Also Today in the World of Games... (4/12/11)

Reviews started to roll out to the internets throughout the day for SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy Seals as most of them seem to be in the 7 range, but some sites had lower scored reviews filled with disappointment. Honestly, I had a good time with the multiplayer beta, which is ending tomorrow despite its flaws of not getting into games and whatnot. It brought me back to the time before Call of Duty/Halo took over the online shooter world and SOCOM was the dominant shooter on the PS2. Some would say the franchise was the first console shooter that got things right from clan support, lobbies that were okay for the time till Halo 2 brought in matchmaking, fun maps, and more. It felt good to back in the groove again since I was pretty good at SOCOM 2 for a short period. I was disappointed with SOCOM 3 though distancing away from what made SOCOM 2 amazing being too big and vehicles weren't clearly designed to be in a SOCOM game. It seems to be that SOCOM 4 is getting back to what made the first two games great while keeping the 32 max player limit in SOCOM 3, but it looks it didn't offer anything new enough to make itself competition against the online shooter juggernauts. I'm pretty sure the SOCOM fanbase will still enjoy it for a while even though they're not fans at the same new changes especially the cover system. I don't think Sony & Zipper completely dropped the ball with SOCOM 4, but it looks it could of been way better than it should of been.

Nintendo also had some announcements today regarding their Q2 lineup as the headliners are the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for the 3DS and Wii Play: Motion. Zelda OOT 3D is shaping up to be the major reason people are getting 3DSs around that time since that's out on June 19. It has Master Quest in as well, so this is pretty much the ultimate version of OOT Nintendo is finally releasing after its re-releases on Gamecube and the Wii Virtual Console. Wii Play Motion is just another mini-game collection and like the original game, it is bundled with a Wiimote (now the Wiimote Plus). I expect this is sell a million copies easily and arguably could of best selling game of the year if magic strikes again for Nintendo. Then again, a lot of people have fallen off the Wii bandwagon and waiting for Nintendo to announce something new because other than Zelda: Skyward Sword, I have no reason to play my Wii at all. Sometimes, I wonder if its worth keeping still, so who knows with that.

Mortal Kombat HYPE has begun!!!!

Mortal Kombat is out next week and the HYPE has begun with the launch of the webseries titled Mortal Kombat: Legacy today. For the first episode, it is a good start of what to expect and it is a webseries, so there are limitations. Jax, Sonya, Stryker, and Kano are featured in this episode, but more of your favorites from the games are in future episodes. Let's just hope this as a whole succeeds to the point they start talking a movie again. I am taking a break from Marvel 3 to go nuts with MK as I try my best to get pretty good (tourney-good) for upcoming events. There's a national tournament next month at Vegas which I'm pretty sure signups have been done (oh well). Of course, Evo is having this game as well. Its a pretty good time to scream out MORTAL KOMBAT right now since its truly back.

The Other Stuff from Captivate...

Okay... other than the fighting games that got me HYPE (No MvC3 DLC stuff lol), there were other games Capcom showed off last week.

Dragon's Dogma is a new IP made by known action game developers from previous Capcom games. It still looks pretty early, but looks like they want to tap into the western RPG market. I'm not sure what to think of it now, so hopefully we get more info at E3.

Oh hey, another Dead Rising game... Capcom is really banking on this franchise these days now (is this the new Mega Man for them?), but who knows if this new game is too soon off last year's Dead Rising 2 & the prologue/epilogue downloadable games. Anyway, Dead Rising 2: Off The Record is basically if Frank West was the protagonist and not Chuck Greene in Fortune City. With Frank on the field, means a different game according to Capcom, but not by much to me. Its still Dead Rising at its core and some improvements are being made from what Blue Castle learned from the flaws of the original DR2. Off The Record is out this fall and we'll see if the world is not sick of Dead Rising yet (then again the long wait between 1 and 2 is something, but 2 games in the same setting = oh boy).

Then there's new Asura's Wrath stuff, which isn't much I guess, but a new trailer is good enough. It still looks cool and the protagonist is a crazy dude trying to defend a big finger from smashing the earth.

There's also Resident Evil stuff with Operation Raccoon City and the 3DS games too, but I'm letting the new games shine here. This year's Captivate seems to be a good event as Capcom fans have a lot to look forward to.

Street FIghter X Tekken Captivate Blowout...

The big highlight for Captivate, Capcom's Miami press event last week, for many is new Street Fighter X Tekken stuff and as promised, Capcom delivers on that end. The core gameplay seems to be now established being 2D a la Street Fighter, SF controls, and a Tekken-like juggle combo system. Surprisingly, the Tekken-like combos transitioned pretty well to this so far along with the tag combos since this is a 2v2 fighting game, but still one on one. The character roster so far is...

Street Fighter

• Ryu
• Ken
• Guile
• Abel
• Chun-Li

Tekken

• Kazuya
• Nina
• King
• Marduk
• Bob

The Street Fighter stuff seen in the gameplay clip above is EX moves, supers or ultras (Whatever Capcom goes with), and the SF4 style of art in which that engine is getting some graphical improvements even though it looks nearly the same, but a little better. Good thing the preview build was playable and impressions from those who were there are loving it so far. Who knows if the Tekken-like juggle system will be a key factor in gameplay as you can get by okay with Street Fighter fundamentals, but its a new game to learn and I'm pretty sure the FGC folks will be the necessary adjustments to do well at tournaments. Street Fighter X Tekken is still ways off, but I'm pretty excited again after seeing all of this.