God's grace is sufficient for you and for me.  I'm here with Tom and Amy and Tom. Tell us, we're gonna dive into grace. Well, amazing grace, how sweet the sound. We've all heard that, right? But what exactly is God's grace and how does it work together with faith? Well, Craig Ireland will be with us to share how God's grace leads us to salvation, but it also gives us wisdom, encouragement for all believers. It's a great subject, something that we talk about, but it's good to define what it really is. Well, we're sitting here because of God's grace on our live. You're here, you're watching because of, you've been touched by God's grace. And also, I've been touched in a big way, guys, because today, 26 years ago on Easter Sunday in 1997, we moved to Pittsburgh and had our first church service. So I'm standing and just swimming in the grace of God. I love the city more than ever. I love the church more than ever. I love God's people more than ever. I love him more than ever. So I think there is a way, Sydney, in life through grace, which God gives us what we don't deserve through grace, that we can really enjoy our life and fulfill God's purpose for our life. I first wanna say congratulations. You said 26 years? 26 years is a day. That's awesome. Congratulations. That's awesome. That's steady. They're a little late on to get back. It's all good. But it is, it's so important. It's like understanding God's grace. And sometimes it's unfathomable just to think of the places that we may have been, the places we may have walked in or stumbled and just because of his hand that is upon us that saves us from it all. Yes, and we, of course, are continuing in prayer for the situation in Nashville and seeing pictures of the pastor's family that broke my heart today. But Sydney, we had a situation yesterday as well. Yeah, so there was like hoax that were happening here in the city of Pittsburgh schools around that they were on lockdown. And so like, thankfully nothing like happened, but I know this is such a heightened time. You know, a lot of parents are worried, they're fearful of sending their children to school. And I just really hope for in our country in general that this is a true wake-up call, that there has to be changes that are made in our school systems and with the government. I think we're at like a crucial, crucial part. We've been there. I think it's, but it's time for their things to be enacted and there to be changed. Cause it's just heartbreaking to think about being in school. I remember when Columbine like back in, was it 99 and just having that whole thing and what it did in the fear that was in the school, but just for it to be continuing over and over again. I mean, I'm at a loss for words right now for what's like happened in our country. We have a major crisis. I can't imagine a hoax call coming in, like who would do that saying, you know, active shooter and putting an entire school system. And honestly, they shut down really a whole chunk of the city locked down because of these threats. So. Were you texting me yesterday? I texted him because of- I was at my desk. This is after we had recorded the show.  And I tried to, I couldn't find anything online. And we were texting back and forth. I don't, I don't see anything online. And then finally I saw what it was and it was on lockdown several schools here, but not thankfully anything that was real. So we can thank God for that. But yeah, how messed up is that? So well, look, we've got a lot going on and we've got to entrust that to a faithful God. You know, at one point or another in our lives, we've all sinned. Sin is what separates us from God and keeps us in bondage. Thankfully it's by God's grace. Boy, what do we need God's grace today? But it's what leads us to repentance. If he forgives us of our sins. And Craig Ireland is our next guest and in his book by grace alone, he shares what God's grace is and what's the link between guilt, grace, forgiveness and salvation. Craig, welcome to Hope Today all the way from Australia. That's right. Thanks for having me. Thank you for being with us at 11 o'clock at night, I think. That's right, yeah. Thank you so much. But first of all, tell us about this book and its story because you, this has got your name on it, but it's got someone else's fingerprints all over it. Tell us that story. That's right and I'm glad we're opening up with that admission that the genius of this work is certainly not mine. This is a revision of a little book written by the 19th century Victorian era Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon. His original was called All of Grace and it has just been such a rich source of encouragement for me and so many over the years that I thought it was time for a revision and so I've worked through this book thoroughly, I tried to update it as best I can while retaining some of the richness of Spurgeon's prose and certainly his message, I believe, is still very much apparent. It's a wonderful word on God's grace and even as you've said, Tom, none of us are deserving. If it was something we merited, then it would be a wage, it would be a salary, but no, we receive it despite what we deserve and that is God's goodness and grace toward us. Well, I think that anybody in London, anybody in England 150 years ago would have known immediately who Charles Spurgeon. He was a famous, the Prince of Preachers, but tell us, he wrote this book, like you said, to lead unbelievers. Why does that message of grace resonate with people that need to know God? That's right, yeah. Charles Spurgeon was born in 1834 in England and lived his entire life there. He had some, a few trips over to France for his health, but for the most part, he was an Englishman through and through and really this message of grace is perennial. It doesn't have an expiration date. It's not gonna suddenly become unnecessary because each and every one of us has found ourselves in a place of brokenness, woundedness, sinfulness. And what this message of grace is that God's not calling us to self renovate before we come to him and receive his goodness and his love. God is simply calling us as we are. In fact, I would say that the gospel of Jesus Christ and the way Spurgeon has communicated that is that the good news of Jesus is that your sin is actually qualifying you to come to Christ. As Jesus himself said, he hasn't come to call the righteous to repentance, but the sinful, the rebellious, the wayward, which of course every one of us in moments of real honesty can acknowledge that's our story too. And God calls us in and through the gospel to receive and embrace Jesus Christ as our savior. Well, you know, many people, they think that, I think it's a common thing to think, oh, I've got to deserve salvation. I've got to earn salvation. Where do you think people get this idea? Well, I think that's also a part of the contaminating sinful nature that we all have, right? It's the height of hubris for any one of us to acknowledge that salvation is something we need and then imagine selfishly that we could actually earn it. We could achieve it and we could merit it. But the good news of Jesus is better news than that. It says you can't actually do enough good to overturn the bad of your life, but Jesus is enough.  No matter how bad it's gotten for us, no matter what our track record is or what's in our past, we come as we are. And so I think the inclination to get ourselves ready or to prepare or to try and earn salvation is part of the curse. And we need to repent of that as much as we would repent of any other form of self-righteousness and, of course, other sins in our life. But I have to tell you, Greg, in this modern age we don't really like to think of ourselves as guilty, do we? I mean, we kind of, it's a self-justifying age in many cases. What do we do with explaining God's mercy, but also his justice? How do we sort that all out for contemporary society? Yeah, sometimes in our modern technologically advanced world, it can be offensive to tell someone, hey, you're in need of God's mercy. I've had people stop me in the street as I've tried to explain the good news of Jesus. And they've said, what do you think any of that's got to do with me? I'm fine, I've done well. I've got a few blips on the radar. I've got a few black marks in my record. But the truth is, I'm a pretty good guy. And yet we go to Jesus and we see a different message. We see the message of Jesus is so disruptive to our overly flattering views that we have of ourselves. We're born into a sinfulness.  But he will intervene with the remedy that is Jesus who lives, dies and rises to save us from this contaminant that is sin. The truth is if people are unable to acknowledge their need for Jesus, they simply can't have Jesus. And that's of course often the first challenge that people face in our modern world. Craig, we live in an area that is very religious and taught through works and deeds and actions, I will get closer to God. What is the big difference between religion and grace? Yeah, yeah, it's so good. And the Bible pulls no punches, right?  They're contaminated. And so what grace is as God said, you can't be enough and you can't be good enough, but Jesus is. And here is Jesus who lives entirely sin-free where, hey, we all failed to do that. All sin, all falls short of God's glorious standard. And this is why it's grace. God's not asking you to achieve and do and work harder. God is asking everyone of us to simply receive Jesus Christ with a heart of faith. There's nothing that could be more gracious than that. And Craig, I just wanna know, what is your personal story, your personal testimony of encountering God's grace? Yeah, I grew up in a completely unbelieving home. Family, atheistic, unbelievers. And when I was in the third grade, public school, English wasn't, I wasn't highly proficient at the time. I stumbled upon an old King James Bible in a rummage drawer at home. I pulled it out, started reading at Genesis. I plowed through to about Exodus, and it was hard going. That old Elizabethan 1611 English was very challenging to read, but I got a real sense of God's goodness and His holiness and His justice. I just didn't read far enough into the book to read about Christ and the intervention of grace and mercy and love and salvation. And so it took a number of years before I encountered a Christian. You know, Australian culture isn't nearly as Christianized or immersed with Christian ideas and churches as North America tends to be. I lived there for a number of years and I passed it in Texas and New York state. So I have a sense of the difference, but I met a Christian who told me about Jesus and His love for sinners like me if I would just receive Him by faith. A simple act of trusting in Christ and all sins are washed away in eternal life is instantaneously granted. Wow, wow, I love that. I love that, very straightforward and simple.  I met a Christian, yeah. I love that. Well, let me ask you... Let's all be that kind of Christian, right? Yeah. Let's be those of angels. Yeah, I mean, there are people, aren't there? There are people around just waiting for something to believe in, waiting for the gospel and the glorious good news. And we're so shy so often. Yeah, yeah, you know, it's interesting. I had an experience like this just two weeks ago. I was at a local place where I was enjoying a coffee and some chat with some friends and a young guy walked over, sat down at our table. That's fairly socially awkward. And he said, are you guys talking about Jesus? Tell me everything you know. I've never heard anything about Jesus before and he was so receptive and open and honest. I was just blown away. There are people out there all around us and they're there all the time that are waiting for us just an act of courage to go and speak the love of Christ to them. Wow, man, I love that. I just, you know, just last night, I was teaching Wednesday night church and a young man, he was in Lowe's buying supplies to do, he works as a contractor and he felt God prompt him to go over and say, hey, I'm a Christ follower and I just wanted you to know that God loves you. And the guy said, you're the second person that's told me that today. You're my, and he has a role. So, you know, God's preparing the hearts of people and we need to be those people that do that. But let me ask you about something I think is confusing to people sometimes. What's the connection between repentance and forgiveness? I mean, what is repentance? And why is it a necessary step towards forgiveness? Yeah, this is something I see often. You mentioned it just now that we find people get this confused. They often struggle with the relationship in the Christian life between receiving salvation by faith. And you know, faith is a fruit bearing faith. So of course, Paul deals with this in several places, but you know, the place that feels most apparent to me right now is Ephesians 2 where he talks about verse eight by grace through faith, i.e. saved, not of works lest anyone should boast. And then in verse 10, he goes on and explains that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works. The faith that we have is a saving faith because it lays hold of God's goodness. And the faith that we have also bears fruit. The fruit itself doesn't save us. Only God's goodness and grace does that. But of course, when we've received Christ by faith, we live out our life of repentance and we're always seeking greater levels of conformity to Christ and sanctification, not to use too many big theological terms here, but we're just striving to be like Jesus is what the essence of that is. Well, tell me about grace in the life of a believer. Now another book, and again, the book is called by Grace alone, Craig Ireland. But tell me about grace in the life of a believer. We know we can't be saved except by God's grace. But how does grace function for someone who's following Christ and continues to follow Christ for years and years? Yeah, we don't ever outgrow the need for grace, right? That's such a good reminder and we need that often that grace is a daily experience. The book of Lamentations tells us God's mercies are new every morning. And I don't need anyone else to put their hand up. I'll raise my hand boldly and say, I need those mercies every morning. And that's the wonderful beauty of God's grace. It is a never ending fountain of His goodness. Now that doesn't mean, of course, we use God's grace as a license for sin. We strive to honor God's goodness toward us in lives of increased repentance and faith and trust and good works. But we know that we've never attained right standing before God on the basis of who we are or what we've done, but always on the basis of Christ. And that is an eternal relationship. In fact, not just in this life, but of course in the life to come in glory, we will always understand and acknowledge that God's grace has granted us this perfect experience of salvation which we thank the Lord for. Craig, would you take a moment? Our nation is wounded right now. Even our city, Pittsburgh is feeling fear because of the hoaxes yesterday at our schools. Would you take a moment and pray for God's grace for this nation and for us as individuals? I'd be so glad to do that. Just as you shared earlier, my heart has been breaking to see these scenes and the reports and the narrative unfold. So let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask His grace upon this situation. Father God, we thank you for your providential care. Father God, there are times when we just scratch our head and we wonder what on earth could the reason be for such great tragedy? And yet Lord God, we know that all around us is evidence of the brokenness of humanity. The human experience is a fallen experience. It's an experience of pain and difficulty and struggle. And sometimes even things, as we've seen the tragedies in the news recently, Lord God, our heart breaks for that. I would pray also that our heart would cry out to you in that and we would know that you are good. We wouldn't question your benevolence, your love, your sovereign rule, but we would understand that your goodness prevails and there's a transcendental goodness that you are perpetually bringing about your glorious purposes in this world despite the evil and the chaos and the tragedy that so often we're confronted with. Lord God, I pray that you use this tragedy. I pray that you use it to exalt Jesus and help people to see Him, to know Him, to cry out to Him and to receive grace in Him. Lord God, we pray the comfort upon those families that have lost loved ones. We pray comfort upon those first responders that so bravely, so bravely risked their life to help and save others. Lord God, we just pray for the cities and the nations around the world that are seeing these images and are asking big questions as to why and how and what purpose and meaning could this have. I pray to Lord God, you would use this for gospel ends in the lives of countless many in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. The book is called by Grace Alon, a heartfelt word with those seeking salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ, Craig Arlen. Thank you so much for being with us, joining us all the way from Australia. Thank you. I've really appreciated it. God bless you guys. Thank you. Well, Grace is such an important subject for us. When we come back, we're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, we're gonna talk about Grace and talk about God's salvation. When Laura called our 24-7 prayer line, she had so much fear that she didn't want to leave her house. She had lost her husband of 54 years, just six months earlier. Laura was flipping through TV stations when she came across Cornerstone Television. She felt compelled to call. One of our prayer partners talked, listened, and prayed with her for 45 minutes. At the end, Laura said how much the ministry had helped relieve her fear. Praise God for how He's using CTVN. When you give, you become part of what He's doing. This month, when you give, we'll send wild expectance as our way of saying thank you. This book will inspire you to live your life as God intended. To give and request your copy, visit us online at ctvn.org slash donate or call us at<PHONE_NUMBER>. Hope happens here. Today, we are talking about Grace. We are talking about forgiveness. We are talking about repentance.  You know, I recently was in a store. That's a surprise, shocker. I was in a store and I was talking to a dear friend and this dear friend knows that I am a pastor and this dear friend, I didn't know where this person stood with the Lord but it ended up that everybody left the store and there was this moment.  I just want to tell you that I don't believe in eternity. They said, I don't believe in an afterlife. And I was just like, what? Like, I can't imagine eternity without you in it. I can't imagine heaven without you there with me. And I said, here's the deal. If you're right and I'm wrong, I lose nothing. But if I'm right and you're wrong, you lose everything. An eternity with a loving, good, gracious, forgiving Father. And there's a scripture in Ephesians two for it was only through this wonderful grace that we believed in him. Nothing that we did could ever earn this salvation for it is the gracious gift from God that brought us to Christ. It is a gracious gift from God. So no one will ever be able to boast for salvation is never a reward for good works or for human striving. This is something that you don't have to strive for. You don't have to work for. You don't have to earn it. You don't have to be good enough. You don't have to be perfect.  I've tried it on my own and it hasn't worked out. I'm striving. I'm struggling.  Maybe you're in a place where you have a doctorate. You've got everything going on.  Well today's the day to stop everything and don't wake up one more day without the firm assurance that you have asked Jesus Christ to be the Lord and savior of your life. So we're gonna do that right now. Like today's your day. Don't mess around. This is not the day to mess around. This is not the time to play games. This is not the time to be wondering, you know, is there really, there is a God and he loves you passionately. He sent his son who lived a perfect life, who died a brutal death, who was buried three days rose again for you. He had you in mind. He had your face, your picture, your name ahead of him. It said, for this joy set before him, he endured the cross. You were the joy. So today is your day. Will you pray this prayer with me? Will you just say, Father God, I've fallen short. I have sinned. I have struggled. I have strived and I have royally messed up and God I repent and I ask that you forgive me and I receive your forgiveness. And Jesus, I ask you to come into my heart, be the Lord and the savior of my life.  You're the master. You're the Lord. You're my shepherd from now on. In Jesus' name, amen. And here's the deal. If you prayed that prayer, will you give us a call at<PHONE_NUMBER>. We wanna talk with you and we wanna help you on those next steps in your walk with God. Sydney and Tom, I know that we all are sitting here today because we have tasted of the grace of God in our life. You know, just Amy, when you were just sharing, I just think of this as a song like, oh, come to the altar. The Father's arms are opened wide. Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Christ. And you know, the one thing I just love about Jesus is that it's for all. Doesn't matter where you are or where you stand. He died for all of us. We're all equal. And so today that is our heart cry for you is just to know Jesus, to come into his arms. Jesus is the way, the truth and the light. No one can come to the Father except through Christ Jesus. He is the only way. And that's why Cornerstone Television Network here on Hope Today, that's our mission. This is why we exist. It's for moments that Amy just shared is an opportunity for you to know about Jesus and to come into salvation. There's nothing like being with Jesus. There's nothing when you give your life to him. And I'm not gonna, we're not gonna promise and say everything's gonna be A-okay all of a sudden just like that. It's not a popcorn faith. It's not a microwave faith. But there's something beautiful when you begin to walk with Jesus as he begins to walk through your troubles and your trials and begins to speak to your heart. And maybe this is the first time that you've given your life to Christ or rededicated yourself. Then we want you to get connected to a local body. There's so many, whether you're in Pittsburgh, whether in Pennsylvania, America, anywhere around the world. It is so important to connect to a local assembly. We cannot do life alone. And that's why Jesus has created his church, his ecclesia, his body so that we can do life together. And in times like these, I know there's so many news reports. There's a lot that's happening in our world. There's so many shakings. And I think it's getting really real and really scary for a lot of us. But the only hope that we have is in Christ and in Christ alone. That's it. So we just extend this invitation to you today. Make sure you give us a call or maybe you are walking in fear. Maybe the things that you're seeing that are happening all around the news, all around the world, it has you paralyzed. But just know Jesus is with all of us. And even though there's darkness and gross darkness is coming all over the world, that he's arising and he's shining and his light is shining and piercing through the darkness and we get to be part of that. Isn't that beautiful?  Well, we're so glad that you joined us for hope today. And we just pray that today that you would encounter, that you would know God's grace like never before because Jesus paid the ultimate price for you. On tomorrow's Hope Today, inspiring the next generation with Christ-centered music. Christian music artist Sean B. stops by to perform some of his joy-filled upbeat music and to share how God is using him to help spread the light of Jesus into the world. That's tomorrow on Hope Today. Cornerstone Television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.


Hey everyone, how's it going? I am here. I'm on camera. That's great I've actually been a little sick this past week even our schedule recording of the podcast I canceled it because I have the flu like symptoms. I've been I just haven't been feeling good. Hopefully I'm looking all right today Today is the best I've felt in a while. So some sniffles took some medicine Whatever we're dealing and we're dealing because astral chain Came out yesterday. Now by all accounts. It's a pretty fantastic game. I think it has 87 currently a metacritic And ultimately it's a game that I plan to pick up in the future For those who don't know I did sell my Nintendo switch not because I wanted to but because after I have my heart attack I Had a lot of financial Problems cropping up and I basically had to sell anything I could to cover my bills Unfortunately that meant my switch was a casualty. Don't worry working. I get a new job gonna get a new switch all that stuff That'll be all taken care before the end of the year And what's nice with the new switch is I'll get that better battery life switch You know, I'm getting that better battery life switch And we'll be rocking later and playing astral chain and all the other great amazing switch games that come out the rest of This year, but here's the thing the astral chain Metacritic rating in particular Has user scores now user ratings and user scores are not new they exist everywhere Amazon GameStop The PlayStation Network store the Xbox store user reviews and user ratings exist everywhere And I have been told and force-fed by many fans over the years that you should trust user scores and user reviews over The more traditional media critics the more IGNs and game spots of the world and the reason we're being told this is often because a lot of gamers have this perception That these companies are shills that they are paid Reviews now paid reviews do exist. In fact right here on YouTube is actually one of the worst Culprits of paid reviews because when paid reviews happen on YouTube, they're not often disclosed Which is actually against the law and there have been many companies and YouTubers caught over time right here on YouTube doing that thing Accepting not just a free copy of the game But an actual payment to review that game which obviously is going to skew that review Especially if it's not disclosed in fact in my personal opinion if a company is paying you You should not call your video a review because if you cannot Objectively, I don't even see objectively because I don't think reviews are objective But I don't think you could fairly review a product if you're receiving a paycheck from the company knowingly receiving a paycheck from the company For that game like you know if the company has an ad running at my video I don't we don't control that but if you know, we know we received a paycheck directly from that company Or a representative of that company then you shouldn't review the game And this has been a major issue on YouTube and I don't go out of my way to call people out for it Unless it's going to be someone within my circle and as far as I'm aware other youtubers related to me that you guys might be aware of With a small wave or player essence supermodel. They've none of us have been paid to do reviews So I don't think that is something and personally for me. It's not I go I go even further than that There's been games in the past that I've had sponsorships for and I won't review those games I don't review a lot of games anyways, but if I am going to review a game It's not going to be one I ever received a paycheck for in any possible way So if I got you know paid to do a live stream with something or I got an ad spot No, you know like a 30 second ad spot on my video or something I'm not going to review it and I bring all this up because the trust between you guys and These youtubers seems to be stronger than the trust between you guys and an IGN or Kotaku Where there's actually less and less real cases of them being paid for their reviews I'm not going to say it's never happened But the amount of times they've actually been caught and busted and all that is actually in the single digits in comparison to the dozens and dozens of youtubers that have been guilty of doing this multiple times over the last 10 years So it's interesting because I'm not even going to say you should trust youtuber reviews more than you should trust IGN You should trust you know me more than you should trust, you know gain spot or something What I am going to say is I think that critical reviews and aggregate sites like open critic and Metacritic that the actual Professionals are probably the better to trust If you're just looking to get a general view of the landscape of a game not on an individual basis But if you just want a general landscape of hey is this game good Then user reviews and we're going to get into why Astral chains obviously at the center of this, but I've been dealing with user reviews of products and games and a whole bunch of things for years and I often you know when I buy something specifically off Amazon I'm always looking at the user reviews because I want it to be four and a half stars You know rated or better, and I want most of the user reviews be positive But if you go down into the actual review section on Amazon I'm not going to show you it right now It could be a bit of a cesspool. There could be people who didn't even buy the product. There could be This happens a lot on Amazon. This is kind of one of those unsaid things on Amazon People are paid to write reviews on Amazon To give a product positive I get emails every single day some from companies that I have bought products from in the past Saying hey look, we'll give you 20 bucks if you go put a positive review of our product on Amazon I've refused every time even though I need money because In fact, oftentimes if it's a company I've bought a product from I just will blacklist them and never buy a product from them again I don't believe you should pay for reviews. I understand encouraging me that you want to send me a reminder You know, hey, do you enjoy our product? Why not go leave a review? I don't think that's shady But if you're offering monetary compensation, I think that is and that's littered all over Amazon Metacritic is interesting because it allows user reviews And Metacritic doesn't really have a way to confirm whether you bought the game or not at least on Amazon You can kind of filter reviews. It doesn't affect the overall rating for you Unfortunately, but you could filter the individual rules between like confirm like hey They bought this through Amazon and then people who who didn't maybe buy through Amazon who claim they bought it But you can't confirm if they did Well, Metacritic has no way to know if someone bought a game because they are not a retailer But what I find interesting about it is review bombing But more than review bombing It's also the polar opposite the amount of positive reviews a product can get which may not be warranted Basically, I don't think user reviews are reliable. I don't think they've ever been reliable It doesn't mean you as a consumer, you know couldn't go purchase after a chain and leave an actual real good feedback on a place like Metacritic That does exist, but I think there's too much going all over the place heck even on Steam where this happens to be not Actually informative to me as a consumer First let's talk about review bombing. So for those who don't know what review bombing is Review bombing is basically where a big group of people get together to lower the user rated score on a product For one reason or another that's often not related to whether or not that product is deserving of said rating that We that reasons often political that reason is also social that reasons often fanboy ish That reason could be a billion things, you know, you find out that say ex developer of some game Sexually harass someone. Oh, we need to go in the thousands and review bomb their games on steam That is something that has happened over and over again And I think it's disingenuous to the game because that person wasn't the only person that worked on that game And I think it's unfair to hold one person even if it was the founder of the company Even if it's the lead creative or lead producer lead director of the game I still still think it is not okay to do that because there are other people who made that game whose mouths deserved to be fed and I don't think that's what user review ratings should be for you can be you can have social movements against someone Without having to go in and use a system that's intended to tell people if the game is good or not To voice your displeasure There's obviously fanboy reasons, you know, we see this a lot of Nintendo gamers Where a game comes exclusively to a platform and you get a ton and ton of hate Now Bayonetta 2 is often cited as an example of this But just remember getting a lot of hate from PlayStation and Xbox fans when it was announced as a switch exclusive Which was understandable all the time because Bayonetta wasn't on Nintendo's platforms But it was on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 So it didn't make a lot of sense for it to not be on those platforms until we obviously found out later That without Nintendo Bayonetta 2 would have never existed Sega didn't pick up the rights to to make it anymore. They didn't want to fund it anymore And nobody else came along to fund it Honestly, it was Nintendo or nothing Bayonetta would have just died as a standalone game And there's probably some gamers out there so salty about it still to this day that even with Bayonetta 3 coming They may be wish that the franchise ended at one because they'd rather see that than see it on Nintendo Those are more haters.   I hate it for social reasons I hate it for fanboy reasons Astro chain the latest game from platinum games There's one of the top rated one of the top five rated games to release on Switch this year has fallen victim to review bombing Let's check it out now because there honestly isn't a lot of user reviews out there for this game I checked Amazon and GameStop and a whole bunch of places and there's like zero user reviews so we basically have Metacritic is the only place where user reviews are happening right now and Wow As you can see here, we have 58 critic reviews being counted on here for a total score of 87 I think open critics right around the same rating open critic doesn't do the weighted system that Metacritic does will as we don't know a Metacritic has they wait Specific reviewers as having more say than others So even if you get counted in this 58 critics your review might not be worth as much as IGN For this overall rating, but bottom line is it's all positives. I think there was and shows it right here They had 56 positive reviews to mixed zero negative. So nobody thinks it's a bad game from the critics That's really all you need to see but you go over here and this doesn't even look that bad right here, right? 365 positive ratings seven mixed 21 negative but the thing about the user review area is that it's not about What was said because you don't need to say anything to leave a review You could just click a rating and leave it at that and for that there's been much more. In fact, there is 1149 user ratings and Somewhere it used to tell me how many of them were negative There was like 300 negative or something at the time of poses Which is still only like both 30% of the the scores But it's put it down to a 7.0 when you see a discrepancy from an 87 to a 7.0 that usually signifies Review bombing you know anything that's all that that shows that big of a discrepancy. That's generally review bombing and I mentioned You know bayonetta 2 this is why I don't think bayonetta 2 is really review bomb because you look at this You know, it was only 317 ratings So by the way a lot more ratings on Astro chain than the bayonetta 2 And it's listed as a medical in the fullest play and it's got a user score 8.5 to 92. That's not review bombing I'm sorry, you know, it's got zero negative written reviews to me. That's not that's not review bombing But Astro chain was review bombed and you could tell that by some of the ratings So let's just go into the 390 3 user reviews and just read some of the so there we go Now we got a better idea so 353 negative 798 positive 12 mixed The mixed ones I personally I feel our people that actually play the game Some of the positive ones are gonna be people who didn't play the game We'll get into that in a moment for now. We're gonna focus on the negative. This guy's name is literally ps3 fan 2 You know, you can rely on an objective opinion on a Nintendo game When you just named ps3 fan 2 he says fantastic graphics, but everything else is mediocre outright poor Go buy devil may cry 5 or bayonetta for a true action game experience Gameplay is worse than your automata. You know, so every game he mentions our games that aren't on switch You know, he didn't say bayonetta 2 says bayonetta, which I mean you can get that on Nintendo platforms I'm including switch, but that may cry 5 isn't Near automata isn't notice how all the games he mentioned our games are conveniently on his preferred platform Again, this doesn't really feel a I mean, I'm surprised he gave it a 4 and out of straight up 0 Must just be a fan of platinum. So maybe we got lucky got a fan of platinum here But all right, so I re-ranked all these according to user score just to make it easier to find and went to the last page Dama underscore mama Reset era made me do this bunch of little whiny internet juice warriors So people are mad at people being happy about the game and reset era came over and did this This review contains spoilers in other language hard to really tell Hardcore game fan another miss from platinum games the combat's very shallow and involves just spamming the same move or simple combo Over and over get a little bit harder these games may be shallowing this fun for this game They decided to bloat the game with a focus on narrative. So this one I will say Looks like they may be touched it Maybe they could just be looking at it as well So this one might be a legit one, but then you know a very overrated game But he saves for 10 bucks when he gave it a zero. So Again a very hyperbolic User review again. This is not something you'd see a professional over do you don't give a game that you think is actually worse Some money is zero Zill legend awful awful do not recommend the combat's not cool as the trailers made it seem characters are boring That's why the controls are hit and miss do not lie. This person probably didn't even play the game This person just goes on and on and on about how much they don't like the game They think it's a cash grab for some reason, you know, here's the funny thing in this game was in development longer than near Automata was that a lot of these customers say is better a better game. So like it's definitely not a quick cash grab Here's a complaint about 30 FPS Oh because 30 FPS must be bad right like like they haven't been playing games on the other systems 30 FPS forever. Let's move on to the page for here. We've got some even more, you know of those Amazing ratings. Oh, look at those 10s popping in. Let's get down to the bottom here Where we're gonna see the rest of the negative reviews Let me see here fan this one literally saying fanboys Marketing so like only Nintendo fanboys are gonna like it You can really tell that scale bound me and canceled had an effect on this game Scale bound a completely different game had a defect on this game. The graphics are dog hit trying to say dog You know what? The gameplay is boring QTE is just like Bayonetta 2 which it's not cute I mean, there's some there are some quick time events in Bayonetta 2, but that's not the brux of the combat Platinum is really just a washed up old developer Let's see here 30 FPS in this day and age especially for a fast-paced action title trading this piece of crap in Astro trade is the little engine that couldn't become near automata. It wasn't trying to be near automata I don't know people realize it's the brand new IP. It's not trying to be near Here's a thing platinum made near so I think they have all people know the differences between your automata And it's extremely poor only good thing about the game of the graphics and nothing else 30 FPS action game and honestly Shouldn't be anything else to say but I can go the extra mile tell you what you stay with Very dissuade you from paying full price for it. They decide not to let the game speak for some will flood you with cinematic shots There's actually a lot of action in the game side If you want a good action game by Bayonetta near automata or Metal Gear rising this game has no depth. Oh my gosh This is great worse than the Platinum Turtles game. That's saying something frame rate is atrocious They just have the Ninja Turtle game made by Platinum is worse is better Should have made we're trying to make a smooth 60. Oh used to be good The games of mess it runs at 30 FPS these 30 FPS comments like fantastic graphics I already read that one. I guess. Oh, man. It's just hilarious and here's the thing I don't want to pretend that it doesn't work the other way and this is why I said it's not just the review bombing Okay review bombing is embarrassing, but it's also the positive reviews.  I see I haven't played the game guys I can tell you this right now. I'm not leaving a review. I haven't played the game but Like simply generation defining. I don't know about that one This game is so good. Okay. It's gonna play. He's got a bit of a long response Um This person I don't think has played it either said this game is flipping awesome combat gameplay story are all wacky and over the top Ridiculous just amazing. I mean, I might say I disagree with the comments it but I mean, I haven't played the game So that this kind of looks like a pretty generic stop review bombing.  Wait, see this game is a 10s game is a 10s game Yeah, these are just people combating over and you'll see, you know dozens and dozens and dozens of comments like that Or people are just trying to combat the review bombing And Again, I don't think that is what we should be doing You should only be given it a 10 if you think the game is worth a 10 Not to combat people who are trying to say the game is trash and here's the thing All it's actually doing is it's helping national chain. Um, you know, for for this viewpoint here I'll actually give a shout out to my boy player essence I haven't talked about him in a long time because he put out a video about like the salt is real or whatever on the same topic with astral chain And he mentioned that all these negative review bombings are doing are leading to more videos being made about astral chain Hello, look what we're talking about And giving even more attention to the game and causing more people that were on the fence to buy the game To buy it now just because they want to buy it to spite the people That are saying that it's bad they're saying that they're basically jealous that it's on switch and not on their preferred platform There's no doubt That astral chain would be a better game on an xbox one x or a playstation 4 pro or on pc Of course, it would be it would probably be at 60 fps It would probably have higher resolutions and all that but that's not what makes the game great And I think that's what's so amazing about astral chain is it's kind of putting that flag in the mud And it's saying look you can have a great Game that doesn't hit all the ideal performance metrics because performance Doesn't in that of itself make a game great It can make a game better But it doesn't make a game great like would this game be 90 plus on a playstation 4? probably in terms of of the even credit ratings because Then it would be able to satisfy almost everyone that loves action games because obviously 30 fps I know is going to be jarring for some but play the game Experience the intended way the game is meant to be played and you might you know come you might I don't know come to find out and 30 fps Isn't as big of a hold back as people think it is because we're not that far removed from every game being 30 fps You playstation 3 fans especially should know about all that 30 fps life out there And heck us nintendo fans We even know not every game we play is in 60 a breath of the wild one of the best games of all time is 30 fps so I honestly think that We are at this point where it's time to start dismissing user reviews if you're not already doing it Whether it's the extreme positive end those 10 out of 10s being tossed around I mean there's a lot of 10 out of 10. I mean the 10 out of 10 is a natural chain Or just off the chart. I mean you saw 10 out of the 10s, you know here we go You're like 10 out of 10 10 out of 10 You saw 10 out of 10s all the way down on the page 4 Before we finally got to anything less than a 10 out of 10 I'm telling you that no no matter how amazing this game is Probably doesn't deserve that many 10 out of 10s from users Again, they're just trying to combat all the review bombing and if they weren't doing that I guess that's 7.0 or 7.1 I guess it's going up a little bit now that's 7.1 that we've seen would maybe be a six or something I don't know, but It doesn't really matter what matters is What we personally think about the game and What what is that? What does that leave for you guys if you're looking for information on astro chain? Unbiased information like maybe you don't want to get it directly from nintendo and the trailers You do want some honest opinions? Maybe don't rely on you know metacritic or User scores or anything anyways what I always suggest people do Is find that one or two? I suggest multiple because I think one isn't enough Reviewer whether they work at ign or game spot whether they work You know easy allies as an example, maybe one of their writers Maybe you guys like jim sterling and the gym pressions or Maybe you're into spawn wave and dreamcast guy or somebody find that one or two people out there Whose opinions in general line up with your own and I know for some of you. That's me my opinions on gaming Line up with some of you guys that watch that's why you're watching this video But I unfortunately don't review games because I don't have the time to review games. Well, I review games Well, I've reviewed some games. Well, I'd review a lot more games moving forward. It's possible But not not anytime soon for reasons I mentioned at the beginning of the video. So What I will say is fine, you know those couple people That are planning to review the games that you're maybe interested in Wait for those reviews to come out whether they're day and date, you know Or whether they're early or whether they're late wait for the reviews And see what they have to say and see if what they're showing and what they're saying and how you personally feel about it Even if you don't feel exactly the same as that person is reviewing it. You can get a pretty good idea There's enough information enough people doing reviews out there To find a couple people that align with your gaming taste And figure out if you want to you know plop down your 60 bucks on a new game Or if you want to wait or if you're going to pass on it entirely I don't think we need to rely on aggregate sites as awesome as it is I don't think we need to rely on Uh, you know sales numbers. Oh, everybody's buying the game. So you better buy it I don't think we need to rely especially on user reviews Uh, even you know even back out you guys remember the uh, we u e shop reviews And maybe this is why user reviews haven't come back on switch Uh, those e shop reviews every nintendo game if you were to believe the e shop reviews Every nintendo game that released on we u every nintendo published game was a perfect 5 out of 5 Like We know that's not true Even the best of the best games are probably not a perfect 5 out of 5 I we u But if you were just going to listen to user reviews, of course it was and where are people most likely to be biased I mean on on the actual platforms user reviews. That's why even the playstation store and and xbox 3 You know xbox 1 I was at 360 store All the user reviews are extremely positive on all those exclusives because I mean that's where your fanboys are at They literally are on that platform. So they're going to be the ones, you know pumping those ratings up. So Again, I think user reviews are horrible both directions both review bombing and uh fake positive reviews from people who haven't played the game I think obviously the best ways is just to play the game and decide for yourself But you know if you're deciding if you want to plop your money down again Find a couple people you trust that are going to review the game And wait for their opinions to come out and we've done to show their gameplay And then see how you're feeling after that if it's worth spending your money Uh, I don't think you know that any of these professional or non-professional reviewers, you know YouTubers, I guess would be considered non-professional IGNs Kotaku's would rather seem professional I don't think any of them are any better than anything else Just find the people that you trust not the outlet the people that you trust That align with your feelings and uh go with that because uh, ultimately I think that's the best way to do In fact, you could even reach out to some of the people directly on social media Like it as an example if you like easy allies reviews But the person you like they're the reviewing the games isn't the one doing the review of the game you're interested in Well message the person that you are like you're you're you're you know Tweet at them or something that you are interested in their thoughts and ask them oftentimes people like us We'll just tell you well, we'll literally respond to me Hey, uh, you know, I haven't I haven't played enough to like give you a full A full opinion on it but here are my thoughts so far and uh, yeah, I think it's worth the purchase or something so I don't know For now everyone that I know personally that's playing astral chain loves it It's an action game So if you like action games and you like platinum games tend to start astral chains going to be just Up your alley I'm hoping personally that Even whether I buy it or not that it sells well enough that we get more of it because I think more of these Kind of games should be on switch It looks like it's a high quality product from everything I'm seeing I was hyped from it from the day it was revealed you guys go back and watch my my reaction to that so Man, uh, stay tuned because there's a lot more games coming the rest of this year We have a busy september at the at nintendo prime coming up Not just in terms of game releases, but in terms of news and everything else I can tell you right now september is going to be packed. That's when I am back to doing this stuff I don't want to say full time But for you guys, it'll feel like I'm back to doing it full time With the daily videos and all that great stuff some unique editorial like videos I maybe maybe some more discussion videos like this one and obviously news videos because we're you know, we're going to keep the news going there might be Should I even tell you yet? A much a much requested video series might be coming back So stay tuned for that podcast returning and lots of great stuff Um, I mentioned before that because I was sick the podcast was was like canceled It's actually just been moved We're actually going to be Recording it the same day that it comes out Are you supposed to come out anyways? I will be recording on monday on labor day Monday night in particular. So it's not it's not going to be available probably till tuesday at the earliest, but It is going to get out and we are going to get back on our regular schedule. It's just Things haven't been lining up with my health one way or another over the past month I hope you guys can all understand that especially our patrons. I owe you patrons more than I could ever Um, then I can ever pay back to you guys because you guys continue to to hold your support those 20 dollar backers continue to stick around Patiently waiting for me to get everything back to normal here both health wise if you're looking for a small health update Things are going well. I'm down 20 pounds. I have you know about 70 you know 60 ish 70 ish more pounds to go to lose to hit my target to potentially get my blood pressure under control My heart is uh my last test of my heart wasn't the greatest Not as great as the the first after post heart attack test was but We're still working towards that the diet changes are are completely underway and uh I hope to be here doing this for as long as I can with all of you be there as long as I can for my kids For my fiance for the rest of my family. I love all of you guys and uh screw user reviews, man I'll catch you in the next video


In this episode, we will create images of leaves using a printmaking technique called rubbing. Hello, and welcome to Make Time. My name is Ryan, and I'm a studio guide at the Makerspace that's a part of the Long Beach Public Library. In this Print Make Time mini-series, we will be learning a variety of printmaking projects that you can make at home. Today, we're going to learn a printmaking technique called rubbing. Using crayons and other writing utensils, we can make an exact copy of a flat object like a leaf or flower on paper. We can then reuse this object to rub and print as many copies of it as we want. The form and texture of an object appear on our canvas when the surface of the object has strong rigid details. A unique advantage of rubbing is its ability to exactly transfer the texture and fine surface details of objects onto paper. This is why it has proved helpful in criminal forensics at crime scenes. Rubbing goes back hundreds of years and has been done in many different ways. We will be blending non-traditional methods with very old and modern printmaking techniques, such as frotage. Let's get started. Make sure you have a clean flat surface where you can create your art. You are going to need four materials. First, you need a drawing utensil. Crayons work best for this art project. You can be creative by using many colors. If you don't have crayons, that's okay. Pencils and colored pencils also produce strong results. Other drawing implements that work well include charcoal, chalk, pens, and ink. Next, you need a canvas, which will become your art. I recommend a piece of regular printer paper because it is not too thin and not too thick. You are also going to need scratch paper to protect your work surface. You can use old newspapers or printer paper. Finally, our fourth material we need are the objects that we are going to print. We are going to print objects that we find in nature in our neighborhood. We are going to look for leaves, grass, or flowers. This is because objects that are thin, lie flat, and have many ridges and details on their surface work best for this project. Let's go find them. Bring an adult or guardian to help you find leaves and plants in your neighborhood. Be respectful of people's properties and of the plants.  You need only between about 5 and 10 leaves. If you don't find any leaves, you can use other flat organic material like grass, flowers, or even crumpled pieces of printer paper. Remember to look for plants with an interesting shape, form, and texture. Instead of looking for the most colorful plant, try feeling the plant with your fingers. You can also try to identify and name the plants you find. Do you have kind of first ever green trees with thin needle leaves nearby? Or maybe dandelion flowers growing in the sidewalk? Didn't find any good leaves outside? Try looking in your fridge. The leafy greens that you eat work just as well for this project as the ones outside. Once you have found the leaves or material that you're going to use, you can go back to your workstation. First, lay down your scratch paper. You want it to be at least a few inches larger than the surface of your paper canvas. Then you can choose your first leaf. You might want to coin or wipe it off before using it. I'm going to use this leaf that is from a jasmine vine. Put it on your scratch paper underside up so that the bumpy veins of the leaf are facing you. Now place your paper canvas on top of the leaf. This is why we want it to be flat. Position it so that the leaf is behind the area of your canvas where you want it to appear. This kind of artistic arrangement is called composition. Once you begin rubbing, you can't lift up your paper because it is difficult to place it back in the same position and continue rubbing. Decide if you want it to have a blank border around your canvas. If you want it to have specific patterns or something else. Choose a crayon and unwrap it from the paper. Lay it on its side and firmly rub it against the paper. Hold your canvas to prevent it from accidentally moving away from your printing object. I recommend rubbing your drawing utensil in many different directions, speeds, and strengths to find the best method for seeing the shape you are making a rubbing of. Instead of rotating your canvas to get a better angle, try moving the scratch paper. This will ensure that the object under your canvas stays in the same spot. Sometimes though, you can't move your object and you have to move your canvas. Some ancient rubbings were done by placing paper over stone carvings. You can try that by making rubbings of the sidewalk or other textured surfaces. Cool! We can see the image of the leaf appear. You can now make a second and third print of the same object, maybe with a mirror effect. You can use a different color or drawing utensil. Or you can layer your other leaves under your paper canvas and make rubbings of them too. The more prints you make of an object, the flatter it becomes, which sometimes is helpful or sometimes becomes less detailed. If you're using a pencil, you can try quickly rubbing the lead gently or hard against your paper. It might be easier to hold the pencil at an angle close to the paper. It can also be helpful to use the pad of your finger to blend pencil and oil pastel marks. This is what my finished rubbing print looks like. I think I might turn it into a card or hang it up on my refrigerator.  If you want an additional challenge for this project, you can try these ideas. Using scissors, you can cut your paper canvas into different shapes like this. You can even cut out the leaves and paste them onto a new art project. A second idea you can do is add watercolor paint to your leaves or to your paper canvas. If you use crayons, the watercolor will paint around your drawing. This is called a wax resist, and it's because crayons are made from wax and wax repels water. Check out our make time videos about Kirigami, bullet journaling and book binding for more ideas for your rubbings. Let's check in with some of our other studio guides and see their rubbing prints. Thanks for sharing everyone. Those were really cool. Now that you have seen other prints people have made, it's your turn to create your own prints. That's it for today. We made some cool and beautiful rubbing prints using objects from nature. Thank you for making time to join us at Print Make Time. Be sure to check out the link in the description box below for more printmaking resources at the Long Beach Public Library. And look for our other printmaking and make time videos. Until next time.