If Status Quo wins, We Riot!!!!

Hey, a blog about a TV show...

So the season finale of America's Best Dance Crew is tonight and hopefully the right crew wins, you know the JabbaWockeez. Last night, supposedly there was 30 million votes already before the big show and it could be all a lie if Status Quo, the crew that just do flips to me, wins meaning it is rigged and America doesn't know what true dancing skill is. Word from the streets seems it is true, but we can all wait till tonight to see if MTV did the right thing choosing the most deserving crew to win. Here's a reminder why they should and better win.

50 Cent says hello to games again.....

Let's get this out of the way first: The background surrounding naming myself G Unit Ver1 is not because of I'm a fan of 50 and his crew, rather than being called G so many times, I just added in the Unit since it kind of made sense at the time. Then the Ver1 kicked in because I liked WWE's Matt Hardy's heel (Mattitude) gimmick with Version 1 on the end and giving facts about himself as he enters the ring. He should bring that back someday, but enough with that.

Since 50 Cent Bulletproof sold enough copies to be a "greatest hit" for the PS2, I guess Vivendi decides to try again for another game titled 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. MTV News has the official exclusive story and details on this one, but already we know it is probably going to suck like Bulletproof did horribly even though it sold a lot of copies by likely the name itself. According to the story and the first screenshots, it has Gears of War and Army of Two all over it and probably it won't be that bad of a decision for the developers to copy even though it will suck in some way (the game is using Unreal Engine 3). 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is currently targeted for a Fall 2008 release and will probably sell again because it is 50 and his products actually sell, but so far it is better than Bulletproof and that's all I can say about it being good.

The Resident Evil 5 footage Famitsu promised this week

Thanks to Gamevideos.com for putting up the footy as this is new gameplay (not much) of Resident Evil 5. This is from the Famitsu DVD that came with the new issue in newsstands now (at least that Japanese market / mall at Newport Beach). I'm glad I played Resident Evil 4 on the GameCube in 2005 having never played a RE before that, and good thing since RE4 is still one of the best games of this decade so far. With rumors of more versions of RE4 (refer to this thread at NeoGAF) before RE5, I won't mind even though Capcom has milked that game to death already to me. Back to RE5, I can't wait to witness the evolution of the gameplay of RE4 in this one. I don't care if it comes out next year, let Capcom take their sweet time because it worked for RE4, and sure it will for RE5. Here's the video below.

Halo 3 just got more Black

The Legendary Map Pack DLC for Halo 3 has been set with all three maps revealed for the world to go crazy about. See anything similar in that screenshot above? Yeah, it is Lockout from Halo 2 in a different setting. Now called Blackout, this is a flat out remake of arguably the best map in Halo 2, which is now a oil rig in the middle of the ocean other than some random snow facility. While some Halo fanboys may miss the snow, just getting the map is good enough to me, but with equipment now. Bungie mentioned there is a bubble shield, regenerator, and a power drain around the place. They also mentioned changes in certain jumps to various spots of the map making some easier while others harder. I know I'm going to play Halo 3 for a bit again when April 15 comes around, but Blackout alone maybe makes the 800 point deal better than it intended to be along with Avalanche and Ghost Town.

Battlefield: Bad Company Beta (Impressions so far)

So the Battlefield: Bad Company Beta servers went up today and they are getting worked right now. It is hard to get in games currently and the DICE guys noticed it too which they are trying to fix this as quickly as possible. I was able to play 3 matches at least (1 in Ascension and 2 in Oasis). The only mode available is Gold Rush, which the attacking team has to destroy a set of gold crates to win the match while the defending team tries to defend it by lowering their reinforcements bar (just kill them a lot of times). These games can last long especially in Oasis where there is like 5 sets of 2 crates for the attackers to destroy. Ascension is more of a smaller map than Oasis, which seems more vehicle-focused, but the action does fell tense up close. As with previous Battlefield games if I can remember correctly, there are classes to choose from (I mostly sticked with Assault) with a demolition class, sniper class, etc. These will actually play out more on Oasis with the amount of tanks and helicopters going around. 

The graphics so far are good despite it is only 30 frames per second compared to 60 in CoD4. Those usual gray-ish filters (as seen in Burnout Paradise) are in when you are low on health, and it kind of distracts the overall flow of the action to me. The explosions also look great and this game is living up to the message with the whole destructible environments / buildings because they can be destroyed pretty quickly. Sound-wise, it is okay with the guns sounding like guns and explosions sounding like explosions. 

The spawn system goes by spawning at a home base or within the action along teammates. Spawning with your squad can be risky at times if spawned in the middle of a firefight, but at least u get to the action quicker if u prefer that route. There's the whole awards and medals thing for certain tasks as well such as new weapons and whatnot. EA's thing with microtransactions for new weapons is a little funky, since it is EA and they want money, people are willing to cough up the dough. Other than that, it feels like a Battlefield game with guns having secondary fires, vehicles that might ruin the balance of the game, and teamwork, which I didn't notice since no one was using their mics.

I'm going to play more of this when the servers are somewhat working (maybe later today). Maybe I'll just play the new Boston pack DLC on Rock Band instead and those songs kick ass (specifically More Than A Feeling as expected and Peace of Mind, better charts than GH versions). Sorry, no picture for this post.

4 Hours of Tekken 6!!! (My Impressions)

Oh man, what a good afternoon I had!! I played the arcade version of Tekken 6 for 4 hours in the Super Arcade at Walnut. Okay, not exactly 4 hours since there was a crowd of players waiting to fight, but I killed 9 bucks already on this game, which means I'm crazy. It turns out this cabinet is an official cabinet from Asia (with English) and it looks awesome. Tekken 6 is 50 cents to play (versus being best of 3) and 6 bucks to buy a card. The card system returns from the arcade version of Tekken 5 and DR with a card being a single character with a versus record and tons of character customization with dress up. While I did get my ass kicked all the I times I played (my character is Bryan), I won some rounds which made me happy at least since the competition is filled with good players that are way better than me (some or all of them are tournament-level). With my experience out of the way, all I can say is this game plays and looks hot.

The graphics for Tekken 6 are amazing even though it is arguably Tekken in HD and 720p. The backgrounds look beautiful and some of them are multi-leveled, which means u can break the ground if you use a slam-type move more often. The characters themselves look great as well on HD looking detailed and whatnot. Sound-wise, it is also excellent with another great soundtrack (Tekken 5 / DR had great music for a fighting game) and new sound effects. Overall, the presentation for Tekken 6 is what u expect from these games even if this one has new sounds for the hit effects and blocks, it is still the same game we know and love.

The core gameplay for Tekken 6 remains the same for a hardcore or tourney-level player, which is still combo-driven. The new bound system seems like a new and good addition to the Tekken games, which allows the normal juggle combos to be different compared to Tekken 5, but u can still use those combos that were in your arsenal in 6 as well, but the bound system makes the approach of combos to be something else than the same thing. The rage system happens when your character is low on health (like a shiver) and your character glows a little red allowing its moves to have more damage than normal. This increases the tension of the end of fights and give the character in rage a chance to comeback, which is cool and many times a raged character can comeback and win a round. Most of the characters' moves (like Paul's Hammer Punch) have different animations, but they are still the same moves in the end which gives Tekken 6 some kind of newness when u see a match. Both bound and rage systems feel like a love/hate relationship meaning at one time, you'll like it, but sometimes u won't. The overall mechanics for Tekken 6 are still in my mind both fun and still as flashy as ever compared to other 3D fighters like Virtua Fighter 5 and the DOA games. 

By playing 4 hours of Tekken 6, u can tell the high tier characters from the rest of the pack. Devil Jin still kicks all kinds of ass, but some of the new characters Leo, Miguel, and Bob are very impressive and high on the list. Bob specifically is just a beast even if he is that fat. My man Bryan can still hold on its own too, but my Paul is not that great and I didn't play as him that much. Based on my time there, players mostly played as Bob, Lei, Miguel, Xiaoyu, Leo, and Devil Jin. Some players played Jack-6, Christie, Raven, Kazuya, Paul, and Feng. If you have sticked with a character for most of Tekken 5, you'll be fine in 6 as long as u adjust to the bound system for combos, but the new characters are fun to play with and worth a shot.

In the end, I had a blast with Tekken 6 so far. Everything in that game is pretty hot from the graphics, gameplay, and the cabinet itself. I can't wait to play more of it as the weeks and months go by. I might hop by later this week for more craziness.

My Clip of the Day (3/24/08)

Found this video over at Kanye West's Blog (its actually a cool blog). Its not the official music video for the song, I Wonder, but a good video which is all Tron-like.

Enjoy.

GRADUATION ALBUM LISTENING EXPERIENCE PT. 3 - I WONDER from kwest on Vimeo.