setting – went on to succeed commercially and critically. One notable game review compared Rush’n Attack favorably with the movie Rambo: First Blood Part II.

3. Turbo Out Run North American Arcade Flyer

Following the massive success Sega achieved with Out Run in 1986, the company went on to release the follow-up Turbo OutRun three years later. As seen in their North American flyer, Sega emphasized the in-game locations, the look of the machine with the driver’s seat and steering wheel, and the excitement they can expect. Turbo OutRun went on to become successful in the arcades worldwide and it got ported to a variety of consoles and computer systems in the years that followed. On its own, the arcade flyer sparked excitement for gamers.

4. Air Duel Japanese Arcade Flyer

Released in Japanese arcades in 1990, Air Duel from Irem is an intense and fast-paced 2D sprite vertically scrolling shooter that attracted a lot of players. It had a war theme and its aesthetic has a mix of military and somewhat futuristic science fiction elements. The game’s arcade flyer featured a very intriguing artwork by Takashi Yamasaki showing two aircrafts flying over a city heading towards a massively large enemy in the distance. In my opinion, the artwork alone is pretty engaging to see and it’s more than enough to make me think about playing the game.

5. Spellbound Adaptor Print Ad

Remember back in the old days when there were hardware lockouts on game consoles that prevented users from playing games imported from different regions? In Europe, a special cheat and regional bypass cartridge called the Spellbound Adaptor was released and it allowed Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) users to bypass the lockouts and play games from overseas. The Spellbound Adaptor was notably advertised in European print media showing two sexy ladies posing with the adaptor itself (on the SNES), the television and many SNES games. The ad even includes a promo of buying the adaptor with a game of choice for only £69.95. The ad is still impactful to look at.

6. Contra III: The Alien Wars North American Print Ad

By the time the SNES was launched in America in 1991, a lot of gamers who enjoyed Contra games on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) have been craving for a sequel on the newer console. Their dreams finally came through in early 1992 when Konami released Contra III: The Alien Wars on the SNES, and it was a lot more than visual upgrade as it had groundbreaking features connected with the game developers’ clever use of the console’s technology. Konami was already aware of Contra’s huge following in America, so they came up with an aggressive looking print ad promoting Contra III: The Alien Wars. With a red-and-black background, the ad had a variety of screenshots that were tilted to look 3D (showing what the game offered) and used a minor space for the descriptive text and image of the game box. This old print ad is one of the finest ways to promote a sequel while also emphasizing the next-generation experience fans can enjoy. This ad is a classic!

7. Apocalypse Print Ads

Believe it or not, Hollywood legend Bruce Willis actually starred in the ambitious video game titled Apocalypse. Before its 1998 released on PlayStation, Apocalypse started with the player character having an AI-controlled partner named Trey Kincaid to be played by Willis. Publisher Activision signed a multi-million Dollar deal with Bruce Willis to use his likeness and voice for the Trey character. Eventually the Trey Kincaid role was modified to be the playable character. Given the huge deal signed with the super star and the additional costs that came with game design revisions, Activision launched an aggressive marketing campaign for Apocalypse and they heavily used Bruce Willis’s name and imagery. Ultimately the game sold less than one million copies and yet Activision was satisfied with the sales which convinced them to go back to Apocalypse developer Neversoft for a new project.

8. R-Type Delta North American Print Ad

R-Type, the long-running series of 2D side-scrolling shooters by Irem, fully embraced 3D polygons with R-Type Delta on PlayStation in 1998. To promote the game in North America, Irem and their partner Agetec went all-in emphasizing their series shift into 3D polygonal graphics while promising new in-game weapons. Very smartly, they included positive quotes from Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), PlayStation Magazine (PSM) and Official PlayStation Magazine (OPM) to show credibility. In recent times, an enhanced version of R-Type Delta (R-Type Delta: HD Boosted) was released on modern game console and PC.

9. Racing Lagoon Japanese Print Ad

Released in 1999 for PlayStation only in Japan, Racing Lagoon was one of many games SquareSoft made for a genre other than role-playing games (RPGs). Released at a time when the PlayStation already had lots of racing games available from around the world, Racing Lagoon was a racing game that had role-playing elements mixed in. To promote it, SquareSoft made a print ad that had a night-time city vibe and they showed some screenshots with a unique visual style. The in-game story was influenced by the illegal street racing trend that happened in Japan during the 1980s.

10. Resident Evil – Code: Veronica North America Print Ads

When Resident Evil – Code: Veronica was released on the Sega Dreamcast in Japan in February 2000, it delivered a next-generation survival horror experience to die-hard RE fans and it was easily one of the must-have games for Dreamcast owners of the time. Along the way, RE fans and Dreamcast owners in America were already anticipating the game. Capcom had an aggressive ad campaign for the game with US gamers in mind and this particular single-page print ad showed the fan-favorite characters Claire and Chris Redfield on one corner, six selected screenshots and quotes from the published game reviews of Game Informer, Next Generation and the Official Dreamcast Magazine. The 2-page print ad had the same elements but had the Redfield siblings on the 2nd page. I remember seeing these ads on a few gaming magazines and they made me think about buying a Dreamcast just to play RE – Code: Veronica. These old ads emphasized the strong business trust between Capcom and Sega (which itself lost a lot of money and credibility with the Sega Saturn consoles and many add-on devices released years prior).  

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

A Look Back at Scary Movie (2000)

Disclaimer: This is my original work with details by doing personal research and watching the movie more than once. Anyone who wants to use this article, in part or in whole, needs to secure first my permission and agree to cite me as the source and author. Let it be known that any unauthorized use of this article will constrain the author to pursue the remedies under R.A. No. 8293, the Revised Penal Code, and/or all applicable legal actions under the laws of the Philippines.

Welcome back, film buffs and fellow geeks. Today, we go back to the year 2000 which saw the release of the original Scary Movie. It was a parody film that poked fun on the slasher film genre with Scream (1996) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) as the major references. For teen comedy, it parodied American Pie (1999) which in my opinion is its 3rd main reference.

After getting released in cinemas in July 2000, Scary Movie (with a production budget of less than $20 million) opened way beyond everyone’s expectations grossing a then record $42.3 million (the highest opening weekend for an R-rated movie). It ended with over $157 million in North America and its worldwide total was at $278,019,771. By comparison, Scream (1996) grossed $173 million worldwide while I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) had global ticket sales of $125.6 million.

Months later, Scary Movie opened here in the Philippines and I was fortunate enough to have seen it in one of Festival Mall’s original cinemas (1998-2024). After that, I replayed Scary Movie on DVD and cable TV, and saw most of its sequels.

With the newest Scary Movie (2026) playing in cinemas around the world, it is not surprising that the original Scary Movie of 2000 suddenly got featured in YouTube retrospective videos, retro movie reviews, movie podcasts and the like. Indeed, now is a good time to look back at the one movie that led to a franchise.

With those details laid down, here is a look back at Scary Movie (2000) starring Anna Faris, Marlon Wayans, Jon Abrahams, Dave Sheridan, Regina Hall, Shawn Wayans, Shannon Elizabeth, and Lochlyn Munro under the direction of Keenen Ivory Wayans.

Early story

The story begins on the night of Halloween. A student named Drew (Carmen Electra) is alone at home and was about to cook herself some popcorn when she suddenly received a telephone call. The talk over the phone start friendly until Drew realizes she’s being watched by the caller. Suddenly a person dressed as Ghostface appears inside her house forcing her to make hasty decisions to survive.

Drew runs outside. As Ghostface grabs her, Drew’s clothes fall off exposing her body and underwear. Ghostface stabs her on the breast only to remove one of her silicone implants. Drew notices their family car approaching fast but she got hit accidentally as her father (the driver) was distracted. Ghostface eventually kills Drew.

A very short time later, the local high school got swarmed by several members of the press. The murder of Drew caused a major disturbance there. At school, Cindy Campbell meets with her boy friend Bobby Prinze, and their friends Brenda Meeks, Ray Wilkins, Greg Phillippe, Buffy Gilmore, and Shorty.

During class, Cindy notices Ghostface watching from a distance. She opens an anonymous letter with a message from the writer that he knows what happened during the previous Halloween. This compels Cindy and her friends to reflect about the hit-and-run accident they were involved in the previous year. They assume the masked killer stalking them is seeking revenge for the cover-up…

Quality

This old movie is still very entertaining to watch. Under Keenen Ivory Wayans’ direction and his brothers’ involvement in writing the script, there is a strong emphasis on parodying films with the adult moviegoers in mind, and there definitely is a strong storytelling structure all throughout. There is a fine mix of comedy, horror, action and pop culture references throughout.

The comedic scenes or acts were done organically. Not one funny scene felt fake nor wooden. There definitely is something funny to see most of the time and very few films made me laugh or smile all throughout. When it comes to parodying key scenes from established films like Scream (1996), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), American Pie (1999), Scream 2 (1997), The Sixth Sense (1999), The Blair Witch Project (1999) and The Matrix (1999), the filmmakers went all-in to entertain viewers and I can say they were really successful here.

Apart from making parodies, Wayans and his team even went as far as doing their own remakes of key scenes from Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and American Pie, complete with camera angles that strongly replicated those from the established films. With such creativity and passion behind the efforts, Scary Movie crafted its own narrative and had something fresh to show at a time when the slasher horror sub-genre of film was revitalized in American pop culture during the 1990s. In other words, there is something for American moviegoers to relate with in this film.

Along the way, the filmmakers got fine performances from the cast. To begin with, Anna Faris really stood out as Cindy Campbell and she showed a fine range of acting. Even though she only had a few professional acting credentials at the time of filming, Faris proved she can be the sweet girlfriend towards Bobby (Jon Abrahams), a real friend towards her friends (played by Marlon Wayans, Regina Hill, Shawn Wayans, Shannon Elizabeth, Dave Sheridan and Lochlyn Munro), be broken-hearted in reaction to betrayal, and even be an effective action performer. Faris is also good with executing comedy and her performance parodying the “What are you waiting for?” moment from I Know What You Did Last Summer is a must-see. This movie marks Faris’ breakout role and she became an essential player as the Scary Movie franchise grew in the years that followed.

Dave Sheridan as Doofy is absolutely cartoony and exaggerated, and also one of the more defining characters of the film. Regina Hill as the girlfriend of Shawn Wayans’ character ranges from talkative to annoying. Marlon Wayans is the 2nd most notable performer in the cast and he symbolizes the stoned guy while successfully delivering a lot of funny moments. Lochlyn Munro as Greg is the high-school jock who is arrogant, uptight and even panicky.

The most surprising cast member here is Shannon Elizabeth as the rich and promiscuous Buffy Gilmore. Before watching Scary Movie, I saw Elizabeth in a small yet very notable sexy role as Nadia in American Pie and I was not surprised when she was presented as a walking sex symbol in this movie. Elizabeth surprised me with the huge amount of acting she did (easily overwhelming her limited acts in American Pie) being emotional, funny, and even sarcastic. As such, Shannon Elizabeth here is memorable to watch here.

As mentioned earlier, there is structure in the storytelling here. Even though a lot of films were parodied and some others were mentioned or visually shown, the filmmakers never lost their direction on telling the story in a coherent manner. In fact, Scary Movie’s story is still the best and the most solid among its many films within the franchise. As such, I enjoyed what was told and there definitely is a plot resolution to the crisis and paranoia that started early.

Conclusion

With a nice mix of inspired works by the filmmakers, the fine performances of the cast members, the unrestrained adulterated comedy, sufficient number of parodies done and the solid storytelling executed, I can easily say that Scary Movie (2000) is still very enjoyable to watch from start to finish.

It is a parody film that was never compromised by the disease of political correctness (which Hollywood has too much of nowadays plus the other disease of wokeness) and the filmmakers succeeded in making something fun to watch without fearing of any potential backlash from moviegoers who might get offended. This movie also had perfect timing with its release during the summer of 2000 as many moviegoers were still aware of the many films parodied (or referenced at). By today’s standards, Scary Movie (2000) stood the test of time and many other comedies or parody films released by modern-day Hollywood (or Commiewood since Hollywood itself has too many woke nuts, modern-day Communists and social justice warriors who love to ruin entertainment).

Scary Movie (2000) is not just the best film of its own franchise. It is still the very best parody movie Hollywood has produced in the 21st century and nothing else comes close to it. As such, its replay value and fun factor remain very strong. That said, I am glad to have seen this movie in the local cinema and replayed it from time to time.

Overall, Scary Movie (2000) is highly recommended.

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Note: All images sourced from IMDB.com.

If you wish to join a group of movie enthusiasts and talk about cinema, cinematic trends, Blu-ray releases and more relevant stuff, visit the Movie Fans Worldwide Facebook group by clicking https://www.facebook.com/groups/322857711779576

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at  @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Upcoming Game Vivarium Deserves Your Attention

Welcome back Xbox fans, anime fans and fellow geeks!

The recent Xbox Games Showcase generated a lot of buzz and already Xbox enthusiasts are delighted to see Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution as confirmed Xbox console-exclusives, the other first-party games with release dates (or release windows) and other upcoming video games from different publishers.

Under the new Team Xbox leadership, the return to exclusive games has been received positively and it is expected to intensify as the next-generation of consoles approaches. At this stage, the current generation of Xbox Series X|S is ending and the new Xbox leadership made it clear they are in for the long-term of gaming.

Going back to the upcoming games announced by different publishers, the game Vivarium (developed by Studio Meadowflower and published by Serenity Forge) caught my attention. For your curiosity, watch the official reveal trailer below.

https://youtu.be/LL_TyajdnGc?si=gQIAvIKJBPsr5DTl

Scheduled for release on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox on PC, Steam, the Epic Games store and Xbox Game Pass (XGP) sometime in 2027, Vivarium is a life-sim adventure inspired by classic hand-drawn anime TV shows and films. As seen in the above trailer, it features a cozy slice-of-life game design, has a dynamic system and there are local residents (non-playable characters) players can interact with as they explore the world. In terms of visuals and art style, Vivarium looks like a Studio Ghibli production.

Gamers will play as Jenny, an 11-year-old girl who has a lot to discover and learn in Vivarium’s world. The local neighborhood has lots of characters that each has branching and dynamic storylines. Days in the game are synced to the player’s real-world calendar, allowing for daily new discoveries while unraveling its mysterious narrative. Confirmed in-game activities include cooking, tending to the garden, collecting items, crafting items, repairing equipment and decorating the home to name some.

At of this writing, Vivarium looks like it has something fresh to offer to Xbox gamers, especially those who like animation, the cozy in-game settings, life simulations and in-depth interactions with NPCs. Hopefully a final release date in 2027 will be announced.

For more information about Vivarium, click https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/vivarium/9P93GJZMZNZJ

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Upcoming Game Vivarium Deserves Your Attention

Welcome back Xbox fans, anime fans and fellow geeks!

The recent Xbox Games Showcase generated a lot of buzz and already Xbox enthusiasts are delighted to see Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution as confirmed Xbox console-exclusives, the other first-party games with release dates (or release windows) and other upcoming video games from different publishers.

Under the new Team Xbox leadership, the return to exclusive games has been received positively and it is expected to intensify as the next-generation of consoles approaches. At this stage, the current generation of Xbox Series X|S is ending and the new Xbox leadership made it clear they are in for the long-term of gaming.

Going back to the upcoming games announced by different publishers, the game Vivarium (developed by Studio Meadowflower and published by Serenity Forge) caught my attention. For your curiosity, watch the official reveal trailer below.

https://youtu.be/LL_TyajdnGc?si=gQIAvIKJBPsr5DTl

Scheduled for release on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox on PC, Steam, the Epic Games store and Xbox Game Pass (XGP) sometime in 2027, Vivarium is a life-sim adventure inspired by classic hand-drawn anime TV shows and films. As seen in the above trailer, it features a cozy slice-of-life game design, has a dynamic system and there are local residents (non-playable characters) players can interact with as they explore the world. In terms of visuals and art style, Vivarium looks like a Studio Ghibli production.

Gamers will play as Jenny, an 11-year-old girl who has a lot to discover and learn in Vivarium’s world. The local neighborhood has lots of characters that each has branching and dynamic storylines. Days in the game are synced to the player’s real-world calendar, allowing for daily new discoveries while unraveling its mysterious narrative. Confirmed in-game activities include cooking, tending to the garden, collecting items, crafting items, repairing equipment and decorating the home to name some.

At of this writing, Vivarium looks like it has something fresh to offer to Xbox gamers, especially those who like animation, the cozy in-game settings, life simulations and in-depth interactions with NPCs. Hopefully a final release date in 2027 will be announced.

For more information about Vivarium, click https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/vivarium/9P93GJZMZNZJ

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Upcoming Game Vivarium Deserves Your Attention

Welcome back Xbox fans, anime fans and fellow geeks!

The recent Xbox Games Showcase generated a lot of buzz and already Xbox enthusiasts are delighted to see Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution as confirmed Xbox console-exclusives, the other first-party games with release dates (or release windows) and other upcoming video games from different publishers.

Under the new Team Xbox leadership, the return to exclusive games has been received positively and it is expected to intensify as the next-generation of consoles approaches. At this stage, the current generation of Xbox Series X|S is ending and the new Xbox leadership made it clear they are in for the long-term of gaming.

Going back to the upcoming games announced by different publishers, the game Vivarium (developed by Studio Meadowflower and published by Serenity Forge) caught my attention. For your curiosity, watch the official reveal trailer below.

https://youtu.be/LL_TyajdnGc?si=gQIAvIKJBPsr5DTl

Scheduled for release on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox on PC, Steam, the Epic Games store and Xbox Game Pass (XGP) sometime in 2027, Vivarium is a life-sim adventure inspired by classic hand-drawn anime TV shows and films. As seen in the above trailer, it features a cozy slice-of-life game design, has a dynamic system and there are local residents (non-playable characters) players can interact with as they explore the world. In terms of visuals and art style, Vivarium looks like a Studio Ghibli production.

Gamers will play as Jenny, an 11-year-old girl who has a lot to discover and learn in Vivarium’s world. The local neighborhood has lots of characters that each has branching and dynamic storylines. Days in the game are synced to the player’s real-world calendar, allowing for daily new discoveries while unraveling its mysterious narrative. Confirmed in-game activities include cooking, tending to the garden, collecting items, crafting items, repairing equipment and decorating the home to name some.

At of this writing, Vivarium looks like it has something fresh to offer to Xbox gamers, especially those who like animation, the cozy in-game settings, life simulations and in-depth interactions with NPCs. Hopefully a final release date in 2027 will be announced.

For more information about Vivarium, click https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/vivarium/9P93GJZMZNZJ

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Japanese Prime Minister Hails US-Iran Deal

During her European visit, Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae hailed the deal between the United States and the Islamic terrorist regime of Iran to end the fighting while paving the way for international oil tankers to safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz, according to a news report by Kyodo News. Japan also remained consistent in its opposition to Iran’s nuclear weapons ambition.

To put things in perspective, posted below is the excerpt from the Kyodo News report. Some parts in boldface…

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Monday hailed a U.S.-Iranian deal aimed at ending their monthslong war as a “big step” to de-escalating the conflict that has brought uncertainty to the global economy and roiled her resource-poor country.

Takaichi, who stopped by Italy before attending the Group of Seven summit in France, also told reporters Japan will take part in a joint statement issued by four European nations that welcomed the development and touched on minesweeping operations toward achieving the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

“We have been asked to participate…and we will,” the prime minister said about the statement by the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy, after U.S. President Donald Trump said a deal with Iran has been reached that will lead to the reopening of the key energy artery, which has been effectively closed amid the conflict.

Takaichi noted it is important that the contents of the memorandum of understanding, which Trump said will be signed Friday, are “steadily implemented” as well as the “free and safe navigation” of vessels through the strait.

Japan, which has traditionally maintained amicable ties with Iran, has been making “proactive diplomatic efforts” based on the position that “what matters most is de-escalation of the situation,” she also said.

The joint statement by the European nations vowed support for the implementation of the U.S.-Iran deal “rapidly and comprehensively,” while noting that “the urgent re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz with unconditional and unrestricted freedom of navigation is essential.”

“We are committed to playing our part to achieve this — in accordance with our respective constitutional requirements — including through a strictly defensive and independent mission to reassure commercial shipping and conduct mine clearance operations,” it said.

With discussions between the United States and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear development to start after the signing of the deal, the statement also said the European countries are “prepared to lift relevant sanctions in response to clear, verifiable steps by Iran” toward scrapping its program.

Takaichi reiterated Japan’s position of opposing Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, citing her country’s experience of being the only country to have suffered atomic bombing in the final stage of World War II.

In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said at a press conference that the memorandum, if implemented properly, would “help reduce risks to both the Japanese and global economies by ensuring free and safe navigation” through the strait.

Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this development? Are you convinced that US-Iran deal will ensure complete nuclear disarmament of the Islamic terrorist regime of Iran? Do you think the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz will pave the way for significant oil price reductions? Once revealed publicly, do you think the final details of the US-Iran deal will satisfy Japan and the European nations?

You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Japanese Prime Minister Hails US-Iran Deal

During her European visit, Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae hailed the deal between the United States and the Islamic terrorist regime of Iran to end the fighting while paving the way for international oil tankers to safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz, according to a news report by Kyodo News. Japan also remained consistent in its opposition to Iran’s nuclear weapons ambition.

To put things in perspective, posted below is the excerpt from the Kyodo News report. Some parts in boldface…

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Monday hailed a U.S.-Iranian deal aimed at ending their monthslong war as a “big step” to de-escalating the conflict that has brought uncertainty to the global economy and roiled her resource-poor country.

Takaichi, who stopped by Italy before attending the Group of Seven summit in France, also told reporters Japan will take part in a joint statement issued by four European nations that welcomed the development and touched on minesweeping operations toward achieving the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

“We have been asked to participate…and we will,” the prime minister said about the statement by the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy, after U.S. President Donald Trump said a deal with Iran has been reached that will lead to the reopening of the key energy artery, which has been effectively closed amid the conflict.

Takaichi noted it is important that the contents of the memorandum of understanding, which Trump said will be signed Friday, are “steadily implemented” as well as the “free and safe navigation” of vessels through the strait.

Japan, which has traditionally maintained amicable ties with Iran, has been making “proactive diplomatic efforts” based on the position that “what matters most is de-escalation of the situation,” she also said.

The joint statement by the European nations vowed support for the implementation of the U.S.-Iran deal “rapidly and comprehensively,” while noting that “the urgent re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz with unconditional and unrestricted freedom of navigation is essential.”

“We are committed to playing our part to achieve this — in accordance with our respective constitutional requirements — including through a strictly defensive and independent mission to reassure commercial shipping and conduct mine clearance operations,” it said.

With discussions between the United States and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear development to start after the signing of the deal, the statement also said the European countries are “prepared to lift relevant sanctions in response to clear, verifiable steps by Iran” toward scrapping its program.

Takaichi reiterated Japan’s position of opposing Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, citing her country’s experience of being the only country to have suffered atomic bombing in the final stage of World War II.

In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said at a press conference that the memorandum, if implemented properly, would “help reduce risks to both the Japanese and global economies by ensuring free and safe navigation” through the strait.

Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this development? Are you convinced that US-Iran deal will ensure complete nuclear disarmament of the Islamic terrorist regime of Iran? Do you think the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz will pave the way for significant oil price reductions? Once revealed publicly, do you think the final details of the US-Iran deal will satisfy Japan and the European nations?

You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Vietnam Achieves 12.4% Tourism Growth In 1st Quarter Of 2026

Vietnam, a nation that was previously ravaged by war, saw its tourism industry grow by 12.4% in the first quarter of 2026 which is four times higher than the average for the Asia Pacific region, according to a news report of VnExpress. Already Vietnam attracted more than 10 million international visitors during the first five months this year.

To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt from the news report of VnExpress. Some parts in boldface…

Vietnam’s tourism sector grew by 12.4% in the first quarter of 2026, outpacing both regional and global averages, according to data from the United Nations Tourism Organization.

UN Tourism reported on June 2 that international tourist arrivals worldwide rose by 2% year-on-year in the first quarter, reaching around 307 million travelers.

Meanwhile, data from the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism showed that the country welcomed nearly 6.8 million international visitors during the first three months of the year, up 12.4% from the same period in 2025.

The growth rate was four times higher than the average for Asia-Pacific.

The momentum continued into the first five months of the year, with international arrivals increasing by nearly 15%.

The Vietnam National Authority of Tourism attributed the strong performance to several factors, including political stability, welcoming environment, diverse tourism products, and improving service quality.

Tourism officials also cited effective tourism promotion campaigns, market diversification efforts, visa facilitation measures, and expanded international flight connections as key drivers of growth.

Amid ongoing global economic and geopolitical uncertainty, the results underscore the resilience and adaptability of Vietnam’s tourism industry.

Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this development? Do you think Vietnam will close the gap with Thailand and Malaysia when it comes to attracting foreign tourists this year? Do you think the current tourism boom will create even more jobs and new businesses in Vietnam?

You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Watch Out For Resident Evil Veronica

Welcome back Xbox fans, Resident Evil fans and fellow geeks!

This past weekend, Capcom unveiled Resident Evil Veronica which is a modern remake of Resident Evil – Code: Veronica. Already a lot of gamers and Resident Evil fans are talking about the remake which will be released on the Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X/S some time in 2027.

For your excitement and curiosity, watch the official reveal trailer below.

https://youtu.be/GmtuQF8R5n0?si=4Ljpn_g1KBQ9fefH

Given Capcom’s record of making ambitious remakes of past Resident Evil games, Resident Evil Veronica has long been rumored to have been in development. Among the RE fans, Resident Evil – Code Veronica was memorable and yet it had certain elements that made it divisive (example: the annoying voice acting for Steve Burnside). As such, many viewed Code Veronica as the one game that really has to be remade and Capcom has only one chance to make a better and more definitive Code Veronica.

Originally released on the Sega Dreamcast way back in 2000, Resident Evil – Code Veronica was not just a follow-up to the popular Resident Evil 2…it was also a technological marvel as it had fully polygonal environments, more detailed polygonal characters and more immersive cinematic cutscenes. It was truly a next-generation RE experience for many gamers and I myself wanted a Dreamcast just to play it. The game also had Claire Redfield and her brother Chris as the playable major characters and both of them are still fan-favorites.

Going back to the trailer above, it is clear Capcom is making Resident Evil Veronica a darker, grittier and more horrific tale than the original game. The shots of Rockfort Island look very creepy, even nightmarish. While Claire Redfield has been revealed, Chris Redfield, Alfred Ashford, Steve Burnside and Alexa Ashford have not. Still, fans already pointed out that the masked man who grabbed Claire is Hunk (often identified with Resident Evil 2). Zombies were shown in a glimpse but the other monsters from the original game have yet to be shown. 

Capcom describes Resident Evil Veronica as follows:

Resident Evil Veronica is a remake of 2000’s Resident Evil Code: Veronica. This new title preserves the essence of the original game, while introducing modernized gameplay, a reimagined storyline, and vividly detailed graphics.

In 2027, madness and intrigue, love and hate all combine to create a chilling new entry in survival horror.

3 months have passed since the biological disaster in Raccoon City. Claire Redfield, having survived along with Leon S. Kennedy and Sherry Birkin, travels to France in search of her brother, Chris Redfield.

However, what awaits her is not a reunion with her brother, but the Umbrella special forces unit responsible for the incident. They capture Claire and transport her to a mysterious island.

Now Claire must make a desperate attempt to escape the remote Rockfort Island, which due to another biological disaster, has transformed into a living hellscape of survival horror.

If you are a newcomer here who wants to discover what Resident Evil – Code Veronica was all about, I encourage you to watch the two retrospective videos below.

https://youtu.be/Jh7whpoY-xE?si=Je9Bcn0rni3M_uRZ

https://youtu.be/VL1rarok8UI?si=UKoS0zXtoWDrpnO_

Are you gamers feeling excited for Resident Evil Veronica? Do you feel confident that Capcom will deliver a great remake like 2019’s Resident Evil 2? Have you ever played Resident Evil – Code: Veronica?

For more information about Resident Evil Veronica, click  https://www.residentevil.com/veronica/en-asia/

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Watch Out For Resident Evil Veronica

Welcome back Xbox fans, Resident Evil fans and fellow geeks!

This past weekend, Capcom unveiled Resident Evil Veronica which is a modern remake of Resident Evil – Code: Veronica. Already a lot of gamers and Resident Evil fans are talking about the remake which will be released on the Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X/S some time in 2027.

For your excitement and curiosity, watch the official reveal trailer below.

https://youtu.be/GmtuQF8R5n0?si=4Ljpn_g1KBQ9fefH

Given Capcom’s record of making ambitious remakes of past Resident Evil games, Resident Evil Veronica has long been rumored to have been in development. Among the RE fans, Resident Evil – Code Veronica was memorable and yet it had certain elements that made it divisive (example: the annoying voice acting for Steve Burnside). As such, many viewed Code Veronica as the one game that really has to be remade and Capcom has only one chance to make a better and more definitive Code Veronica.

Originally released on the Sega Dreamcast way back in 2000, Resident Evil – Code Veronica was not just a follow-up to the popular Resident Evil 2…it was also a technological marvel as it had fully polygonal environments, more detailed polygonal characters and more immersive cinematic cutscenes. It was truly a next-generation RE experience for many gamers and I myself wanted a Dreamcast just to play it. The game also had Claire Redfield and her brother Chris as the playable major characters and both of them are still fan-favorites.

Going back to the trailer above, it is clear Capcom is making Resident Evil Veronica a darker, grittier and more horrific tale than the original game. The shots of Rockfort Island look very creepy, even nightmarish. While Claire Redfield has been revealed, Chris Redfield, Alfred Ashford, Steve Burnside and Alexa Ashford have not. Still, fans already pointed out that the masked man who grabbed Claire is Hunk (often identified with Resident Evil 2). Zombies were shown in a glimpse but the other monsters from the original game have yet to be shown. 

Capcom describes Resident Evil Veronica as follows:

Resident Evil Veronica is a remake of 2000’s Resident Evil Code: Veronica. This new title preserves the essence of the original game, while introducing modernized gameplay, a reimagined storyline, and vividly detailed graphics.

In 2027, madness and intrigue, love and hate all combine to create a chilling new entry in survival horror.

3 months have passed since the biological disaster in Raccoon City. Claire Redfield, having survived along with Leon S. Kennedy and Sherry Birkin, travels to France in search of her brother, Chris Redfield.

However, what awaits her is not a reunion with her brother, but the Umbrella special forces unit responsible for the incident. They capture Claire and transport her to a mysterious island.

Now Claire must make a desperate attempt to escape the remote Rockfort Island, which due to another biological disaster, has transformed into a living hellscape of survival horror.

If you are a newcomer here who wants to discover what Resident Evil – Code Veronica was all about, I encourage you to watch the two retrospective videos below.

https://youtu.be/Jh7whpoY-xE?si=Je9Bcn0rni3M_uRZ

https://youtu.be/VL1rarok8UI?si=UKoS0zXtoWDrpnO_

Are you gamers feeling excited for Resident Evil Veronica? Do you feel confident that Capcom will deliver a great remake like 2019’s Resident Evil 2? Have you ever played Resident Evil – Code: Veronica?

For more information about Resident Evil Veronica, click  https://www.residentevil.com/veronica/en-asia/

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Watch Out For Resident Evil Veronica

Welcome back Xbox fans, Resident Evil fans and fellow geeks!

This past weekend, Capcom unveiled Resident Evil Veronica which is a modern remake of Resident Evil – Code: Veronica. Already a lot of gamers and Resident Evil fans are talking about the remake which will be released on the Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X/S some time in 2027.

For your excitement and curiosity, watch the official reveal trailer below.

https://youtu.be/GmtuQF8R5n0?si=4Ljpn_g1KBQ9fefH

Given Capcom’s record of making ambitious remakes of past Resident Evil games, Resident Evil Veronica has long been rumored to have been in development. Among the RE fans, Resident Evil – Code Veronica was memorable and yet it had certain elements that made it divisive (example: the annoying voice acting for Steve Burnside). As such, many viewed Code Veronica as the one game that really has to be remade and Capcom has only one chance to make a better and more definitive Code Veronica.

Originally released on the Sega Dreamcast way back in 2000, Resident Evil – Code Veronica was not just a follow-up to the popular Resident Evil 2…it was also a technological marvel as it had fully polygonal environments, more detailed polygonal characters and more immersive cinematic cutscenes. It was truly a next-generation RE experience for many gamers and I myself wanted a Dreamcast just to play it. The game also had Claire Redfield and her brother Chris as the playable major characters and both of them are still fan-favorites.

Going back to the trailer above, it is clear Capcom is making Resident Evil Veronica a darker, grittier and more horrific tale than the original game. The shots of Rockfort Island look very creepy, even nightmarish. While Claire Redfield has been revealed, Chris Redfield, Alfred Ashford, Steve Burnside and Alexa Ashford have not. Still, fans already pointed out that the masked man who grabbed Claire is Hunk (often identified with Resident Evil 2). Zombies were shown in a glimpse but the other monsters from the original game have yet to be shown. 

Capcom describes Resident Evil Veronica as follows:

Resident Evil Veronica is a remake of 2000’s Resident Evil Code: Veronica. This new title preserves the essence of the original game, while introducing modernized gameplay, a reimagined storyline, and vividly detailed graphics.

In 2027, madness and intrigue, love and hate all combine to create a chilling new entry in survival horror.

3 months have passed since the biological disaster in Raccoon City. Claire Redfield, having survived along with Leon S. Kennedy and Sherry Birkin, travels to France in search of her brother, Chris Redfield.

However, what awaits her is not a reunion with her brother, but the Umbrella special forces unit responsible for the incident. They capture Claire and transport her to a mysterious island.

Now Claire must make a desperate attempt to escape the remote Rockfort Island, which due to another biological disaster, has transformed into a living hellscape of survival horror.

If you are a newcomer here who wants to discover what Resident Evil – Code Veronica was all about, I encourage you to watch the two retrospective videos below.

https://youtu.be/Jh7whpoY-xE?si=Je9Bcn0rni3M_uRZ

https://youtu.be/VL1rarok8UI?si=UKoS0zXtoWDrpnO_

Are you gamers feeling excited for Resident Evil Veronica? Do you feel confident that Capcom will deliver a great remake like 2019’s Resident Evil 2? Have you ever played Resident Evil – Code: Veronica?

For more information about Resident Evil Veronica, click  https://www.residentevil.com/veronica/en-asia/

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

What To Watch On YouTube Right Now – Part 140

Welcome back my readers, YouTube viewers and all others who followed this series of articles focused on YouTube videos worth watching.

Have you been searching for something fun or interesting to watch on YouTube? Do you feel bored right now and you crave for something to see on the world’s most popular online video destination?

I recommend you check out the following videos I found.

#1 Retro Videos Of Scary Movie (2000) – Some of you might be aware that a brand new Scary Movie (2026) is coming out very soon. Although it’s nice to see Anna Faris and the Wayans brothers in the trailer of the new movie, I am not very motivated to see it. That said, I am more nostalgic about the original Scary Movie of 2000 and that film is significant as there are many retrospective videos about it in YouTube. As such, I posted below the selected videos of Scary Movie (2000) for your enjoyment.

https://youtu.be/0Dhf7_I_uig?si=Ce6xO35Xn88wywnh

https://youtu.be/YjMdS77mMGc?si=8okaY1X0A4dFHmRe

https://youtu.be/jTJ_VSU-aO4?si=wJGG3IbG7hhaveB_

https://youtu.be/GG50jTrs6g8?si=Q1H1mnou6lfuG2J3

https://youtu.be/YiZfO6X6rq8?si=nHldJOB4KukBYdFb

https://youtu.be/ZzPbMHBYPEU?si=wsvExaZn3AZgIfKX

https://youtu.be/uNQUGOp1D3Y?si=ZUrNE-66QrNeyd2X

#2 How Tekken 3 Was Made Possible On PlayStation – When I first played Tekken 3 in the arcades in 1997, I was already an avid fan of Tekken 2 which I played a lot on the PlayStation console. Back then, I wondered how Namco would be able to port Tekken 3 on PlayStation are the arcade version had much more powerful hardware. A year later, Tekken 3 was released on PlayStation and I played it a lot. The more I played it, the more impressed I was with how the game looked and felt on PlayStation. Not only that, Tekken 3 on PlayStation had features that the original arcade version did not offer. To find out how Namco made the “impossible port” of Tekken 3 using the PlayStation’s aging hardware, watch the video below.

https://youtu.be/GXZ6oBUW3c4?si=Plylt6aMUlEKTu2h

#3 1990s NBA Plays That Are Still Great To Watch – Remember how exciting NBA basketball action was back in the 1990s? It was during the 1990s when the NBA became a global phenomenon, when the NBA had such super stars like Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and others who made great basketball plays. Back in those days, the Internet was slowly emerging and there obviously was no social media to amplify the great NBA moments. Posted below is a video that looks back at sixty great NBA plays that would have rocked the world had social media existed much earlier.

https://youtu.be/OEGpmzHaykI?si=7-9zipAQ64vuNCKf

#4 Lunch At Ginza – Have you ever been to Ginza when you visited Japan? For the newcomers reading this, Ginza is the premier upscale district in Tokyo famous for shopping, fine dining and entertainment. Believe it or not, there are places in Ginza where visitors can have lunch at affordable rates and be satisfied. Watch and learn from the Nippon TV video below.

https://youtu.be/18xMYQK96OY?si=O8QKMILHIBVTV6xi

#5 You, Me And The Movies React To Resident Evil: Degeneration – When the computer-generated movie Resident Evil: Degeneration was released in 2008, it created a lot of buzz for the dedicated fans of the Resident Evil video games, particularly those who followed the iconic characters Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield (the Resident Evil 2 characters). The limited theatrical releases did not stop the movie from achieving good box office numbers and it went on to sell a lot on DVD and Blu-ray later. But has the movie aged well and does anyone here enjoy it more than the live-action Resident Evil movies of Milla Jovovich? Watch the reaction video below and observe how it impacts You, Me and the Movies.

https://youtu.be/hikyGLzHxoc?si=oEYeNyJ9dpkI6l4H

#6 Shoplifting Rampage By Hijabi Muslim Goes Very Wrong – Did you notice any woman wearing a hijab who engaged in theft lately? Overseas, someone committed shoplifting and things went very wrong. If you manage a store or if you care much about preventing the crime of theft from happening, you better watch the video below and pay close attention to the details. Do not let the Islamists manipulate you and never let them terrorize you.

https://youtu.be/Nc4v06ZVDss?si=IGu6sQpSimfCNviV

#7 Origin of The Jackal – You ever heard of The Jackal in comic books? The Jackal is one of Spider-Man’s super villains and he is involved in one of the most tragic events of the icon’s life and also in the sagas about clones. Veteran creator J.M. DeMatteis called the Jackal as “a terrific villain.” To get to know more about the Jackal, watch the video below.

https://youtu.be/p8XRliMd2qQ?si=2a9M09UKmT5v4zuV

#8 Rhetorical Thrill Reacts To Toy Soldiers – Remember back in the 1990s when there was a slew of action or adventure films with terrorists as the antagonists? This was the so-called “Die Hard effect” in reference to the 1988 classic action film that starred Bruce Willis. In 1991, the movie Toy Soldiers was released and it was about an all-male boarding school that got occupied by terrorists, and only a group of rebellious students can achieve a breakthrough. Recently, Rhetorical Thrill posted her reaction video about Toy Soldiers and it is entertaining to watch.

https://youtu.be/RXCVtmkWEj0?si=vLDYLb-IFYGXP3Bw

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

What To Watch On YouTube Right Now – Part 140

Welcome back my readers, YouTube viewers and all others who followed this series of articles focused on YouTube videos worth watching.

Have you been searching for something fun or interesting to watch on YouTube? Do you feel bored right now and you crave for something to see on the world’s most popular online video destination?

I recommend you check out the following videos I found.

#1 Retro Videos Of Scary Movie (2000) – Some of you might be aware that a brand new Scary Movie (2026) is coming out very soon. Although it’s nice to see Anna Faris and the Wayans brothers in the trailer of the new movie, I am not very motivated to see it. That said, I am more nostalgic about the original Scary Movie of 2000 and that film is significant as there are many retrospective videos about it in YouTube. As such, I posted below the selected videos of Scary Movie (2000) for your enjoyment.

https://youtu.be/0Dhf7_I_uig?si=Ce6xO35Xn88wywnh

https://youtu.be/YjMdS77mMGc?si=8okaY1X0A4dFHmRe

https://youtu.be/jTJ_VSU-aO4?si=wJGG3IbG7hhaveB_

https://youtu.be/GG50jTrs6g8?si=Q1H1mnou6lfuG2J3

https://youtu.be/YiZfO6X6rq8?si=nHldJOB4KukBYdFb

https://youtu.be/ZzPbMHBYPEU?si=wsvExaZn3AZgIfKX

https://youtu.be/uNQUGOp1D3Y?si=ZUrNE-66QrNeyd2X

#2 How Tekken 3 Was Made Possible On PlayStation – When I first played Tekken 3 in the arcades in 1997, I was already an avid fan of Tekken 2 which I played a lot on the PlayStation console. Back then, I wondered how Namco would be able to port Tekken 3 on PlayStation are the arcade version had much more powerful hardware. A year later, Tekken 3 was released on PlayStation and I played it a lot. The more I played it, the more impressed I was with how the game looked and felt on PlayStation. Not only that, Tekken 3 on PlayStation had features that the original arcade version did not offer. To find out how Namco made the “impossible port” of Tekken 3 using the PlayStation’s aging hardware, watch the video below.

https://youtu.be/GXZ6oBUW3c4?si=Plylt6aMUlEKTu2h

#3 1990s NBA Plays That Are Still Great To Watch – Remember how exciting NBA basketball action was back in the 1990s? It was during the 1990s when the NBA became a global phenomenon, when the NBA had such super stars like Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and others who made great basketball plays. Back in those days, the Internet was slowly emerging and there obviously was no social media to amplify the great NBA moments. Posted below is a video that looks back at sixty great NBA plays that would have rocked the world had social media existed much earlier.

https://youtu.be/OEGpmzHaykI?si=7-9zipAQ64vuNCKf

#4 Lunch At Ginza – Have you ever been to Ginza when you visited Japan? For the newcomers reading this, Ginza is the premier upscale district in Tokyo famous for shopping, fine dining and entertainment. Believe it or not, there are places in Ginza where visitors can have lunch at affordable rates and be satisfied. Watch and learn from the Nippon TV video below.

https://youtu.be/18xMYQK96OY?si=O8QKMILHIBVTV6xi

#5 You, Me And The Movies React To Resident Evil: Degeneration – When the computer-generated movie Resident Evil: Degeneration was released in 2008, it created a lot of buzz for the dedicated fans of the Resident Evil video games, particularly those who followed the iconic characters Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield (the Resident Evil 2 characters). The limited theatrical releases did not stop the movie from achieving good box office numbers and it went on to sell a lot on DVD and Blu-ray later. But has the movie aged well and does anyone here enjoy it more than the live-action Resident Evil movies of Milla Jovovich? Watch the reaction video below and observe how it impacts You, Me and the Movies.

https://youtu.be/hikyGLzHxoc?si=oEYeNyJ9dpkI6l4H

#6 Shoplifting Rampage By Hijabi Muslim Goes Very Wrong – Did you notice any woman wearing a hijab who engaged in theft lately? Overseas, someone committed shoplifting and things went very wrong. If you manage a store or if you care much about preventing the crime of theft from happening, you better watch the video below and pay close attention to the details. Do not let the Islamists manipulate you and never let them terrorize you.

https://youtu.be/Nc4v06ZVDss?si=IGu6sQpSimfCNviV

#7 Origin of The Jackal – You ever heard of The Jackal in comic books? The Jackal is one of Spider-Man’s super villains and he is involved in one of the most tragic events of the icon’s life and also in the sagas about clones. Veteran creator J.M. DeMatteis called the Jackal as “a terrific villain.” To get to know more about the Jackal, watch the video below.

https://youtu.be/p8XRliMd2qQ?si=2a9M09UKmT5v4zuV

#8 Rhetorical Thrill Reacts To Toy Soldiers – Remember back in the 1990s when there was a slew of action or adventure films with terrorists as the antagonists? This was the so-called “Die Hard effect” in reference to the 1988 classic action film that starred Bruce Willis. In 1991, the movie Toy Soldiers was released and it was about an all-male boarding school that got occupied by terrorists, and only a group of rebellious students can achieve a breakthrough. Recently, Rhetorical Thrill posted her reaction video about Toy Soldiers and it is entertaining to watch.

https://youtu.be/RXCVtmkWEj0?si=vLDYLb-IFYGXP3Bw

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Retro Gaming Ads Blast – Part 43

Welcome back readers, fellow geeks and electronic gaming fans!

In this edition of the Retro Gaming Ads Blast (RGAB) series, we will take a look at another batch of retro gaming print ads from the 1980s to the 1990s.

For the newcomers reading this, Retro Gaming Ads Blast (RGAB) looks back at the many print ads of games (console, arcade, computer and handheld) that were published in comic books, magazines, flyers, posters and newspapers long before smartphones, social media, the worldwide web and streaming became popular. To put things in perspective, people back in the 1980s to the 1990s were more trusting of print media for information and images about electronic games and related products.

With those details laid down, here is the newest batch of retro gaming print ads for you to see and enjoy…

1. Taito’s 4-in-1 Print Ad

There is nothing like taking the clever approach of promoting multiple video games using only one single print ad in the size of a single page. Taito did exactly that in the 1980s when it promoted Elevator Action, The Legend of Kage, Arkanoid and Renegade for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) promising excitement as the mentioned games were making the jump from arcade to console. What is very notable in Taito’s single-page print ad was that it did not show any screenshots of the games. Instead, they used hand-drawn artwork to emphasize each game’s theme or setting, and leave it up to the viewers’ imagination as to how those games would look like on NES. This old ad is intriguing and amusing at the same time.  

2. Chase H.Q. II: Special Criminal Investigation Print Ad

Following the huge success of the original Chase H.Q. on both arcade and consoles in the late-1980s, the sequel Special Crime Investigation was released in the arcades in 1989 and ported to game consoles and computers in the early 1990s under the title Chase H.Q. II: Special Criminal Investigation. To promote Chase H.Q. II: Special Criminal Investigation for home computers, game publisher Ocean came up with a colorful print ad showcasing a few cars, a city background and elements of gun-related action presented in nice art. The ad has an image of the original arcade machine to remind gamers that they are playing the sequel to Chase H.Q.

3. Dancing Eyes Japanese Arcade Flyer

Released by Namco in Japan in 1996, Dancing Eyes is a puzzle arcade game that became notorious due to its overtly sexual nature. With the way it was designed, players control a small monkey called Urusu-San and crawl along a 3D grid mapped over characters (mostly ladies) or various objects. If the 3D grid is mapped over a young lady, any tile of the grid destroyed by the player exposes the lady’s underwear or skin. Such sexuality is reflected in the arcade flyer of Dancing Eyes which has a suggestive hand-drawn art on the front while the game’s mechanics are explained in the rear. Even the rear of the flyer shows sexual nature of the game with screenshots. While the game was officially released only in Japan, Dancing Eyes actually was made available for gamers to play at the arcade of X-Site amusement center inside Festival Mall in Alabang during the early 2000s and it attracted a lot of guys. I bet Namco did not know about that.

4. Sega Saturn North American Print Ad

When the Sega launched the Saturn console in America roughly four months ahead of schedule in 1995, the company suffered as the sales were disappointing, ties with business partners were strained and the available Saturn games were very few. By the fourth quarter of that year, more games became available for the Saturn and this gave Sega the opportunity to aggressively market the console as the one that gamers should get for their enjoyment. To promote the Saturn, Sega came up with a two-page print ad that had a dominant image of a naked woman whose private parts were cleverly covered by screenshots of the available games. Since most gamers were predominantly male from teenagers to adults, it made sense for Sega to come up with an eye-catching sexy ad to promote their console and the video games (including those from other companies). This old ad is considered by the woke and rabid feminists as very offensive today.

5. Blockbuster Video Print Ad

Back in the late 20th century, Blockbuster Video was the dominant retailer that offered customers movies in home video format for sale and for rent. Along the way, the company offered video game rentals and attracted millions of gamers around the nation. Given the tremendous growth of video gaming in America in the 1990s, Blockbuster got itself more involved by launching the Games of Summer Sweepstakes in 1996. Utilizing print ads, the sweepstakes offered the Ultimate Game Rooms – composed of a 41-inch big-screen TV, Surround Sound speakers, hi-fi VCR, NBA Jame Extreme arcade game, the Sega Saturn, the PlayStation, a gaming chair, Acclaim games for Saturn and PlayStation, and a 1-year free Blockbuster Video game rentals privilege – as the grand prizes. Do you know anyone who won in Blockbuster’s sweepstakes?

6. Independence Day (ID4) Print Ad

Remember how big a blockbuster Independence Day (ID4) was in cinemas in 1996? The film grossed over $800 million worldwide and it revived the disaster movie genre using modern filmmaking techniques and the latest technologies of the decade. Given the massive success of the movie, it was not surprising that an official video game adaptation was released in 1997. To promote the game, Fox Interactive (the video game company of the movie studio behind the film) came up with a 2-page print ad using official artwork from the movie showcasing the alien spaceship being attacked by a military fighter plane. The ad showed only 3 screenshots and the descriptive text was written to make gamers feel like they have the role to lead Earth’s fight against the aliens. While the art looks good, it can only go so far to hide the mediocrity of the game itself.

7. GoldenEye 007 Print Ad

When GoldenEye achieved both critical and financial success in movies, it revived the James Bond movie franchise big-time and Pierce Brosnan was easily accepted by the public as the newest Agent 007. Several months before the movie was even released, an official video game adaptation started development. After much revisions and hard adjustments, the project evolved into a first-person shooting game for the Nintendo 64 console titled GoldenEye 007. To promote the game, Nintendo came up with a 2-page print ad that cleverly showed Brosnan as James Bond on the left and displayed the screenshots and other details on the right. This ad was easily eye-catching and it made lots of gamers excited. As history showed, GoldenEye 007 got released in 1997 and became a huge critical and commercial success while also proving that first-person shooters on game consoles can be a lot of fun.

8. North American Sega Saturn Games Promo Print Ad

As mentioned earlier, the Sega Saturn had a bad launch in America in 1995 which caused a lot of problems for the company. In 1996, Sega of America went on the offensive to really capture gamers’ attention by launching their Saturn games promo. The message of this 2-page print ad was very clear…Sega offered one free first-party game (limited to four specific games including Nights into Dreams) to those who bought two games (from a lineup of twelve specific titles). It should be noted that the Christmas season of 1996 was the most successful sales period of the Sega Saturn in America as gamers really responded to the promo. Even though some called this promo an act of desperation, nothing changes the fact that Sega succeeded during the most critical sales season of 1996.

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Retro Gaming Ads Blast – Part 43

Welcome back readers, fellow geeks and electronic gaming fans!

In this edition of the Retro Gaming Ads Blast (RGAB) series, we will take a look at another batch of retro gaming print ads from the 1980s to the 1990s.

For the newcomers reading this, Retro Gaming Ads Blast (RGAB) looks back at the many print ads of games (console, arcade, computer and handheld) that were published in comic books, magazines, flyers, posters and newspapers long before smartphones, social media, the worldwide web and streaming became popular. To put things in perspective, people back in the 1980s to the 1990s were more trusting of print media for information and images about electronic games and related products.

With those details laid down, here is the newest batch of retro gaming print ads for you to see and enjoy…

1. Taito’s 4-in-1 Print Ad

There is nothing like taking the clever approach of promoting multiple video games using only one single print ad in the size of a single page. Taito did exactly that in the 1980s when it promoted Elevator Action, The Legend of Kage, Arkanoid and Renegade for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) promising excitement as the mentioned games were making the jump from arcade to console. What is very notable in Taito’s single-page print ad was that it did not show any screenshots of the games. Instead, they used hand-drawn artwork to emphasize each game’s theme or setting, and leave it up to the viewers’ imagination as to how those games would look like on NES. This old ad is intriguing and amusing at the same time.  

2. Chase H.Q. II: Special Criminal Investigation Print Ad

Following the huge success of the original Chase H.Q. on both arcade and consoles in the late-1980s, the sequel Special Crime Investigation was released in the arcades in 1989 and ported to game consoles and computers in the early 1990s under the title Chase H.Q. II: Special Criminal Investigation. To promote Chase H.Q. II: Special Criminal Investigation for home computers, game publisher Ocean came up with a colorful print ad showcasing a few cars, a city background and elements of gun-related action presented in nice art. The ad has an image of the original arcade machine to remind gamers that they are playing the sequel to Chase H.Q.

3. Dancing Eyes Japanese Arcade Flyer

Released by Namco in Japan in 1996, Dancing Eyes is a puzzle arcade game that became notorious due to its overtly sexual nature. With the way it was designed, players control a small monkey called Urusu-San and crawl along a 3D grid mapped over characters (mostly ladies) or various objects. If the 3D grid is mapped over a young lady, any tile of the grid destroyed by the player exposes the lady’s underwear or skin. Such sexuality is reflected in the arcade flyer of Dancing Eyes which has a suggestive hand-drawn art on the front while the game’s mechanics are explained in the rear. Even the rear of the flyer shows sexual nature of the game with screenshots. While the game was officially released only in Japan, Dancing Eyes actually was made available for gamers to play at the arcade of X-Site amusement center inside Festival Mall in Alabang during the early 2000s and it attracted a lot of guys. I bet Namco did not know about that.

4. Sega Saturn North American Print Ad

When the Sega launched the Saturn console in America roughly four months ahead of schedule in 1995, the company suffered as the sales were disappointing, ties with business partners were strained and the available Saturn games were very few. By the fourth quarter of that year, more games became available for the Saturn and this gave Sega the opportunity to aggressively market the console as the one that gamers should get for their enjoyment. To promote the Saturn, Sega came up with a two-page print ad that had a dominant image of a naked woman whose private parts were cleverly covered by screenshots of the available games. Since most gamers were predominantly male from teenagers to adults, it made sense for Sega to come up with an eye-catching sexy ad to promote their console and the video games (including those from other companies). This old ad is considered by the woke and rabid feminists as very offensive today.

5. Blockbuster Video Print Ad

Back in the late 20th century, Blockbuster Video was the dominant retailer that offered customers movies in home video format for sale and for rent. Along the way, the company offered video game rentals and attracted millions of gamers around the nation. Given the tremendous growth of video gaming in America in the 1990s, Blockbuster got itself more involved by launching the Games of Summer Sweepstakes in 1996. Utilizing print ads, the sweepstakes offered the Ultimate Game Rooms – composed of a 41-inch big-screen TV, Surround Sound speakers, hi-fi VCR, NBA Jame Extreme arcade game, the Sega Saturn, the PlayStation, a gaming chair, Acclaim games for Saturn and PlayStation, and a 1-year free Blockbuster Video game rentals privilege – as the grand prizes. Do you know anyone who won in Blockbuster’s sweepstakes?

6. Independence Day (ID4) Print Ad

Remember how big a blockbuster Independence Day (ID4) was in cinemas in 1996? The film grossed over $800 million worldwide and it revived the disaster movie genre using modern filmmaking techniques and the latest technologies of the decade. Given the massive success of the movie, it was not surprising that an official video game adaptation was released in 1997. To promote the game, Fox Interactive (the video game company of the movie studio behind the film) came up with a 2-page print ad using official artwork from the movie showcasing the alien spaceship being attacked by a military fighter plane. The ad showed only 3 screenshots and the descriptive text was written to make gamers feel like they have the role to lead Earth’s fight against the aliens. While the art looks good, it can only go so far to hide the mediocrity of the game itself.

7. GoldenEye 007 Print Ad

When GoldenEye achieved both critical and financial success in movies, it revived the James Bond movie franchise big-time and Pierce Brosnan was easily accepted by the public as the newest Agent 007. Several months before the movie was even released, an official video game adaptation started development. After much revisions and hard adjustments, the project evolved into a first-person shooting game for the Nintendo 64 console titled GoldenEye 007. To promote the game, Nintendo came up with a 2-page print ad that cleverly showed Brosnan as James Bond on the left and displayed the screenshots and other details on the right. This ad was easily eye-catching and it made lots of gamers excited. As history showed, GoldenEye 007 got released in 1997 and became a huge critical and commercial success while also proving that first-person shooters on game consoles can be a lot of fun.

8. North American Sega Saturn Games Promo Print Ad

As mentioned earlier, the Sega Saturn had a bad launch in America in 1995 which caused a lot of problems for the company. In 1996, Sega of America went on the offensive to really capture gamers’ attention by launching their Saturn games promo. The message of this 2-page print ad was very clear…Sega offered one free first-party game (limited to four specific games including Nights into Dreams) to those who bought two games (from a lineup of twelve specific titles). It should be noted that the Christmas season of 1996 was the most successful sales period of the Sega Saturn in America as gamers really responded to the promo. Even though some called this promo an act of desperation, nothing changes the fact that Sega succeeded during the most critical sales season of 1996.

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

What To Watch On YouTube Right Now – Part 139

Welcome back my readers, YouTube viewers and all others who followed this series of articles focused on YouTube videos worth watching.

Have you been searching for something fun or interesting to watch on YouTube? Do you feel bored right now and you crave for something to see on the world’s most popular online video destination?

I recommend you check out the following videos I found.

#1 Maximum Carnage Revisited – With Spider-Man, Venom and Carnage all in high demand in 1993, Marvel Comics launched the 14-part Maximum Carnage storyline published on the four Spider-Man monthly comic book series and the quarterly Spider-Man Unlimited series. Carnage back then was a still new super villain who is more insane and more bloodthirsty than even Venom. Maximum Carnage has a divisive reception among fans and comic book collectors. Some called it the worst Spider-Man storyline while others found it exceptional as the chaos in New York City attracted other Marvel superheroes – notably Captain America – to help Spider-Man solve the crisis. Regardless of opinion, Maximum Carnage made an impact on pop culture and it got its own official video game adaptation. To discover more about Maximum Carnage in comics and in video game form, watch and learn from the videos below.

https://youtu.be/MWynKr0mUak?si=LpiA6j-UxcNiz4IY

https://youtu.be/sClJgiqIVBo?si=PvkRoDWp5wBiZZhe

https://youtu.be/PMrOvlhL0ck?si=J9g28ZsEFASw-UM1

#2 The World’s Largest Truck Stop Diner – While I have visited the United States a number of times since 1989, I never had the opportunity to spend time at a truck stop diner nor have I ever experienced traveling long distances in a truck. Having seen truck stop diners (or rest places for truckers) on videos and on TV, I noticed those places have a unique vibe, its own culture and assorted meals customers can enjoy. As such, I urge you to watch the video below and pay attention to the details.

https://youtu.be/pt3g7xk_GWE?si=VpbCh8JJTwGkGenz

#3 You, Me And The Movies React To Scary Movie (2000) – In November of 2000, I saw Scary Movie in the local cinema here in the Philippines and almost all the seats were filled. That film was released in America in July that same year and it became a surprise box office hit. Even though it was not heavily promoted here in the Philippines, it still attracted a lot of local moviegoers upon opening. Regardless, the Keenen Ivory Wayans-directed movie was a mature parody of varied horror movies (notably the Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer movies) and its success made Anna Faris popular. Local moviegoers who enjoyed American Pie had their enjoyment watching Shannon Elizabeth again. Now that the movie is over a quarter-century old, one has to wonder if it still has the power to entertain viewers, especially those who missed out on it. That said, you should watch the reaction video of You, Me and the Movies below.

https://youtu.be/VByHXNVQrtw?si=-Z8P5xLhLFNZDU17

#4 Ashleigh Burton Reacts To Patriot Games – Recently, Ashleigh Burton posted her reaction video of the 1992 movie Patriot Games starring Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan. For context, Patriot Games was the cinematic sequel to The Hunt For Red October and both were based on novels by Tom Clancy. At the time of Patriot Games’ release, there was some buzz and even debates about Harrison Ford’s portrayal of Jack Ryan, especially when compared to Alec Baldwin’s take on the same character in the 1990 film. How Ashleigh Burton reacts to Patriot Games is a must-see.

https://youtu.be/WkOPRzOWl68?si=UcTb01_pibogTeii

#5 Bears Cause Trouble In Japan Again – Recently in Japan, bears are causing trouble once again and there was one person who got attacked. As there is still a lot of forests and untouched land in Japan, bears are present and arguably multiplying. From time to time, bears come out of the woods and appear in places where people dwell. As such, there is a lot for you to learn about them and you can stay safe in Japan by watching the Nippon TV video below.

https://youtu.be/fEao5gwDT3E?si=-hc–gSO_UmxxaB9

#6 Why Gamers Stopped Buying Games At Full Price – Are you a hardcore gamer who got so disappointed with the current state of gaming that you decided to refrain from buying video games at full price? You definitely are not alone. In my experience as an Xbox gamer, I got very turned off by the changes made by Team Xbox as well as the quality of their high-profile first-party games of the past two years, I decided to go for bargains and retro gaming. I also extended my patience for brand new games to drop their prices first before I could even consider buying them. The video posted below explains in detail how the gaming landscape shifted and how the behaviors of gamers have changed which should concern every video game company that invested so much on making new video games. Watch it and pay attention to the details.

https://youtu.be/WsgssujIgwY?si=qXfYKjn_l0M9DTPC

#7 Minty Comedic Arts’ Revenge Of The Nerds Trivia Video – During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Minty Comedic Arts posted his trivia video about the 1984 raunchy comedy classic Revenge of the Nerds. Directed by Jeff Kanew and starring the late Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, Ted McGinley and Julia Montgomery, the movie follows a group of socially awkward students who are compelled to form their own fraternity after getting harassed and bullied by a dominant fraternity. Filled with adulterated gags, funny dialogue and memorable character moments, Revenge of the Nerds was a commercial success and it spawned three sequels. The story behind the movie’s production is filled lots of details that are worth exploring and you can learn all about those by watching Minty Comedic Arts’ trivia video below.

https://youtu.be/itsS5OZ4FEw?si=Eoplm7B4GOHmlMR8

#8 The Forgotten Cartoons Based On Video Games – You may have played the video games of Tomb Raider, Darkstalkers, Wing Commander, Mutant League and Bubsy. But have you seen the cartoon shows based on them? Indeed, there were animated adaptation of the said games and not too many gamers remember them. That said, you have to see GoodBadFlicks’ video about them now.

https://youtu.be/jBKg4Hz0NZQ?si=VTyIYQan8dqb9c8E

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

What To Watch On YouTube Right Now – Part 139

Welcome back my readers, YouTube viewers and all others who followed this series of articles focused on YouTube videos worth watching.

Have you been searching for something fun or interesting to watch on YouTube? Do you feel bored right now and you crave for something to see on the world’s most popular online video destination?

I recommend you check out the following videos I found.

#1 Maximum Carnage Revisited – With Spider-Man, Venom and Carnage all in high demand in 1993, Marvel Comics launched the 14-part Maximum Carnage storyline published on the four Spider-Man monthly comic book series and the quarterly Spider-Man Unlimited series. Carnage back then was a still new super villain who is more insane and more bloodthirsty than even Venom. Maximum Carnage has a divisive reception among fans and comic book collectors. Some called it the worst Spider-Man storyline while others found it exceptional as the chaos in New York City attracted other Marvel superheroes – notably Captain America – to help Spider-Man solve the crisis. Regardless of opinion, Maximum Carnage made an impact on pop culture and it got its own official video game adaptation. To discover more about Maximum Carnage in comics and in video game form, watch and learn from the videos below.

https://youtu.be/MWynKr0mUak?si=LpiA6j-UxcNiz4IY

https://youtu.be/sClJgiqIVBo?si=PvkRoDWp5wBiZZhe

https://youtu.be/PMrOvlhL0ck?si=J9g28ZsEFASw-UM1

#2 The World’s Largest Truck Stop Diner – While I have visited the United States a number of times since 1989, I never had the opportunity to spend time at a truck stop diner nor have I ever experienced traveling long distances in a truck. Having seen truck stop diners (or rest places for truckers) on videos and on TV, I noticed those places have a unique vibe, its own culture and assorted meals customers can enjoy. As such, I urge you to watch the video below and pay attention to the details.

https://youtu.be/pt3g7xk_GWE?si=VpbCh8JJTwGkGenz

#3 You, Me And The Movies React To Scary Movie (2000) – In November of 2000, I saw Scary Movie in the local cinema here in the Philippines and almost all the seats were filled. That film was released in America in July that same year and it became a surprise box office hit. Even though it was not heavily promoted here in the Philippines, it still attracted a lot of local moviegoers upon opening. Regardless, the Keenen Ivory Wayans-directed movie was a mature parody of varied horror movies (notably the Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer movies) and its success made Anna Faris popular. Local moviegoers who enjoyed American Pie had their enjoyment watching Shannon Elizabeth again. Now that the movie is over a quarter-century old, one has to wonder if it still has the power to entertain viewers, especially those who missed out on it. That said, you should watch the reaction video of You, Me and the Movies below.

https://youtu.be/VByHXNVQrtw?si=-Z8P5xLhLFNZDU17

#4 Ashleigh Burton Reacts To Patriot Games – Recently, Ashleigh Burton posted her reaction video of the 1992 movie Patriot Games starring Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan. For context, Patriot Games was the cinematic sequel to The Hunt For Red October and both were based on novels by Tom Clancy. At the time of Patriot Games’ release, there was some buzz and even debates about Harrison Ford’s portrayal of Jack Ryan, especially when compared to Alec Baldwin’s take on the same character in the 1990 film. How Ashleigh Burton reacts to Patriot Games is a must-see.

https://youtu.be/WkOPRzOWl68?si=UcTb01_pibogTeii

#5 Bears Cause Trouble In Japan Again – Recently in Japan, bears are causing trouble once again and there was one person who got attacked. As there is still a lot of forests and untouched land in Japan, bears are present and arguably multiplying. From time to time, bears come out of the woods and appear in places where people dwell. As such, there is a lot for you to learn about them and you can stay safe in Japan by watching the Nippon TV video below.

https://youtu.be/fEao5gwDT3E?si=-hc–gSO_UmxxaB9

#6 Why Gamers Stopped Buying Games At Full Price – Are you a hardcore gamer who got so disappointed with the current state of gaming that you decided to refrain from buying video games at full price? You definitely are not alone. In my experience as an Xbox gamer, I got very turned off by the changes made by Team Xbox as well as the quality of their high-profile first-party games of the past two years, I decided to go for bargains and retro gaming. I also extended my patience for brand new games to drop their prices first before I could even consider buying them. The video posted below explains in detail how the gaming landscape shifted and how the behaviors of gamers have changed which should concern every video game company that invested so much on making new video games. Watch it and pay attention to the details.

https://youtu.be/WsgssujIgwY?si=qXfYKjn_l0M9DTPC

#7 Minty Comedic Arts’ Revenge Of The Nerds Trivia Video – During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Minty Comedic Arts posted his trivia video about the 1984 raunchy comedy classic Revenge of the Nerds. Directed by Jeff Kanew and starring the late Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, Ted McGinley and Julia Montgomery, the movie follows a group of socially awkward students who are compelled to form their own fraternity after getting harassed and bullied by a dominant fraternity. Filled with adulterated gags, funny dialogue and memorable character moments, Revenge of the Nerds was a commercial success and it spawned three sequels. The story behind the movie’s production is filled lots of details that are worth exploring and you can learn all about those by watching Minty Comedic Arts’ trivia video below.

https://youtu.be/itsS5OZ4FEw?si=Eoplm7B4GOHmlMR8

#8 The Forgotten Cartoons Based On Video Games – You may have played the video games of Tomb Raider, Darkstalkers, Wing Commander, Mutant League and Bubsy. But have you seen the cartoon shows based on them? Indeed, there were animated adaptation of the said games and not too many gamers remember them. That said, you have to see GoodBadFlicks’ video about them now.

https://youtu.be/jBKg4Hz0NZQ?si=VTyIYQan8dqb9c8E

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

A Look Back at Street Fighter #1 (1993)

Disclaimer: This is my original work with details sourced from reading the comic book and doing personal research. Anyone who wants to use this article, in part or in whole, needs to secure first my permission and agree to cite me as the source and author. Let it be known that any unauthorized use of this article will constrain the author to pursue the remedies under R.A. No. 8293, the Revised Penal Code, and/or all applicable legal actions under the laws of the Philippines.

Welcome back, superhero fans, 1990s arts and culture enthusiasts, Street Fighter fans, retro gamers, Malibu Comics enthusiasts and comic book collectors! Today we go back to the year 1993 to examine the official comic book adaptation of the wildly popular video game Street Fighter II.

While the original Street Fighter game of 1987 did not achieve huge success in the arcades and on consoles, it literally started the ball rolling for Capcom as the game itself influence other arcade game developers to focus more on making beat-them-up games and the use of special moves appealed to others. Capcom went on to release Street Fighter II in the arcades and it came with a dedicated fighting game design that strongly lured in gamers to play it in huge numbers. After selling 200,000 arcade cabinets, SFII went on to become a huge seller on game consoles. Capcom even went on to produce new versions of the game – popularly referred to as upgrades – culminating with Super Street Fighter II Turbo in 1994.

As Street Fighter II kept on attracting countless players into the arcades worldwide, Capcom approached Malibu Comics (publisher of the Ultraverse).

“Capcom came to Malibu because we know how to do it—we’ve handled licensed properties before and done very well,” said Tom Mason in the opening message of the first issue of the Street Fighter comic book adaptation.

With those details laid down, here is a look back at Street Fighter 1, published by Malibu Comics in 1993 with a story written by the late Len Strazewski and drawn by Don Hillsman. This was the first issue of a planned mini-series.

Early story

The story begins some time in the past when Ryu permanently scars Sagat on the chest with his Dragon Punch during street fight in front of many. Enraged, Sagat tries hard to retaliate against Ryu who happens to be the champion among street fighters. The Japanese fighter hits the tall Thai kickboxer with a barrage of kicks.

The past fight was played on home video and viewed by Sagat and Balrog. Embarrassed by the video, Sagat destroys the TV and asked his companion why must he be humiliated. After Balrog tells him not to talk that tone with their superior Bison, Sagat hits the American boxer. As the fight between the two intensifies, Bison arrives and stops the violence. He tells Sagat that he is an embarrassment to his organization.

Bison reminds them that he took them into his criminal network and still have not redeemed themselves in front of him. He tells the two that they must beat Ryu and regain the street fighter championship.

As Balrog and Sagat express difficulty in finding and fighting Ryu, Bison tells them the Japanese fighter’s friends are Chun Li and Ken…

Quality

Back in 1993, I even contemplated buying a copy of this comic book locally when it was brand new. I’m glad I chose not to buy it back then as this one has bad quality in its presentation from start to finish. Dedicated Street Fighter II fans should be warned.

For starters, the storytelling is not faithful to the lore of Street Fighter II even though the creators derived key elements of characters from the game itself. That said, it looks like liberties were taken in order to form a narrative that can be told in comic book format.

Chun Li here is correctly described as an agent of Interpol and is motivated by revenge over the loss of her father who was killed by M. Bison. And yet, she is portrayed here as having a romantic relationship with Ryu and has been training with him along with Ken in the past. The romantic relationship between the two never existed in the popular video game and it is established in Street Fighter II lore that Chun Li came from a different martial arts background while Ken and Ryu trained together under the same master.

Ryu in this comic book is the defending street fighter champion (reflecting the canonical story of Street Fighter and Street Fighter II) who is responsible for the huge scar on Sagat’s chest. While Ryu is the wandering warrior who travels around the world with only a duffel bag as he seeks the true way of the fighter, in this adaptation he is a reigning champion who starts having doubts when Chun Li lectures him over his devotion to fighting as life changes for others around him.

While the liberties are notable and could be insulting to dedicated Street Fighter II fans, the story of this comic book is surprisingly readable. As Ryu is the target of Bison and his criminal network, it made sense for dangerous pawns Sagat and Balrog to go after Ken to get to the Japanese fighter. There definitely is a plot here and if readers can ignore the actual lore of Street Fighter II, it can be followed and the classic concept of good versus evil will be realized.

As for the art, the work done by Don Hillsman is lackluster. While he excelled in making Balrog look scary early in the story, his visual takes on the other Street Fighter II characters range from bad to passable. Ken, Ryu, Sagat, Bison, Vega and Chun Li all have that rough look on their faces and bodies. Hillsman even tried to emulate special moves from the game but ended up looking sub-par. Lackluster artworks like these only add to the perception of the fans and other people obsessed with Japanese culture and the arts that Western illustrators should not draw Street Fighter characters.

Conclusion

I am glad that I never bought Street Fighter #1 (1993) brand new decades ago. Its quality is really bad and clearly it has not aged well. Street Fighter fans – especially those obsessed with Street Fighter II games – should look elsewhere to enjoy the tale and concepts of Street Fighter II. This comic book from Malibu Comics is a creative failure and was the start of the eventual collapse of the publishing deal made with Capcom. Can you just imagine the shock the Capcom executives had when they first read this comic book? Ultimately, this comic book adaption was creative catastrophe which is a shame because Malibu Comics had a good record of licensed projects and the late Strazewski (died on April 27, 2026) was one of the finest writers and creators on the Ultraverse line of comic books.

Overall, Street Fighter #1 (1993) should be avoided.

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below and also please consider sharing this article to others. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. If you want to support my website, please consider making a donation. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco/.

A Look Back at Street Fighter #1 (1993)

Disclaimer: This is my original work with details sourced from reading the comic book and doing personal research. Anyone who wants to use this article, in part or in whole, needs to secure first my permission and agree to cite me as the source and author. Let it be known that any unauthorized use of this article will constrain the author to pursue the remedies under R.A. No. 8293, the Revised Penal Code, and/or all applicable legal actions under the laws of the Philippines.

Welcome back, superhero fans, 1990s arts and culture enthusiasts, Street Fighter fans, retro gamers, Malibu Comics enthusiasts and comic book collectors! Today we go back to the year 1993 to examine the official comic book adaptation of the wildly popular video game Street Fighter II.

While the original Street Fighter game of 1987 did not achieve huge success in the arcades and on consoles, it literally started the ball rolling for Capcom as the game itself influence other arcade game developers to focus more on making beat-them-up games and the use of special moves appealed to others. Capcom went on to release Street Fighter II in the arcades and it came with a dedicated fighting game design that strongly lured in gamers to play it in huge numbers. After selling 200,000 arcade cabinets, SFII went on to become a huge seller on game consoles. Capcom even went on to produce new versions of the game – popularly referred to as upgrades – culminating with Super Street Fighter II Turbo in 1994.

As Street Fighter II kept on attracting countless players into the arcades worldwide, Capcom approached Malibu Comics (publisher of the Ultraverse).

“Capcom came to Malibu because we know how to do it—we’ve handled licensed properties before and done very well,” said Tom Mason in the opening message of the first issue of the Street Fighter comic book adaptation.

With those details laid down, here is a look back at Street Fighter 1, published by Malibu Comics in 1993 with a story written by the late Len Strazewski and drawn by Don Hillsman. This was the first issue of a planned mini-series.

Early story

The story begins some time in the past when Ryu permanently scars Sagat on the chest with his Dragon Punch during street fight in front of many. Enraged, Sagat tries hard to retaliate against Ryu who happens to be the champion among street fighters. The Japanese fighter hits the tall Thai kickboxer with a barrage of kicks.

The past fight was played on home video and viewed by Sagat and Balrog. Embarrassed by the video, Sagat destroys the TV and asked his companion why must he be humiliated. After Balrog tells him not to talk that tone with their superior Bison, Sagat hits the American boxer. As the fight between the two intensifies, Bison arrives and stops the violence. He tells Sagat that he is an embarrassment to his organization.

Bison reminds them that he took them into his criminal network and still have not redeemed themselves in front of him. He tells the two that they must beat Ryu and regain the street fighter championship.

As Balrog and Sagat express difficulty in finding and fighting Ryu, Bison tells them the Japanese fighter’s friends are Chun Li and Ken…

Quality

Back in 1993, I even contemplated buying a copy of this comic book locally when it was brand new. I’m glad I chose not to buy it back then as this one has bad quality in its presentation from start to finish. Dedicated Street Fighter II fans should be warned.

For starters, the storytelling is not faithful to the lore of Street Fighter II even though the creators derived key elements of characters from the game itself. That said, it looks like liberties were taken in order to form a narrative that can be told in comic book format.

Chun Li here is correctly described as an agent of Interpol and is motivated by revenge over the loss of her father who was killed by M. Bison. And yet, she is portrayed here as having a romantic relationship with Ryu and has been training with him along with Ken in the past. The romantic relationship between the two never existed in the popular video game and it is established in Street Fighter II lore that Chun Li came from a different martial arts background while Ken and Ryu trained together under the same master.

Ryu in this comic book is the defending street fighter champion (reflecting the canonical story of Street Fighter and Street Fighter II) who is responsible for the huge scar on Sagat’s chest. While Ryu is the wandering warrior who travels around the world with only a duffel bag as he seeks the true way of the fighter, in this adaptation he is a reigning champion who starts having doubts when Chun Li lectures him over his devotion to fighting as life changes for others around him.

While the liberties are notable and could be insulting to dedicated Street Fighter II fans, the story of this comic book is surprisingly readable. As Ryu is the target of Bison and his criminal network, it made sense for dangerous pawns Sagat and Balrog to go after Ken to get to the Japanese fighter. There definitely is a plot here and if readers can ignore the actual lore of Street Fighter II, it can be followed and the classic concept of good versus evil will be realized.

As for the art, the work done by Don Hillsman is lackluster. While he excelled in making Balrog look scary early in the story, his visual takes on the other Street Fighter II characters range from bad to passable. Ken, Ryu, Sagat, Bison, Vega and Chun Li all have that rough look on their faces and bodies. Hillsman even tried to emulate special moves from the game but ended up looking sub-par. Lackluster artworks like these only add to the perception of the fans and other people obsessed with Japanese culture and the arts that Western illustrators should not draw Street Fighter characters.

Conclusion

I am glad that I never bought Street Fighter #1 (1993) brand new decades ago. Its quality is really bad and clearly it has not aged well. Street Fighter fans – especially those obsessed with Street Fighter II games – should look elsewhere to enjoy the tale and concepts of Street Fighter II. This comic book from Malibu Comics is a creative failure and was the start of the eventual collapse of the publishing deal made with Capcom. Can you just imagine the shock the Capcom executives had when they first read this comic book? Ultimately, this comic book adaption was creative catastrophe which is a shame because Malibu Comics had a good record of licensed projects and the late Strazewski (died on April 27, 2026) was one of the finest writers and creators on the Ultraverse line of comic books.

Overall, Street Fighter #1 (1993) should be avoided.

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below and also please consider sharing this article to others. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. If you want to support my website, please consider making a donation. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco/.

What To Watch On YouTube Right Now – Part 138

Welcome back my readers, YouTube viewers and all others who followed this series of articles focused on YouTube videos worth watching.

Have you been searching for something fun or interesting to watch on YouTube? Do you feel bored right now and you crave for something to see on the world’s most popular online video destination?

I recommend you check out the following videos I found.

#1 How To Get The Strongest And Most Optimized Spaceship Crew In Starfield – This year, Bethesda launched several important updates to make their 2023 science fiction role-playing game Starfield better and they also offered new DLC for those who crave for new content. One of the more defining aspects of the game is space travel and this includes setting up your own crew for your spaceship and there is impact on its functions and capabilities. If you want to learn how to get the stronger and most optimized crew for your ship, I encourage you watch the video below.

https://youtu.be/vy8iOx7eqVU?si=gn7W1mZxTOQ4SSrd

#2 Mari Iijima And The Defining Song of Macross: Do You Remember Love? – I really love watching the 1984 anime feature film Macross: Do You Remember Love? Apart from the great animation, the spectacle, the memorable characters and the solid storytelling, the movie also has a great soundtrack made to delight the long-time Macross fans. Still, the movie has its very own song performed by none other than Mari Iijima (Minmay) and it is a classic among Macross fans. In the videos below, you will see Mari Iijima perform the song live in a 1980s TV broadcast and the song playing with selected footage of Macross: Do You Remember Love? Enjoy these!

https://youtu.be/OfuW_Wbt73c?si=Q1DE8eJxo4Zk90pc

https://youtu.be/uJBMYV9e1Nc?si=veDGYU4r7s0flQ_H

#3 The Tuna City In Japan Is Changing With Tourism In Mind – If you plan to visit Japan at all, you might want to discover Miura City located in Kanagawa Prefecture. Miura City is famous for its fresh tuna and in recent times there has been a series of changes as several room-only hotels and new trends have sprouted as the locality is finding new ways to turn visitors into overnight guests. This is a place I would like to visit someday if ever I get the opportunity to return to Japan. Watch and learn from the Nippon TV video below.

https://youtu.be/fUPP30fYH78?si=MrC6Dml3IRVe7fcV

#4 Women’s Rights Activist Marries Islamist And Things Went Wrong – Did you notice that there is a gradual rising number of feminists and women’s rights activists who not embrace Islam (wicked and ugly) but also marry Islamists believing that things will be alright and they can just continue their activism. Of course, many of them activists and feminists do not fully understand Islam nor the full content of the Quran. As such, when things go very wrong, they are get into deep trouble. Watch and learn from the video below.

https://youtu.be/bx3YvoyP6cw?si=omxqhyR8CQfpfhYK

#5 Islamists Violate Hindu Women In India And Get Arrested – Let’s be very clear here. Islamists are oriented to conquer others even though they may not be numerous within a locality. Believe it or not, a group of such people who wielded power inside a business violated the Hindu women (plus at least one male employee) with regards to cultural norms and doing things that go against their faith. Even forced religious conversion happened. Watch and learn from the video below.

https://youtu.be/9xjFS-3Vuws?si=xuDIivIonrp9tQux

#6 Meatballs Reaction And Retrospective – When it comes to cinematic comedy, Bill Murray is iconic and his early work in 1979’s Meatballs already involved the late Harold Ramis and the late director Ivan Reitman. That said, there is something about Meatballs – produced for less than $2 million – that helped it achieve tremendous commercial success with ticket sales of $70 million. Remember, three of the creative minds behind the classic Ghostbusters are involved in this old movie and you will see how You, Me and The Movies react to it in the video below. Be aware that as of this writing, there are not too many movie reaction videos about Meatballs on YouTube. Also posted below is an in-depth retrospective about Meatballs by GoodBadFlicks.

https://youtu.be/nhR9xUCvpAI?si=Zh6gjAX0SdIrtSfT

https://youtu.be/D0BS-K3K_vE?si=HtyR_VThLUKv0Wj6

#7 Ashleigh Burton Reacts To The Thin Man – Have you ever heard of The Thin Man? It’s not a UFO reference. It’s the 1934 American pre-Code comedy-mystery movie that was eventually named to the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress having been deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” in 1997. Apart from its reputation in American film history, The Thin Man also resulted in five sequels. If you want to discover the 1934 movie but you don’t have the time nor resources to watch the movie, watch Ashleigh Burton’s reaction video and see how it impacts her.

https://youtu.be/IJRQXuw–20?si=mSYY7_Eb4EK6reBY

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Tourists from Spain and Peru Deported By Thailand After Committing Sexual Act On A Moving Vehicle

If you are touring a foreign land, you better behave yourselves in order to maintain a good standing as a foreign visitor. This is an important lesson to learn as Thailand deported a Spanish man and a Peruvian woman who got caught doing a sex act while riding a moving vehicle locally called the tuk-tuk, according to a news report by VnExpress. The deported ones already confessed their act of indecency.

To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt from the news report of VnExpress. Some parts in boldface…

Thai immigration authorities have deported a Spanish man and a Peruvian woman after they were allegedly caught performing a sex act on a moving tuk-tuk in popular island Phuket earlier this week.

The 41-year-old man and 43-year-old woman were filmed engaging in oral sex aboard the tuk-tuk on Sunday, in an incident that sparked public criticism over damage to Thailand’s tourism image, Bangkok Post reported.

Police interrogated the couple on Monday night and both confessed to their act, Nation Thailand reported.

They were charged with public indecency and immigration police said that the couple have been blacklisted and deported.

Public sex and indecent acts are punishable by fines of up to 5,000 baht (US$155) under Thai law.

However, the penalties have done little to deter some tourists from engaging in public nudity and other inappropriate behaviour outdoors.

On April 12, a French couple, both 24, were arrested after allegedly engaging in a public sex act on Rayee Beach. The pair were later deported after videos circulated online showing the nude woman straddling her boyfriend and performing sexual acts in full view of beachgoers.

Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this development? Did you spot any foreign tourists who misbehaved or broke laws in your country lately?

You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Tourists from Spain and Peru Deported By Thailand After Committing Sexual Act On A Moving Vehicle

If you are touring a foreign land, you better behave yourselves in order to maintain a good standing as a foreign visitor. This is an important lesson to learn as Thailand deported a Spanish man and a Peruvian woman who got caught doing a sex act while riding a moving vehicle locally called the tuk-tuk, according to a news report by VnExpress. The deported ones already confessed their act of indecency.

To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt from the news report of VnExpress. Some parts in boldface…

Thai immigration authorities have deported a Spanish man and a Peruvian woman after they were allegedly caught performing a sex act on a moving tuk-tuk in popular island Phuket earlier this week.

The 41-year-old man and 43-year-old woman were filmed engaging in oral sex aboard the tuk-tuk on Sunday, in an incident that sparked public criticism over damage to Thailand’s tourism image, Bangkok Post reported.

Police interrogated the couple on Monday night and both confessed to their act, Nation Thailand reported.

They were charged with public indecency and immigration police said that the couple have been blacklisted and deported.

Public sex and indecent acts are punishable by fines of up to 5,000 baht (US$155) under Thai law.

However, the penalties have done little to deter some tourists from engaging in public nudity and other inappropriate behaviour outdoors.

On April 12, a French couple, both 24, were arrested after allegedly engaging in a public sex act on Rayee Beach. The pair were later deported after videos circulated online showing the nude woman straddling her boyfriend and performing sexual acts in full view of beachgoers.

Let me end this piece by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this development? Did you spot any foreign tourists who misbehaved or broke laws in your country lately?

You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

U.S. Trade And Development Agency To Fund Feasibility Study For Sangley Point International Airport

Here in the Philippines, the push to develop new international airports to improve air travel connectivity with other destinations gained a major step forward as the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) will fund a crucial feasibility study for the multi-billion Dollar Sangley Point International Airport (SPIA) project, according to a news report by the Manila Bulletin.

To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt from the Manila Bulletin report. Some parts in boldface…

The United States (US) Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) will fund a feasibility study for the proposed Sangley Point International Airport in Cavite, a project aimed at easing congestion in Metro Manila and bolstering security for direct transpacific flights.

The USTDA awarded the grant to Cavitex Holdings Inc., a local developer leading the project consortium, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday, May 12.

Cavitex has selected California-based The S-A-P Group LLC to conduct the technical analysis, which will include air traffic forecasting, financial modeling, and the design of security protocols for a facility intended to serve as a major gateway for US-bound travel.

The investment comes as the Philippines struggles to manage surging aviation demand. Metro Manila’s primary gateway, Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), handled approximately 52 million passengers in 2025, pushing its aging infrastructure to the limit. The Sangley project is a central component of the Luzon Economic Corridor, a strategic initiative designed to strengthen economic resilience and infrastructure connectivity across the country’s most populous island.

“The high volume of direct international travel between the United States and the Philippines reflects the steadfast friendship of our two countries,” said Thomas R. Hardy, USTDA deputy director.

He added that the project aligns with the broader goal of maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific by fostering safe and efficient passenger traffic.

For Cavitex, the US backing provides both technical expertise and a gateway to American technology. The study will evaluate the adoption of US solutions for security screening, telecommunications, and airport construction.

Leonides J.M. Virata, Cavitex president and chief executive officer, said the grant will accelerate the development of an airport expected to generate tens of thousands of jobs and unlock billions of pesos in long-term economic activity.

While the project cost remains subject to the study’s findings, the consortium has previously indicated that the multi-phase redevelopment of the former naval base could require an investment exceeding 500 billion pesos. The project is designed to handle both cargo and passenger traffic, providing a necessary relief valve for the capital region’s saturated airspace.

The USTDA functions as a “first mover” for US government involvement in emerging market infrastructure, providing the technical groundwork required to make large-scale projects bankable.

Let me end this post by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this recent development? Are you convinced that the USTDA’s funding of a feasibility study is very crucial for the development of the Sangley Point International Airport? Do you think there really is a high volume of direct international travel between America and the Philippines? Do you think the development of new international airports in the Philippines will progress better as long as the national government does not get involved?

You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

U.S. Trade And Development Agency To Fund Feasibility Study For Sangley Point International Airport

Here in the Philippines, the push to develop new international airports to improve air travel connectivity with other destinations gained a major step forward as the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) will fund a crucial feasibility study for the multi-billion Dollar Sangley Point International Airport (SPIA) project, according to a news report by the Manila Bulletin.

To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt from the Manila Bulletin report. Some parts in boldface…

The United States (US) Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) will fund a feasibility study for the proposed Sangley Point International Airport in Cavite, a project aimed at easing congestion in Metro Manila and bolstering security for direct transpacific flights.

The USTDA awarded the grant to Cavitex Holdings Inc., a local developer leading the project consortium, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday, May 12.

Cavitex has selected California-based The S-A-P Group LLC to conduct the technical analysis, which will include air traffic forecasting, financial modeling, and the design of security protocols for a facility intended to serve as a major gateway for US-bound travel.

The investment comes as the Philippines struggles to manage surging aviation demand. Metro Manila’s primary gateway, Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), handled approximately 52 million passengers in 2025, pushing its aging infrastructure to the limit. The Sangley project is a central component of the Luzon Economic Corridor, a strategic initiative designed to strengthen economic resilience and infrastructure connectivity across the country’s most populous island.

“The high volume of direct international travel between the United States and the Philippines reflects the steadfast friendship of our two countries,” said Thomas R. Hardy, USTDA deputy director.

He added that the project aligns with the broader goal of maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific by fostering safe and efficient passenger traffic.

For Cavitex, the US backing provides both technical expertise and a gateway to American technology. The study will evaluate the adoption of US solutions for security screening, telecommunications, and airport construction.

Leonides J.M. Virata, Cavitex president and chief executive officer, said the grant will accelerate the development of an airport expected to generate tens of thousands of jobs and unlock billions of pesos in long-term economic activity.

While the project cost remains subject to the study’s findings, the consortium has previously indicated that the multi-phase redevelopment of the former naval base could require an investment exceeding 500 billion pesos. The project is designed to handle both cargo and passenger traffic, providing a necessary relief valve for the capital region’s saturated airspace.

The USTDA functions as a “first mover” for US government involvement in emerging market infrastructure, providing the technical groundwork required to make large-scale projects bankable.

Let me end this post by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this recent development? Are you convinced that the USTDA’s funding of a feasibility study is very crucial for the development of the Sangley Point International Airport? Do you think there really is a high volume of direct international travel between America and the Philippines? Do you think the development of new international airports in the Philippines will progress better as long as the national government does not get involved?

You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

What To Watch On YouTube Right Now – Part 137

Welcome back my readers, YouTube viewers and all others who followed this series of articles focused on YouTube videos worth watching.

Have you been searching for something fun or interesting to watch on YouTube? Do you feel bored right now and you crave for something to see on the world’s most popular online video destination?

I recommend you check out the following videos I found.

#1 You, Me and The Movies React To Lone Wolf McQuade – It has been a few months since the movie legend Chuck Norris passed away at age 86. He left behind a legacy of action movies and even played Bruce Lee’s tough opponent in The Way of the Dragon. Norris also had action movies filmed on location here in my native Philippines. In the 1980s, Norris appeared in a lot movies that involved guns and hard action, and one of his more notable films of the time was 1983’s Lone Wolf McQuade in which he faced off with fellow action star David Carradine. Recently, You, Me and the Movies posted their reaction video of Lone Wolf McQuade and it is entertaining to watch. I urge you to watch it now.

https://youtu.be/WELmZdiV6aQ?si=2b-pSOoRjJmQF4PC

#2 Minty Comedic Arts’ Invasion U.S.A. Video – Still focused on the late Chuck Norris, his 1985 action movie Invasion U.S.A. was not merely made to entertain moviegoers with lots of explosions, dangerous stunts and hard action. Norris read an article in Reader’s Digest about the presence of hundreds of terrorists running loose in the United States which impacted him as he care about his country and his fellow Americans. This eventually led to the making of Invasion U.S.A. which succeeded commercially as it spread awareness to the American people as to how they can defend themselves in the event foreign terrorists invade their country. Today, Islamic terrorism as well as the entrance of Islamo-Leftist foreigners into America made this 1985 more socially relevant. The story behind the production of Invasion U.S.A. is pretty fascinating, and you can learn more about by watch Minty Comedic Arts’ video below.

https://youtu.be/mXAFy08Mm4s?si=Qy7193Gb9X0goYDZ

#3 Signature Bowls of Happiness in Japan – Do you eat meals served in bowls often? Meals in bowls are common in Japan where rice and noodles are eaten by people daily. Among the many food joints in Japan that offer meals in bowls to customers are a few standouts visited by Nippon TV. What they discovered are very enticing, attractive and delicious to look at. Watch and learn from their video below.

https://youtu.be/WQwYy84KgCQ?si=g0HZRpdwCLBs2uPd

#4 Ranting For Vengeance Slams CBR And Others Who Hate 1980s Anime – I grew up watching lots of anime shows and feature films early in life and the 1980s is a memorable decade. It was during the 1980s when I saw anime productions from the 1970s and the newest ones of the decade. To name some, I saw the 1980s Astro Boy series, Galaxy Express 999, Captain Future, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Voltes V, Daimos, Mazinger Z and others. While such old anime productions proved to be entertaining, there are still some people out there who bashed them because those productions (and their stories) did not align with their modern day woke agenda. The popular geek entertainment portal CBR published lots of articles saying that the old anime productions did not age well and a lot of readers and netizens followed suit. As such, Ranting for Vengeance slammed them and stood up for 1980s anime backed with detailed explanations. If you are a true fan of anime, watch the video below.

https://youtu.be/1VCWf8o7utc?si=xXxcQ7-if9FaZV8H

#5 Western Women Who Embraced Islam End Up Wrong – Did you notice that there is a growing number of women in the West who embraced Islam believing the fantasies that it is a religion of peace and is feminist? Indeed, there are these modern-day feminists who considered themselves Islamic without even fully knowing what Islam truly is, why Sharia Law is wicked and what was recorded in the Quran. SaharTV posted several videos about these newcomers to Islam (including one new Muslim woman who was Catholic) who ended up being very wrong and embarrassed. Watch the SaharTV videos below.

https://youtu.be/ghhZuYcsNFY?si=uddJdrr8Ve_FeOvS

https://youtu.be/6fZUxJWv8E0?si=saX3TUFQhPJ3iMwk

https://youtu.be/WGwbkx0zrL4?si=R2KCv0-fDSmZRgGP

https://youtu.be/gXFYh-fh_1g?si=cpNXKOygu8Z1jz_N

https://youtu.be/uTvbQDzn8RA?si=KiG5K-jWU5mvs_4x

#6 The Significance Of Spider-Man 2099 Explained – In late 1992, Marvel Comics launched Spider-Man 2099 #1 which also marked the start of their 2099 franchise of comic books. Under the direction of writer Peter David with artworks done mainly by Rick Leonardi, the futuristic Spider-Man really stood out differently from the classic Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and his own place under Marvel Comics’ banner was established well. Spider-Man 2099 is clearly the most popular of all the Marvel 2099 titles. That said, I found this YouTube video that examines the significance of Spider-Man of 2099. I encourage you to watch it.

https://youtu.be/0ap6m7EHTXw?si=cxHY9bDg-9QYlmlK

#7 Ashleigh Burton’s Reaction To Witness – The 1980s will always be a memorable decade of Harrison Ford’s cinematic performances. During that decade, he appeared in two Star Wars movies and he was the center of attraction in the original Indiana Jones trilogy. Along the way, he appeared in the 1985 crime thriller film Witness in which he played a police detective protecting an Amish woman and her son. The movie earned several Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and even Best Actor for Harrison Ford. Lately, Ashleigh Burton posted her reaction video of Witness and I encourage you to watch it.  

https://youtu.be/COlaB65Q3MA?si=0i2Kx-yFhLYdX1_E

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco