Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Farewell 2019 and Farewell to the 2010's

And lo, another year comes to an end. But not just a year, a whole decade. A lot happened these last 10 years, from technology to politics to entertainment. The world is moving faster than ever.
That rings true even for Chris Bores. Having thought about it, I think I will list the worst moments of the decade for the Irate Gamer (and other projects). That won't be today though. I'm gonna have to revisit my old posts and organize them into a suitable list.

Has anything happened since my last post? A couple things.

I mentioned before that Chris put out a "call-out" to Jason Hawes. Here's a picture of it.

"Inside information" Yeah right. "Knowing" there's a season 2 isn't anything big for cheap-ass reality show like this. That's the secret to how they can keep going with such low ratings, they do not cost much. It's not like the Travel Channel is even that big to begin with. Oh I'm sorry, the "Trvl Channel". What the hell? First "SyFy" now this?

Over on Puppet Steve, earlier this month he posted an abysmal reaction video to the trailer for Ghostbusters Afterlife, the new apology movie from Sony. For whatever reason, Chris decided to show the trailer by filming his monitor and not downloading the video or recording it while it was full-screen on YouTube. Are we in 2009? What is the excuse for this lazy quality? Curious, I looked at an earlier reaction video for Scoob (weeks after the trailer came out) and while he does record his screen, he also plays the trailer in good quality. I think he pauses so he could point his gloved hands and be like "look at that super cool reference, I member it". Yet with Ghostbusters, everything is recorded from his screen. Was Chris just too lazy to download and edit the video?

He's also continuing to do "guest stars" from other YouTube Kids channels. But it seems his viewers aren't falling for it anymore, and his latest "cameo" from Duddy was called out for how fake it was.

The other day on Facebook, he posted a couple pictures he claimed was evidence of a ghost.






I don't see it. I just see an annoying bright photo, and a dark photo. Is the dot in the latter meant to be the ghost? That could be anything. If this is evidence of spirits, then this hobby sucks ass. I can't believe Chris wants to get paid for this, and have a TV show. You can tell he wants that TV show from all the bitterness he's been displaying this year. "Wah wah wah why do Jason and Grant still get to do TV and I don't! Wah wah wah!"

Jason and Grant have a thing called "charisma", and have experience hosting TV shows. Chris, you're about as charismatic as a winter potato. You've been rejected by studios countless times because you're not enthralling enough, you're not entertaining enough. These two were able to keep people captivated and watch their stupid show for 11 seasons (there's a 12th now but that's a revival).

Your lack of charisma really shows in GeekTime. I can barely stand to listen to you ramble on for an hour and a half about popular media. What makes you think people would want to hear you ramble about a niche topic like ghosts for 53 minutes a week? For those wondering, there hasn't been a GeekTime episode since the sixth one from earlier this month. It continues to get savaged in YouTube comments and ratings.

So yeah, stay tuned for the Worst Irate Gamer/Chris Bores Moments of the Decade.
Happy New Year everybody.

Monday, December 16, 2019

A Former Fan Testimony from Mike Dijital

I was going to post about something rather petty and vindictive he wrote on Facebook towards Jason Hawes. However, I think this takes precedent.

The following is a fan testimony from Mike Dijital, a former fan that got legitimately screwed over by Chris' apathy, laziness, and greed. It also reveals something about the Puppet Steve channel.

Due to the format of the story, I have cleaned it up for accessible reading.

Mike was an Irate Gamer super fan. He discovered him through the Super Mario Bros. 2 video and it lead him down the path to other game reviewers like the Angry Video Game Nerd, ProJared, and Rerez. He was even blocked from the Nerd's page for his overzealous defending of the Irate Gamer. Mike bought all of his DVDs. He also stayed in touch with Bores through AIM and Facebook Messenger. He got into arguments with TheArchfiend on the now defunct livevideo.com. That's how much of a fan he was.

Cut ahead to 2019. Mike realized he has lost his old Irate Gamer DVDs, and one day hoping to show the old episodes to his son, he ordered replacement copies. Due to their cost, Mike ordered them in batches. First he ordered Seasons 1-3, and received them in two weeks. Pretty normal so far. A month later he ordered Seasons 4 & 5, and after three weeks he hasn't gotten anything. He sent Chris a message asking about it. Chris tells him he ran out of DVD-Rs and once he gets more he'll send him the copies along with a "bonus". Mike gave him a pass, as he also sells DVDs through eBay and knows the pain of running out.

Two weeks go by and Season 4 & 5 come in. There was no bonus. Not only that, but Season 4's marathon function was broken. The only way to watch it was to individually select each episode and go back to the menu after it ends. A rather tedious feature. Mike sent Chris a message about this bug, and Chris said "I'll fix it".

Later on, Mike ordered History of Video Games 1 & 2. He figured it shouldn't take too long since Chris just got a new batch of DVD-Rs. A month goes by, and no HoVG DVDs. Mike tries contacting Chris again, but this time doesn't get a response. Six weeks after ordering, Mike decides to place a fraud claim on PayPal. Within five days, Chris sent a tracking number to PayPal, but no apology to Mike. Eventually, he gets the HoVG DVDs, which came with a copy of Pursuit of the Paranormal as a bonus. Though Chris just threw the disc into one of the cases, no separate case or anything.

Mike would keep sending him messages about the broken Season 4 DVD, but never got a response. He eventually finds out about GeekTime, and left a comment on Episode 3 that Season 4 is still broken. Chris actually responds.
Editor Note: I have preserved the comment in case Chris tries to delete it and deny it.

After that, Mike hears nothing from him.

Last night, Mike is on eBay looking to get some Minecraft playsets for his son for Christmas. He finds a couple from a seller named bbtopper, and purchases them for $16.99. A couple hours later, he receives a PayPal notification that Chris Bores has refunded him $16.99. This confused him as he hadn't talked to Bores in months, thinking that he was getting a late refund for Season 4. However, he looked into it and found that bbtopper is Chris Bores, and he refunded him on the Minecraft sets. Infuriated that Chris screwed him for a third time, he messages him on eBay and tells him that he crossed the line interfering with his son's Christmas like that, and he'll inform the Irate Gamer Sucks blog about this. Then within a half hour, Chris told him that he gave the toys away and forgot to take the auctions down.

Wow. I knew Chris was a jackass before, but this takes it to another level. Screwing a fan that gave you years of support, and even gave you his money.
And really, not removing pages for items you don't have seems incredibly irresponsible. Especially if you're trying to make yourself a notable eBay store.
Thanks to Mike's testimony, I now have an answer to "where does Chris keep all those toys he presents on Puppet Steve". The answer is he sells them on eBay.

Here's a collectors.com page for him: Do these toys look familiar?
In fact, those Transformers BotBot toys listed are the ones featured in his latest Puppet Steve video (as of this writing). There's also a Boo made of wood that looks familiar. I swear he's been trying to sell that thing for years.
Another note about Puppet Steve. About a week ago he posted a "reaction" video to the trailer for Ghostbusters: Afterlife. It was one of the most poorly done videos he's ever made. Rather than download the trailer, or even putting a YouTube video in fullscreen and capturing his screen, he records his computer with his camera. What is this, 2008 Let's Plays? Feels like Slowbeef should be mocking it for looking like shit. It was a badly done "reaction" with several pauses to point out the obvious. Though one part that bothered me and my informant is how he says "kids like us". So Puppet Steve is supposed to be a kid? Then why does he sound like a 40 year old man. Chris barely does a voice on Puppet Steve, so you got this deep voice going "I'm a kid". It's like a bad Ren & Stimpy routine.

I'll get to Chris' "call-out" of Jason Hawes another time.

Major special thanks to Mike Dijital for coming forward with this. I know it wasn't easy after years of support. But it's better now that this information is out in the open for people to see.
If anyone else has any similar stories, please let me know.

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Video Game Dumpster Fire on GeekTime

Much to my surprise, Chris is still doing GeekTime. Posted Episode 6 two days ago. From what I'm hearing, it's one hell of an episode.

It opens with them talking about Dark Phoenix. Boy that's late.
Chris complains that it's "too dark". Uhh no shit. The Dark Phoenix Saga wasn't a happy story, it was meant to be a darker tale. Of course, Fox messed up for completely different reasons.
Tim does most of the talking as Chris ends up admitting he only watched the ending. This keeps happening!
Chris ends up revealing he didn't like Logan (what the fuck) and X-Men Origins Wolverine. Are we just pretending that video you made where you called it "All that and a bag of potato chips" doesn't exist? Just because you removed it from your channel doesn't mean it didn't happen. RedLetterMedia made damn sure of that. Then again, he turned around about Ghostbusters 2016 after saying "it wasn't that bad". Now he's saying "it sucks!"
How did you not like Logan? It's a damn good movie. Oh right, this is the man that likes Pixels. Until he admits on the podcast that he doesn't.
Chris' other complaints with Dark Phoenix were the lack of Wolverine and Mr. Sinister. Wolverine is dead until the MCU reboot, and the Mr. Sinister plot point they set up was clearly lost. Not going to come back.

They bring up the Black Widow movie and are upset that Robert Downey Jr is going to appear. ... And that's a problem why? It's set before Infinity War & Endgame, so Tony Stark would be alive. Just saying.

Then they get into the three billionth rant on how Rian Johnson killed Star Wars. Again, Star Wars was "killed" by greedy executives that completely misread trends. Disney realized their mistake and that's why the theatrical franchise is going on a break after The Rise of Skywalker comes out. Not that it matters since people (including all these "fans") are going to keep giving them money. They'll keep buying the toys, the t-shirts, the video games, they'll watch The Mandalorian on Disney Plus. By the way, Chris & Tim do not talk about Disney Plus at all in this episode. That is weird since it's the hot new thing right now. Once again, Chris misses the boat.
Chris also does a dumb joke where he claims Disney is making a Porg Cinematic Universe. It comes out of nowhere.

Tim starts talking about Cobra Kai, the YouTube original series following The Karate Kid several years later. During it he comments how Johnny and Daniel could become friends, which Chris interjects "like Irate Gamer and AVGN". Again, it comes out of nowhere! For someone that wants to really forget about Irate Gamer, he keeps bringing it up.
Chris also states that the people making the new Ghostbusters movie should look to Cobra Kai as "inspiration". ... That's dumb.

There's a weird bit where Tim brings up Seinfeld coming to Netflix, and complains that it's going to be in 4K. ... No it won't. That would require extensive remastering, something that's probably not going to happen.

And then, this is where the inferno happens. Chris and Tim get into video game news, and we're gonna get some insane ignorance.

Chris starts by bringing up the Playstation 5. Claiming it's "weird" that Sony would announce that. ... Why? Why is that weird?! Then he tops it saying "Do we need a Playstation 5?" ... Yes! Do you not understand how console generations work? After a period of time, console makers release a new model that's better than the last one. The PS5 will have more power and features than the PS4. That's how consoles worked for the past 30+ years!
Then he claims the PS4 is everything you need and you don't need a new console. That is a beyond retarded mindset. PS5 will allow developers to do things they couldn't do on PS4, that's the whole point!
I really don't get how that's "weird". Everyone expected Sony to put out a PS5. Weird would be Sony putting a successor to the Vita.

Tim shows his total lack of knowledge, saying he can't tell the difference between the PS3 and PS4. Maybe get your eyes checked.
Then claims consoles are "internet based" now. ... That's inaccurate. Well there digital downloads and patches, you don't have to be 100% connected. As long as you have the disc/cartridge or the downloaded title, you can play it. Being 100% connected is what killed the Xbox One for several years. If you guys are going to do a podcast, shouldn't you research?
Tim then asks if PS4 has 4K. Which Chris doesn't know. Like I said. Research. No, the regular PS4 is not capable of 4K. The PS4 Pro is.

Tim makes a comment that the "gaming nerds are gonna be so mad at us". Soooo... you're trying to reach out to as many "geeks" and "nerds" as possible. Maaaaaybe insulting them isn't the best idea. I wonder why nobody's listening.
And then, Chris says what might be the most shocking and surprising thing he has ever said in his 12 year career on YouTube. "I'm very casual" ... I... I can't believe it. The Irate Gamer... is casual! Very causal even. How did I not see this?! My world is shat- okay enough of that joke.
So, I guess Chris is done with that lie. Just giving it up. He was never good at hiding that he knew nothing about gaming. He further adds that he's "extremely casual about new consoles". So why even talk about it?
Tim tries to save him by saying "But you're big with the NES!" It's too late Tim. He exposed himself. And really, you shouldn't talk Tim. He outright admits the last gaming thing he cared about was getting his girlfriend a Wii. That's at least 12-13 years ago. He's been out of it for over a decade.

For some reason, he brings up Simpsons Hit & Run. How he wants a remaster but there's licensing problems. Yeah, lots of problems. Hit & Run was published by Vivendi Universal, who are now part of Activision. The rights went to EA, who still have a stranglehold on them thanks to Tapped Out. The developer, Radical Entertainment, are basically skeleton studio now, only supporting other Activision games. Basically, this is why remasters and re-releases of licensed games are so rare.

But then he also mentions the game's "limitations". That's what new consoles are for! A new console would remove any possible limitations. Like making Lisa's hair look less weird in 3D. I know you admitted you're casual but holy crap.

Then he starts talking about the Final Fantasy VII remake, and the way he talks about it, he sounds like he just learned it exists. I know you mentioned it in 2015 in your E3 video. Do not tell me your memory is THAT bad! ... Even though I should be used to that by now.
He talks about "paywalls". ... What paywalls? I know there's some minor DLC, but I haven't heard anything about a paywall. No... get this. He seems to think that the FFVII remake, is PS5 exclusive. Even though it hasn't been announced for that (yet), and it's clearly a PS4 game out in three months. Are you that sheltered that you somehow don't know it's a PS4 game?!

By the way, Tim goes "Seven is the one with Sephiroth right?' Oy vey...
To make things worse. Chris can't pronounce Aerith, refers to Shinra and Midgar as "characters" (unless you mean President Shinra and Rufus, but I doubt that). Then he gets upset because his two "favorite" characters haven't been shown. Red XIII and Cait Sith. First off, Cait Sith? Really? Second, of course they haven't been shown. The entirety of the game takes place in Midgar, a massive expansion compared to the original. Red XIII doesn't show up until the final part of Midgar, and Cait Sith doesn't show up until the Gold Saucer, which won't be until the next game. In Red XIII's case, they're not going to spoil the final act in previews. This isn't Kingdom Hearts III.

Then they talk about the Avengers game from Square-Enix, a book about NES games, and then the rest of the podcast is not important.

Hoo boy was that bad. I mean, most of it was boring as sin, but once they started talking about video games it just spiraled out of control. Would it kill you to do research into the topics you discuss? Oh right, look who I'm asking.
As of this posting, Chris has not uploaded this episode to YouTube. I imagine it will go the same as the others. Barely any views, lots of dislikes. Even on the comments on his Facebook don't care about the episode. Is this really worth continuing Chris? You're gonna have to find something, especially with YouTube's policy changes killing Puppet Steve.

Speaking of Puppet Steve, what has that been up to?
Latest video is a reaction to the trailer for Scoob, that upcoming CGI animated Scooby-Doo movie. A trailer that came out three weeks ago. Again, real quick on the uptake.
However... a few days ago he uploaded a video covering Heroes of Goo Jit Zu action figures, a line of toys where they're squishy and gooey on the inside. For some baffling reason, Chris decided to add an Asian Conical Hat to Steve... and give him slanted eyes. Blatant racism for the kids! Feels like I'm watching Bugs Bunny in 1944. It's only in the thumbnail, but even so that is just wrong. Maybe you should leave Ohio for once in your life Chris. Go see the world. Realize that a racist mind is a filthy mind.

Sorry if this post seems all out of sorts.