Mister G's World

Did You Miss This? For 1/28

2012-01-28T08:10:00.000-08:00

This might be a new feature I'm starting on weekends putting up videos I missed during the week here...

A new multiplayer/co-op trailer went up for Mass Effect 3 and its looking better than I thought on that front. Its looks to be another wave-based survival mode, but of course I could be wrong. You have races to choose from in this Special Forces mode as each race has their class they're specialized in as you probably seen in the first two games. Examples being that the Turians are soldiers-based, Asaris being Vanguards, and so on. I just wanna play this already, but its almost a month away so I can still wait in the meantime.

Street Fighter X Tekken keeps on piling on the exclusives on the PS3 as there are five exclusive characters now on that system. Besides Cole from Infamous and the two Japanese Playstation mascots, the other two are Namco and Capcom's big mascots in a different twist. Pac-Man comes in controlling a Mokujin robot and resembles Tron Bonne in some ways. The big talk of this clip however is about the return of bad box art Mega Man. Mega Man fans never seen to get what they wanted these days, but the bad box art version is awesome from a casual perspective. Plus, only Ono would pull a stunt like this including him in the game. Basically, Mega Man is back in a fighting game, but probably not the one fans wanted. Whatever, this is still great to me even though we won't see them in the tournament scene due to being PS3 exclusive. It is still a mixed bag if Street Fighter X Tekken will be worth all the hype with so many crap in it plus the "Cross Assault" reality show they announced recently, which I'm not gonna even bother trying to audition as there are way better people out there suited for that.

Dance Central 2 got a sick song as a download this week and the routine for it is pretty sick too. I have been thinking lately about getting a Kinect setup, but I don't think my house is ready for that lol.

That's it for now... maybe I should get Soul Calibur V now? Hmmmmm... naaaa.

PSN Demo Showcase for 1/26/12

2012-01-26T21:06:00.000-08:00

The PSN Demo Showcase is back and there is lots to talk about with the variety of games that came out as demos in the past couple of weeks.

First off is UFC Undisputed 3 as I have been playing the demo and the alpha online test that finally came out late last week for PSN peeps. The alpha test is definitely an early build of the game without most of the sounds you hear normally in an UFC game from the music and the announcers. It served its purpose testing the netcode to make sure its fine for the final game and so far it seems so from what I played. Created fighters are only allowed in this version and it is a nice touch to mix things up with fighting styles as the matches go on standard rules compared to the demo. The only disappointing part about the demo is that matches are set to one round only than the traditional three rounds as seen in past demos of THQ's franchise. Luckily there's PRIDE rules to use along with the normal UFC rules as PRIDE rounds are set to ten minutes, so that's the mode to go with if you want more time fighting. Four fighters are selectable in the demo as Jon Jones & Anderson Silva are playable in the UFC while Wanderlei Silva and Rampage Jackson are on PRIDE. The extra year of time has definitely paid off for UFC Undisputed 3 as Yuke's are able to add more touches and beef up the modes to make the game feel like the ultimate UFC game we have been waiting for. The core gameplay is still intact from previous entries, but the little new additions make this game worth it for any UFC fan. From the roster that includes the featherweight and banterweight classes, PRIDE (which the developers did a great job integrating it to the game), and the little new details that make fights don't like the last game, UFC Undisputed 3 is looking pretty good as beatdowns begin on Valentine's Day.

Next up is The Darkness II, the long awaited sequel to 2007's The Darkness. I actually enjoyed the first game as it was one of my personal sleeper hits of that year on the 360, so I'm curious how this one will pan out. First of all, Digital Extremes is handling this game than the original's developer Starbreeze and the graphical style has been changed completely as it looks more cel-shaded now. Cel-shaded graphics are actually a rarity these days, so its nice to see games like this implement it every now and then. The protagonist from the last game, Jackie, is back, and new villains are after his Darkness powers. The combat is mostly the same as more attention was paid to the Darkness tentacles being more than what they were in the original. I do like that you do crazy animations when firing guns as if you were in some John Woo flick, so that's cool than seeing the same old shooting animation from pretty much every other game that's out. There is a level up/upgrades system too as you gain experience by obviously killing enemies by guns or your tentacles. The pace during the demo though was a little too crazy for me, but it did start out with a bang. However, I do have a feeling that The Darkness II will be slept on again but we'll see about that.

The demo for EA's Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has been out for a couple of weeks and it is a lengthy one too. For those who don't know, 38 Studios (Curt Shilling's development studio) and Big Huge Games are making this as it has been a long time coming for this to come out. If I can sum up this RPG in a nutshell, it would be a mix of Fable and Mass Effect. The environments are as colorful as Fable's especially when outdoors and it also has Mass Effect's dialogue trees even though your created main character is silent. Once you're out of the first area, there is a 45 minute limit for the rest of the demo as there are numerous quests in a big world (whatever you're given) to take on even though most of them can't be finished here. My time with it has been a mixed bag as it is a solid RPG with the necessary elements to be as good as the other big ones that came out recently, but it doesn't mean I had fun with it. In addition the demo is really buggy filled with missing textures and awkward camera angles to the point your land disappears. Good thing its just an early build that the developers released and it will be fixed in the final game, but having that many bugs in a big downloadable demo is inexcusable these days. Then again, this could be the RPG to play after you're tired of Skyrim when it comes out on February 7.

Last up for now is a multiplayer beta for Gotham City Impostors. This is a multiplayer-only spinoff game in the Batman universe as it is pretty self-explanatory that you can play as Batman look-a-likes or a bunch of clowns that are reminiscent of The Joker. It definitely has a certain level of charm that is neat, which is sort of similar to Team Fortress 2 in some way especially when looking at the characters and the tutorials for the game modes. It is objective-based from a territory-like mode where you have to control a set of canisters for a good amount of time for a toxin to release if you're the Jokers or a group of bats if you're on the Batmen side. The other mode in this beta is a capture the flag variant where you have get a battery to your base and if held for a certain period of time you can confuse the opposition as they go into la-la-land, but they still can slap you to death if you're not careful. Gotham City Impostors is full of weapons and gadgets to mess around with from the conventional guns, grappling hooks, and more in the final games as there is a loadouts system and other customization options. Other than that, the gameplay is your standard shooter fare, but with the Batman twists if you're into that and the default sensitivity is higher than other shooters. I only had a brief time with the beta as I'll play more to see if it is worth buying.

That's it for now... next week is the Starhawk Beta for me since I have a code from Uncharted 3, but Playstation Plus owners have been playing it for a couple of weeks, so expect thoughts about that one soon.

Oh Yeah New SSX Gameplay Footage Yeah!

2012-01-20T09:07:00.000-08:00

If this new gameplay footage of SSX doesn't sell you on the game, I don't know what to say. Perhaps my game of 2011 is coming quicker than I thought, so basically buy this game on February 28!

Leon & Chris Are Ready to Do Work Again in Resident Evil 6

2012-01-19T14:35:00.000-08:00

After months of rumors and speculation, Resident Evil 6 is officially announced for a November 12 release on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 (PC version will be out later). This ain't just another Resident Evil game though as two mainstays of the franchise are playable and have a big role in the story. Leon and Chris are doing work again to save the world from bioterrorism, but in different locales this time around. Leon's arc is dealing with the president, who is apparently got caught in the virus forcing Leon to make as Capcom says in the PR the biggest decision of his life. Chris's arc is in China to clear out the latest threat there and yes, there are zombies everywhere again. A third playable character is introduced along with who likely seems to be Ashley (The playable guy is probably Alex Wesker?). What I mean as this ain't just another RE game, its a pretty big game with elements from 4 and 5, but Capcom says they're trying to have a middle ground between those games gameplay-wise. I actually skipped RE5 because it was too much like 4 with little improvements to the formula. Maybe they learned their lesson this time around incorporating elements seen in other first & third-person shooters like cover and sprinting, but it is still 4 and 5 at its core. This is a lengthy trailer to digest as well and I'm already hype for the game, but we'll see if Capcom can bring it back again after 5 being a disappoint for many people.

Are You Really Ready For Some Genkibowl??

2012-01-19T13:37:00.000-08:00

The first mission-based DLC for Saints Row: The Third came out earlier this week titled Genkibowl VII. Maybe I should of had missions in air quotes because these are basically more activities that have the crazy vibe of the Genki stuff from the main game. The announcers from Genki's Super Ethical Reality Climax return for Genkibowl featuring slightly different twists of existing activities from the game that have that Genki flavor. Unfortunately, the slight twists aren't much as Apocalypse Genki is another version of S.E.R.C., except in a jungle-like environment and sharks coming out of the water to bite mascots away. Sexy Kitten Yarngasm is Tank Mayhem, but with a big ball of yarn instead trashing the city for points. There's a cleverly named achievement/trophy called C-C-C Combo Breaker for that activity alone (shoutouts to Killer Instinct). Super Ethical PR Opportunity is basically Escort, but with Genki around as you drive his Genkimobile burning people up while avoiding the exposure. Getting the car's flamethrower to go is interesting as you have to run over pedestrians to get it going to impress the professor. The only original activity of the bunch however is Sad Panda Skyblazing. Honestly, you probably won't get it done in the first try as the game and skydiving controls can be a pain for this instance, but once you know what to do as the announcers explain, then you'll be fine. The point of Sad Panda Skyblazing to skydive through rings and kill mascots in skyscrapers to accumulate enough money to go on the landing spot. There are hot air balloons spread throughout the level to keep your dive intact while in the air (even the unethical pandas give you more air).

The Genkibowl activities can be done in a hour or less unless you're getting to get all the achievements/trophies from the set, which aren't that hard but can take you a little longer if things don't go your way in the missions. I wish there was more originality with the activities as three of them are just different takes on existing activities, but still fun regardless. Its not everyday you're rolling a big ball of pink yarn down a city destroying everything in your way. It is a little disappointing you're getting this much content for seven dollars (unless you got the Season Pass for the rest of the DLC), but if you're itching for new stuff to do in Saints Row: The Third, Genkibowl is still worth to get strapped on again till the next mission-based DLC comes out in a month or two.

My Type of Snowboarding Heaven...

2012-01-12T23:29:00.000-08:00

Yeah it is Winter time (well not really in Los Angeles during the day time) and my personal big game of the season is none other than the return of EA's SSX. I've been pretty stoked since the original announcement and every time it has been shown in preview events and trailers, it keeps getting better and better. This is my own snowboarding heaven as SSX is out on February 28, a crowded stretch personally for me when I have Mass Effect 3 and Street Fighter X Tekken out a week later, but who cares since I have been waiting for this all console generation.

And yes, SSX has lots of wubwubwubwub...

Capcom goes ANIME with the Asura's Wrath Demo...

2012-01-12T17:04:00.000-08:00

Capcom's first game for 2012 is Asura's Wrath, which is out next month, as a demo of the game came out on Xbox Live Marketplace and Playstation Network earlier this week. If I had to describe this game in one word, it would be ANIME. Asura's Wrath is way too anime as it makes me laugh every time I play through the demo when the crazy stuff happens, but unfortunately the game doesn't make a good impression. There are two levels in the demo and they are pretty much boss battles. Episode 5 has the most "variety" than Chapter 11 and yes I quoted vartiety because there is not really of ton it in Asura's Wrath. It is an action game with an overuse of quicktime events as if it is the whole game. There is a shooting section in the boss battle against the giant like Zone of the Enders where Asura has a lock-on mechanic straight up from that game, but the basic goal of Asura's Wrath (especially in this demo) though is bulk up for burst meter and then make insane crap happen. It sucks that there is no basic combat sections against normal enemies in this demo as Capcom and developer CyberConnect2 handled this demo poorly even though they're like "Hey, let's have these levels in the demo because of they're f-in nuts without spoiling the story." Even in 2012, demos can be mishandled in this console generation. The one-on-one fight against Augus in Chapter 11 is straight up anime with cheesy dialogue like watching a Dragon Ball Z fight without the crazy fireball sequences, but the action is so over the top, it becomes too ridiculous. Even though Asura's Wrath will likely be a disappointing game from Capcom, give the demo a shot if you like ANIME in your action games.

EA Sports Goes From Jamming to Blitzing... The NFL Blitz Review

2012-01-06T13:22:00.000-08:00

After the successful NBA Jam revival, EA Sports decides to also bring back NFL Blitz in this new downloadable release for Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network. The Blitz franchise has been known for fast-paced arcade style football without most of the NFL rules from pass interference being allowed, a limited but enough playbook on both sides of the ball, being on fire like NBA Jam, and crazy tackle animations the Madden games dreamed of having. Most of what makes NFL Blitz the game it was back in the late 90s is still in this new one gameplay-wise, but the missing things really hurt this revival from being great. Who would of thought a NFL Blitz game would lack energy like this one?

This 2012 version of NFL Blitz is crammed with modes both offline and online. There is of course is play now mode, but then there is the other stuff like Blitz Gauntlet. Blitz Gauntlet is a Mortal Kombat style ladder where you face real NFL teams and then have a boss battle against wacky characters such as zombies, ninjas, and horses. The only point of this mode is basically gaining these unlockable teams that can be activated before a game starts on the code screen, which also returns from previous entries. Besides the unlockable teams, you can change the ball color, turn on big head mode, and many other stuff on the code screen as long as you input the right icons before time is up. While Blitz Gauntlet is the main offline mode, the bulk of the game is actually on the online front.

The online modes in this new iteration will pretty much make or break the game for most people in terms of how long they will play it and the amount of them on at the same time to play games. If a decent community gets going, then the game will be fine online, but as most downloadable games go these days, people don't come back after launch week. Anyway, there is a simple head-to-head mode with only the real NFL teams and also Blitz Teams where its 2v2 online. The leaderboard system is pretty crazy especially for a game like this as you climb ladders locally, regionally, and then nationally by consistently playing well online. Performance-wise, the games play fine for the most part, but the lag can be a problem especially during punts and kicks since they are timing based. However, pulling out a clutch online win by a last second field goal under laggy conditions feels very satisfying. The Elite League mode consist of a card system that is basically fantasy football as you start out with a weak team, but having more Blitz bucks, which you can only gain them by playing online, you can buy more cards for better players, ultimate cheats, and more. Additionally you can pony up rare cards against others in Risk and Reward as well.

The core gameplay is as good as it was back in the original with most of the playbook resembling that one with infamous plays such as Da Bomb, Sub-Zero, Hurricane, and many more. The action is still fast-paced with two minute quarters as you can score in mere seconds and 30 yards are required for a first down. As long as you don't pass the line scrimmage, you can pass the ball more than once if you wanna be fancy at times. Being on fire is simple on both sides of the ball as you have to throw to the same receiver three times in a row on offense and sack the quarterback twice in a row on defense. In boss battles and elite league games, there are powerups spread throughout the field The vicious tackles are back in full force, but the ability to not do late hits like the original games is a huge disappointment especially for purists. The late hits were a hallmark of the franchise as since the NFL didn't want them in this new iteration, you can blame them. Kicking is only in field goals and punts as extra points are free as they were in the original, but I personally had an extra point missed once randomly, which was weird. There are also little changes from past games that hardcore Blitz guys will notice for both good and bad, but the core gameplay is still as pick up and play as it gets.

My major criticism with this new Blitz though is that there is definitely a lack of energy when it comes to the presentation especially how the game looks and sounds. The game just looks boring as I couldn't let myself have long stretches with the game, so it is best played in short sessions. It lacks the grittiness how the Blitz games were back in the day as if you compare it to Madden NFL Arcade, they can look pretty similar. Blitz goes by a certain art style and while the players are bigger and bulkier than their Madden versions, a certain spark is flat out missing. The NFL stadiums look bland and the crowd does not look as good as expected. The same lack of energy also comes with the commentary, which is also disappointing. Tim Kutzrow returns from NBA Jam as the main announcer along with Brian Haley as there isn't that much enthusiasm from the guys while the game is going along with the fact they don't talk that much either. The banter between the two gets repetitive as you'll hear the same jokes and lines multiple times, so the variety is not there as well.

So is this new NFL Blitz by EA Sports really worth reviving? Magic struck with NBA Jam's comeback, but I can't say the same for Blitz however. Sure, the core gameplay is still good and there's enough replay value, but the lack of energy in the presentation from boring graphics to not much effort being put in to the commentary really hurts the overall package. Even though there are a ton of online options, having players actually playing online is a problem even though it is not the game's fault since downloadable releases tend to not go well after launch week with player numbers. If there is enough of a community to keep going with the numerous modes and leaderboards, then the game can be a bit more enjoyable. Other than that, there is some fun to be had with NFL Blitz if you're into arcade sports games, but it could of been so much better considering the amount of effort the developers put into it.

Score = 6.5/10

Pros:

Core gameplay still good and fast-paced
Tons of modes for replay value both offline and online

Cons:

Its still Blitz, but not everything that made the franchise famous are not in this new one
Lack of online players can be a problem since the bulk of the game is online especially when trying to earn Blitz Bucks
No late hits is a big disappointment, but blame the NFL on that one
The game overall just has a lack of energy... it looks and sounds boring

A Little Late - But My Top 10 Games of 2011

2012-01-05T08:46:00.001-08:00

Yeah yeah its 2012 now, but I finally got around to do my top 10 for 2011 revolving games. Let's just say it is not the top 10 you expect with some different titles and one notable game that has been getting GOTY honors that won't be here because I didn't play it is admittedly the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Perhaps I'm a little too worried about the numerous issues that version has, but anyway let's move on with the top 10. (Note - if you want more explanations on the specific games, check out the reviews)

10) Child of Eden

If you know how much of a Rez fan I am, it is no surprise Child of Eden made the list. No matter which version you play it on whether its the 360 version with Kinect controls or the PS3 one with Move, you're in for quite a trip. Some say it is still some weird acid trip, but it is a beautiful looking acid trip with tons of colors.

9) Shadows of the Damned

Here's my sleeper hit of the list, which is Shadows of the Damned. While is a RE4 style shooter done right for once (yeah Capcom on blast), it is the characters and the banter Garcia Hotspur and his skull sidekick have with each other that is my highlight of the game. Even the little things like them reading backgrounds of the bosses as if they're a children's story. If you love Grasshopper and especially Suda 51's insane take on games, this one should not be missed and hopefully Lolipop Chainsaw lives up to the developer's pedigree.

8) Mortal Kombat

Sure there are the obvious haters of the new Mortal Kombat especially earlier this week hearing that game is coming back for a second year at Evo, but it got numerous fighting game of the year awards for a reason. Personally, it sets new standards on how fighting games should be packaged (once again Capcom on blast) and how to have a key single player component with its story mode. The DLC characters and numerous patches have kept this game fresh even to today despite how questionable the game often gets patched to a certain crowd. The Komplete Edition is coming in a month or two if you missed out on the game and the DLC.

7) L.A. Noire

Rockstar has done it again with L.A. Noire being another top notch product. It is rare to see a detective-based adventure be that good despite its flaws. It is also one of the more original and refreshing games out last year. The facial technology is that groundbreaking and unlike anything I seen in most games this console generation. It is a shame how things shook up between Rockstar and developer Team Bondi, but if there is some sort of sequel coming, it will be completely different from this one.

6) Catherine

Catherine is another unique game I loved last year. Yeah, its a game about love but also dealing with a man's maturity to accept what is more important in life, which is marriage and a family, or lust and despair. The puzzle gameplay is something different as well despite its flaws, but I still give Atlus credit for having the balls to release a game like Catherine, a game that uses themes and concepts most games don't really use today. One thing that has kept Catherine going besides the infamous story is its multiplayer courtesy of the NorCal Install folks. They have running tournaments on the last third of 2011 with this unlockable mode and has gotten the fighting game crowd hype seeing crazy moments. Hopefully there is more Catherine in the future since it was a successful hit for Atlus.

5) Vanilla/Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Despite Capcom releasing two games last year, the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 games were my most played in 2011 due to the whole fighting game community thing and whatnot. They got some things right with vanilla establishing the core gameplay, but certain things like X-Factor and Dark Phoenix being a problem kept it from being the best and why Ultimate came out to change stuff. We'll see how Ultimate will play out in 2012 whether or not the game is fine as is especially with the new Heroes and Heralds mode to spice things up, or another big update might be coming to change up the playing field again.

4) Mass Effect 2 (PS3)

Typically games out in January get left out of GOTY contention because of people forgot about them (yeah what happened to LittleBigPlanet 2?). Good thing I didn't forget about playing the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2 in 2011. Sure, its an old game being on 360 first back in 2010, but it was still new to me and I did like the original a lot. The core changes to ME2 have been received a mixed reaction among fans being more shooter-focused and the only RPG-ness of the game were pretty much the dialogue choices. It seems to be a bit more balanced in the finale, ME3, out this March and I can't wait. I still had a great time with ME2 especially with the diverse characters introduced to the storyline and continuing the adventures of Shepard (I still love the ME1 cast though).

3) Batman: Arkham City

After the amazing Arkham Asylum bringing Batman back to gaming glory, Arkham City takes things to another level in terms of scale and story. The combat is still as good as it has been with its improvements and playing as Batman to his true self is one of a kind in today's standards. The amount of polish is superb and filled with memorable moments against the villains you know and love. Its gonna be interesting where Rocksteady goes from here when they make another Batman game, but hopefullly they can go crazier than they had before.

2) Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Uncharted 3 is just that good, but even though it is still pretty high on my top 10, it didn't have the same impact as the last game had. It is indeed one breathtaking adventure being Nathan Drake again and the insane moments are up there in the series. Mutliplayer got way better being more of what you see in other shooters these days with an improved level up system, loadouts, and numerous plays to kill opponents in. The production by Naughty Dog is still the best in the business personally and I look forward to what The Last of Us will bring to the table this year.

1) Saints Row: The Third

So I just reviewed this earlier in the week and boy I love this game that much being a last minute entry to be my favorite game of 2011. My favorite gaming moments of the past year came from SR3 alone ranging from the "Power" jump, the http://deckers.die mission, and so many more. As I said in my review, this is an open world game done right (yeah GTA on blast now) just the insane campaign and the crazy stuff you do in the story missions. In addition, fill the game with lovable characters and actually fun toys to mess around in the city and you got yourself my favorite open world game this current generation (I still admit I overrated GTA4 looking back on it now). Basically, you have to play Saints Row: The Third and trust me on this!

That's it for 2011 on the gaming side... hopefully 2012 will be the same in terms of many great games on a consistent basis.

I Guess Every Superhero Needs His Theme Music... The Saints Row: The Third Review

2012-01-02T08:19:00.000-08:00

The Saints Row franchise has been viewed as being a Grand Theft Auto clone to many people, but personally it is keeping what GTA was in the beginning being a sandbox filled with fun toys to mess around with in a living city. There is enough insanity to make the Saints Row games feel separate from Rockstar's juggernaut that started with the second game, but now pushed into another level in this third entry. Saints Row: The Third is quite simply an open-ended sandbox game done right with the most memorable main storyline I experienced in the genre, enough variety in other activities to do, and toys that are actually are fun to play around with in the city of Steelport. From the beginning to the end, the game is at ten off the bat in terms of crazy stuff to do and honestly it is the best open world action game I have played this console generation.

The Saints are riding high off their success from Saints Row 2 as a bank heist goes wrong in the beginning of this game and an organization known as the Syndicate is out to get you while running things at Steelport. The story is simple as the customized boss character (either male or female), it is up to you to take out the Syndicate consist of three gangs, the Morningstar, Deckers, and Luchadores to take over Steelport for the Saints, but there are lots of crazy twists along the way and it becomes more than just a city takeover. I love the personalities of the three gangs even though the Morningstar are your typical rich gang, but the Deckers and Luchadores are indeed special. The Deckers are cyperpunks that would use technology to their advantage as they have telporting gang members at their disposal. Their mission arc is among some of my favorite moments in the game due to the variety they throw at you. The Luchadores are pretty self-explanatory being a gang full of guys wearing luchalibre masks. Personalities really stand out in games like this and Saints Row: The Third is filled with personality with the memorable characters you roll with to the gang's bosses. Its not everyday when you're blowing up the city with some pimp that only talks with autotune.

The main story is filled with memorable moments and some of the best missions I played in an open-ended action game ever. Some of the missions have just no words to describe perfectly how they are other than sheer insanity and absurdity that makes sense. From escaping from an airplane and skydiving down killing enemies along the way, crazy levels while in disguise, wandering around in cyberspace, wrestling, and tons of choices to the point another playthrough is needed because there are multiple endings, Saints Row: The Third throws a lot of crazy situations at you. The side missions/activities return as well as they're a good distraction if you need a break from doing story missions. Franchise standouts from mayhem, insurance fraud, escort, and snatch are back as some new ones are introduced even though there are just some of the other ones with a twist like tank mayhem, tiger escort, the Professor Genki game show (also with its wacky fun), and trail blazing, where you're a flaming ATV racing through the city running down pedestrians and destroying cars to increase time. After completing them once, they're not necessary to play again to progress through the story, but they are to 100% the game if you're that completionist type. Gang operations and properties are spread throughout the city too in order to take over the city 100% additionally. Other than those, the standard conventions seen in other sandboxes such as collectibles, jumps to drive through, assassinations, and vehicle thefts to do as well.

Gameplay-wise, nothing is significantly changed with the core combat in the latest Saints Row. It still controls like a third-person shooter when you're on foot, which feels fine. The awesome button, aka the sprint button, is cool to have to do rolls to dodge and takedowns that are mostly pro wrestling moves like DDTs, bulldogs, and flying lariats (cue to THQ's WWE games). Melee combat is solid as well with some quicktime sequences (there are some of those throughout the story missions) and your occasional guns of pistols, SMGs, rifles, and shotguns. I also like the leveling up and upgrade systems in this game as you gain respect/level up by completing missions, activities, and tons of things you normally do in games like this. Your hourly income increases with more properties owned and areas taken over as one main way to gain cash to buy upgrades for your character and your gang. Weapons can be upgraded as some can be dual-wielded and if you reached max respect, have infinite ammo with no reloading at all. Health/sprint increases are there as well along with decreasing damage taken from bullets, explosives, and so on. The driving mechanics are also great because of powersliding and you'll just find fast cars right away when you start off in the city. Cars and bikes can be customized cosmetically as well in Rim Jobs stores as if you're playing a Need for Speed game tricking out your ride. Character customization is through the roof with tons of options in terms of overall looks and clothes to wear. Your imagination is the limit when it comes to making your character stand out unless you try to make him as close to yourself as you can, which what I did in my main playthrough.

Besides the main campaign, which can also be played co-op with another person online, the other mode in Saints Row: The Third is the cleverly titled Whored Mode. If you have guessed, yes this is Saints Row's take on the wave-based survival mode that is in tons of shooters. That Saints Row twist though is filled with its craziness as you're not dealing with the same type of enemy in every wave. They'll throw a crazy stipulation as well as nut shots and headshots only in certain situations as well as become big or tiny when killing enemies. There aren't ton a maps to choose with, but the characters you can pick from are bascially a variety of costumes to play around with. Whored Mode can be played online as well with other people if you don't feel like playing alone. This is a nice side mode to have around after you're done with the campaign to play for a hour or two. Downloadable missions are coming down the line though if you're itching for more action as you can 100% the campaign in more than 20 hours as doing the story missions themselves are not that long to beat.

Graphically, Saints Row: The Third looks great as the city of Steelport feels like there are tons of things going on. Pedestrians are everywhere if you want to mess around with them. The downtown area is filled with skyscrapers and big electronic billboards of the Saints' products and themselves. The city seems big enough to me to explore and go nuts on the streets, on boat, or on the air with a VTOL jet. I also dig the game's ragdoll physics as surely crazy stuff regarding that in action will happen at some point. The framerate does hitch below 30 frames per second at times especially when things get hectic on screen and there are bound to be various glitches in an open world like this, but nothing I experienced was game breaking. The sounds in this game though are amazing. I really liked the voice acting in the storyline as the characters' personalities really shined there. Your character's main voice has six options, which are three male and three female, and most of them sound fine. The soundtrack though is special especially on how its used. The right songs get played during specific story missions and memorable moments like Kanye West's "Power" when jumping from a helicopter to a penthouse. Of course, you have your radio stations with various genres of music like hip-hop, reggaeton, electronic, and heavy metal. Then there's the 80/90s hits station, my personal favorite, as the characters sing out Sublime's "What I Got" at one point of the game.

Even though Saints Row: The Third doesn't offer anything new to the table in the open world action genre, but this does set a new bar on open world games in general by having a memorable story filled with unexpected twists, lovable characters and personalities, and enough crazy fun toys to play around with in a big city. I always thought that the Saints Row franchise kept what is now missing in the Grand Theft Auto series, which is the absurdity and insanity factor (shock value in general). As GTA continues to head on the serious direction, Saints Row keep things jolly and crazy, but it makes sense in terms of Volition's direction for the franchise. While not perfect with some technical issues, Saints Row: The Third is as good as its gets when it comes to open world games.

Score = 9/10

Pros:

The best campaign I played in terms of open world games
Great use of the soundtrack especially in certain story missions
Lovable characters and personalities
Plenty of side missions/activities to get done for the 100%
Crazy fun toys to mess around with in Steelport
Whored Mode is a fun take on the wave-based survival mode

Cons:

Various technical issues such as framerate hitches and open world glitches
Activities, vehicle thefts, and assassinations become too much a grind to 100%

Most Anticipated Game in History Eh? The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Review

2011-12-14T15:22:00.000-08:00

The Call of Duty phenomenon is no joke in today's world of gaming and the impact every new game brings is huge. This is the franchise that has established numerous standards in this current generation of consoles whether we like it or not. To be honest, Modern Warfare 3 is the first Call of Duty I had extended time playing through and even though I knew what the fuss is all about, having that extended time is worth it to see if it is really worth all the attention it gets. This year's entry in the highly successful franchise has a lot to live up to considering it is handled by most of what's left of Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games. Magic does strike again from the over the top campaign, improved Spec Ops, and the multiplayer still as addicting as it has been since the first Modern Warfare. It is still the king of multiplayer shooters, but the formula is starting to get tiresome.

Another short campaign (around five to six hours normally, but longer on harder difficulties) awaits in Modern Warfare 3 as the game takes place immediately after the events of Modern Warfare 2 with Soap killing Sheperd and in bad condition as Captain Price and Nikolai escort him to safety. Makarov is still on the loose while the war between the United States and Russia is getting heated to the point other countries becoming battlefields and targets for Makarov's World War III scheme. As with these Call of Duty games, you play as multiple people in various locales of the world from Frost of the Delta Force and Yuri, who aides Price, Soap, and Nikolai to try to take out Makarov once and for all. Frost does start the show at a ruined New York City preventing the Russians from taking over. From the beginning to the finale, this is Call of Duty at its finest with its scripted scenes, lots of vehicular sections, and numerous OMG events as if you're watching a Michael Bay movie. Big things do happen throughout the game at various locales if you thought the beginning was crazy.

The campaign is filled with memorable moments, but also some flaws as well. At numerous times, I felt like I can't tell the difference between the opposition and those on my team. In certain situations, I just hope my comrades' A.I. can get the job done clearing out areas even though relying on them does not work all the time. Players still have to do nearly of the work as your teammates can get dumb and useless. In addition to the friendlies, I sometimes get away with friendly fire and while at the weirdest and stupidest times, I get the friendly fire is not tolerated notice resetting myself back to the nearest checkpoint. Speaking of checkpoints, the checkpoint system is as generous as it has been in past Call of Duty games, so there is no need to worry about dying a lot when stuck in a certain area. Another issue I had with the campaign is that there were too many vehicular sections throughout the campaign. If I had to guess how long I spent in a vehicle shooting down enemies, whether it is a tank, helicopter, AC-130, or a jeep, I would say these sections take a good third of the campaign. It is cool and all that these sections are there, but I felt the developers went a little overboard with that. Similar to Modern Warfare 2, there is a moment where you can skip if you think it will be offensive, but this moment in MW3 does not have the same impact as MW2's offensive scene.

Of course, the Call of Duty games are not just about the single player campaign as a Modern Warfare staple, Spec Ops, returns this year. The new thing with Spec Ops this time around is the addition of a survival mode. Survival is basically Call of Duty's Horde mode with waves of enemies to defeat while staying alive as long as you can. You don't start out with your multiplayer loadouts as the leveling up system is separate from that. Instead, your starting weapon is a pistol and you can buy better weapons, explosives, and air support as you progress through a game. The enemies do get tougher and tougher as expected as you keep going as the waves can get crazy. Juggernauts will come in at certain waves and later on they're mixed in with other soldiers and even helicopters to come and ruin your parade. Survival can be fun for what it is if you're willing to challenge yourself besides the campaign and in later waves, smarter strategies are preferred to keep going. The mission mode is still there in Spec Ops as well as they're pretty much the same as Modern Warfare 2 as you with survival, they can be played alone or co-op with another player locally or online.

Then there's the multiplayer, which is the main reason people are getting and have been playing numerous hours. The core of it didn't get changed dramatically from setting up custom classes, perks, and kill/deathstreaks, but there are little changes for the better in some aspects. The killstreaks for example are now consisted of three different packages. Assault is more offensive with airstrikes, helicopters, AC-130s, and other similar air support weapons. Support is a little more defensive with counter UAVs, SAM turrets, and recon drones. Unlike assault, the support package does allow killstreaks to continue even after dying, so if you're someone that can not maintain a double digit killstreak getting the big toys, maybe the support class is for you. The specialist package is a different beast as certain killstreaks grant you certain perks that you normally use. There is a killstreak package for everyone and it is change that works. The leveling up system is still addicting as it has been with accolades, challenges, and more along with your weapons leveling up as well to unlock attachments and more customizable things to mess around with.

The modes are also pretty much the same as Call of Duty games in the past despite some of the new modes that were introduced in Black Ops are not in this one. The standouts like Team Deathmatch and Domination will obviously be played a lot, but there are a lot of others that are underrated such as Kill Confirmed and franchise favorite Headquarters. Most of these modes are 6v6 even though there is a big team-like playlist for 8v8 matches in the dozen maps available out of the gate. The maps themselves are fine for the most part and I didn't really have any issues with them. Of course there are downloadable map packs coming soon and discounted if you have the Call of Duty Elite subscription, which that contains more packages fans will like.

While Modern Warfare 3 still looks good, the graphics engine they have been using for numerous years is showing its age, Some effects won't look as good as comparison to other shooters, but the game overall still looks fine especially running at 60 frames per second. There might be little buggy stuff here and there, but nothing worth game-breaking. However, there might be moments where I felt like I have to turn the brightness up to see what's going on specifically in the nighttime levels. As far as the sound is concerned, the production is still top-notch as expected. The theatrical soundtrack is great and the voice cast makes you feel like you're in a Hollywood blockbuster especially with all the crazy moments throughout the campaign. The sound effects are also impressive as if you want to play this loud in a theater setup.

In a nutshell Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is a great game and worthy of the franchise, but does it live up to the title most anticipated game in history? My answer is no as even though it is still filled with memorable moments and goodness fans know and love, the formula Infinity Ward has stuck with is starting to get old and tiresome as we'll see how they try to shake things up on the next game they're working on. Then again, with the franchise as successful like this, why even try to change it at all if billions of players are playing it right now with no signs of slowing down unless the fans really do fear change for the franchise. There is no denying that Call of Duty is a juggernaut that can't be stopped right now and after finally playing one for an extended period of time, now I know why it is the hot thing in the gaming world today even though it is not as superb as it can be.

Score = 8/10

Pros:

Its still Call of Duty at its finest and that alone is enough for fans to buy and play it for hundreds of hours
Survival mode for Spec Ops is a great addition
Multiplayer still pretty much the same, but the little changes are worth it

Cons:

Various campaign issues from too many vehicular sections and having a hard time telling who is who at certain times
Graphics engine starting to show its age
The whole formula is getting tiresome after sticking to it for four straight years and games.

My Recap on the 2011 Spike VGAs...

2011-12-12T16:34:00.000-08:00

Spike's 2011 Video Game Awards were on last Saturday and still nothing has changed from last year to this year in terms of how it was structured. Basically it still feels like a joke at best being an entertainment spectacle than a legit awards show and let's face it, this is how games are pretty much treated when seen on television being an easy target for jokes and all that. The folks that worked on the show tried hard to lessen that, especially the host Zachary Levi from Chuck, who did okay at hosting for the most part, but cmon even this award show feels like a laughing stock towards to the medium. It is really a shame that once again that games are not getting the respect they deserve compared to other forms of media as much as people are saying games are bigger than ever before. Yeah that is true to a degree, but shows like the VGAs prove once again feel like a step back for the gaming industry.

As expected like last year, the VGAs were never a real award show in the first place as they only handed out like five awards within the two hours they were on. It is always been about the spectacle and the debut trailers of big upcoming games for the next year or two. They were definitely bombshells at this award show even though some of them were leaked before the show started, which kind of blew away how bombshell-y they were. On the award side of things, I was happy Skyrim won game of the year (Still haven't played it though!!) and "retired" Shigeru Miyamoto accepted the Hall of Fame award for the Legend of Zelda franchise. Anyway, let's move on to the main highlight of the show, which were the exclusive reveals.

Arguably my personal favorite reveal from the show and this was during the pre-show too (lol), Tony Hawk announced a return to the franchise's roots with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD. This is a downloadable HD remake of the first two games as the levels you know and love are remade in HD (The Warehouse level from the first game as an example on the trailer above). No more skateboard controller nonsense as seen in the last two games, Ride and Shred, but the developers of those games, Robomodo, are developing this title. The levels will stay intact and the skater roster will consist of guys from today including the Birdman himself of course. The big question is whether or not the licensed soundtrack from those two games will return as they were one of many reasons why those games were memorable to many people especially me. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD is coming out on the summertime for downloadable platforms at around fifteen bucks.

Another pre-show reveal was a new trailer for Hitman: Absolution. Agent 47 returns in this latest offering and it is funny seeing the words "The original assassin is back" during this clip as a jab at the Assassins Creed franchise.

Namco Bandai announced a holiday 2012 release for the console versions of Tekken Tag Tournament 2, which is indeed ways off but fine with the arcade location tests going on my home area of SoCal. I have been playing that version since it came out last week and I'll have a preview of that soon. I'll also have a review of Tekken Hybrid, which I have now, later this week as well.

On the main show reveals...

The first bombshell of the night belonged to Sony and Naughty Dog announcing a new original game called The Last of Us. After coming off Uncharted 3, the folks are at again next year with a compelling title like this. I'm excited to see how this turns out especially how they deal with survival and the father-daughter relationship (the girl being Ellen Page... or not?).

BioWare had some stuff to show off with a new gameplay clip for Mass Effect 3. We seen in the new sprinting in action and it looks great in the crazy sequence above. Besides ME3, BioWare's bombshell is announcing that they're working on the next Command & Conquer game with Generals 2 on the Frostbite 2 engine (made famous in Battlefield 3). This is gonna be interesting from them diving into RTS territory as if EA needs to find some reason to continue that franchise in a different direction.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Patriots is on track for a 2013 release as you can find out more about the game on a previous Game Informer cover story. We'll see how this Rainbow Six goes especially with the stiff competition in the shooter genre these days.

Transfromers: Fall of Cybertron is the sequel to War for Cybertron, both made by High Moon Studios. That game was a sleeper hit and the best Transformers game in a while. I'm curious to see how things are improved for this sequel as it could only get better, but who knows when the game comes out next year.

It is no surprise that there is an Amazing Spider-Man game to coincide with the big movie this summer as Beenox hopes to turn things around after this year's disappointing Edge of Time. As with Spidey games that come out along with them movies, its more than just the movie plot that the game will contain as I don't think this Oscorp robot invasion is the main enemy in the movie, but a sub-plot in the game.

Blizzard accepted the Gamer God award and showed off the opening cinematic for Diablo III. As with these trailers have been all about, this is not an indication of how the gameplay looks like, but fans surely already know what to expect especially if they have been playing the closed beta lately.

Epic Games were also there to announce a new IP as CliffyB introduced FortNite to the world. At first glance it looks like Team Fortress 2 with zombies along with some tower defense as well. More details will be revealed in the coming months as we'll see if it turns out to be more than what I just mentioned.

A new trailer for BioShock Infinite was at the show as well being a montage of stuff seen in the same level we have been seeing for months. I'm curious if we'll see more variety soon besides the roller coaster-like railing stuff and the shooting, but I'm still hyped for the game being one of the big ones to get next year.

The main event reveal of the show was the truth being revealed about Metal Gear Solid Rising. Turns out the rumors were true and the game got rebooted to being called Metal Gear Rising: Revengance and it is now being developed by Platinum Games, the folks that made Bayonetta and Vanquish. Raiden is still the star of the show, but the slower pace seen in the trailer above is gonna be interesting for Platinum to work with, but the melee combat can still as crazy as seen in those games. The slashing sequences remind me of No More Heroes a little bit and of course the boss battles will be memorable as well. It is finally cool to see a different developer make a completely new Metal Gear game (Silicon Knights doesn't count) and at least its a fan favorite developer like Platinum doing this. Metal Gear Rising: Revengance is a gonna be a big one being another hit game for next year.

That's it for the VGAs this year as some of the reveals were good and while others were whatever since most of them were basically announcement trailers not showing any gameplay. Obviously the award show part sucked as it is still has a long way to go towards being a legitimate awards show on television. At least this is on TV, but the entertainment spectacle part of it has to be lessened to a certain extent because the humor is getting old. You can get away with the usual gaming jokes for a little period of time, but pulling the same tricks over and over again is just tiring. I'm for happy for Skyrim winning the big one as I see it being game of the year for a lot of gaming sites in the coming weeks.

The new South Park game = Potentially Awesome...

2011-12-05T11:24:00.001-08:00

The new Game Informer issue's cover story is about the new South Park game published by THQ and developed by Obsidian. Obisidian making this means it is a RPG as they are no stranger to the genre with Fallout: New Vegas, Neverwinter Nights 2 (I think), and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. Plus, this ain't just another South Park game as the creators themselves, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, are heavily involved with the project trying to make the script/storyline as good as seen in the TV show. The main cast of boys from the show are of course in big capacity, but the main character is a custom-made guy you make at the start of the game moving in to the town. The GI cover story has more info about how the project started, interviews with Parker and Stone, what the gameplay is shaping up to be so far (somewhat similar to the Paper Mario RPGs), and what the humor will be like. There is no official subtitle yet for the new South Park game as it is currently slated for a 2012 release.

December 2011 FGC Majors Preview

2011-12-01T13:17:00.000-08:00

The year is coming into the close, but its ending with a bang if you're a fighting game fan itching for more stream monstering and high level action. I will now break down the majors and special events for this month.

NEC 2011 - December 3/4

Northeast Championships has always been a fighting game community staple for numerous years and this year is no different with the best of East Coast and some West Coast folks visiting to duke it out. One reason why NEC is pretty big is that it is the first major for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Lots of crazy and new technology will be shown, but probably also more of the same old goodness that vanilla MvC3 provided. Be prepared to see lots of players get "Wesker-ed" (referring to level 4 Dark Wesker) and maybe the same old Phoenix sheninegans too? It is going to be interesting too to see whether players will stick to their old guns from vanilla or maybe they're confident enough with some of the new characters from Ultimate. From what I seen so far, Nova, Hawkeye, Vergil, and Frank West have been the new rising stars, but don't be surprised to see some blowups by others from the new cast like Phoenix Wright, Firebrand, and Strider. As I mentioned earlier, the best from the East Coast will be there along with some visitors from the Westside such as EG Justin Wong and Broken Tier's Clockwork. I think there are more WC players coming too, but I'm not sure exactly who's going. Anyway, Ultimate MvC3 will likely be the hypest thing at NEC, so definitely check that out. This weekend will also be the last major for Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition as the 2012 update will be out in two weeks. I still expect good stuff from that tourney as well as Mad Catz's Wolfkrone and Dieminion are my picks to win that one. Of course there are other games as well like Mortal Kombat and King of Fighters XIII, but NEC is going to be some sick stuff.

The first stream of AE 2012 hosted by iPlayWinner - 12/3

For those who can't wait for SSFIV: AE 2012 wanting to see what's new, there is a special event hosted by iPlayWinner at Southtown Arcade in San Francisco. NorCal's best from EG Ricky Ortiz, col.CC Filipino Champ, and more will be there going at it and also showing off the new changes for this version. The changelog is out there on SRK, Eventhubs, and Capcom-Unity if you want to know if your character got nerfed or buffed or see if the twins got hammered badly. Since its at Southtown Arcade, it is indeed the arcade version that gets the update first while consoles still have to wait for another two weeks.

The return of Bar Fights!!! - 12/11

Col.CC Gootecks is bringing back Bar Fights next weekend at Los Angeles. If you remember how these go, its basically concept matches of first to 5 or whatever in a certain game among the best players. The only concept match revealed so far is Finger Cramp's Jago against col.CC Mike Ross in a first to 5 in Ultimate MvC3. The finals of Beyond Gaming's Rise of the Web Warrior tournament will also be happening there as (its kind of funny) it is a SoCal vs. SoCal matchup between shglbmx from the OC and Steinmania from the Box Arena at San Diego. I expect most of the other details will be revealed on Cross Counter Live this Tuesday by the man himself on thestream.tv. For us LA folks, it is free entry, but seeing how past events like this went, come early to beat the crowds because it is gonna be packed at the new venue Gootecks picked somewhere in LA. I'll likely be there as I know its gonna be good times.

SoCal Regionals 2011 - December 17/18

Level Up is back again for SoCal Regionals as it takes place at UC Irvine. Most of the SoCal communities are running their specific games from Test Your Might doing Mortal Kombat, Dream Cancel with King of Fighters XIII, Level Up Your Game/Avoiding the Puddle for Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (yeah the arcade version of TTT2!), etc. It is also another big major for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as we will see the best of the West Coast along with some EC visitors going for the crown. This is also the first major for Super Street Fighter IV: AE 2012 being its the first weekend after its console release, so expect big things from this one especially from the international players that are competing (there should be a few coming, but nothing official yet from the Level Up crew as we'll found out in a matter of days). In addition, some of the fighting games out next year will be playable at SCR too. Street Fighter X Tekken will likely be the big one there as maybe a new build will be present that will include everyone's "favorite" thing to talk about, aka the gem system. Namco Bandai is also there with Soul Calibur V (out in the end of January) and Tekken Tag 2. Skullgirls will also have a big presence there as well if you have seen recent Wednesday Night Fights streams with people showing that one off.

Yeah, its a big month ahead for the fighting game community, so whether you're a player, spectator, or a stream monster, things are gonna be hype as we're ending the year strong.

Unleashing the Ultimate Nine Months Later... The Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Review

2011-11-20T20:50:00.000-08:00

Note - Most of the videos you'll see in this review will showcase high level gameplay as seen in the fighting game tournament scene.

Earlier this year, fighting game fans finally got what has been a long time coming with Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. It was a great game then filled with lots of potential and ideas only limited by imagination in terms of having that certain team combination that can wreck the competition. As the game's lifespan went on in just a couple of months, there were definitely some things that held it back especially from a high gameplay level perspective. Certain characters were too good and the X-Factor comeback mechanic became more of a problem especially in the hands of tournament players. It was supposed to give casual players a chance to come back from a huge deficit, but as these modern fighting games go with these comeback mechanics, putting that in the hands of tournament level players is a different story. Nine months after its release, we get already get a new version with Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Basically, its the same game, but balanced better and bringing back the creativity that was missing from the original's late months despite retaining some of the original's flaws.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is pretty much is similar to Super Street Fighter IV on how they improved their original iterations (well before Arcade Edition screwed things up for Street Fighter IV folks) besides both games being 40 dollars. New characters, new stages, and more online options are just some of the many additions to this new release. The new characters are pretty fun to play with as most of them have potential to be viable threats throughout this game's lifespan. Other than Capcom's favorite ninja Strider-Hiryu returning to the gaming world and Dead Rising's Frank West making a second appearance, the rest of the new characters in UMvC3 are their first appearances in a fighting game. From the Marvel side is an odd mix of characters from the comics at first, but they're a blast and worthy of being in a game like this. Popular guys such as Ghost Rider and Hawkeye are great to have, but seeing folks like Doctor Strange and Iron Fist give the Marvel cast more variety. Even characters that people most likely don't know that they exist like Nova and Rocket Raccoon are also a breath of fresh air too. Meanwhile on the Capcom side, Devil May Cry franchise favorite Vergil can finally unleash more beatdowns as seen in third game of that series. Nemesis from Resident Evil 3 is among one of the tallest fighters in the game alongside Sentinel, but still slow yet deals insane damage if you get hit. The rest of Capcom's new fighters are oddballs you don't expect, but I'm glad they're in. Firebrand from Garogyle's Quest and gaming's favorite lawyer, Phoenix Wright's unique playstyles from their respective games are implemented extraordinarily well as seen with some of Capcom's characters in the original too. With the new characters, Jill & Shuma-Gorath still being DLC, and the original cast being changed up a bit for balance purposes, the unique roster is at nearly 50 and it is just the limit of your imagination coming up with teams and setups with assists to dish out the business.

The core gameplay in this Ultimate version is still the same, but some system additions do spice things up a bit differently than the original and for the better. X-Factor as a comeback mechanic is an interesting idea, but it was a problem especially in level 3 when certain characters such as Dark Phoenix (Phoenix still has to be at five bars of meter before dying for that to happen) become too powerful. It has been toned down as if you can't do 100% combos if given the opportunity in earlier levels, but still retains that threat that anyone can comeback from behind. A new addition in Ultimate for X-Factor is that it can be activated in the air as it is great to avoid certain situations or keep air combos going for more damage. Blocking during air dashing has been taken out here and it is more noticeable to see team aerial exchanges. Matches are still fast and frantic, but they're a little longer than the original due to the toned down damage on most characters.

One problem I had with the original game was the lack of modes to play. Other than the standard arcade, training, and mission modes, there's isn't much variety in single player modes to play and that still has not changed for Ultimate. There is a downloadable free Heroes & Heralds mode coming soon, which is a crazy version of the game with trading cards that mod up certain things. That is still not considered in the review though as the previous modes I mentioned earlier are still the same. Arcade mode is seven stages culminating in a boss fight against Galactus with most of the original characters retaining the same endings as the last game, training mode retains the same options as seen from the original, and mission mode is basically Street Fighter IV's trials with all the characters. The bonus that people got from having an original MvC3 save is the ability to play as Galactus in arcade mode out of the gate than unlocking it later on, but its a throwaway feature. Its been more noticeable in these Capcom fighting games that there is flat out no legit tutorial to get beginner players started.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3's online gameplay was okay at best with its occasional laggy matches. The lack of a spectator mode and a replay system was a big problem though, but now that is included in Ultimate. The netcode was also supposed to be better than the original as Capcom said, but in my personal experience so far, it has been the same with some good matches, but laggy ones every now and then depending on the connection to your opponents. Online still functions the same way with quick and custom matches whether ranked or not as well as lobbies with up to eight players. At least the matchmaking has been improved as if you don't find a match after searching, you don't go back to the the main online menu screen as it was in the original. The competition is already stiff out of the gate as well because of the fact we have been accustomed to the core gameplay for nearly the whole year.

Graphically, Ultimate looks the same compared to the original. It still looks pretty good seeing crazy stuff happen all the time from the beams, lightning, and other projectiles characters throw out. The menus and the character select screen look different as well as an intro cutscene that features the new characters. There is also a comic that starts up after pressing start, which is cool to see. Sound-wise, at least the theme songs when browsing the menu screens and selecting characters are remixed and the "Take You For A Ride" remixes are still there in training mode too. As with the original, both the original and new characters have their own background theme when on screen, but you can also change to the stage music if you're tired of those.

I was a little skeptical at first about Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 coming out just nine months after the original because I thought it was too quick especially compared to the thirteen month gap between Street Fighter IV and its Super incarnation. However, Ultimate is what the original should of been as if it was rushed out in an unfinished state. As we exploited that game, certain glitches became familiar and now are taken out in this new iteration. Good thing it is priced at 40 dollars than the standard 60 because paying full price again would of have been a hard sell for casual players that either missed out or didn't like the original. Fighting game fans should still get this as it is the definitive version of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 with new characters that are a blast to play as with their unique playstyles, balance changes for the system and the original characters for the good so far (despite some characters getting nerfed too hard and most of the original cast getting way better with more damaging options), and supposedly better online. Some problems from the original are still a factor from a lack of modes despite Heroes and Heralds coming soon as free DLC, no definitive tutorial for new players to jump in and learn, and online play still being the same to me. Other than that, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is still a fun and amazing fighting game that got things fixed for the better even though things can be patched up as hopefully we don't see another retail version next year.

Score = 9/10

Pros:

All of the new characters are a blast to play as once you learn them and their unique playstyles are implemented extraordinarily well in a fighting game like this (Phoenix Wright being a specific example).
Balance changes to the system such as X-Factor and original characters are have been for the better so far, but of course we'll see after a few months how tourney-level play is going.
Spectator mode finally in this version to watch online matches
Online matchmaking has been improved
40 dollars!!!

Cons:

Still a lack of modes as the they are the same as the original.
Online play was supposedly better, but it has been the same for me personally with the occasional laggy matches.
No in-depth tutorial to get new/beginner players going as mission mode is still basically trials mode from the Street Fighter IV games

One Reason Why Skyrim Is Awesome...

2011-11-13T19:40:00.000-08:00

Words cannot describe how amazing this is from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Advance Music Roundup for 11/14/11 aka the "Talk That Talk" Edition

2011-11-13T16:47:00.000-08:00

Another year and yet we have another new Rihanna album out next week with Talk That Talk. After last year's Loud album being a big success with numerous hit singles such as "Only Girl (In the World)," "What's My Name" featuring Drake," and "S&M," its not surprising that the pop megastar's hit machine continues with her latest with similar results. Talk That Talk is filled again with potential hits that radio stations will abuse playing for the next few months till RiRi decides to continue the yearly streak. I might as well say it, she is basically the pop music's version of Call of Duty right now. Its easy to hate her crazy success and the fact she fills the airwaves with her singles as if you're hearing it every few minutes. However, you can't blame that she and her production crew are able to still pump out the catchiest songs on a consistent basis.

Talk That Talk does have its hits and misses like her previous album though. I'm already not a fan of the newly announced second single, "You Da One," which starts off this album and also being played abusively on mainstream radio stations. The first single, "We Found Love," is just one of those songs you just want to go crazy and dance, which I had a similar feeling with last year's "Only Girl (In the World)" too. Other highlights from the album for me so far are the second track, "Where Have You Been," arguably one of Rihanna's best songs in a while and you just know it is going to be a hit single eventually. Also, the solid title track features a Jay-Z verse and just another of her groovy tunes to jam to. There are a lack of slow tempo songs too, in other words, ballads as I consider "We All Want Love" and the last track "Farewell" filling in that void. Speaking of the word love, I wish there was a little more originality with the song titles as a third of the album ends with that word, but that's my nitpicky side coming into fruition. Rihanna comes out swinging in the first half with the songs I mentioned above, but the second half won't be as memorable even though some of it is underrated such as "Drunk on Love." and a return to her roots with "Watch & Learn." "Roc Me Out" almost sounds like my favorite song out of Rated R, "Rude Boy." "Birthday Cake" as an interlude is a little disappointing as it could of been another banger if it was longer.

In a nutshell, Rihanna's Talk That Talk is more of the same poppy RiRi pop music fans have been used to with its hits and misses. The hit machine was able to come up with her bangers that you'll hear on KISS FM, Amp Radio, and whatever other station that plays mainstream music for another few months. I'm hoping she takes a different direction in her next one even though this formula for her catchy songs has been working for a while now. Even though the last time she tried a big departure was Rated R, which I didn't like that much, so it will be interesting to change things up if she decides to do so. In the meantime, get ready for another year of Rihanna dominating the airwaves whether you like her or not.

Music Roundup for 11/7/11 aka the "Take Care" Edition

2011-11-07T14:15:00.000-08:00

One of the more anticipated mainstream albums this holiday season is out there in the wild, which is the latest from Drizzy aka Drake. Honestly, I was a little disappointed with his debut album, Thank Me Later. I had a certain set of expectations being more rap than R&B as it was the other way around. At least I know this time what I'm getting with Take Care in terms of how things balance out. There's definitely more R&B than rap, but it is better than his last album easily. So far, I'm already loving more tracks in Drizzy's newest compared to Thank Me Later as the production is very good as expected from an album like this. My personal favorites are "Crew Love" featuring The Weeknd, an amazing group by the way (their mixtapes are awesome), the title track "Take Care" featuring Rihanna as it is shaping up to be a big single for Drake off this album, "Underground Kings," and "Lord Knows" featuring Rick "Rozay" Ross. Also, Take Care is more thematic and it shows in his R&B songs. The album does start off with a slow tempo, but it kicks in faster tempo songs where he raps halfway through. As I mentioned earlier, there are definitely songs for Drizzy fans that either prefer his R&B side or his rapping style. There is even a nod to Juvenile in the "Back That Thang Up" sampled song, "Practice." Young Money cohorts Lil' Wayne & Nicki Minaj also have their features in this album as well as well as cameo appearances from Andre 3000 of Outkast and even Stevie Wonder. In a nutshell, Drake's sophomore album Take Care is better than his debut effort even though it is more of the same old Drizzy with a good mix of R&B and rap. There are some misses, but overall this is a satisfying album fans will like especially with the potential bangers Drake decides to use as singles.

Mortal Kombat on blast!!!!

2011-11-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

Yup.... literally on blast lol.

Insert "Mortal Kombat theme goes with everything" joke...

Just Another Call of Duty Commercial...

2011-11-05T15:47:00.000-07:00

The "most anticipated game in history" is out Tuesday and here's the live action commercial featuring Sam Worthington and Jonah Hill. Its pretty much an encore of the Black Ops ad with the same promo line of there is a soldier within all of us. Now that I seen most of the campaign in action, I'm obviously not sold about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 living up to the title I mentioned earlier. Yeah, it is still going to sell gangbusters and people will log on numerous hours of multiplayer that didn't change significantly.

Mass Effect 3 Beta Leaks... Gets Taken Down in Hours & Now the Story Leaks Too

2011-11-05T10:07:00.000-07:00

Last night, fall Xbox dashboard update preview owners got a nice treat, or in other cases, a leaked beta for Mass Effect 3. This beta is obviously not meant for release publicly as it is meant to be only internal and it shows. Some spots look pretty rough and unfinished as it got taken down by Microsoft and BioWare in a matter of several hours, but it is still playable with the sections it showed off. There is an earth level you start with, which is likely the beginning of the game, as you reunite with Captain Anderson to survive the Reaper assault and find survivors. The next segment of the single-player demo has been seen in press events as it takes place in the Salarian homeworld as more characters return from the previous games (Wrex, Liara, Garrus, and Mordin assuming they're alive by the end of the last game). Here, Shepard and Wrex have to save arguably the Krogans' last hope for survival from the Salarians except Reapers and even Cerebrus show up in attempt to ruin that.

The big reveal out of this beta for single player is that is three modes of approach to the final game as they consists of action, story, and RPG modes. It pretty much comes down to preferences how people would play the game as the story mode for example lets you play the game for the story and have an easier time in combat sections while those who like the combat sections would go with action mode. However, it seems to be that RPG mode is the one to go with if you played the previous games and want all hands-on on what's going from the dialogue trees and key story decisions. Gameplay-wise, it is still Mass Effect with the improved combat as you likely seen Shepard's improved abilities from melee attacks and rolling to evade. The recently revealed co-op, Galaxy at War, is also there in some way too, but there's not much to say with that if you read previews on various game sites.

Mass Effect 3 is still coming on March 6, 2012 and this beta leaking out reminds me I need to play the last stretch of Mass Effect 2 again to keep my vital characters alive for this finale (I did let one die, which sucked). More videos of this beta are blow courtesy of NeoGAF.

UPDATE - The videos are taken down for obvious reasons, but that's not all. This private beta did more damage than just leaking out as even a script of the whole story was leaked out as people were messing around with the beta's files. Yeah, the whole story of Mass Effect 3 is out there in the wild filled with spoilers galore. It still sucks that something as big as this gets leaked five months before release, but BioWare claims some of the story details in that script are not final. Those who read it though have a pretty good idea how the main game will play out now.

Greatness from Small Beginnings... the Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Review

2011-11-04T09:20:00.000-07:00

Note - The gameplay videos and some things I'll talk about will likely contain spoilers, so watch at your own risk!

Nathan Drake's amazing adventures for treasure and lost cities continue in Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. Lots of expectations have been set for this sequel to top the last game, Among Thieves since it was able to set new standards for the third-person shooter and gaming in general. Naughty Dog elevated things up to eleven last time as it seems like they're trying to turn it up to sixteen with the new scenes Nate has to survive if you have seen glimpses of them in trailers. While the campaign is still filled with memorable moments that are unmatched in most games today, I do have little issues with it that prevent it from perfection. Despite that, Uncharted 3 is still the one of the best complete gaming packages you'll get this year with improved multiplayer and better co-op.

The story in Drake's Deception is a little more personal this time as it centers around Drake and his mentor Sully's friendship as someone they knew from their past, named Katherine Marlowe, is after the same thing they're going after which is the Atlantis of the Sands. It is up Nate and his crew to get to the lost city before Marlowe and her bodyguard Talbot do, something that even Sir Francis Drake did not achieve back in his days. Along the way, you'll have your supporting cast travel to various locations as you'll run into Chloe and Elena at certain points of the game. Their roles are not as significant as they were last game, so if you're wishing to see more of them, you're not going to get that as this is more about Drake and Sully (you got a lot of them last game). Their friendship and banter is just one of the many special things in this new entry as Naughty Dog once again did a great job with the character interaction being more human than what games allow them to be. You can't just help but love the characters for who they are and how fleshed out they are as if they are better than most characters you see in Hollywood movies today. The storyline does have its crazy twists and turns as certain scenes are still something the developers can only pull off extraordinarily well even though it does follow a similar structure if you played previous games in the franchise.

The core gameplay in the campaign is still the same as Uncharted 2 as there are platforming and climbing sections, puzzles to solve, and of course the shooting. Melee combat has been improved as they feel more like Hollywood-like brawls with normal punching especially against big enemies and groups. What I mean by Hollywood-like is that even though Drake will have certain moves, some animations of the melee feel more normal than just resorting to game logic. Platforming and climbing sections didn't really improve that much, but I do have an issue with them more in this game than last time. Usually these sections are pretty linear as there is only one way to transverse through. Sometimes, there will be moments where you can just jump down because it is not that high of a jump, but in the campaign at certain times, you'll die because you didn't use a ladder or edges to climb down. This got annoying to me as they got more scripted even though I know the developers are so cinematic when it comes to certain sequences. This is not an issue in multiplayer, which I'll talk more about it later, as you can take a pretty big leap and not die as dumb as you can sometimes during the campaign.

Then there's the shooting sections as they are still fine for the most part. It has the same progression of weapons to use as you start out with normal pistols and an AK-47 till more of the power weapons kick in later in the game as well as certain situations. Personally, I didn't have any problems with the aiming as some claimed have as there is some input lag. Cover is still useful in the campaign compared to multiplayer especially when you're in a bad spot or just taking out enemies on a methodical pace rather than rushing in like a maniac with melee attacks (There's vertical cover segments straight out of Dark Void too). The firefights obviously get a little more difficult later on as you have to be smarter and patient tackling these. The enemy AI will flak and move in on you when they can even in on normal difficulty and there are tons of armored guys that will have lots of bullets to kill in the later half of the game. In a nutshell, the firefights will make you work and that's still a good thing to me being a challenge. Of course there are the crazy, memorable sequences to deal with as well as they are still amazing, but some of them are feel like they did them before, but with some slight twists. For example, remember the train level from Uncharted 2? Okay, let's try to replicate that in a boat level and a plane level too. Another example would of a certain sequence from the last game being somewhat replicated here is the level with multiple trucks as horseback gets thrown in the equation too, which is still a cool scene to play through, but it still felt like I did this before. Despite my issues with the campaign, I still had a great time with it as it is still one of the best single-player experiences you'll play this year, but the formula that was set in Among Thieves is starting to feel a little too familiar.

Besides the campaign, Uncharted 3's multiplayer and co-op elements have been improved significantly. The developers have learned some lessons from the last game and most of them have been fixed. They made as feature-heavy as they can to complete with the other shooter juggernauts out this holiday season from competitive loadouts seen in Call of Duty games, the leveling up system making a return (Sidenote - stats from the Subway beta will carry over and campaign stats are not factored in here like it was last game), weapon mods, replay and party systems, boosters and kickbacks that are basically perks, sprinting, Facebook support, character customization, and more. While they have able to fit in all these features to make it robust, the multiplayer still feels like Uncharted with the climbing and cover. Good thing Naughty Dog released two betas before the game's release to get it right as there were problems especially in the Subway version. Blindfire arguably was better than just aiming as you can rush in on a guy Rambo style and then rifle butt them to finish them off. Firefights became more chaotic than the developers intended it to be I guess as balance to me seems to be fine so far in the final version. Aiming still works to get kills and blindfire when things get tense and up close. No booster or kickback (you earn kickbacks by attaining a certain amount of medals doing specific tasks) combination doesn't feel overpowered and most of the maps are fun to play. The modes are still the same from the standard team deathmatch, team objective, plunder, hardcore, and so on as there is still that diversity if you're tired of playing one mode consistently. Co-op is also better with a five-level adventure mode that has its own storyline takes place in different versions of levels seen here and past games as well as past villains being up to no good again. There's also co-op arena, Uncharted's horde mode with its own twists, and hunter too as ways to get lots of money to level up. Competitive multiplayer and co-op is still a blast to play as more is to come in the future with downloadable maps and patches if Naughty Dog works on them.

It probably an understatement that Uncharted 3 looks gorgeous and jaw-dropping as it was expected to be. From the characters (maybe some characters look a little off as they were in UC2), the various environments, the water/sand effects, and sequences you're thrown in, it is one of the best looking games in this generation of consoles. There are certain moments where the camera pans out seeing how big the area you're in and how crazy the situation you're in, which is also a nice touch and pretty much only seen in Sony's first party games, mainly also in the God of War franchise. In addition, the urban environments are unmatched in terms of interaction of the surrounding characters with Yemen being the specific example. The sound production also remains unmatched compared to most games today as well. Nolan North again reprises his role as Nathan Drake as he delivers another amazing performance along with the rest of the voice cast that has worked with the franchise. The voice acting here is still better than most Hollywood movies too along with the soundtrack too.

It is pretty safe to say that Uncharted is arguably Sony's number one franchise now and it shows in Drake's Deception with Naughty Dog's development. This is as a blockbuster game as it gets being the complete package from the amazing campaign even though it sticks to a familiar formula that was established in the last game, the feature-heavy multiplayer that can stand up to the other shooter juggernauts, and improved co-op. I do have my nitpicky issues with the campaign, but the memorable moments you play through that feel like cutscenes but they're not and character interaction still overshadows them. Multiplayer is still a blast even though I have been playing it for months with the summer and Subway betas. The graphical and sound quality is still as top notch as it has been for the whole franchise as well. While it is another home run yet not a grand slam, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is still one of the best games you'll play this year and even this generation, so do not miss this one at any cost.

Score = 9.5/10

Pros:

Memorable moments throughout the campaign, still one of the best single-player experiences this year
Great and lovable characters as expected from Naughty Dog
Core gameplay still great and improved melee combat
Better multiplayer and co-op from last game (very feature-heavy too)
Graphical and sound production/quality unrivaled

Cons:

Nitpicky issues with the campaign as it sticks to a familiar formula and structure (same goes for the story too). Some sequences feel like retreads from the last game but with a slight twist and the platforming/climbing sections are a little too scripted.

This HD Collection is Keeping It Stylish...

2011-11-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

The HD collection train continues next year with Capcom's Devil May Cry franchise. The first three games will be bundled together for release early next year on PS3 and the Xbox 360. Its also another way for fans to warm up for Ninja Theory's reboot of Dante even though the hardcore franchise fanboys still wouldn't give it a chance. Anyway, here's the trailer for the Devil May Cry HD Collection as its going to be interesting to revisit one of my favorite series of last generation (DMC4 was okay, but DMC3 is still the pinnacle of the franchise for me). The one inclusion that will be curious is obviously the weak link of the franchise, aka Devil May Cry 2, and how it will probably be hated again.

Rockstar brings GTA back to LA...

2011-11-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

The long awaited trailer for Grand Theft Auto V is here (well not really long awaited since we knew how official it is a week or two ago) and Rockstar North is bringing it back to Los Angeles. Maybe in their own words, it would be Los Santos from San Andreas. Glimpses of places to visit range from the Vinewood sign, mountains that remind me of the Angeles National Forest, the wind plants straight out of Palm Springs, a look-a-like of Venice Beach, Santa Monica Pier, and more. It is still early to tell how big this version of Los Santos will be as it could be the whole LA vicinity (imagine that folks!) with its freeway system, but I don't think its going to be San Andreas all over again with San Francisco and Vegas thrown into the mix.

Oh yeah I forgot, we do have a sense who the main protagonist (some Frank West look-a-like) is with no name other his voice probably narrating the clip of wanting to live a certain lifestyle.

Anyway, watch the trailer multiple times as Grand Theft Auto V should come out next fall on 360 and PS3 (maybe day and date for PC version too?).

Rocket Raccoon and Frank West UMvC3 Clips...

2011-10-31T08:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween everyone as Capcom finally shows off the last two characters yet to be seen in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, which is out in two weeks.

There is a lot of hype for Rocket Raccoon, a Marvel character that was unexpected and hope he would continue a certain tradition. I'm not sure if that tradition is back, but this raccoon definitely has his own bag of tricks to be not the joke character some feared he would be. The burrowing concept for instance is somewhat new for a fighting game like this, but he has projectiles and traps that can OTG. Being a small character means he'll probably won't do that much damage, but if you want to style on dudes, give Rocket Raccoon a shot on your main team.

Frank West from the Dead Rising series returns to the fighting game world after his debut in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. For those thinking he will be the same from that game, think again as he has some differences. Taking snapshots with his camera increase some level for something (perhaps more damage?). He doesn't have a level 3 hyper move, but his three level 1s have their uses. His cart hyper is OTG (the other OTG move is a sweep, which is probably crouch H), a rush-like combination hyper that can go through projectiles if timed right, and an anti-air giant swing where he puts on the Servbot head on you.

There's more what these two characters are capable of than my descriptions as I will update this post with the match videos as soon as they get up on the interwebs. Maybe I'll just the man himself Seth Killian demo these guys off for the IGN folks.

More Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 Videos

UPDATE - Match videos below! (What's up Chuck Greene Chris & Ken, oh wait its just Ryu with Ken colors)

Let's Go Away, Let's Go Away... The Daytona USA (PSN) Review

2011-10-26T15:39:00.000-07:00

One of Sega's greatest arcade games finally gets the downloadable port treatment on Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network, which is Daytona USA. Back in 1993, this was a game that started a train of arcade racers by Sega and the one setting standards for the genre in general. After numerous disappointing ports on the Sega Saturn, PC, and the Dreamcast, Daytona finally gets a proper home port it deserves even though it is based on a HD re-release back at arcades called Sega Racing Classic, which was basically the same game without the name due to rights issues. Sega now has the rights back to use the Daytona name for this PSN/XBLA port and while they have done a lackluster job with their Genesis game ports on these consoles, they have done way better with their arcade games as this one was no exception. Daytona USA is still as good and fun as it was back in 1993 and easily worth your ten dollars.

The same arcade game is intact in this version from the three courses, the catchy soundtrack, and the intense racing action. This was arcade racing at its finest as it is the same infamous Hornet car, automatic or manual transmission, and overtaking the opposition, whether its the CPU or online opponents. Daytona was also one of many racers back then that had a pick up and play mentality, but deeper than you think gameplay once you learn more of the tactics especially drifting in sharper turns, drafting as seen in a NASCAR race, and boost starting at the harder courses. There is a rewind feature new to these versions, but its one of those unnecessary things to have even though today's racers have something similar. Besides the main arcade mode, there are actually some extra modes to keep players going for a bit solo on these new home versions. Besides the standard time trials, there are challenges to complete ranging from mastering the game's tougher turns at the various courses to learning the tactics I mentioned earlier. In addition, survival mode lets you stay on the track as long as you can till the timer runs out as you extend time performing certain tasks. Then there's the karaoke mode seen in the Saturn version where you can recite the lyrics of the game's catchy songs while driving, which is a neat bonus for fans. Even though it doesn't seem to be enough content considering it is still the three courses and their mirrored versions, there is online multiplayer to round out the package.

Online multiplayer is maxed out at eight players as getting into games are done by simple lobbies. There are options to mess around with when hosting matches such as whether or not to include non-player cars, race in the mirrored versions, and turning tire fatigue on or off especially in longer games. My gripe with the lobbies is that sometimes that if not all the players are readied up (tends to be two of more players though), the lobby resets to the join in screen making matches longer to start than they should. As far as how matches go, they feel great with minimal latency issues. Opposing cars might be slightly not moving as normal as they would due to their connection. Other than that, these races are as intense as they were when racing against seven other players at those big car setups at some Dave & Busters. Even if you had a bad crash at the beginning of a race, there is still an opportunity to come back and no lead is ever safe at any of the courses even if you're doing well. My only disappointment with the online multiplayer is surprisingly a lack of online leaderboards in the menus to track down who are the best players as you're just there racing for fun even though that seems to be enough for most people. The leaderboards only consist of the best times in time trials and distance traveled in the survival mode. The other major missing feature in this port is local multiplayer despite this still being the arcade version as it would been nice to some splitscreen too.

In terms of how HD this version of Daytona USA looks, this is not some full-fledged HD remake with the visuals. It is the same 18 year old game (or bascially Sega Racing Classic), but with widescreen and cleaned up textures. The framerate is consistently smooth with no slowdown at all as seen in past PSN/XBLA releases by Sega's AM2 port team. The soundtrack is still as catchy and memorable as it was back in the day. The intro theme hearing "Daytona... let's go away" is a great nostalgic trip as well as the rolling start at the start of the beginner course. The sound effects and voice overs also remain the same with no issues at all.

Even though it feels like a trip down memory lane, the PSN/XBLA port of Daytona USA is arguably Sega's best downloadable effort on these consoles. It is finally the proper home port fans have been waiting for numerous years after experiencing disappointing versions in the past. Besides the extra single-player modes, the fun and addicting online multiplayer will keep players going for a while despite not noticing any leaderboards for that. The game still looks great despite how old it is compared to today's racing games and the catchy soundtrack is as memorable as it was eighteen years ago. If you're itching for some good old-fashioned arcade racing, Daytona USA is a blast and easily worth the ten dollar price.

Score = 8.5/10

Pros:

As arcade perfect as it gets (the best port of this game)
Racing as still as fun and intense as it was back in the arcade days
Extra single-player modes and online multiplayer to increase replay value
The catchy soundtrack

Cons:

I didn't see any online multiplayer leaderboards tracking wins or ranking (only for time trial and survival modes)
Online matches sometimes take longer to start if not all players are readied up when the countdown goes to zero.
No local multiplayer

The Best Superhero Game Gets Better... The Batman: Arkham City Review

2011-10-24T10:47:00.000-07:00

Note: The following gameplay videos might contain spoilers, so watch at your own risk.

Batman: Arkham Asylum came out of nowhere in 2009. Yeah, it has Batman in it, but no one expected it to be that amazing considering the track record with games based on popular comic book heroes. Not only the developers Rocksteady created something special with that game, they set new standards with its combat system and nailing down how it truly feels to be the Caped Crusader. They're at it again with Arkham City to make things bigger and better. It is basically a by-the-numbers sequel with incremental improvements, but it doesn't mean it is a bad thing. Those who loved Arkham Asylum's presentation and storyline will be at love with Arkham City from beginning to end as Rocksteady does it again nailing down the important thing that matters with games like these: actually being Batman and the badass he is.

Arkham City takes place six months after the events of Arkham Asylum as the prisoners have moved to a new prison closer to Gotham, which explains the title of this sequel. Hugo Strange has big plans for this new location being the owner of it as the beginning starts off with a twist that I won't spoil. It is up to Batman to stop Strange's Protocol Ten plan from going down, but with his infamous villains such as The Joker, Penguin, and Mister Freeze still roaming around the area, he has his work cut out for him as you figure out how all these villains are connected to the main storyline. Then there's also Catwoman thrown in the mix as well as she is playable only you downloaded the online pass that comes with new copies of the game. Those without an online connection are out of luck seeing how she fits into the equation as the whole issue surrounding that can be debated in another time. Playing through the entire story is one crazy experience seeing how all these villains are thrown together into one huge game and its filled with unexpected twists and turns I didn't see coming. While some villains might not get some attention or have a bigger role as much of other villains as some of them just make a cameo appearance, its still nice to see them in some capacity in Arkham City.

The core gameplay that Arkham Asylum established is still intact in this sequel. The freeflow combat system is still as good as it was, but the little improvements are great additions to Batman's disposal. You can still mash your way through these fights, but keeping your multiplier alive still makes it deep when you mix things up. What I mean is when you use your gadgets and other special takedowns than just normal strikes. Timing critical strikes is key and quickfiring your gadgets have been improved significantly. As you progress through the game, enemies will get better with their weaponry from knives to guns as when encountering armed foes, Batman needs to be more careful as a smoke pellet can do only so much when escaping. Even though most of his gadgets are unlocked from the get go, the game does a good job of telling you when its the right time certain items are used in battle or just to transverse to the next area. Grappling and gliding from one area of the city to another is fun as well with some improvements done to those mechanics as well such as dive bombing to extend your glide. Along with the freeflow system, there's also the predator combat system as well returning from the last game. One of the flaws from Asylum was about detective mode and how it became essentially a win button of sorts when picking off enemies one by one grappling from one gargoyle to another. Detective mode is still in and the same, but you don't need it as much as you would back in the original. You can still use to plan out your attack and check how the environment can be your friend as well. Eventually enemies will become smarter in later encounters when detective mode can not be as useful and them using thermal vision to track your whereabouts. There is no other franchise than this one nailing down what it is truly like to be the Batman and with the little improvements, it just gets better.

One of the big things promised in Arkham City is supposed to be how more open-ended it was to be than the original. Asylum was also remembered for being Batman in a Metroidvania-like game (structured like Metroid Prime & Castlevania: Symphony of the Night), but in 3D. The structure still holds true here in a sense as there are side missions and collect-a-thons to distract you from continuing the main story, but turns out it wasn't as open-ended people hoped it would be tackling different areas in a different order. The main path is pretty linear if you focus just on that and beat the game in normally a dozen hours. Of course, it takes longer to 100% the game with the Riddler trophies/challenges to collect and side missions to deal with. There's also a new game plus option once you beaten the game to start off with your gadgets intact, but the counter indicators from enemies is off. As with the last game, challenge rooms are back in Arkham City for combat and predator sections. Along with that, there are campaigns that mix the two together in a string of events to add into the absurd amount of replay value.

Graphically, Arkham City looks as good if not slightly better than Asylum. The character models are great from top and bottom especially seeing Batman's status of his suit change from the beginning of the game to the end. The urban environments are a change of pace compared to the island from the last game as you can only go inside certain buildings that are significant for the main story and side missions. While the framerate is consistently smooth at 30 frames per second, I did run into numerous freezing issues during my time with the game where I had to reset the console (it even froze during the last boss fight for example). The sound is still as top-notch as it was last time from the amazing voice acting to the soundtrack. Kevin Conroy reprises his role as Batman from the animated series as well as Mark Hamill's amazing job voicing the Joker, but the rest of the voice cast is great too as fanservice. At this rate, it is never a Batman game or even the cartoon unless Conroy is voicing the Caped Crusader himself.

While Arkham City feels like a by-the-numbers sequel that kept it safe, the little improvements and change of setting still made the best superhero game better. The freeflow combat system remains unmatched by most action games in the market today as well as nailing the true essence of being a character like Batman. The replay value is just absurd with the amount of collectables, easter eggs, new game plus, and challenge rooms to complete that will keep players busy for weeks and even months with downloadable content of more playable characters. Some promises however didn't come as people expected and my personal freezing issues prevent it from pure perfection, but it is still one of the best games of the year and a masterpiece you can't miss out on.

Score = 9.5/10

Pros:

The true feeling of being Batman gets better
Freeflow combat system still as good as it was and unmatched compared to most of today's games
Storyline full of unexpected twists and turns making it one of the best single-player experiences I played through in a while
Crazy amount of replay value that will keep players busy for weeks

Cons:

Not as open-ended as some hoped it would be (still structured similarly to Asylum)
Game freezing issues I personally experienced
The Catwoman online pass debacle - if you don't have an online connection, you're out of luck.

Some Dance Central 2 Vids for your Sunday...

2011-10-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

Some folks have Dance Central 2 early and most of the songs are up on YouTube (hard difficulty), so here's some of them.

David Guetta feat. Akon - "Sexy Chick" (Arguably the hardest song in the game tier-wise)

Britney Spears - "Toxic" (NOTE - This is a cover as if we're back in 2006 in terms of rocking cover songs on games. Harmonix I guess didn't get the rights to use the actual song... makes you wander if Britney is really that hard to get in games like these).

Willow Smith - "Whip My Hair" (no surprise that song is in the game)

Lady Gaga - "Born This Way" and "Bad Romance" (Gaga is one of a handful artists that have at least two songs in the game)

More soon... still the Kinect game to get this holiday season (well if you want 4-player dancing rather than two here in DC2, u can get Just Dance 3).

BF3 vs. MW3 (Launch Trailer Showdown)

2011-10-22T10:46:00.000-07:00

The big first-person shooter face off begins Tuesday with Battlefield 3's release while Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is still two weeks after. Launch trailers seem to be another new trend in the gaming industry these days as Battlefield's came out yesterday and Activision had to follow suit with their launch clip for MW3. Anyway, here they are...

If you've been following my stance on which is better, you should know by now who I'm still repping.

Soul Calibur V's Guest Character Finally Revealed

2011-10-20T23:46:00.000-07:00

Soul Calibur V's guest character has been rumored for a week, but looked like that came true as Ezio from the Assassins Creed franchise is officially in the game. So far, Ezio is pretty much the only guest that has made sense to appear in a SC game compared to Link, Heihachi, Spawn, Darth Vader, Yoda, and Kratos. Those characters (Link and Kratos being the exception I guess) are a little too crazy to have, but nice for the sake for fantasy. Ezio has retain most of his moves and gadgets from his games in the Soul Calibur world, but as with guest characters in general, don't expect him to be high up in the tier list. Supposedly, Soul Calibur V is coming out as early as January, which is a little surprising, but we'll see when Namco Bandai makes an announcement regarding that soon.

SSX Comes Out on Valentine's Day

2011-10-20T13:08:00.000-07:00

EA finally announces a final release date for SSX, which is February 14, 2012 (aka Valentine's Day). Along with this announcement is another new trailer and I'm still pretty excited for the return of my favorite snowboarding franchise. I'm assuming a demo will come out a month prior, so keep your fingers crossed for that soon.

PSN Demo Showcase for 10/19/11

2011-10-19T14:18:00.000-07:00

Today's PSN Demo Showcase features the latest iterations of two long-lasting franchises with one featuring hedgehogs and the other with cars.

First up is another demo for Sonic Generations as this time it features both classic and modern Sonic in the Green Hill Zone. The classic Sonic's level is the same as the 20th anniversary demo except with an annoying Chao being some sort of tutorial. New on the demo landscape though is modern Sonic's Green Hill level. For those who don't know, modern Sonic is based on the 3D games (Adventure, Heroes, Unleashed, Colors) with speed boosts and homing attacks. If you especially played Sonic Unleashed (not for the disastrously Werehog levels), you will feel right at home with modern Sonic's controls. The level is a longer than classic Sonic's version and features a rock remix of the infamous Green Hill theme, something you would hear from one of the recent 3D games. For Generations, modern Sonic seems fine to me even though I had an easier with classic Sonic because I played the older games more than the disappointing new ones (Colors being an exception). Sonic Generations is out on November 1 and hopefully this breaks the Sonic Cycle once for all, but there is a feeling that it won't somehow knowing Sonic Team.

The other featured demo this week is Need for Speed: The Run, EA Black Box's return to the franchise after their last disappointing effort with Undercover. After last year's success of Hot Pursuit, EA seems fine with attaching autolog to all their high profile games now with this one being no exception. This is your Standard Need for Speed demo with two cars (Porsche Carrera S and the Lambo Gallardo) to choose from and two tracks available to race through. Both of the tracks are point-to-point and require a certain amount of cars to pass through to complete the race. None of the new features such as the debatable on-foot sequences are in this demo as it is straight up racing in Death Valley and a snow environment. The snow track is more interesting since there are avalanches popping up everywhere throughout the race against just one car as you attempt to pass it along with avoiding any hazards. Getting wrecked does allow rewinds to go down as seen in previous Need for Speed games as it rewinds you to the last checkpoint you crossed rather than the turn before. The graphics of this demo definitely show it is from an early build, so we'll see how the final game looks when it comes on November 15.

Grand Theft Auto III Celebrates 10 Years

2011-10-19T13:56:00.000-07:00

This Sunday is the 10th anniversary of one of the greatest games of all-time, which is Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto III. It was a game ahead of its time changing everything we knew about games how open-ended it was, the controversy it caused, and the amount of insanity you can cause. I remember the day I getting the last copy at a Toys R Us during my PS2's first month and experiencing firsts of many. For a week or two, I didn't care about progressing through the main story as I rather try to cause as much chaos as I can till I die. Throw in cheat codes into the mix and it was crazy times back in October 2001. Then I realized that the main storyline was worth it after all with the crazy amount of twists and turns till the finale. Liberty City and gaming in general wasn't the same for the next ten years looking where we are now.

It would be interesting to see what if GTA III didn't come out and set the standard for modern games. Would Japan remain its dominance in the gaming landscape even today or other western developers took this idea for their own? Let's face it, that game did pretty much changed everything as it was the start of a new era and direction for the industry as well as a gateway for more Western developers to follow suit.

Happy 10th anniversary to Grand Theft Auto III and thanks for flipping the game industry upside down to become what it is today.

EA Sports Goes From Jamming to Blitzing...

2011-10-18T21:03:00.000-07:00

Fresh off NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, EA Sports is also bringing back the arcade football classic NFL Blitz to the current generation as a download on January 8, 2012. Jam announcer Tim Kitzrow returns for this new Blitz and Tiburon is handling development (the Madden folks). After seeing how great of a comeback NBA Jam was for EA, I'm expecting the same level of goodness for Blitz too and I think fans will get that.

This Video = I Have No Words

2011-10-16T23:46:00.000-07:00

This is too funny yet so dumb at the same time... thanks Marvel 3!

Street Fighter X Tekken at NYCC

2011-10-14T16:52:00.000-07:00

Besides Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Capcom is also showing off the latest details with Street Fighter X Tekken as it now has a release date of March 6, 2012 (same day as Mass Effect 3). There's also a special edition confirmed, but I'll probably be suckered to getting it even though it could of been better. The big gameplay feature being revealed is the gem system, which seems be another questionable addition like Pandora, but I'll still wait till the final game if things work out together after all. The gem system allows for stats buffs for a limited time, but customizable before starting a match. More character teasers are also up for certain Tekken characters and after being seen in a previous trailer, Rufus is confirmed playable too. Its going to be interesting how tournaments will handle the gem system, but with another crazy gameplay system out there along with the rest of the other crazy business, there's a lot to think about in this game.

Anyway, the character teasers are below.

One Reason Why Light Gun Games are the Best

2011-10-14T09:09:00.000-07:00

Maybe these guys take light gun games way too seriously. Then again, that's probably why they're the best.

Here Come The Men In Black... on Current-Gen Consoles

2011-10-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

One 90s movie franchise returns to the gaming world as Activision announces a new Men in Black game for a 2012 release on current generation consoles. There is Men in Black 3 coming out next year I think or even 2013, so this new game will probably coincide with the movie or perhaps it will be an original storyline. Activision and a movie license usually means bad results and the developer doesn't seem to have a good track record of games worked on, but you never know. Even these first screenshots don't look that impressive and I don't see Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith doing voice work for this too.

At least this gives me a good excuse to post the infamous Will Smith song and video.

A New & Lengthy Final Fantasy XIII-2 Trailer

2011-10-13T10:10:00.000-07:00

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is still probably not the sequel everyone wanted, but its still coming out in January 31, 2012 for PS3 and 360. Oh, this trailer also spoils the first game's ending in case people didn't play it yet as this sequel begins right after it. I'm not sure the story makes any sense yet, but I guess folks that liked XIII's gameplay will be fine with XIII-2. For the non-Japan versions, Charice does the theme song called "New World" which is sort of better than Leona Lewis's "My Hands" for XIII. Anyway, we'll see if Square can turn things around in January.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 at New York Comic-Con

2011-10-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

New York Comic-Con is this weekend is its no surprise Capcom is there using the event for their latest character reveals for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. One of the most anticipated fighting game characters is finally being shown off as well as another of Marvel's lesser known heroes.

Everyone's favorite ace attorney Phoenix Wright finally makes it to a fighting game and boy he lives up to the hype. Even though he seems to be sheninegans-based, he just looks simply fun to play throwing out paper, delivering objection hammers, and a OTG level 3 that looks too good. He has another meter above the hyper meter to store his evidence, as who knows how that is utilized (more damage? he needs three or four pieces of evidence to do his level 3?). Capcom added a lot of the effects that have appeared in the Ace Attorney games as they did another great job translating one of their beloved characters into a different genre.

Nova is one of Marvel's lesser known heroes and another character that can hit hard once he gets going. Along with Taskmaster, Storm, Spider-Man, and some others he doesn't have a level 3 hyper move, but the hypers he has will get the job done. He has lots of wall bounce and OTG capabilities, so I'm sure he'll be fun to mess around with.

There is only Frank West and Rocket Raccoon left to reveal out of the whole roster, which I think Capcom will save that for the end of the month. As expected with these videos, more match footage is below.

UPDATE - Well here's your perfect screen in UMvC3 (This didn't happen in vanilla)

Let's Go Away on October 25/26

2011-10-12T09:56:00.000-07:00

After teasing it a couple weeks back with a contest, Sega officially announces Daytona USA for Xbox Live Arcade on October 26 and Playstation Network a day earlier for ten dollars. The same game that you loved at the arcades is finally getting a proper port on consoles (Saturn and Dreamcast versions were disappointing from what I seen). Widescreen support is in as seen in Sega Racing Classic (the same Daytona without the name) as well as online multiplayer with up to eight players on the three tracks. Extra modes are included such as the karaoke mode from the Saturn version. As I said back from the teaser blog post...

Rrrolllliiinnnggg Sttaaaaaaaarrrttt!!!!

The Next Big Thing Returns in WWE '12

2011-10-11T10:05:00.000-07:00

This is pretty surprising when I first read about it, but now it is happening. Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar returns to what made him the beast it is today. He is a playable legend in WWE' 12, which is out next month. Considering what you have to go through is get this approved from the UFC, this is pretty big. Dana White has said on numerous occasions that him and Vince McMahon are good friends and not competitors, so I guess Dana decided to let Brock appear in a wrestling game again. Of course, it doesn't mean The Next Big Thing will return to the actual WWE as he has a big fight against Overeem in December for the UFC, but its still nice to see him back in a WWE product.

Here Comes the Pain indeed (I'm not sure about his remixed entrance music as the original is still pretty good)

The Dance Game Battle Begins This Week!

2011-10-10T11:11:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow begins this year's dance game battle as Just Dance 3 releases on Wii, 360, and PS3 while Dance Central 2 is still on track for October 25 exclusively on Kinect. I actually saw the Wii version at my local Target last weekend (Target has two exclusive songs) and was tempted to get it at its 40 dollar price, but good thing it was only temptation. I still expect this to sell gangbusters this holiday season as here's one of the songs in full that is everyone's favorite song on radio this year. Its cool that LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" is in it, but its missing one important thing: Shuffling!!!! To be fair, Just Dance 3 doesn't really include actual chereography to certain songs as Dance Central 2 has been doing for the most part in some of their songs.

Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Pretty Much Official...

2011-10-10T10:29:00.000-07:00

Mass Effect 3's multiplayer has been rumored even since the game's original announcement last year, but looks like its going down after all according to next month's Official Xbox Magazine cover story. The issue comes out next week and probably the embargo on everyone else will be up by then to spill the beans on what BioWare has been up to. Even they announced it early on their Twitter about confirming some sort of multiplayer component. No official word what it is actually going to be whether its the standard competitive modes, co-op through the campaign, or a horde style mode as of yet, but I guess we have to wait till next week for the info along with plans for downloadable content (An online pass has been rumored as well). Personally, it is inevitable Mass Effect 3 is getting it and also probably one of many reasons it was delayed to March 2012. The big campaign is what still matters at the end of the day as we determine the fate of Shepard in the conclusion of this epic trilogy.

Who Needs the Lockout, Its Boom-Shakalaka Time!!! The NBA Jam: On Fire Edition Review

2011-10-07T22:22:00.000-07:00

EA's NBA Jam reboot last year was a great return to form for the arcade basketball classic. Even though it was a retail release, this year's On Fire Edition is download only on Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network. NBA Jam being download only is for the best since you're getting a better value for a decent amount of content. Some new gameplay additions and online features are introduced for this year's version, but its still NBA Jam at its core, which what matters importantly at the end of the day. From ridiculous dunks, Tim Kitzrow saying boomshakalaka numerous times, and tons of unlockables, NBA Jam: On Fire Edition is a great downloadable package that is worth your fifteen bucks.

The classic NBA Jam gameplay is still intact in this version sticking to the signature 2v2 format. Games are fast and intense with easy scoring, but as sports goes, a great defense equals a great offense. Defending is key to success with the classic pushes, stealing, and timed blocks. Players on offense can still use their elbows like the original to avoid pushes, but that can only do so much. Scoring still consists of normal shooting, crazy dunks, alley oops, and being on fire to do insane over the top dunks. The new gameplay additions are great adding along to your ways to score. Team Fire allows both teammates to be on fire by scoring three alley oops in a row then the ball goes on blue fire. There is a time limit with team fire, but the opposing team can distinguish it with an alley oop of their own. Razzle dazzle brings some style to the mix with tricks straight out of NBA Street even though it is just a way to show off and crazy shots you normally don't see in a real basketball game. Tag mode is simply controlling both teammates instead of one human and one CPU AI the whole game. Having that on has its advantages and weaknesses, but at least it makes Jam feel somewhat modern to the simulation b-ball games. The core gameplay is still fun, pick up to play, and a blast especially against local friends, where it can get pretty competitive once good games get going.

While last year's reboot has numerous modes that spiced up things from boss characters and other crazy stipulations, On Fire Edition sticks straight to the point of good old fashioned NBA Jam taking those out even though they were decent ideas at the time. Other than the standard Jam Now mode, you're going to spend most of your time in the game's Road Trip and Online Arena. Road Trip is the main career mode as you have to face all the teams at least three times to complete it. The first time will be against current stars while the second time is against a team's legends (some teams don't have legends though). It gets harder at the second half of the campaign as the AI gets better at defense pushing and stealing at will even though you can breeze through teams' current stars. Even though it can be played alone, Road Trip is a grind being longer than you think becoming repetitive even though the AI steps up their game as you progress. At least if you're tired of grinding it out alone, it can be played co-op locally and even online.

Speaking of online, On Fire Edition's Online Arena is deeper with lots of stat tracking, challenges to complete (also counts for Road Trip). The Jam challenges are self-explanatory performing certain tasks to accumulate Jam Points to buy the game's unlockables. Online specific challenges are there as well as your friends list that play this game can help achieve them even though they function the same. The big feature with Online Arena is that there is a time period to accumulate wins and racking medals every week. This is neat to have pushing players to keep playing online matches against the world. Other than that, be prepared to deal with players that like to spam three pointers as unless you can defend that, online play is going to be frustrating and it has been personally. In addition, there are ragequitters that will not finish games if they are behind by lots of points. It still functions fine with minimal lag during my experience so far, but it is rare to have a fair game of NBA Jam going against online opposition. There will be intense moments during close games as you just want to scream out loud pulling off a double overtime win to yelling curse words in defeat.

If you seen the graphics of last year's NBA Jam, On Fire Edition basically looks the same with accurate faces to current stars and legends. There are some missing legends probably because of likeness issues (Michael Jordan being in NBA 2K12 is obviously an exclusive thing), but it is still pretty much a who's who of basketball players from the 80s and 90s. The crowd looks fine for the most part and the unlockable teams are obviously a nice treat in a game like this. In traditional Jam fashion, Democrats and Republicans are unlockable as well as mascots and characters from other EA games that I won't spoil (unless you saw that launch trailer above). I also like the soundtrack in the game with beats that gets people going in-game and the menus. Tim Kitzrow's commentary is still as good as it was back in the 90s with his classic lines even though he can ramble too much and when he throws out references from today's times, they're cringe-worthy at best.

For fifteen dollars (1200 Microsoft Points), NBA Jam: On Fire Edition is as good as it gets when it comes to arcade sports games. Being downloadable is a great thing as you're getting lots of replay value out of it for that price from the lengthy Road Trip mode and playing against other people locally or online. The classic gameplay is still as fun and a blast to play as it was in the 90s along with the craziness the franchise has been known for. The numerous unlockables and completing jam challenges are also keep players going for weeks and months to come along with downloadable content and updated rosters. At this rate, who needs the NBA lockout when you can go boomshakalaka on your foes with this latest NBA Jam.

Score = 8.5/10

Pros:

The core NBA Jam gameplay is still fun and a blast especially with the new gameplay additions
Tons of replay value and numerous unlockables
Sticks straight to the point taking out the gimmick modes
Lengthy career mode
Deep online focus will keep players going

Cons:

Some of the commentary could of been better (Kitzrow can ramble too much at times)
Online competition can be frustrating to play against (opponents that love to spam three pointers because they have a player with a high 3pt rating and ragequitters if they are down by a huge margin)

Playing An Outrun Cabinet in Real Life?

2011-10-07T13:41:00.000-07:00

This is some random video I just saw regarding an Outrun arcade cabinet being driven in the real world. Apparently, when the game tells you to turn, you turn the actual vehicle for reals. Shoutouts to UC Irvine for coming up with this even though it is still in experimental stages, but there's some potential despite how scary it can be at open environments than closed ones.

A New Modern Warfare 3 Campaign Trailer

2011-10-07T13:07:00.000-07:00

We're about a month away from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's big release as the latest campaign trailer is now up on the interwebs. Activision is obviously expecting big things from their latest cash cow as if they're going to trump Black Ops as the biggest entertainment launch of all-time. The crazy setpieces will still be there along with a summer Hollywood blockbuster-like plot to conclude this trilogy. I'm still on Team Battlefield, but obviously MW3 is no slouch.

Let's Get A Drink From Subway & Go Hands-On with Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Again...

2011-10-06T14:01:00.000-07:00

Subway has a big contest and promotion going for Uncharted 3 as the grand prize is some trip to various locales around the world. Buying a medium drink gets you a code for the latest version of Uncharted 3's multiplayer while getting sandwiches and chips gets you codes for other in-game goodies. This is not apparently the final version of the multiplayer as there are only six maps and a level cap of 35, but there are enough changes that are different from the summer beta. This version will last for the whole month of October till the final game's release date of October 1st, but it allows your stats, loadouts, and unlockables to carry over. Its basically a head start for those that want it to mess around early because the big multiplayer juggernauts are coming out by the time it arrives on retail. The feature set at its core is still similar to the summer beta, but the subtle gameplay changes did change people's playstyles.

Other than the three maps that appeared previously, this new version offers three more maps with Desert Village, London Underground, and Syria. The cool thing about Desert Village is that a sandstorm will occur mid-match and the visibility will decrease for a short time. London Underground follows a similar structure than Airstrip when playing team deathmatch as the start of the game takes place in a moving train before stopping at the station. These sequences are still nice to have in concept, but disrupts the flow of a normal mutliplayer game as teams can get big leads easily if they have a positional advantage. Even the train can kill you at the station if you're standing on the tracks too. Syria is a nighttime map in a castle that works well for objective-based games. These maps are great additions with more to come in the final game.

If you played the summer beta, you'll feel right at home with this Subway version. The major thing you'll notice however is blindfire being better to the point it becomes chaos when close against opposing players praying you'll get a kill. A recent patch supposedly fixed this with stopping power, but I haven't had much time with that. Melee can still be a 50/50 as its been trying to out-mash someone for the two hit kill. Of course, there are moments where an enemy would take lots of shots can still not die and headshots don't act like headshots, but Naughty Dog still has time to tune things up for the final release. Sprinting was improved in the latest beta as well as increasing the medal count for the RPG kickback from eight to ten (previously with that kickback, I can get three kickback king pretty easily if I'm doing well). With this build, there is an argument that Uncharted 3 has become a blindfire fest like how Gears of War has been shotgun fest with its multiplayer, but you can stop and pop your way to victory.

The playlists and the party system remain the same for the most part with team deathmatch, free for all, plunder, team objective, and three team deathmatch. Having a party around is obviously advantageous if you're able to communicate well especially in objective-based games. There will be always players that play objective games to rack lots of kills rather than go for the win, so be prepared to encounter some games like that. Replays, YouTube uploads, and Uncharted TV still function the same as well even though Uncharted TV is showing footage from the summer beta rather than this one now. The HUD change is another thing worth mentioning as the scores appear on the bottom right of the screen, which is fine. Unlockable boosters, guns, weapon mods, and characters are expected too as you play as the villains that have a viable role in the camapaign here. Since this is the Subway version, you can get attain Subway exclusive items that won't appear in the final game, so get it now while you still can last month if you're that completionist type.

At first, I wasn't a fan of the changes in this Subway build of Uncharted 3's multiplayer, but it seems like the developers have noticed the new player tendencies and hope to balance things out for the final version. Even though it has become a blindfire festival, the core tactics still work fine as usually you have to resort to the BS to win, which is the case in multiplayer games in general. I'm still having a good time leveling up quickly even though there are tons of people that reached the level cap of 35 in a matter of hours. The campaign is what I'm most anticipating seeing how Nathan Drake survives this new adventure, but its a cool thing that the multiplayer is already out to get it over with.

Ultimate Assist Me is Off and Popping...

2011-10-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is about five weeks away and Maxmillian was able to snag a near final build of the game to start off his Ultimate Assist Me! series, an in-depth tutorial featuring the new characters. This week is Strider-Hiryu and Hawkeye as Max covers the basics for these guys with his roommate Doctor Doom. Don't expect the crazy business right away since the game is not even out, but this is a good overview of what the new guys will play like. Also, expect the live nation hilarity that the Assist Me videos has been bringing the past few months as well.

Last night, iPlayWinner and Capcom hosted a little event called Ultimate NorCal vs. Capcom, where UMvC3 and Street Fighter X Tekken were playable to NorCal's best players. UMvC3 got more of the spotlight (hence the title and it was the Vergil/Iron Fist build) as we get the see some crazy sheninegans the other new characters have so far. It was a great stream filled with amazing commentary that NorCal has been known for along with some players already getting used to some new characters like Vergil, Nemesis, and Ghost Rider. I'll have the YouTube link up later for that. Next weekend is New York Comic-Con and also the next (final?) reveals of the remaining new characters, so stay tuned.

Rooollllliiiinnnngggg Stttaaarrrrtttt!!!!!

2011-10-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

In weird fashion, Sega teases a new downloadable game announcement above, but the tease is too obvious (and by the title above). Anyway, it is about time Daytona USA is coming to consoles via download and I'll leave it at that.

UPDATE - The possible release date for this is October 25 according to the Playstation Blog as there is a discount on this if you have Playstation Plus.

Assuming it is Daytona USA, will it be just another rushed port of a classic or Sega actually caring about it adding in extra features? Who knows if it will have any multiplayer at all (at least locally) especially online. Online play could be limited to two to eight players, eight being the maximum for an arcade setup, or they could go the extra mile with 16 or 32 players even though that is a dream (imagine that though!).

Music Video of the Day for 10/3/11

2011-10-03T09:45:00.000-07:00

Drake ~ Headlines (Official Video) from OctobersVeryOwn on Vimeo.

Drake - "Headlines"

Take Care is out on October 24 and I hope its better than Thank Me Later.

Just Dance 3 vs. Dance Central 2 - Soundtrack Battle!

2011-10-02T22:05:00.000-07:00

This year's fall battle of rhythm games contains two dance franchises that follow a similar rivalry between the big plastic instrument games four years ago. Both Just Dance 3 and Dance Central 2 are out this month to compete for your dollars, but even though the games are different in terms of how dancing is handled. Just Dance 3 continues this mega popular franchise as it is now coming to all three platforms instead of only the Wii. Its a Kinect only on the Xbox 360 while Move controls are mandatory on the Playstation 3 version. Obviously being on all three consoles means it will sell better than Dance Central 2 easily and arguably one of the big selling games this holiday season, but it doesn't mean its the better game. Harmonix's Dance Central 2 is what I call the "Rock Band 2" of dance games improving everything and including what is missing in this sequel to the Kinect's most successful game so far. The dance routines are getting better and more accurate to music videos of certain songs unlike Just Dance 3 where it is the same old mindless moves that don't make sense. Anyway, this post is about comparing the soundtracks, which is the most important part to decide who would win this battle as the better dancing game.

Just Dance 3's soundtrack is the best of the franchise being a mix of new and old classic stuff. One advantage in terms of certain songs making this game compared to Dance Central 2 is LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem." The downside to this is definitely a lack of shuffling in the preview footage above, which is disappointing. Recent hits range from Katy Perry's "California Gurls" (One of the spokespersons advertising this game with exclusive DLC again at retailers I think), Taio Cruz's "Dynamite," Cee-Lo Green's "Forget You," and more. There is a lack of infamous songs compared to the competition as there are some personal favorites in here I approve of like A-ha, Janelle Monae, Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous," and others. The soundtrack at the end of the day for Just Dance 3 is just another collection of tunes to dance to. The full list is here if you see some choices I didn't mention here you like.

Dance Central 2's soundtrack on the other hand is filled with banger after banger that has influenced the dance scene as if Harmonix knows what's up when it comes to song choices (they have been for the Rock Band games). Its a great mix of classic and modern songs that I know people are down to dance into at their homes. The old-school stuff that is in this game are basically the quintessential songs you expect to hear at parties and get things popping at the clubs. Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It" (shoutouts to Pat 112), "The Humpty Dance," "Baby Got Back," and "What is Love?" are just some of the classics that are in this sequel. As far as modern radio hits are concerned, "Like a G6," "Rude Boy" by Rihanna, Flo Rida's "The Club Can't Handle Me," Gaga's "Born This Way," and more made it to the final disc. Even house favorites "Sexy Chick" by David Guetta and "Sandstorm" (yeah that DDR classic) will be awesome times as well. Slower songs such as B.o.B's " Nothin' On You" and "Grenade" by Bruno Mars are questionable, but I guess they offer a different change of pace if you're into that. Even though the whole soundtrack hasn't been revealed yet, you can still look here for what else made it to Dance Central 2. In Harmonix tradition, all songs from Dance Central 1 can be exported in the new one for a cheap fee as well as all DLC is also supported too, meaning you can have more than a hundred songs at your disposal when it comes out.

The soundtrack battle is pretty much no contest as Dance Central 2 easily wins it over Just Dance 3 due to the crazy amount of bangers and not a lot of filler (misses). Who knows how Ubisoft will handle downloadable songs for Just Dance 3 on 360 and PS3 if they have a monthly schedule planned out as I know for sure Harmonix, the kings of DLC, will be able to pump out new songs for weeks and months to come. If you have a 360, definitely go with Dance Central 2 for your dancing game of choice as long as you have a Kinect. PS3 or Wii-only owners will be fine with Just Dance 3 filling that void.

A Day Into the Battlefield 3 Multiplayer Beta...

2011-09-30T10:59:00.000-07:00

The Battlefield 3 multiplayer beta finally came out for everyone (360, PS3, PC) yesterday and been enjoying it despite how limited it is. For those who don't know, this beta features one map and one mode, which are Operation Metro and Rush respectively. Rush mode has pretty much became the primary multiplayer game for the franchise as of late as the goals have been the same and a single match can take pretty long to finish. Basically the point of rush is that the attacking team has to destroy sets of MCOM stations to progress through the map while the defenders prevent them from doing so. The lives count will reset for the attackers back to 100 when they destroy one set of MCOMs. As a team-based mode, rush still works fine even though people just wanna play it as if its team deathmatch racking up lots of kills while people like me would rather go for the win getting the objectives done. The class system is still present here with assault, engineer, support, and recon classes to choose from as they have their own perks. Personally, I have been going with engineer since I like the assault rifle they give you for both sides (M4A1 with red dot sight for example when attacking).

From what I noticed so far, people do love to go abuse prone no matter which side they're on whether if they are sniping because they're rocking the recon class or just simply hiding from the opposition to surprise them. Most of the time you'll be wandering how you got killed because you didn't see it coming at all, which is expected for multiplayer shooters being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Of course in typical Battlefield fashion, there is a leveling up system to unlock more weapons, ribbons and awards to collect when achieving certain tasks, and so on if you played any AAA first-person shooter in recent memory. Performance wise, this beta definitely lives up the name of being a beta with weird glitches. Being stuck on the terrain, not jump vaulting when you're supposed to do so, certain controls stop working for a second or two, and texture pop-in are just some of the issues I noticed with the beta in one day so far. In addition, the game will sometime freeze whenever a PSN friend window pops off, which is infuriating too. Other than that, the Battlefield 3 beta still performs functionally with no framerate hitches (still 30 frames per second folks).

The beta ends on October 10 for everyone and PC folks can somehow play the Caspian Border map as well, which features some vehicles to mess around with (Operation Metro doesn't have vehicles at all). At least EA and DICE are finally able to get some version of Battlefield 3 to everyone's hands unlike a certain franchise that only did one beta (cough, Call of Duty, cough). Then again, they have been pushing out betas for all Battlefield games lately (the Bad Company games and this one) to test out online performance rather than fix exploiting tactics since the game is out on October 25. Shooter fans (no matter which team you're repping) should give it a shot before it ends in two weeks.

The New SSX Continues to Defy Reality...

2011-09-29T23:03:00.000-07:00

If you don't know by now, the first quarter of 2012 starts off with a bang for me with the new SSX. Here's the newest trailer, which is pretty much just another montage of snowboarders launching off big ramps doing spin tricks like no other (and the occasional glide seen back in the debut trailer).

Saving The Internet Now On Blu-Ray... The Child of Eden (PS3) Review

2011-09-29T14:35:00.000-07:00

Note - I haven't tried the Move controls myself or seen this version in 3D yet, so don't expect my exact thoughts on those.

Child of Eden has been out for several months on the Xbox 360 with Kinect support. Now the same spiritual successor to Rez, one of my favorite games of all-time, created by Q?Entertainment is out for the Playstation 3 with some added exclusive features that only the PS3 is capable of. Instead of Kinect, this version is also playable with the Playstation Move controller and its able to be displayed in 3D if you have a 3DTV. Other than that, its the same visual spectacle like the 360 version with amazing sound design as expected from the minds behind Rez, Lumines, and Space Channel 5. Luckily it is priced at 40 dollars compared to the standard retail price because of how short it is. PS3-only owners that want a new Move game and something beautiful to show off 3D technology should not pass Child of Eden up.

As a successor to Rez, Child of Eden plays and is structured like that masterpiece from beginning to end. The story may be weird at first, but pretty simple to understand. Lumi from Genki Rockets seems to be enjoying a normal day inside Eden until a virus corrupts the garden as it is up to you save Lumi and Eden, the internet in other words according to the game. Also similar to Rez, the game is five stages long and can be beaten in a hour or two. However, these five stages (archives in their words) are filled with amazing environments and colors containing different themes. These themes basically describe the stage names themselves as if they have more of a meaning than you think of once you play through them. An example of this is witnessing an evolution of a whale to a phoenix in the coincidentally called evolution archive. Other environments players transverse from range from a garden to an industrial-like setting filled with themed sound effects.

The core on-rails shooter gameplay hasn't changed significantly from Rez, but the difference in Child of Eden is having two types of main weapons to take out enemies. The blue lock-on laser is what we seen from Rez, but the purple tracer is a rapid fire laser that is essential to survival being the only way to avoid enemy fire. Even though the majority of enemies can be taken out by lock-on, some enemies have to be destroyed by the tracer before they fire purple balls for damage as if its something straight out of Ikaruga. There is also the all clear weapon called the euphoria that can be used especially in certain situations like avoiding damage. Boss battles are also a plenty as well, which are not that hard to defeat. Even though Child of Eden can be beaten in a single sitting, it is harder than Rez the first time through even on normal difficulty. My only problem with the campaign structure is if you don't get a high enough rank in certain archives, you have to play them again at least one more time to unlock the later archives. Speaking of ranking, Child of Eden's scoring system is way different than Rez where keeping in sync with the beat of the music by perfect octa-locks is the key to get high scores. Percentage of purification is also another factor with scoring as taking out every enemy in a level is crucial to getting more than three stars.

As I mentioned before, the major additions to the PS3 version of Child of Eden are Move controls and 3D support. At first, two Move controllers would be required to play due to the Kinect controls requiring both hands to play. It turns out that one Move controller is enough as you still lock-on with the pointer and then flick your wrist to fire. The tracer is mapped to the Move's trigger button as you hold it down while pointing at the screen to eliminate enemy fire while euphoria is a simple Move button press compared to having both hands in the air on Kinect for the 360 version. The standard controller still works fine if you played Rez before as both control options have their advantages and weaknesses. Unfortunately, I personally haven't tried the Move controls because I don't have a Move controller to give a full opinion of how they feel compare to playing it with a controller, but whenever I get one, I'll update the review with my thoughts. The same thing goes for the game having 3D support as I haven't seen the game on a 3DTV yet.

As expected for a spiritual successor to Rez, Child of Eden is a visual, beautiful spectacle as the graphics are simply amazing. Diverse environments throughout the five stages, some FMV-like cutscenes with Lumi, and runs at a smooth, consistent 60 frames per second. Sometimes, there might be too much going on with the game screen in certain areas to the point you'll miss an enemy to get 100% purification, but it is a matter of being quick with the lock-on and recognizing patterns even though it is a minor gripe. There are a ton of Rez references from certain bosses and sound effects too. The sound design is no slouch either considering its Q? Entertainment, masters of implementing rhythm into multiple genres. Even though its just Genki Rockets songs throughout the game, the way they were implemented is what makes Child of Eden that special. If that band is not your cup of tea, then you'll probably pass on this game even though personally its tolerable for anyone to enjoy and listen to.

There is arguably nothing like Child of Eden especially in the current generation of consoles. As a successor to Rez, it definitely lives up to the title even though of course it is not as groundbreaking. Comparing whether or not it is better than Rez is another story to be debated on a later time, but I'm still glad Rez lives on with Child of Eden. In addition, its another game that makes the whole "games as art" category since it is one beautiful, visual spectacle (or some would say a crazy visualizer). The game's length is obviously short and can be beaten in a hour or two, but there is enough replay value from an unlockable harder difficulty, a bonus challenge level, other collectables to get, and online leaderboards if you want to get compete for high scores. The PS3 version's Move controls and 3D support might be enough to be the better version, but you can make an argument for the 360 version being cheaper now and having Kinect support. Child of Eden seems catered for a niche crowd having that sleeper hit identity, but it is one immersive experience players can't miss out on since its now out for both 360 and PS3.

Score = 9/10

Pros:

As a spiritual successor to Rez, it definitely lives up that title
Another amazing, beautiful, visual spectacle by Q? Entertainment
Still one of the best in the biz regarding sound design - superb implementation of Genki Rockets songs
Move controls/3D support
Even though you can breeze through the game with skills from Rez, the scoring system is deeper than you think once you get the timing of perfect octa-locks down.
Enough replay value for players to keep going despite how short it is.

Cons:

As similar to Rez, the game is pretty short (a hour or two long)
Campaign structure could of been better since you have to replay levels again to unlock later levels because of performing well ranking-wise when you're playing the campaign the first time through.

EA's Syndicate Reboot + Skrillex = A Cool Debut Trailer

2011-09-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

The long awaited Syndicate reboot by EA has been known for a while, but finally the interwebs get the read and see what it is all about. Yeah, its another shooter with RPG elements (Oh wait that's Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which is the obvious comparison as of late, but less brown), but count on Starbreeze to deliver the goods since they know what's up with shooters for years. Plus, you might as well add some dubstep to your debut trailer to get people excited too (how fitting its a completely new Skrillex song called "Syndicate" - nice one EA). There should be a ton of previews rolling out now in all the major game sites if you want to know more about Syndicate, which is slated to come out on February 21, 2012 for the 360 PS3, and PC.

Some New Last Guardian Footage...

2011-09-29T08:41:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest no shows at this year's Tokyo Game Show was Sony's The Last Guardian, the next game from the developers of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. The HD collection featuring the two games I just mentioned came out this week and it looks like this extra trailer for this new game is from the disc. Most of the footage is what we seen already, but there's some new stuff as well. The Last Guardian is still on track for a release sometime next year.

Battlefield 3 Has 99 Problems, But a B**** Ain't One...

2011-09-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

The full ad for Battlefield 3 came out today featuring Jay-Z's "99 Problems" and its pulling no punches that they want you to get this over Call of Duty: MW3 just by the usage of air quotes. I already said many times this game looks amazing and now everyone will be able to try it out with this week's multiplayer beta release. Its out Tuesday for Origin folks and owners of the Medal of Honor Limited Edition. Everyone else gets it on Thursday on PC, Playstation Store, and the Xbox Live Marketplace till the beta ends on October 10. Expect my hands-on impressions of that soon as Battlefield 3 is less than a month away folks!

Tekken Tag Tournament 2's 1st Week at Japan...

2011-09-19T16:18:00.000-07:00

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 finally came out at Japanese arcades last week despite the Tokyo Game Show and also Super Battle Opera going on around the same time. Direct feed footage has been starting to roll out as of late on various YouTube channels, but don't expect too much gameplay-wise since the final version of the game is only been out for a week. The final boss in this game is no surprise being Unknown taking place in the stage above, but the difference this time is you have to beat Jun one round first in a more peaceful version of the stage seen before she transforms to Unknown. Besides Jun returning into Tekken, boss characters True Ogre from Tekken 3 and Jinpachi from the Tekken 5 games return in Tag 2, but of course they are slightly altered from their boss incarnations in their respective games (don't expect cheap sheninegans from those two, but Unknown does have Jinpachi and Azazel's stun move). Jaycee is not that new of a character in Tag 2 since she's basically Julia in a luchador-like mask and Heihachi is young again with black hair, but other than that, all of Tekken 6's roster is in with no surprise inclusions for now.

A mix of new and old stages are also present in Tekken Tag 2 as the old stages are not exactly the same, but remade for this new iteration such as Moonlit Wilderness above and the Snow Castle from Dark Resurrection. Those remade stages also get new remixes as well as the Namco Bandai did another great job with the soundtrack as Tekken games usually have good music. Some say some stages feel like a dance party even diving into dubstep territory. The graphics are definitely improved even though at its core its a better looking Tekken 6, but its the little details with the characters that count. For instance, the character models will get wet and dirty when fighting at stages involving water and mud (even the purple goo stuff in the final stage). Hit effects still look and sound the same from Tekken 6 though and that is not a bad thing along with the announcer as well.

Of course, the big question still remains whether or not certain U.S. arcades will get Tekken Tag Tournament 2. The cabinet is easily one of the most expensive cabs to buy and the Tekken.net system (with the ranking and replays) won't be working even though the developers are figuring out ways to implement it if it comes out stateside. I heard rumors about location tests at various U.S. spots concerning that, but don't expect a huge number of places getting it. Fortunately, Southern California is a hotspot for Tekken machines over the years with numerous places within minutes of each other having Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion (Round 1, Super Arcade, Video 94), so I think Tekken Tag 2 will still find its way somehow in SoCal arcades in the near future (maybe in the coming months?). Round 1 would be the likely spot for the game since they can probably afford it easily compared to Vid and Super even though games are probably will cost a buck for the first months, which will obviously suck but expected for a new game like that).

Its still early to judge how the gameplay pans out with Tekken Tag Tournament 2 once players figure out the tag assault system, where its up to your imagination to come up with some good BnB combos, how netsu is being handled in this version (I think this game's version of rage as your partner gains it if your current character is halfway dead), and of course which teams dominate tiers-wise. I'll probably come back to this topic in a month or two to see how things changed since launch week. Whenever this comes out at a nearby arcade, you'll know I'll be there in a heartbeat messing around for weeks and months.

How Good is Drive?? Its That Good...

2011-09-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

I rarely talk about movies these days on my blog, but watching Drive last weekend is the exception. There are brilliantly made movies and then there are just entertaining movies. Drive is simply one of the best complete movies I seen in a while from the execution of how the scenes were made and a style of filmmaking that does not have to resort to fanciness, special effects in other words, to make things work. It is also a rare beauty to see how limited dialogue can be so effective in a movie like this, specifically with the protagonist played by Ryan Gosling (a driver of few words, but knows how to get his job done), and various shots throughout the movie selling the main points beautifully well. Even if it is just a shot of Gosling driving around with a toothpick on his mouth, you get a sense of his emotions before crazy stuff goes down. Drive can not for everyone as the movie starts slow establishing the characters for certain audiences that wants insanity to happen every minute, but its not like that. When the action does begin to take place though, that is when the movie hits hard in a good way. The violence looks and feels brutal when done, yet there is a sense of art when it comes to these scenes because most of the time scenes like these in today's movies feel overblown. Drive makes violence feel real and gritty and the same goes for the car chases as well, which surprisingly there is not a lot of. The car chases didn't resort to movie logic to make them look cool, especially the beginning scene (you can see a part of it above) where sometimes making a scene in a city like Los Angeles is not the solution for escaping the cops. Then there's the amazing soundtrack, which also makes the movie feel special with its 80s vibe.

Last year, I had a similar reaction to another brilliantly made movie with The Social Network, another movie I didn't expect it would be good because of the whole "its a movie about Facebook" feeling, but word of mouf from reviews and the staff/cast involved made the movie the hit it was. Drive is different because its a thriller as it was also a movie I didn't expect much other than being just another action movie with cars thrown to the mix. It is more than that as it is a complete movie from beginning to end filled with amazingly made scenes that make it feel like art at times (especially with simple shots of the driver and fly overs of Los Angeles). The great 80s-like soundtrack is also another memorable selling point as well such as the song above that plays in the intro. The simple plot and pacing issues may irk some people, but Drive is my favorite film of the year so far and worth my highest recommendation watching it at the theaters.

Another Week... Another Battlefield 3 Trailer

2011-09-16T19:13:00.000-07:00

Last week was a teaser for Operation Guillotine in Battlefield 3 as today is the extended version for that. There is some new footage in this nighttime level, but not much with another ambush like previous trailers ending the clip. I'm still wandering if the beta is even coming out at all at this rate.

DmC at TGS - Just Deal with the new Dante already

2011-09-15T17:09:00.000-07:00

DmC, Ninja Theory's Devil May Cry reboot, is also at the Tokyo Game Show and this rate people just have to deal with the fact that the new Dante exists rather than continue to complain. The game continues to look fine as Dante now has some grappling mechanic for platforming segments and there will be boss battles against huge creatures. It is still coming out next year and we'll see if this can shut the critics up.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 TGS Blowout...

2011-09-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is at the Tokyo Game Show as not only the console versions are being shown off, but also the Playstation Vita version, which is confirmed to be released at the system's Japanese launch on December 17. The Vita version will be identical to the console versions in terms of graphics and gameplay, but the touch controls make it unique (perhaps activate X-Factor by touch for example). Multiplayer does allow cross-platform play between PS3 and Vita players from what I read, which is cool along with multiple Vitas as well. There's still a possibility of a Vita-exclusive character for this version, but if Cole from Infamous is in Street Fighter X Tekken, the same might be the case for UMvC3. One thing I'm hopeful for between PS3/Vita versions is the DLC working for both systems. In other words, I have to buy the alternate costumes or perhaps new characters once and it will work for both versions rather than double dip. Its no surprise UMvC3 is coming to the Vita, but let's move on to the latest character reveals.

Vergil from Devil May Cry 3 finally makes an appearance in a fighting game and I'm been excited about his inclusion since the initial announcement leak. Right from this reveal trailer, he definitely fits in the world of UMvC3 with his playstyle and moveset. Pretty much most of his moves from DMC3 are in this game along with his voice as well (still voiced by The Phantom Ranger himself Dan Southworth). From his Judgement Cuts (the multiple versions from the last DMC3 boss fight as a hyper move), Summoned Swords that basically puts Strider-Hiryu's orbs to shame at this rate, teleports, and his devil trigger, Capcom did a great job making Vergil a monster in this game. Plus, he's easier to play compared to Dante execution-wise, so you won't have a hard time nailing his crazy combos unlike Dante's bolt cancels. You'll see me rocking Vergil right away on my main team.

On the Marvel side, Iron Fist also makes his first appearance in a fighting game and already making a good impression right away. He looks to be someone that hits hard when given the opportunity, so get ready to eat big damage combos involving lots of moves that have either wall or ground bounce effects. Also retaining signature to his character, he has chi abilities that temporarily boost his stats for a bit (similar to Dormammu's power of the destructor/creator move). I can also see him being a beast among high tier teams in the future, so don't underestimate him for now.

I think the Rocket Raccoon & Phoenix Wright trailers will be up later this week, so stay tuned for those. In the meantime, the match videos featuring Iron First and Vergil are below. As of now, my main team can be best friends forever/Vergil (Wolverine/Vergil/Akuma), or Wolverine/Vergil/Sentinel. We'll see with that on November 15.

Another Fighting Game Franchise Returns in 2012

2011-09-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

Dead or Alive 5 is finally happening since its been six years since the last game. I enjoyed DOA4 for what it was at the time and its definitely a different paced fighting game compared to the rest of the field. This is however the first DOA under the new Team Ninja, so who knows if they can maintain the same quality Itagaki had with the franchise (fans are not happy with how Ninja Gaiden III is shaping up so far). As long as this game sticks to their strengths, mainly their signature counter system and dynamic stages (which are no slouch in this early footage), it will be fine at the end of the day. Hopefully this will get be a tournament scene going again, but I'm doubting that for now. Ryu Hayabusa and Hayate are the confirmed characters so far and yes, this trailer does lack the other main thing(s) the series has been known for, but we'll see it soon enough since it is coming late next year. I'm ready to give the DOA franchise another chance, and maybe others too.

Speaking of Ninja Gaiden III, the TGS trailer for that is below. As a fan of the modern games, I'm still hopeful it will be turn out good, but you never know.

Max Payne 3 Rises from the Dead

2011-09-14T09:44:00.000-07:00

We haven't heard much about Max Payne 3 in months, but the game finally rises back from the dead as Rockstar Games released the first official trailer for this long awaited sequel. Max has definitely been through a lot as this entry seems to take place years after the second game. He still does shave his head bald as shown in teasers long ago and bullet time is still intact. Max Payne 3 will be released on March 2012 and I hope it continues Rockstar's roll with the current generation of consoles (Red Dead, LA Noire being huge successes for them).

Street Fighter X Tekken Gets All Purple...

2011-09-13T18:15:00.000-07:00

The TGS reveals for Street Fighter X Tekken keeps on rolling as a new trailer shows off new significant details. There hasn't much information about the storyline other than Street Fighter and Tekken characters beating each other up, but now a twist that is full of purple gets thrown in with the addition of Pandora. As if the game didn't need any sort of comeback mechanic, Pandora mode fills in that void like X-Factor in the MvC3 games. This time your character turns purple and gets a strength boost for a limited time, but it costs all your partner's health in a match. My question is that it should have its own meter like how ultras how used in the Street Fighter IV games, but can be it used once per round or once per match (hopefully the latter). Basically its a slight variant of X-Factor with a color change and different purposes. The instant reaction is oh great, X-Factor now in this game?!?!? However, we'll see whether or not its a big game changer like X-Factor has been in MvC3 when the final game is out.

The trailer also shows off Rolento, Zangief, Lili, and Heihachi in action. Heihachi is not in his Tekken Tag 2 form as he is still rocking the gray hair. Rolento finally makes an appearance in the modern era of fighting games (last seen in Capcom vs. SNK 2), so that's nice to see him back in action on a Street Fighter game. Lili and Zangief are what you expect out of them from their respective games. Scramble mode gets introduced as well allowing the true 2v2 battle to unfold with all four characters on the screen (this is also playable online with four different characters played by four different players). This is probably not going to be used in tournaments, but I guess its fun to mess around with it seeing what crazy possibilities players come up with. Also finally appearing for the first time is online training mode, which you can enable fight requests like in the SF4 games while messing around in training mode. This is arguably a long time coming for something like that to happen in the genre for a while as hopefully more games implement that.

Street Fighter X Tekken continues to surprise casual and tournament level players with the numerous additions they added in recent months. Hopefully Pandora mode is a worthy comeback mechanic, but as history says, people will find a way to exploit and make others complain how broken it is. Additionally, maybe some pros can get hands-on with it at the show floor and know what the deal is from their view. There's still plenty of character reveals left (half of the roster is there) and some notable Tekken guys that should be in, but not confirmed yet as the game is still on track for a February/March 2012 release.

UPDATE - According to Capcom-Unity, activating Pandora mode does mean a strength boost, but if the time limit ends, you're dead too. Looks like Seth Killian is right about being more of a gamble than a comeback mechanic.

More gameplay footage of the new characters below...

Looks Like I'm Hype for Skyward Sword Again... (plus 3DS Conference recap)

2011-09-12T23:44:00.000-07:00

I have said on numerous occasions that I haven't been excited for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Then again, I still have my Wii around with not a lot of disc games left and at this rate I might as well get it on its November 20 release. A lot of new details are getting revealed in the coming weeks from the Game Informer cover story to tonight's Nintendo "3DS-heavy" conference (I'll recap it below). Shigeru Miyamoto comes in classic form busting out the Master Sword and Hylian Shield to hype fans up as he shows off new footage from Skyward Sword. I expressed my disappointments with Twlight Princess before and even though they're not doing changes to the core formula, it might be the little things that are making me hop on back to the hype train again. Nintendo just announced how this Zelda title will have crazy amounts of replay value (50 to 100 hours! Probably overblown comment for now) from the usual sidequests, a 2nd quest (haven't seen that in a Zelda game since OOT Master Quest), and a boss rush mode (which debuted in OOT 3D). We'll still see if I still get this game considering I'll be going H.A.M. in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (saving Skyrim for December and been on a blackout with that game not seeing any footage till the game releases), but Nintendo somehow always find a way to get me excited about their games again.

There isn't really much to say about Nintendo's Japanese 3DS conference last night other than Iwata "dropping the bomb" that is the Monster Hunter franchise. In case you don't know, Monster Hunter is pretty much Japan's "Call of Duty." I don't mean that its their shooter to play, but its basically Japan's most popular franchise right now which everyone plays as Call of Duty is stateside. After getting leaked last week in Japanese magazines, the dreaded second pad is coming with Monster Hunter Tri 3G in December. It will also support other games in the future such as Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 3D and the 3DS Kingdom Hearts game. Iwata's bombshell however is not just one Monster Hunter game but two games as it looks like Nintendo is able to get Capcom to announce Monster Hunter 4 for their handheld, which is pretty big for Japanese audiences. Who knows how exclusive it is on the 3DS, whether is fully to the platform or a timed exclusive eventually appearing on the Playstation Vita (we'll probably find out on SCEJ's conference tonight our time and whatever Vita goodies they have in store for fans). Nintendo did show off their first party lineup from Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, Kid Icarus (delayed to 2012 now), and a new Animal Crossing game, but its pretty much them sticking to what works on handhelds than consoles which are those games with Kid Icarus being an exception (or in many people's view Sin & Punishment 3 with a playable Pit and tons of AR card support). A new Fire Emblem game was announced for the 3DS and other third parties like Square-Enix announced original IPs for the system, but fans pretty much expected new games and got them. At least at Japan, Nintendo's solution to make the 3DS not a failure as people have been claiming so far is bringing in the country's #1 franchise exclusive to their platform and that's basically what sums up this conference.

Another Beta Full of Stabbing Dudes... Hands-On with the Assassins Creed: Revelations MP Beta

2011-09-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

Let's get this out of the way from the get go: I'm not really that into the Assassins Creed franchise, but I'm still glad it exists as it definitely has its fanbase. Another year means another game as Assassins Creed: Revelations is on track for a November 15 release, but like the last game, a multiplayer beta was released way before its release for people to try out. Brotherhood pretty much established the core concepts of the series' multiplayer modes as it was something unique for the time compared to your everyday first-person shooter. Usually stealth-based multiplayer games don't get the attention they deserve because of the fact you have to effectively use stealth to have a chance of winning. This was the case in another famed Ubisoft franchise, which is the Splinter Cell series as its multiplayer was unique in its time, but never got the attention it deserved because people rather play something like Halo. Brotherhood basically made stealth-based multiplayer cool again and Relevations hopes to improve its faults from last time to make it something that last a while competing with other multiplayer juggernauts that are this holiday season. Even though the beta period ended and I didn't have as much time as Playstation Plus owners had, Ubisoft released the beta to everyone on its last days and I still had a good time once I was able to get the basics down.

In case you're not familiar with the concept, if I had to sum it up in a nutshell, you're basically sneaking around killing your contracts while trying to avoid opposing players assassinating you. The more stealthy you are with these kills, the more points you'll score in a match. Since the game is more about score than just reaching a certain killcount within a time limit, it is all about killing effectively while preventing others from killing you. Most of the traits and tactics from the single player game apply in multiplayer where you get more points in a kill if you're unseen from your contract, using the crowd to your advantage, and so on. The maps in this beta are quite small and in the same setting, meaning more opportunities to kill your contracts. There are ways to avoid pursuers from killing you such as stunning them if they don't see you, otherwise you'll get a honorable death (some points as they get less points since it is a contested kill), or baiting them to kill civilians. In other words, its pretty much a game of hide and seek, but you're always in danger as someone can sneak up and kill you even from the air as they jump from rooftops.

The modes are your typical conventions seen in other multiplayer games with an Assassins Creed twist. Deathmatch is pretty self-explanatory, but the team modes are quite interesting takes on your standard modes. Manhunt is a round-based variant of team deathmatch as one team pursues the other and they switch off. Arifact hunt is their version of capture the flag, so that's self-explanatory as well. The team based games often have multiple contracts to kill, so your radar of finding them is easier compared to free for all deathmatch games. Also as expected in modern multiplayer games these days, there are loadouts and perks to mess around with catering to your playstyle and a leveling up system to unlock more of those goodies along with getting awards if certain tasks were done earning more experience points. At least you when first start out, you have to play a mandatory tutorial to get accustomed with the modes, which is a nice thing to have especially for newcomers like me.

Even though I'm not that good at the game, I enjoyed my short time with the Assassins Creed: Relevations multiplayer beta in the past several days. It feels refreshing to play a multiplayer game that requires different skill and mindsets unlike your everyday shooter. Patience pays off extraordinarily well in a game like this where it is all about effectively killing your opponents, or in other words, quality over quantity in this case. If you're into a different, methodically paced multiplayer game, Assassins Creed: Relevations is worth diving into and of course there's a lengthy campaign as well in which you continue the adventures of Ezio (maybe Altair too?) in the conclusion to his story arc.

Street Fighter X Tekken at TGS

2011-09-12T10:29:00.000-07:00

A new cinematic trailer for Street Fighter X Tekken showed up on the interwebs this morning featuring Bob and newly confirmed to be playable Rufus. It was only a matter of time these two would become bitter rivals in one game considering they have similar qualities. Also likely confirmed to be another fighter in the game is Marshall Law since the clip takes place inside his restaurant. However, these two won't be playable at this week's Tokyo Game Show (another disappointing show as far as certain games being no shows are concerned), but characters revealed from teaser trailers that have been released for the past couple of weeks, mainly Rolento, Zangief, Lili, and Heihachi, will be there in some form.

UPDATE - Here's a montage of Rolento and Heihachi's super moves in action.

Expect more stuff from TGS later this week.

Everyone's Favorite New Game to Watch = Multiplayer Catherine?

2011-09-09T20:40:00.000-07:00

Stream monsters' favorite new game to watch is apparently multiplayer Catherine. Keep in mind that you have to beat the game once just to unlock this mode, but surprisingly there is high level play found along with some crazy hype. This crazy hype came from the Super NorCal Install tournament last weekend, anime games only tournament (Blazblue CS II, Guilty Gear, Arcana Heart 3, and this game) and was streamed by FinestKo. Who of thought Catherine would get fighting game levels of hype and so much exposure for its multiplayer since the campaign is what the game is all about. I never seen push blocking this intense and the strategy of item usage is interesting to see. According to the NorCal Catherine scene, some stages are banned due to their stage designs, but among the heavily picked stages are Torture Chamber (the trap block level), The Quadrangle (the ice block level), Clock Tower (bomb level), and Spiral Corridor (the black hole block level). They promise to stream as much of this crazy mode as possible as long as the fans demand it.

Another new Battlefield 3 Teaser...

2011-09-09T17:21:00.000-07:00

EA and DICE released another campaign teaser for Battlefield 3 called Operation Guillotine, a nightly urban level. The beta might be coming sooner than we all think, which is as early as next week (probably at least on PC, but hopefully on consoles). If it shows on the PS3, I'll give some impressions of it then.

MW3 vs. BF3 Rages On...

2011-09-02T08:59:00.000-07:00

The Call of Duty XP convention starts today and lasts for the duration of this weekend as I still wander why this exists at all. Yeah I'm one of those people in the camp of does Call of Duty really deserve its own convention? Well, at least it is an excuse for them to show off Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer this time to the whole world (press and XP attendees) starting with the trailer above. Its just another "that's Call of Duty" trailer in a nutshell while hardcore fans will notice what is new with the multiplayer. The only thing I'm looking forward to in this CoD XP event is the Kanye West performance, which I wander how much Activision ponied up to get that to happen. Then again, I won't be surprised if The Throne (Yeezy & Jay-Z) comes out instead.

If you're someone like me on Team Battlefield, then you're excited for Battlefield 3 as EA and DICE released a new trailer for the Physical Warfare Pack. Sure, its another retailer exclusive DLC when the game comes out at the end of next month, but like most retailer exclusives, they'll eventually become free DLC later down the road. Other than that, I think this is still the better game to get. From the beautiful graphics, the menacing sound effects, and crisp gameplay, I can't wait for BF3 to take the FPS crown this fall. I'm still wandering when the multiplayer beta will start sometime this month even if it requires some bs way to get it.

You Know What They Say, The 3rd Strike Is What Counts... The Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition Review

2011-08-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

Capcom has had some successes and failures with downloadable games on this current generation of consoles, but their latest effort on Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network is quite arguably their best game on the services. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike finally goes downloadable, but this is not just your average port. Capcom took their sweet time to make this version the one to get especially for hardcore fans and tournament players that have been playing for many years since its initial arcade release in 1999. They finally met players and fans' demands of what features have to be in this port. There are still some issues that might irritate certain crowds, but Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition is definitely the best fighting game out there to download.

Many people probably didn't remember 3rd Strike when it originally came out. The III series for the Street Fighter franchise was a pretty big departure from the II series and Alpha games. Other than Ryu, Ken, Akuma, and Chun-Li (3rd Strike is her only game in the series), the III series was pretty much a whole new cast of characters to fight as and a big change in core gameplay. Those changes turned many fans off until Street Fighter IV came out. What most people missed with 3rd Strike though that it is arguably the most technical game in the franchise. Players appreciated that it actually took more skill to win than just relying on projectiles and dragon punches. Spacing of normal moves and execution play a huge role when playing these specific games. The most noticeable mechanic the Street Fighter III games were known for is the concept of parrying. Parrying is one of those easy to learn, difficult to master mechanics as it is simple to execute, but on most match scenarios, it can be pretty tough to pull off. 3rd Strike was the pinnacle of the III series, which is why it is a no brainer for Capcom to release it as a download.

Online Edition contains an arcade perfect version of 3rd Strike along with additional features seen in previous Capcom games this generation. Being arcade perfect means the game is untouched balance and gltiches-wise with the same frame data for all characters in the original release. This also means you'll likely see a lot of players using Chun-Li and Yun online since they're arguably the best characters in the game along with your fair share of shotos (Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Sean) since they're second nature to anyone that has played a Street Fighter game before. There have been claims of input lag, meaning the inputs are delayed by little number of frames on the PSN version, but only serious tournament-level players would notice such a big issue like that. The big twist in this version is how in-game achievements are being tracked. If you're playing the game in its default 4:3 state, you'll notice a ticker of sorts on the borders of certain tasks being done for points. These range from doing multi-hit combos, win a round by a super, parry a certain number of moves, and so on. These points can be used to buy things from the vault containing such things as remixed music, character endings, fan-art that have been handpicked by Capcom. There's not really a special item to unlock like an episode of the Street Fighter cartoon from Final Fight: Double Impact, which makes the vault a bit disappointing. The achievement tracker can be distracting for some people even though it wasn't for me, but you can customize the screen size, and filters in the options menu. The various filters, especially the arcade cabinet view, are nice to have, but the default view seems fine personally.

Other than the standard arcade and training modes, the other big single player mode in this new release is the trials mode, as seen in Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs. Capcom 3. If you played that mode in the games I previously mentioned, 3rd Strike is no different with the character trials, but some additional trials are added in for parrying and specific handicap challenges. The parrying trials are nice to have if you're new to the game as this is one way to learn how to parry effectively against certain moves and situations. For example, you can recreate the infamous Daigo parry video in this game, which is obviously titled Evo Moment #37. The character trials let you learn bread and butter combos high-level players usually use in a tournament along with trying out some difficult ones that are not impossible to do as well. Trial mode in 3rd Strike Online Edition is a nice feature for anyone to mess around with whether you're new or someone that wants to be challenged, but let's move on to how "online" this version really is.

Since this is called Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition, the online has to be pretty good right? That seems to be the case for the most part with some minor issues that could affect your experience with this release. First of all, the GGPO netcode finally gets put in a console fighting game, so you're pretty much getting lagless matches with no slowdown at all. Playing someone with a bad connection however can still be a problem, in which the game can get all skippy for a bit. An example would be hearing the K.O. sound even though you think you won a round, but you didn't as the fight goes on. Speaking of sound issues, the background music sometimes stops playing until the beginning of a new round during online matches as well, a similar issue found in Super Turbo HD Remix. Most of my online matches ran smoothly based on my time with the game, but there will be those moments where the issues I just mentioned can happen. Online matchmaking is also a problem with the game at its current state now. It can take a while to find ranked matches at times (a while meaning over a minute), which is pretty bad. Well the matchmaking in general is pretty weird in this version as there is no custom match setting in ranked, but is in player matches when making rooms with up to eight players (quarter match settings seen in past Capcom downloadable releases). In ranked matches, the game tends to match you up against a similarly ranked opponent, which they do a good job on that. There's also a bug where a person's disconnect rating goes beyond 100% when being matched up as that could be easily fixed in a future patch. Despite some little issues, 3rd Strike's online works functionally especially with having GGPO.

Other than standard player and ranked match options, 3rd Strike also has spectator mode, a must for online fighting games these days, online tournaments with up to sixteen players, and a robust replay feature. There is a huge database for your unsaved replays of all your matches played locally and online as of course you can save the ones you want to keep. In addition, they can uploaded to the game's match server for others to see and get rated. These match replays can also be upload to YouTube as the gameplay videos you see above are from my own YouTube account. The quality of these videos are not that good when uploaded there as they're in a way lower resolution than it should be. Unfortunately for 360 owners, uploading to YouTube means you're uploading to a master Capcom account compared to uploading to your own YouTube channel on PSN. Other than that, at least the feature works and it is nice to have even though it could of been so much better.

Graphically, 3rd Strike is the same 3rd Strike you have seen for over a decade. No HD remix was done to the graphics, which is a good thing because the 2D sprites still look great even on 360 and PS3 to this day. As mentioned earlier, there are various filters to mess around with and screen size to adjust especially if you're the widescreen type of person these days. The art has been redone for this new version as well as they are seen in the menus and the character select screen. The soundtrack is still one of the best fighting game soundtracks around even though this online edition defaults to the arranged versions of the tunes. There are remixed versions of the themes to buy on the vault, which are done by Simon Viklund (popularly known for the Bionic Commando Rearmed soundtrack). These remixes are basically hit and misses as the popular theme songs ended up being the most disappointing. The new menu rap song is tolerable, but you can change to the original menu music as well. Other than that, the in-game sounds are as arcade perfect as it gets.

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition is definitely a great package for fifteen dollars driven by fan-service. Many wished features that previous fighting games didn't have such as GGPO netcode, arcade perfect gameplay, and YouTube uploads are finally in. The in-game achievement tracker is nice to have, but I can see it be distracting for some players. Other than functional online play, there is still tons of replay value from completing the vault and tearing through trials mode when playing offline. There are still some nagging issues that affect online play, but it is still a good time to return to one of the greatest fighting games of all-time with 3rd Strike. Newer players may have a tough time since it requires a different learning curve, but it is definitely worth sticking through if you want to get better. This is one downloadable release any fighting game fan should not miss.

Score = 8.5/10

Pros:

Arcade perfect gameplay (Same 3rd Strike that has been around for over a decade)
GGPO netcode finally in a console fighting game and works well for the most part
Feature-heavy for a downloadable release from trials mode, the vault, and a robust replay system
YouTube uploads are nice to have
Looks great even in 2011
Still one of the best fighting games of all-time

Cons:

Online matchmaking issues - can take a while to find matches at times
Even when facing someone on a bad connection, skippy moments can happen that can dramatically affect how a match goes.
Not as easy to pick up and play as you think (especially for first timers... it can be a tough learning curve especially if they skipped this one and recent games like Street Fighter IV "spoiled" them)
Input lag is a problem on the PSN version assuming the claims by tournament-level players are true (only an issue for that certain crowd)
YouTube quality of videos when using the game's upload feature to YT is not that good

PSN Demo Showcase for 8/25/11

2011-08-25T17:49:00.000-07:00

Some new demos came out on PSN this week and even though I rather play Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition (review on that soon), I did take some time to play through these demos as I will briefly mention my thoughts of them.

First off is a demo of Bodycount, published by Codemasters and made by the creators of Black (Criterion). In a nutshell this first person shooter is pretty much Black 2.0 with a different storyline and setting. The gameplay premise is still similar to Black in which there are lots of destructible environments and you shoot at explosive barrels to kill enemies. As a shooter, Bodycount has some unique ideas such as leaning while aiming with your ironsights at any spot. This mechanic feels a little of sluggish when you're shooting as it should of been something done while in cover, which you can do as well. As a shooter, the core is unoriginal from a pointless scoring system, guns lacking that umph when it comes to sound, and unpolished graphics (then again, its a demo so who knows if the final game improved that). At the end of the day, Bodycount is just another FPS trying to be competitive with the other juggernauts, but you rather play those than this one, which is indeed the case.

The other demo of note to talk about is for Warhammer 40K: Space Marine, which comes out next week. Space Marine is one of the most unoriginal titles for a game yet, but it is not as bad as you think title alone. This is a third person action game with shooting and melee elements as it was known as "Gears of War without cover." Hordes of Orcs will come and attack you as you can easily die if you're not careful. As heavily armored as these space marines are, going guns blazing is a bad idea in this game. There are conventional weapons to choose from a pistol with infinite ammo, machine gun, shotgun, etc. The demo sections are pretty linear, but some areas can be really dark as I had to turn up the brightness to the maximum at one point to keep progressing. Other than that, it is a pretty standard third person game with mechanics seen in similar games such as the ability to go berserk (they called it Fury here) for a limited time, rechargeable health, but you gain lost health by executing enemies Gears style. The jetpack level in the demo is a nice touch allowing the main guy to rock a jetpack to pound on enemies from the air. Space Marine is not really doing anything new, but it is not that bad of a game people think at first.

Other than those two, there's a NHL 12 demo out this week as well, but there's nothing to note other than its hockey and the it is still gonna be the hockey game to get this year (well the only one basically since 2K Sports doesn't make NHL2K anymore). I have the Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 demo as well, which I still need to try out. That demo is also self-explanatory because its soccer and those games tend to control the same as it comes down to you preferring that or FIFA 12, which is arguably EA's best sports franchise now (you can argue for NHL 12 as well, but we'll also see with the Madden reviews tomorrow). Since I don't have Playstation Plus anymore, I didn't play the Resistance 3 multiplayer beta even though I heard bad things about it.

Mega Music Roundup for 8/25/11

2011-08-25T16:06:00.001-07:00

I got a lot of albums to talk about, so I'm going to try to keep it short what I think of them.

Lil Wayne - The Carter IV

Weezy's latest album is finally out after numerous delays and after the crazy success of The Carter III, did magic strike again? I think so from a mainstream perspective as you're getting successful singles with "6 Foot 7 Foot," "John" featuring Rick Ross, and his latest one being his ballad "How to Love." The current ballad single can be easily hated since it is Wayne getting all poppy and of course you rather hear him rap in hard beats, which there are some. "She Will" featuring Drake (likely the next single), "President Carter," and the "Outro" are among the current favorites among the masses. Weezy will probably never bring back his earlier days before his mainstream success, but The Carter IV is an okay album with some hits and misses.

David Guetta - Nothing But The Beat

This is Guetta's second major US album after taking the country by storm with One Love. That album was filled with bangers from "Sexy Chick" with Akon, "Memories" with Kid Cudi, and others that found mainstream success. His new one is no different, but this time Guetta racked up more of today's stars rather than unknowns making the album more feature-filled. However, some songs feel like I heard them before in a different form such as the first single "Where Them Girls At?" featuring Flo Rida and Nicki Minaj. That song pretty much is Sexy Chick 2.0 in a nutshell using similar sound effects. His current single "Little Bad Girl" featuring Taio Cruz and Ludacris is a little better than the unoriginal first one. Other high profile artists in the album are Usher, Snoop Dogg, Chris Brown, Lil' Wayne, Afrojack (for a Daft Punk-y track called "Lunar"), Akon, and more. Not every song is a hit though as Guetta's song with Timbaland is a real disappointment as I expected something more with the two together. If you want more mainstream clubby stuff, Nothing But The Beat is worth blasting at parties and other places that pop off loud music.

Natalia Kills - Perfectionist

You probably heard of Natalia Kills with her feature in LMFAO's "Champagne Showers," but she has her own solo album out with some good old pop music. There is a lot of catchy stuff from "Wonderland," "Zombie," and "Mirrors." This album is longer than I thought with more of a hour of decent pop. She is not really making a big splash in the mainstream scene as I thought she would as her songs are pretty radio-friendly. It probably goes to show how radio stations play the same popular songs over and over again to the point they get annoying. Hopefully Natalia doesn't get the one hit wonder treatment as with most female pop artists in recent years.

The Game - R.E.D. Album

Another album that had numerous delays was The Game's latest. Personally, I'm not really that much of a Game fan other than his debut album The Documentary being a classic hip-hop album at its time. I didn't had any expectations for this one and ended up not caring after listening to it. You'll probably find some songs here and there in this album, but out of the high profile rap releases this month (Watch The Throne and Carter IV), Game's new album falls a bit short compared to those two.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - I'm With You

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are back after a long hiatus and a new guitarist. Their signature sound is still intact in this album, which is not really a bad thing considering their age. The fact we have a new album by this band in 2011 is actually pretty crazy after delivering chart-topping singles for almost two decades.

That's it for the music roundup for now. There is MTV's Video Music Awards this Sunday if you wanna see another Britney Spears love fest with the tribute they're planning for, Lady Gaga going crazy as she always does when she opens the show (hope she performs a song that is not yet a single in Born This Way), Bruno Mars doing the same ballad YouTube wannabes have doing for over a year, and more. It is probably going to be another crappy show and a reminder that it had its glory days (mainly the late 90s and early 00s).

Kirby Returns to Dream Land on October 24

2011-08-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

A double dose of Kirby is coming out this fall with Kirby Mass Attack on the regular DS next month (or as I like to call it - Kirby Massive Attack... shoutouts to Nicki Minaj) and Kirby's Return to Dream Land on October 24 for the Wii. After the critical success of Epic Yarn and also being one of the cutest games out there, Kirby returns to his roots at Dreamland sucking enemies into his mouth and absorbing special powers such as the signature sword power-up. This is pretty much as old-school as it gets along with four player co-op similar to New Super Mario Bros. Wii as other players can join in to play as Meta Knight, Waddle Dee, and King Dedede. Familiar bosses will return like Whispy Woods as well. It is nice to see Nintendo making good Kirby games as of late as if he stand up to the upper echelon of Nintendo's character hierarchy (Mario, Link, Samus, Donkey Kong, etc.). Return to Dreamland will be another reason to dust off that Wii unless you're still waiting for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword's November 20 release.

VF5 Final Showdown Finally Getting a US Release...

2011-08-23T08:28:00.001-07:00

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown has been out at Japanese arcades for at least two or three years already and it seemed like Sega never wanted to bring the latest version of their fighting game to the US until today's announcement. It is now coming to Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network next summer, which is ways off for a downloadable title. This is the first time a Virtua Fighter game has gone downloadable since Sega probably knew its not smart of them to release this on a retail price, so at least we are getting a 15 dollar VF game. Yeah, this franchise does have its audience, but it is not as mainstream as the Street Fighter series is today. It is still one of the most technical and deep fighting games around as I'm been playing them casually since the PS2 version of VF4 (I owned VF4, VF4 Evo, and VF5 360 at some point). It is also about time Sega does something with this franchise over here at the States to capitalize on the recent fighting game boom.

Sonic Boom, Sonic Boom, Sonic Boom... coming to XBLA/PSN

2011-08-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

If you're wandering why I'm posting the awesome intro of Sonic CD here with that "Sonic Boom" song, its because what is arguably still the best Sonic game ever, Sonic CD is finally getting a release on Xbox Live Arcade and likely Playstation Network as well. Like most people, I never owned a Sega CD when this originally came out, so this release will make me finally play it and see for myself why it is the best Sonic game.

A LTTP "Review" of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II

2011-08-22T12:58:00.000-07:00

Note - Spoilers will be mentioned, so you are warned if you still want to play this game and don't want the story ruined (Same goes for the Endor DLC too)

I played through Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II last weekend, but it is more like one afternoon with the main campaign since it was so short. This game came out last fall and it promised to fix the problems the first one had, but I didn't think they did and added along more issues that seemed like a rushed job on LucasArts' part. Then again, you probably can consider how the game ended up the way it was with the whole team being let go by LucasArts shortly after its retail release. At the end of the day, The Force Unleashed II is simply not a good game and even having the Star Wars name does not help either.

If you played through the first game, this sequel follows the light side ending from that which Starkiller, the protagonist of this series and apprentice of Darth Vader, sacrifices himself in attempts of defeating the Empire and forming the Rebel alliance that is in the good trilogy of movies. Vader comes up with a plan to clone Starkiller in the Force Unleashed II in which that is who you play as. This clone is supposed to have no memories of his personal connections with the Rebels, especially his love interest Juno, and able to follow Vader's orders . However, those visions and memories slowly come back to this Starkiller's mind and the game starts out with an escape from the Kamino cloning facility. The whole cloning business feels like a lazy way to have a story arc and let LucasArts to say let's have a sequel since the first game had successful sales. It makes you wonder if it is really that necessary for this whole idea of a Starkiller clone to make some sense. Even with that clumsy story arc, Starkiller has to regroup with the rebels (mainly General Kota) to forge a plan to get rid of Empire and reunite with Juno as well.

The way Force Unleashed II's story plays out until the end is filled with questionable and absurd decisions by LucasArts. Going to Dagobah just for Starkiller to rethink of the whole situation feels like a waste is and basically a filler moment for the sake of pacing (even Kota agrees about being rescued). Dagobah itself is a pointless level with no action and gives the developers a lazy reason to include Yoda in the game. There is also a lack of memorable moments throughout the game as I can only consider two or three of them worthwhile even for Star Wars fans. Even the good ending that continues the canon feels uninspired with no sense of closure to the game setting things up for another sequel that won't happen because the development team is already gone from LucasArts. The dark side ending is a little better based on how it looked alone. The storyline as a whole is a mess from beginning to end and pretty much ruins anything good the first game had on that department (I felt that the first game ended right and had closure to a degree).

While the story feels messy for the duration of the game, even the game design has its own set of lazy problems and numerous technical issues. I already mentioned earlier how short Force Unleashed II is, which is about five to six hours on normal difficulty. This is due to the lack of levels as you're only going to see four locales throughout the game with Kamino (you return there for the finale), Cato Neimoidia, Dagobah, and the Salvation ship. Speaking of the levels, the level design looks and feels uninspired with repetitive backgrounds and corridors as if you're playing a corridor-only first-person shooter (Doom, Quake days). Basically as in any recent action game, you're just playing through sets of kill rooms and going from point A to point B. The game is as linear as it gets even though there are hidden holocrons that can be found to gain more experience, increase your health/force meters, and saber crystals for various status effects. In addition to the boring level design, even the enemy design is unoriginal too from your normal Stormtroppers, sniper troopers that are annoying, enemies that also use force powers against you, various Star Wars-like mechs like the AT-STs, and so on. All of Force Unleashed II's design issues just makes it boring and repetitive to play through along with other frustrations I will talk about in a bit.

Controlling Starkiller is still fine for the most part especially having two lightsabers at your disposal throughout the game. It is still cool to decapitate enemies' body parts off with your lightsabers and use force powers to decimate the opposition by lightning, push, and force gripping them to bottomless pits. Even all of that gets tedious and tiresome after a while especially near the end of the game where kill rooms become more frustrating than fun. You can't really go nuts with the powers on the later enemy encounters as you think you can considering you are some Jedi badass as you can get killed quickly if you don't have some sort of plan of which enemies to tackle in a certain order. This is crucial on harder difficulties where the enemies deal more damage, so even someone as badass as Starkiller has to pick his spots to fight these battles right. Then there are the platforming elements, which is the only reason I hate about controlling Starkiller. Sure, he has a double jump and a dash, but the game's physics make the platforming more of a nuisance than enjoyable as there are times I feel like I made the jump, but turns out I don't (this gets really frustrating in the playable challenges). Since it is a modern action game, quicktime events are everywhere in Force Unleashed II, specifically in big time moments and the boss fights, which have their own problems. There are really only three boss fights in this game with the last one being one of the worst final boss encounters I played through in a while. The finale with Darth Vader is dragged out for too long as it supposes to be some epic battle transversing through numerous platforms, but it ends up being another lazy design decision by the developers.

While the graphics in The Force Unleashed II look sharp in certain areas, especially the skyline at Cato Neimoidia, the game is a buggy mess at various times with lots of technical issues. The framerate does not stay consistent throughout the game dropping below 30 frames per second at times (its worse on the Endor DLC). Enemies get misplaced at certain times to their death right away. They even pop in and pop out appearing out of nowhere once you activate their presence in a combat section. In addition, my character gets stuck in the environment at certain times too and the frustration really kicks in when you get killed by something off-screen for no reason at all. The checkpoint system can be generous at times, but not as so in the later enemy encounters. The CG cutscenes look fine even though I didn't find any issues with the in-game ones. The sound production is on par for Star Wars standards, which is usually the only thing LucasArts does not screw up with these games. You're getting your expected theme songs when the game starts and whenever Dark side related action happens. The voice acting is okay as the script and dialogue is typical for a Star Wars product with some dumb, cheesy, and hokey moments.

I did play through the one dollar Endor DLC as well, which is not that bad being only a dollar. In this one hour what-if mission, you play as the evil Starkiller clone (if you remember the dark side ending of the main game) to prevent the Rebels from arming the charges to destroy the shield generator at Endor. In other words, you're basically reversing the events of Return of the Jedi assuming you already killed Luke in the first game's downloadable what-if Hoth scenario from Empire Strikes Back. Endor itself is a straightforward level like the campaign levels except with rebels to kill and ewoks to kick, which never gets old. Your Starkiller has different force power stats from the main campaign, but you're able to use any of the saber crystals you found. This mission does include encounters with Han Solo and Chewbacca in the captured AT-ST along with a surprising yet good boss fight with Princess Leia (you can probably guess why she is a formidable opponent at the end). That boss fight is better than the all of the boss fights in the main game because it felt like more a one-on-one duel than an ordinary boss fight with obstacles in your way. The Endor DLC does has its share of technical issues from not allowing to skip the intro, cutscenes, and credits at all along with an unstable framerate as well.

At the end of the day, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II felt rushed, lazy, unpolished, and the game is just flat out boring. That is something to say considering the Star Wars name, but I still stand by that statement. It is disappointing on so many levels from the short campaign, technical bugs everywhere, lazy game/level design, and more that has been mentioned already. The replay value isn't much other than some bonus challenges and harder difficulties to play through for achievements/trophies. It definitely is one of those unnecessary sequels that exists in today's world of entertainment, but since people still love Star Wars and they wanna have the chance to control someone as powerful as Starkiller, LucasArts basically made a cash-in game to feature all of that. There are still some redeeming qualities such as the core gameplay remaining intact and some cool Star Wars-like moments, but those qualities alone can't make Force Unleashed II a good game. Star Wars fans will probably still find some enjoyment out of it, but even I can not recommend getting this game back when it came out last year and even today.

Score I would give it = 6/10

Dance Central 2 = The "Rock Band 2" of Dance Games

2011-08-18T11:54:00.000-07:00

Dance Central 2 is shaping up to be (pretty cliche statement coming up) what the first game should of been even though it was there to establish Harmonix's full-body dancing formula. Just on the formula alone, it became the Kinect's best game at its launch and still arguably the only reason to own a Kinect. What I mean of this sequel being the "Rock Band 2" of dance games is that you're getting a more complete game stacked with features that were missing from the original game. More modes, two player simultaneous dancing, and drop-in/drop-out multiplayer are just some of the things what's new with Dance Central 2. The Giant Bomb Quick Look EX above shows off an improved break it down mode, voice commands via Kinect especially when picking songs, and crew-on-crew dance battles. I'm liking some of the soundtrack that has been revealed so far with current songs such as Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," clubby stuff by David Guetta, some oldies that are goodies like Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It," Dance Dance Revolution classic "Sandstorm" by Darude, and more. However, some of the recently announced songs are weird like "Grenade" by Bruno Mars. Of course as expected with Harmonix games, downloadable songs will be coming out after the game's release and an export fee to include the original's soundtrack in the new one. Get ready to dust off that Kinect camera when Dance Central 2 releases on October 25.

Hands-On with WWE '12 from Summerslam Axxess

2011-08-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

I got a chance to play the latest build of WWE '12 over at their Summerslam Axxess fan event last Saturday. THQ and Yuke's have been pumping out yearly games for over a decade, but recent years have been somewhat disappointing for the franchise as WWE '12 is being advertised as a "reboot" to start things over from scratch. Simulation aspects took over simple and fun gameplay especially when meters are everywhere on the screen to watch out for. In addition, animations have been janky for quite a while even though the developer Yuke's have been slowly improving those. From what I seen and played so far, WWE '12 is shaping up to be a return to the good days of the Smackdown games in the early 2000s.

One thing the WWE games have gotten right lately (not counting All-Stars) is the presentation, or in other words overall feel as seen in a normal WWE broadcast. For WWE '12, you'll see no HUD displayed at all when you're playing. No more meters to worry about as inputs would be displayed for reversals and signature/finisher moves when the opportunity comes. The core controls have returned to the face buttons especially grappling just like the last generation Smackdown games (Here Comes the Pain is the primary example as the THQ guys show off the new features in the clip below), which is a good thing. Sure, the animations haven't been fully improved yet as I noticed wrestlers glitching up like crazy (preview build folks!), but hopefully they're polished up in the final game. Another interesting gameplay mechanic is their comeback factor where it is an quicktime event where superstars string together moves to set up their finisher. An example of that if watch WWE programming on a regular basis is Cena's "five moves of doom" where he does two diving shoulder blocks, his signature back suplex slam (I don't know what is actually called), the Five Knuckle Shuffle which then sets up his Attitude Adjustment finisher. Signatures and finishers can be stored again, so for instance you can have Alberto Del Rio (who I tried out in the only match I played) have three cross arm breakers ready to go for the submission victory. Speaking of submissions, there's also a breaking point meter in which you can mash out if you're locked in a submission maneuver. Taking things back to the glory days of the franchise controls-wise is a great decision on the developers' part making the game faster and more fun to play.

Will WWE '12 live up to truly being bigger, badder, and better? We'll see when it comes out this November when an accurate roster of over 60 WWE superstars, some legends, and divas. THQ and Yuke's haven't really shown off some of the other modes in the game yet such as if certain match types are improved, the "career mode," and the customization features (even though Create-A-Arena is debuting in this game), so expect more about those soon. I like what I seen and played from the game so far despite some technical issues which can be easily fixed in the retail version. The pre-order bonus is none other than The Rock (his latest incarnation since he is facing John Cena at Wrestlemania next year), which seems questionable since he has been in every game, but you know Gamestop wants something enticing as a pre-order bonus. Plus, you can vote on who gets on the collector's edition cover between Cena and The People's Champion (which should be no contest with The Rock getting that one) as well. If I would get this game, I would definitely get the People's Edition for sure.

Music Video of the Day for 8/16/11

2011-08-16T14:02:00.000-07:00

Lady Gaga - "You and I"

Since she decided to put it up herself after it got leaked earlier today, might as well post it here too. Mermaid Gaga is on the loose as she promised, but after coming a disappointing "Edge of Glory" video, this one is taking things back to normal Gaga standards with its mix of dancing and crazy.

Ulitmate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Sees STARS & Gets Strange...

2011-08-16T10:09:00.001-07:00

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3's presence at Gamescom is showing off two more new characters in the game, which are Doctor Strange and Nemesis from the Resident Evil franchise. I'll talk about the two of them in a moment as the new overview trailer above does show some new moves for the existing characters, but you'll probably read or heard about them from the Comic-Con/Evo builds. Wolverine has his new Swiss Cheese move, which is a mash attack command, so Logan players better not mash so hard if they still want to do his bread and butter combo that is unchanged from vanilla. Crimson Viper gets an optic blast-like projectile which is basically Capcom saying here's your Cyclops in the game (more like a slap in the face of those who want Cyclops back in a versus game). Hulk gets a new chargeable Falcon Punch-like move, which reminds me of the charge moves from the Smash Bros. games (kind of weird to say Smash Bros. when I'm talking about Marvel lol). Also new in these trailers are more variations of existing games from vanilla such as a day version of the carrier stage and the Biotech lab all burned out.

Doctor Strange finally is a playable character in a Marvel game as he is shaping up to be a great character with a variety of tools at his disposal. His magical projectiles are pretty self-explanatory, has an OTG super, flight, a teleport, projectile counters (even a hyper projectile counter - he counters Akuma's air fireball hyper with his own beam), and a level 3 grab. As of now with his mobility and potential to zone characters out, Strange can hang with the best characters of the game (below average health might be a concern if you're not careful).

Nemesis is more of a character I would play in my main team as I usually like to have one character that can hit hard and has a lot of health. He seems to fit that slot for me with my Dorm and Akuma (assuming this combination is still viable in Ultimate) as point. Anyway, Nemesis is pretty much Capcom's "heavy" character (sorry, Tron doesn't count) that can easily kill opponents in one or two combos while taking a beating. He has attributes I like in a character: jump S ground bounces, good projectiles (rocket launcher/ Dorm dark hole assist for keep away for instance), good hypers (his combination one has super armor startup, his bazooka one OTGs, and a level 3 grab. All of this make it seem like he is scrub friendly like Hulk to a certain degree as tourney-level players will figure out ways to easily beat Nemesis. For now though, Nemesis is certainly on my list of new characters I would main.

Expect more UMvC3 stuff at this next weekend's New York City fight club event as hopefully these two characters will be there playable (Likely not) and of course next month's Tokyo Game Show for the next character reveal trailers. Here's more match footage of Doctor Strange and Nemesis in action below.

Clips from Gamescom for 8/16/11

2011-08-16T09:33:00.000-07:00

Gamescom is off and popping over at Germany as conferences and new trailers keep showing up this morning. (I'm saving the UMvC3 and SFxT stuff for a separate post)

Borderlands 2 just got announced some weeks ago as Gearbox puts up a short teaser trailer. Expect more of this game at PAX at the end of the month or if you want to read up on what's new with this sequel, check out the Game Informer cover story.

Now with something up that is up my alley, SSX has also a presence at Gamescom. The new trailer reveals what to expect in the multiplayer department, which EA is doing big things. There is some ghost attack mode, social networking stuff seen in previous EA games, and global events with up to 100,000 players. That's cool and all, but as we see more of this game, the more its becoming like the SSX fans like me know and love. Its definitely a good start for 2012 when SSX comes out in January.

Even Capcom and Ninja Theory's DmC (Devil May Cry) reboot is at Gamescom and I'm still skeptical how this will turn out. At least I'm not as angry as the hardcore fans who still want more of the same Dante from the past four games, but I'm still giving it a chance. This is just gameplay footage of Dante slicing and shooting dudes, but it seems like Ninja Theory is getting closer and closer to getting the Dante they want right. DmC I think is coming out next year as we'll see more of it at the Tokyo Game Show next month.

The improved combat mehanics in Mass Effect 3 will make it a better shooter, but I'm still wandering about the "RPG elements" BioWare promised they'll bring back from the first game. They haven't shown or talked much of it recently, but I understand that you have to show a combat section to get casual fans excited. I probably should not question BioWare's approach of how to show off this game as I know it will be good when its out in March 2012.

As you probably know, I'm still on team Battlefield 3 as DICE shows off a different environment for a multiplayer map. As teased in previous trailers, airplanes are indeed in the game, which is obviously cool and expected for the franchise. Since I don't have a proper gaming PC, I didn't get to check out the alpha version of multiplayer some weeks back, but I can't wait to play the beta next month. According to the fact sheet, there are only nine maps in the final game, which is not that much, but the trade-off is their scale of how big they are. This also means downloadable map packs like no other too, so get ready to pony up a lot of spacebucks if you want more of those.

I'll have more from Gamescom throughout the week...

Oh... Another new UFC Undisputed 3 Trailer

2011-08-15T13:57:00.000-07:00

UFC Undisputed 3's new gameplay improvements are making me get excited for it now. First of all, there are obviously more fighters to choose from now that the new weight classes (Feather and Banterweight) are in, so you rock as Faber and Dominick Cruz for example. Second, fighters in the game are becoming more like themselves, or in other words, closer to how they fight in real life. We didn't see much of that in last year's game as we thought we would, but this time it looks like Yuke's is finally getting things right on that department. In addition, the trailer shows off leg kick knockouts (also rarely seen in real UFC bouts), ground sways, and more ways to submit your opponents. Even though the graphics engine still looks the same for the most part, the third time could be the charm for THQ and Yuke's with UFC Undisputed 3 to be their best game yet. We shall see when it comes in what's shaping up to be a crowded January 2012.

Today in the World of Games for 8/15/11

2011-08-15T09:55:00.000-07:00

Gamescom is this week over at Germany, so expect some new announcements and reveals for the games that are out for the next few months.

First off is a new trailer for Street Fighter X Tekken as they explain the new controls like how tag combos work, double team supers, and the cross assault (controlling both players at the same time I think - sort of a similar mechanic seen in the first Marvel vs. Capcom) for those that haven't played previous builds at E3, SD Comic-Con, and Evo. Then they show off the latest character reveals in action, which feature those that have been teased in previous videos such as Hugo, Raven, Ibuki, and Kuma. Hugo is arguably the biggest character seen in the Street Fighter IV graphics engine (he's always bigger than Zangief and T. Hawk anyway) as its nice to see his SF3 skills translated in great form here. It will be interesting to see how Capcom handles Raven's unique style in this game as I barely saw any of his familiar Tekken moves here. Ibuki is pretty much the same from her SSF4/AE incarnations as I wander if her vortex style will still be a factor here unless her air kunais suck now. Kuma looks great especially seeing his facial expressions (something rarely seen in the Tekken games) as he is shaping to be one of those fun/not serious characters people would be use. Capcom is pretty much showing these new characters along with the ones confirmed already in their new Gamescom build as we have to wait till next month's Tokyo Game Show for more character reveals.

Another popular Batman villain returns in Arkham City, which is none other than Mr. Freeze. His role in the core storyline is not yet been talked about, but he is going to be one those villains that you'll probably spend a hour or two dealing with him. I'm wandering if WB/Rocksteady have demo plans for this game since Arkham Asylum had a demo before its release, but considering how good Arkham City is going to be anyway, I don't expect them to put out a downloadable demo to prove something.

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is finally out this week and my pick to get for those that to play a new game. This summer has been good for unique/original IPs from Shadows of the Damned, Child of Eden, Catherine, and now this as I hope this one succeeds sales wise. Yes, it is definitely another crazy game I would buy and gloat about how special it is (well look at the beautiful art style in the launch trailer above). There is a demo that came out some weeks ago on Xbox Live and Playstation Network to try out if you're on the fence. From what I played and read with early reviews, El Shaddai is worth your time if you're into original action games.

Today in the World of Games for 8/9/11

2011-08-09T11:11:00.000-07:00

Yeah this is an old video, but Final Fantasy Versus XIII is in the news again as Nomura says it won't be at the Tokyo Game Show next month. This is pretty much not surprising since this game is still on development for a while (its about five years since its announcement by the way). This is just another reason why I don't know what in the world is going on with the Japanese side of Square-Enix. They have claimed in the past they're going to put out more big games not having a long development window, but Versus XIII continues to be in development hell with no release than likely the end of next year or even 2013 at this rate. Who knows if the game will be even worth the long wait considering Squenix's track record on this current generation of consoles (Final Fantasy XIII for instance and yet XIII-2 gets announced for an early 2012 release). I can see that they are focusing on XIII-2, Kingdom Hearts 3DS (also the other big franchise Squenix doesn't know what to do with besides put more side games), and other stuff for TGS, but the way Versus XIII is positioned as for the company, this better be their big money maker worldwide. Some would call it the Japanese "Duke Nukem Forever" and that could be the case, but generally, its definitely been a hard time for Final Fantasy fans these days. The franchise's 25th anniversary is coming up, but I can see Squenix screwing it up somehow.

Freddy Krueger is now out today to download in Mortal Kombat and it looks like he has easy bread and butter combos for good damage as expected. It is still early to tell how good he is on a tournament level since he's only out for a few hours, but from what I seen, he's at least better than the other guest character Kratos. As of this writing, I'm still waiting for him to come out on PSN, so you might expect something more later here.

A new trailer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 hit the interwebs showcasing the Spec Ops Survival mode. I'm sure the fans will like this trailer from the new things they will see gameplay-wise, but cmon Activision, why are you trying to rip off that dumb sound Transformers-like effect from the Battlefield 3 trailers? Seriously, this BF3/MW3 face-off feels so childish at times in terms of talking trash how the opposing game sucks and trying to one up each other with reveals. Anyway, the Call of Duty XP convention will debut actual multiplayer footage, so stay tuned for that if you're still excited for MW3.

Dead Island is out next month and I'm wandering if people are still excited for it especially it is nothing like that emotional debut trailer earlier this year. As I seen more coverage on the game, it became just another co-op zombie game to me. I would be interested to try a downloadable demo before its release if it changes my mind, but it could of been something special and it probably still is if the developers get things right.

The 25th Anniversary of Metroid... yet ignored by Nintendo.

2011-08-08T18:41:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was the 25th anniversary of the original Metroid's release at Japan for the Famicom. The crazy thing is that Nintendo of Japan ignored it and yet put up the website for the Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary last night. The Metroid franchise has been pretty much third fiddle in the lineup of Nintendo franchises as Mario and Zelda are at the top of the ladder due to their popularity. Sure, Metroid doesn't get the same name recognition as the two I mentioned, but it is definitely one of the most beloved gaming franchises of all-time revolutionizing certain game mechanics that seem crazy at the time. More importantly, it achieved that was a first, a female protagonist that was strong and fearless named Samus Aran.

Metroid flipped the script on gaming back in 1986 where linearity is nonexistent and exploration was key to success. exploration was unique back then where danger was lurking at any moment and one wrong move being unprepared can mean a look at the game over screen. Samus was limited with her abilities at the start, but as she gains new tools such as the signature morph ball, missiles, and bombs, she is able to transverse through more of the world she's in and eventually become a wrecking machine at the end of the game. Later games in the franchise improved on the formula such as Super Metroid becoming one of the greatest games of all-time and the Metroid Prime franchise taking things under the first person perspective.

My personal experience with the Metroid franchise started with Super Metroid, but I didn't remember my time when I played it as a kid. However, I did play it over again four years ago when it came out on the Wii's Virtual Console and you can read my review on how it still holds up today somewhere in my blog. Even back then, it was still a franchise I respect a lot as I finally realized how beloved it was when Metroid Prime came out. That game is still among my top ten favorite games ever. The funny thing about the Metroid franchise is there wasn't really any bad main games throughout the years (unless you count Other M, which I think is not bad as most would say), which is saying something compared to other Nintendo franchises. You can probably argue that Metroid is Nintendo's best franchise from a critical perspective and yet its 25th anniversary get ignored by Nintendo themselves, which is truly a shame. Then again, Metroid is not that popular in Japan compared to here at America, which Nintendo fans can hope they decide to do something about the 25th anniversary of the US release, but who knows.

Anyway, happy belated 25th anniversary Metroid!!!

If you want a better and proper celebration of this, check out the great NeoGAF thread filled with fanart, videos, and more.

Music Roundup for 8/8/11 aka The "Watch the Throne" Edition

2011-08-08T16:07:00.000-07:00

After all the delays and hype with surprisingly no leaks, which was pretty amazing considering how easily things can get leaked on the interwebs these days, Watch The Throne by Jay-Z & Kanye West is finally out and definitely something special from beginning to end. It is easily worth the wait considering these are two of the biggest artists today doing a project with such magnitude especially being released first digitally on iTunes and then retail stores days later.

From the first track, "No Church in the Wild," this album starts things right as Frank Ocean does the hook for the song (also in "Made in America" later on). This is one of the best starters for an album in a while (okay, since Kanye's "Dark Fantasy" on MBDTF). Arguably the most mainstream and "poppy" song in WTT is next with "Lift Off" featuring Beyonce. This is not meant as a bad thing as the song has a similar vibe to Kanye's "All of the Lights" and it is expected to be a single sooner or later. The rest of the album is pretty much Hov and Yeezy going off under crazy productions, which is fine by me since this is pretty much the opportunity for the two stars to make magic happen together. You're not really getting a centralized theme throughout Watch the Throne, but you're basically getting what I think the project is all about, which is just simply Kanye and Jay-Z rapping together for a full album. Sure, not all of the songs can be hits, but the good songs are really good such as "That's My B****," "Who Gon Stop Me," and "Murder to Excellence." Then there are the stinkers if I have to say there are some. "Otis" is probably not the best choice for a first official single off such an anticipated album like this, but it is something different I guess. "Welcome to the Jungle" is my other stinker from the album as it is a typical Swizz Beatz production, which says something since the production is top notch for the duration of the album with some autotune here and there, but not overblown as Yeezy has done in the past.

The Deluxe Edition adds four more great songs to the point it is a necessity to get that even though the normal edition is still good enough as a complete package. "Illest Motherf***er Alive" and "Primetime" outshine the okay songs easily as it is pretty much more of Jigga and Kanye going hard or in case "H.A.M" since that is also in the deluxe edition. In a nutshell, Watch the Throne was definitely worth the long wait as Yeezy and Hov were able to make something special from the beginning to end. As far as Kanye concerned, is this better than his last epic album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy? The answer to that is probably early to tell since WTT has only been out for one day, but both are superb albums despite having some faults. Anyway, this is an album not to be missed by any mainstream hip-hop or rap fan this year as who knows when we will get another album of such magnitude as Watch the Throne for a long while.

DX Magic Strikes Again?? The Galaga Legions DX Review

2011-08-03T13:51:00.000-07:00

Galaga Legions was considered a solid modern take on a classic game, but it was not that memorable to be considered among the best downloadabale games out today. It is still nice to see enemies filling around the screen at once wave after wave as your ship blasts away at them. After the success of Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, Namco Bandai decides to give Galaga another chance with Legions DX under their Namco Generations lineup hoping to make the game more crazy and fun. The improvements and changes did make it a better game, but still lacks that special memorable moment that makes you keep playing.

At its core, Legions DX is the same game as before with your ship mowing down numerous enemy Galaga formations in various wave patterns. The wave patterns still pop out for a second or two before enemies appear so you much think of a gameplan to dispose them quickly. Chain reactions also can be still be caused by destroying certain enemies to the point of destroying an entire wave if timed right. What makes the game have the DX treatment is similar to how Pac-Man CE did it, which is more emphasis on getting the higher score than survival. In the original Legions, your ship's firing controls were pretty limited only firing up even though you can plot satellites at strategic spots to take out enemy waves. This time around, the satellites are only on your ship and you can fire in any direction like a twin stick shooter, which is a significant improvement making the game more approachable to play. There are two firing styles that can be switched at any time too as one is the firing up standard while the other allows your satellites to fire diagonally. The other additional improvement to the gameplay is the slowmo from Pac-Man CE DX, which the game slows down for a bit if you're about to get hit by an enemy in which you can move out of harm's way. This is also why you're not going to die as often as in the original if you're in a tight situation as the game can be pretty generous in terms of the ship's hit box. Even though the gameplay improvements make Legions DX easier and more approachable for anyone to play, there is still no memorable moment like say eating a long ghost train in Pac-Man CE DX, that makes you want to come back and play again.

All of the game's modes are playable from the get go with nine areas, championship, and time attack. Championship mode is pretty self-explanatory as it is a mix of waves from the nine areas and the main competitive mode for high scores. Namco Bandai plans to hold score attack tournaments for this mode on a frequent basis for prizes, which is a nice touch as hopefully they will do host these for a good period of time. The nine areas follow a similar formula of five stages with the fourth one being a boss at the end and the fifth being a bonus stage as you attempt to build up your high score with captured Galagas getting through as many waves as you can in a limited time. Time attack is also self-explanatory trying to beat all the levels with a fast time. Galaga Legions DX does have difficulty options to choose from, but the only difference I noticed is how many lives you start with and considering you're going for score rather than survive all the levels, lives are not that much of a concern especially when you get extra ones easily after surpassing a certain score. The achievements and trophies are pretty easy to get, which is expected for Namco downloadable games as long as you're willing to grind it out in all of the game's modes.

The graphics are pretty much the same between the original Legions and this DX version, Enemies can fill up the whole screen at times and the explosion effects still look sharp as well especially after numerous chain reactions happening. The slowmo effect also happens when you're about to destroy an entire wave. The framerate still runs smoothly and consistently without any hitches too. Also seen in past Namco downloadable games are various visual styles to choose from the old school Galaga style from the arcades to other games in the franchise like Galaxian. Most of the game's audio is also recycled from the original using the same background music for most of the stages.

Galaga Legions DX is a much improved game as a whole, but still faces the same problem the original had, which is a lack of excitement. This is definitely a game meant to be played in short minute bursts than hourly sessions where you're probably bored after that given time. The gameplay improvements from better controls and firepower to the slowmo effect when you are near death make the game more easier and approachable to play. Since DX is in the title, emphasis on score than survival is great encouraging players to chase high scores in the game's online leaderboards where you can see replays of the higher ranked attempts. However, as mentioned earlier, the game does not feel as memorable as I hoped given the Galaga name. For ten dollars (or 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Arcade), Galaga Legions DX is still worth it if you enjoyed the original and you want more of that, but if the original didn't grab your attention then, this DX version won't either.

Score = 7/10

Pros:

Gameplay improvements such as better ship controls and slowmo make the game easier and approachable since the primary emphasis is on score than survival.
All modes are playable out of the gate
Still a sharp looking game that runs smoothly despite looking the same as the original especially with the amount of enemies the game can throw at you.

Cons:

Still missing that memorable moment that makes you want to keep playing. (Mowing down enemy waves with captured Galagas is just not the same as eating a long ghost train in Pac-Man CE DX)
Becomes a grind if you're playing long stretches, so its best played in short minute bursts as they are intended to be.
If the original Legions didn't grab your attention then, Legions DX won't either.

Love Is Over? The Catherine Review

2011-08-01T12:58:00.000-07:00

Catherine is definitely not your everyday video game. This is not a game that incorporates the conventional themes you'll see in most games today, but more about what themes that are rarely used in this medium of entertainment. You're not playing as a character that eventually becomes a hero. Instead, you're playing someone that struggles to deal with maturity, love, and freedom as he tries to figure out what is right for him now and his future. The Persona team at Atlus are able to tackle such issues in such an unique and fascinating way with Catherine, their first game on the current generation of consoles. It is definitely one of the most original games I played in a while.

The story of Catherine is about a man named Vincent Brooks, who is 32 years old and in a relationship with his girlfriend Katherine McBride. She tells Vincent that their relationship should be taken to the next step, which is a telling sign for engagement and marriage. Throughout the game, Vincent deals with his struggle whether or not he is ready to take that next step and accept the new responsibilities being thrown at him, but he randomly meets Catherine, who definitely has the looks of a young dream girl to most guys fulfilling their personal desires. This all leads to Vincent getting nightmares while sleeping as he has to climb up block puzzles as a man with sheep horns to stay alive in the real world. Players have to decide Vincent's future of handling the love triangle he is faced with of choosing to stay with Katherine or cheat to be with the younger Catherine while figuring out why he has weird nightmares as well.

The majority of the gameplay in Catherine is the nightmare stages which consist of block puzzles as I mentioned earlier. Within a time limit of losing blocks, Vincent has to reach the top of the level by moving blocks to climb up to the goal. This sounds easy on paper, but out of the gate, these block puzzles can be challenging to solve especially in the later half of the game. Simple tactics can get you far in most stages such as making staircases, but as the game progresses, more advanced techniques are pretty much required to beat these levels. These advanced techniques can be learned in the landings, which appear in between levels talking with fellow sheep. Special items that appear in most levels are also useful in tight situations from clearing out enemies that are in your way to having an extra block help you climb more steps. The block puzzles are definitely harder later on once more special blocks such as trap blocks with spikes, ice blocks which can cause you to slide into death if you're not careful, and blocks that can't be moved at all. Additionally, the sketchy controls can be a problem for most players where moving the camera around does not really help at all and movement while hanging from a block can be an issue when the controls flip around at times. Then there is the boss battles at the end of each stage where an ugly creature that resembles Vincent's nightmare comes out attempting to deny Vincent of survival. These bosses have powers that can ruin Vincent's night such as changing normal blocks to dark blocks that are heavier to move and even switching your controls. Even on easy difficulty, playing Catherine for the first time is one of the most challenging games you'll play this year, but if you're willing to think outside the box to solve these puzzles and not get stumped, you'll be able to progress through the crazy story fine.

There is a scoring system among all that climbing which ranks you on how fast you reached the top, collecting extra money at random spots, and keeping a high chain of steps climbed. Gold, silver, and bronze prizes are handed out at the end of each stage pending how high your score was which can be compared in the game's online leaderboards. Even though most players would be happy with silver or bronze prizes so they can progress through the story, there are unlockable bonus stages as you collect gold prizes, which are not easy to get especially on normal and hard difficulties. Catherine does a pretty good job of making each difficulty drastically different to encourage multiple playthroughs as the harder the difficulty it is, the more blocks you have to deal with to climb your way to the top making levels longer to beat. There is also definitely a sense of satisfaction when you figured out the right solution to these puzzles and getting out of tight situations. However, these block puzzles will become a grind to the point repetition kicks in (especially at the end of the game) for most players if you're playing just for storyline purposes.

Every night, Vincent hangs out at the Stray Sheep bar, another focal point of the gameplay in this game, with his friends Jonny, Toby, Orlando, and Erica. He gets their opinion of the problems he is dealing with throughout the game. There are a variety of things to do when in Stray Sheep as he can help out other people having similar issues by encouraging them, drink more to have a better chance of succeeding in the nightmare stages, answer texts from the girls he is dating, and even play a 8-bit version of the block puzzles called Rapunzel. The texting in this game is pretty basic as Vincent types a general response to the girls, which influence the law/chaos meter (I'll talk about that in a bit). He can also leave at any time to start up the nightmare, but you'll likely miss out on some conversations that can be vital later on. The Stray Sheep sections are a good break from watching all the cutscenes and surviving the nightmare stages, but you are not really doing much in these parts unless you're willing to go for the various achievements/trophies.

The law/chaos meter is what decides Vincent's position in the love triangle he has to deal with. It is a different take on the whole morality aspect that recent games have been trying to implement. Vincent's decisions throughout the game influence this meter and dictate which one of the eight endings you'll get choosing to be with Katherine if you stick with the law side or Catherine if you choose the side of chaos . These decisions range from responding to texts, helping out other NPCs, and answering the confessional questions in between levels. The confessional questions can be either obvious in one direction or even 50/50 as these are questions you always real yourself in real life, which can hit home a lot of people currently in relationships. The results can be quite shocking when tallied up by online polls, similar to one of L.A. Noire's intuition points. Personally, I was surprised how people certain questions, which can be something like do you want to have more responsibility in your life? Then again, it is hard to tell whether or not players are answering honestly unless they are going to beat the game only once, or pick the chaos answer just because they want to get a bad ending. At times, it can be difficult to tell whether certain responses are right for which side you'll choose in some conversations as you might pick the one that sounds a lawful response, but ends up being the other way around. Despite some flaws with the mechanic, I still liked how the law/chaos system generally works in the game.

Graphically, Catherine looks great considering it is a Japanese game sticking to a slick graphical style. Atlus balanced out the ratio of in-game and anime-like cutscenes pretty well for the most part. The anime scenes done by Studio 4C do look like you're watching an actual anime show at some points. The Gamebryo engine looks fine in the current generation of consoles as the characters definitely have their distinctive looks. The bosses during block puzzles definitely look weird and ugly in a good way as they are intended to be. As for the sound, I was a little skeptical of the English voice cast for the game since there was no option for Japanese VOs with subtitles, but they turned out great. There is definitely a sense of attachment with some characters as you'll feel bad for Vincent at times for what he has to deal with. It is great to see how character progression is handled throughout the game with the English voices and the story as things do get tense and emotional in heated moments. The soundtrack is also beautifully done as well from the nice classical tunes in the nightmare stages, the rap song in the intro, and other chill tunes that can be played in the Stray Sheep's jukebox (which also includes songs from past Atlus games).

Even though it is flawed at times, Catherine is one of the more unique games out there due to how it tackles themes rarely seen in today's gaming market. It has been fascinating to be playing as a protagonist that struggles to find the right path for his future, whether he is ready to settle down becoming a mature adult, or just be another person fulfilling his own wants and desires not being tied down. The block puzzle gameplay can turn some people off especially when things get hard to the point you die more than a dozen times before finding the right solution, but the game hands out extra lives like candy if you're worried about that. For those that just want to see how the story pans out, it is recommended to start on easy and go on to a harder difficulty on a later playthrough. Speaking of later playthroughs, Catherine has a good amount of replay value after beating the main game with bonus babel stages to unlock, the Colosseum mode (local multiplayer with only two players), and getting the multiple endings. I am actually interested how various audiences will play this game whether if they are single or currently in a relationship with a significant other in terms of the decision making especially with the confessional questions. Catherine is surely not for everyone, but if you are willing to play a game that is refreshing while having that crazy Japanese flare, this is definitely worth picking up.

Score = 8.5/10

Pros:

Very good and refreshing storyline that deals with such themes rarely seen in games such as love, maturity, and freedom.
Unique gameplay for a puzzle game
Solid implementation of the law/chaos system
Great graphics and sound (Anime cutscenes, soundtrack, and English voices as examples)
Good replay value with multiple endings and bonus modes

Cons:

The difficulty curve can turn players off especially in the later half of the game where things can get extremely hard, but not impossible (even on easy)
Controls can get become problematic at times especially in tight situations
Some minor decisions that you make might not go the way you wanted at first

Halo Anniversary Still Impresses...

2011-07-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

Halo Anniversary is still coming out in November, but here's a short yet detailed video of the improved graphics as 343 Industries show off parts of the Silent Cartographer level. It is pretty much night and day in terms of how the graphics got better as you can switch between HD and classic visuals.

Saints Row: The Third Turns the Insanity Up to 15

2011-07-22T17:15:00.001-07:00

I'm been pretty excited for Saint's Row: The Third because of the hype from the "Power Trailer" but the latest footage from Comic-Con is just pure insanity. It is so ridiculous and "over the top" yet so amazing at the same time. Then again, that has been what the franchise has been all about since the original back in 2006. This is just another time where I have to let the videos speak for themselves.

Get Ready for Some Nightmares in Mortal Kombat...

2011-07-21T15:16:00.000-07:00

The 4th downloadable character to appear in Mortal Kombat is quite a surprise as it is not someone you expect, but yet rumored. Freddy Krueger takes his claws and scares to the world of MK. I gotta hand it to Netherrealm Studios for delivering the crazy and doing guest characters right. Yeah, Kratos is not that good competitive-wise, but they were able to nail the right aspects from the God of War games in Mortal Kombat. The same thing can be said for Freddy with his sheninegans especially his awesome fatalities. Players can download Freddy Krueger on August 9 for the same price as the other downloadable characters that have been released.

Street Fighter X Tekken at Comic-Con...

2011-07-21T10:11:00.000-07:00

Yeah yeah, people are still hyped for yesterday's Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 announcement, but there is still Street Fighter X Tekken coming and obviously there are new characters to reveal since Comic-Con is going now. Dhalsim, which was teased a week or two ago, is confirmed in as I'm still skeptical how much a problem he will be against Tekken characters because of his long limbs. Will Tekken characters be able to find a way to find Dhalsim convincingly? Let's hope so with that, but at least it is still interesting to see how matchups will fare since its not like Street Fighter IV. The other Street Fighter character revealed is actually from Final Fight as Poison finally gets to be playable in a fighting game. I gotta hand it to Ono and his crew for including Poison in as I'm sure fans are pretty happy with that. From the Tekken side, Steve and Yoshimtsu are now in the game, which are more obvious inclusions. Steve's in your face style from the Tekken games fits nicely in SF x TK as I'm pretty sure he'll be one of the best characters assuming Capcom knows how good he is in recent Tekken games. Yoshimtsu has his Tekken 3 design as his primary costume, which is fine by me as its not one of the bizarre costumes he has. This is one character I'm really curious about in this game in terms of how they are going to translate his playstyle. He can be pretty sheninegans-based as moves like the sword pole and even his suicide are in. At this rate, you might as well play as an odd ball team such as Dhalsim and Yoshi. I'm not exactly sure if the new build is at Comic-Con now since the Capcom Unity stream yesterday was still showing the E3 build because they were saving the reveals till today. Anyway, expect more new Street Fighter X Tekken stuff probably around the Tokyo Game Show in September or maybe even next month at Gamescom.

UPDATE - The new cinematic trailer is nuts! This also confirms Hugo, Cody, and Guy in the game. We might as well call it Final Fight/Street Fighter X Tekken at this rate.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3... Leggo!!!!

2011-07-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

After all the rumors and the hype for the past few weeks, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 gets announced for a November release on PS3 and 360. Fighting game fans are instantly excited for the upgraded game, but some wonder if it is too early? Personally, I believe so as vanilla MvC3 should be able to last at least a year like vanilla Street Fighter IV did before Super came out. I guess all the complaining and begging about certain characters missing, some current characters being too good, and X-Factor being ridiculous paid off for a whole new game to happen. Like Super Street Fighter IV, Ultimate MvC3 is shaping up to be a substantial upgrade being disc only and 40 bucks (no plans of a download like SSF4 Arcade Edition). Changes to current characters and even new moves for them, a HUD change (who could be weird when you're trying to figure out who to snapback), spectator mode, X-Factor changes, and new stages are just the basics for this new version, but the 12 new characters is gonna be what's really exciting for Ultimate. Ghost Rider and Hawkeye are announced for the Marvel side as versus veteran Strider Hiryu and Firebrand are confirmed for the Capcom side so far. Plus, Capcom is going crazy with alternate costumes again with pre-order bonuses like no other for costume packs at various retailers (Femme Fatale Pack for Chun-Li, X-23, Storm, and Trish along with a pack for Doom, Sentinel, Akuma, and Strider). I have been unmotivated as of late playing MvC3 and this Ultimate announcement has obviously got me on the train again. Hopefully, Evo next weekend can give us a show to remember with vanilla's only year.

Anyway, here are the gameplay clips below of the new characters...

UPDATE - Looks like Capcom leaked the rest of the new cast

Marvel - Ghost Rider, Hawkeye, Doctor Strange, Nova, Iron Fist, Rocket Raccoon

Capcom - Strider, Firebrand, Frank West, Nemesis, Phoenix Wright, Vergil

I'm happy with the Capcom choices (maining Vergil yo - hopefully not as fancy as Dante), but the Marvel choices though will disappoint some folks that wanted more returning versus characters.

Yay, a Voltron Game!!!! Oh Wait....

2011-07-18T14:13:00.000-07:00

Voltron definitely holds a special part with my family back in its glory days of the 80s since I wasn't around yet. Today, THQ finally announces Voltron: Defender of the Universe, a new downloadable game based on the Voltron anime which you can play as the original cast. IGN has the first reveal as the game has online co-op up to five players and local co-op with only two players. From the debut trailer above, there is some variety with lion shooting sections (there's an area that makes things look like a shump) and one-on-one robot arena battles. Even though it is a downloadable game, the graphics don't look so hot at its current state. Hopefully the gameplay and the source material of having scenes from the actual anime can make up the slack for the unimpressive graphics, but considering the developer's pedigree (Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime and Naughty Bear), even I'm not having high hopes. Then again, it is nice that a Voltron game finally exists, but this could of been so much better. We'll see how the fan reactions are with its showing at the San Diego Comic-Con this weekend as Voltron: Defender of the Universe is currently slated for release on October 25/26 on Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade respectively for ten dollars (800 Microsoft Points).

My Favorite Trailer of the Year gets Dissected...

2011-07-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

The "Power Trailer" for Saints Row: The Third gets dissected by lead writer Steve Jaros as he tells all the little details and easter eggs from the infamous clip that proved why Kanye's "Power" was the song of E3 2011.

Star Fox 64 3D is out in Japan...

2011-07-16T11:06:00.000-07:00

Star Fox 64 3D was finally released at Japan two days ago as us Americans still have to wait till September to experience arguably the best remake on 3DS (Once again, its better than Zelda OOT 3D). The graphical facelift is pretty outstanding now that I have seen some full levels in action from Zoness, Solar, and Macbeth. The control preferences will probably be a personal thing as some would enjoy the gyroscope controls, but I think playing without them seems to be the way to go especially going for medals. The music has been also remastered for all the levels as they sound for the most part, but I wished there was an option for the old music as well. I'm not sure with the Japanese voices if they're the same as the original, but the other sound effects still sound the same though. Anyway, here's part of a full playthrough above even though the quality is not as great, but of course it can be hard to record 3DS stuff without proper equipment.

UPDATE - Here's a full playthrough of the game in direct feed quality. (spoilers I guess if u haven't even played the original at all yet)

This Week in Live Performances...

2011-07-14T12:56:00.000-07:00

You probably might be sick of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" after hearing it so much on the radio. If you still don't mind listening to it though, here's Linkin Park (well just Chester and Mike Shinoda) doing a cover of it, which is not that bad I guess.

VEVO finally put out the G.O.O.D. Music concert from SXSW this week after months of waiting. Kanye and Jay-Z did "H.A.M.," but my performance pick from this set is "Blame Game" with John Legend. One of my favorite tracks from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy sounds great live, but imagine Chris Rock coming out doing his part whenever Yeezy performs it in the future. That would be kind of funny to see, but of course it doesn't really make sense in a concert setting.