Okay, I'm excited about Final Fantasy XIII again...

A new trailer for Final Fantasy XIII has arrived hyping up the upcoming demo that comes with the Advent Children Complete Blu-Ray (Japan only). Let's just say I'm excited again for this game and now I'm considering importing it to be played on my PS3 (It is region-free). I think it is out sometime in April and will sell like gangbusters because of the demo itself and hopefully I can import it or maybe get it during my vacation to the Philippines that same month.

Music Videos of the Day: "That's Not My Name" and "Spaceman"

Looks like a second video for The Ting Tings' "That's Not My Name" has surfaced for the U.S. audience. I think I like this one better than the original video (The song is now out in U.S. version of Singstar PS3 and uses the 1st video). It is one of my favorite songs of 2008 and this video has brought it back to my life.

UPDATE - Also adding "Spaceman" by the Killers for this post (Another weird video by them). This song is playable in Rock Band.

6 Hours of Tekken 6 BR!!!! (Hands-On Impressions)

Originally, I was going to Super Arcade at Walnut, CA to play more Street Fighter IV and surprisingly, Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion is already out (it came out on Friday) in SoCal. Six hours and over ten bucks later, I was done for the night playing with SoCal's best players and Super regulars ranging from Kane, Cynnik, Suiken, Unconkable, Rip, MYK, Calsonic, and more. These six hours were pretty fun times even though I lost all my matches, but came close on several against some of these tourney-level players. Every 50 cents spent per game is a learning experience in terms of what to do and not in certain spots. I as usual was playing my main character Bryan Fury and it is about time I return to the Tekken franchise even though console SF IV is just around the corner.

Anyway, your card from Tekken 6.0 works in Bloodline Rebellion as a transfer, but your character resets to the default costume even though the items you bought from the previous game are still in. The character customization in terms of wardrobe is pretty crazy with more wacky items. Some customizations can be too nuts and you can't tell if your character is the same from his or her's default appearance. Other than that, the card system is the same as before winning matches gets you more money even though you still earn money by losing. Also, the roulette is the same as before with more opportunities for money and getting lucky for rare items.

As far as gameplay is concerned, it is pretty much the same as Tekken 6 with the obvious changes to characters' movelists and properties to balance the game further. The low parry is now an automatic bound and certain things you can get away in Tekken 6 doesn't work anymore in BR. From what I seen, the new characters, Lars and Alisa, are fun to play as adding more unique styles to the huge character roster (about 40 to choose from, which is nuts). Even though the machine is set to three rounds, eventually, it will be five in a month or two. The rage and bound systems are basically the same as before too which change the momentum of a match to someone's favor pending on the situation. Sure, its still a combo heavy juggle festival, but its Tekken, and it is still the most fun I had with a 3D fighter.

Okay, I save other thoughts for my review soon, so stay tuned for that. If you're around the SoCal area and a Tekken fan, go play Bloodline Rebellion because it will be a while before it comes out on consoles.

ABDC Season 3 Episode 2 Recap

Last night's ABDC was okay with Boxchuttaz being eliminated. Here's my top 3 performances of the episode.



Quest doing "Let It Rock"



Beat Freaks consistently doing well.



Team Millenia were in the bottom 2 and did better than last week (Definitely the best "dancing" number of the night).

Here's my rankings heading towards next week.

1. Quest
2. Beat Freaks
3. Strikers All-Stars (They stepped up this week - Honorable mention)
4. Team Millenia
5. Dynamic Edition (Also good this week)
6. Fly Khicks (likely bottom 2 next week)
7. Ringmasters (Their gimmick is running out of time)

Next week is the Britney episode and it should be fun...

Another example of how Street Fighter IV gets mad hype!!!

Yeah, another post about my favorite game right now, Street Fighter IV, but this is from my Twitter and I had to post it here too. Here's another example of how this game delivers mad hype over at Arcade Infinity (located at Rowland Heights, CA in Diamond Plaza). I go there sometimes to play SF4 and hopefully I'll come and watch a Ranbat tournament (or even give it a shot) in the future. Actually, California Regionals, a big Cali tournament with players from NorCal, SoCal, and other spots, happened last weekend at Denijin Arcade (over at Simi Valley, CA which is pretty much a hour and half from where I live - I should of went there to hang out I guess) and supposedly was a crazy weekend filled with fighting game goodness from SFIV, 3rd Strike, MvC2, BlazBlue, and more. If u know the SFIV scene here at SoCal, it is pretty much charge character heavy with lots of Balrog players, some Bisons (my main in this game), Blanka players, and more. Even though Honda is bottom mid tier, he's still a pretty good character at times and he's my secondary character (Blanka and Guile are next in the list after Honda).

I'll also plug Gootecks's Street Fighter podcast over at Gootecks.com (link is at the right side with the other links I put up of other sites) and its pretty good if you're into Street Fighter IV and want to know the scene at SoCal. I am sort of taking an arcade SF4 break because of Skate 2 being out tomorrow (review hopefully by the end of the month), but will return closer to SF4's console release on February 17. 

UPDATE (Minor) - Oh I guess that I'll post the console intro up here too. My original reaction is that it sucks because of the "pop-ish" theme song, but now I can tolerate with it.

My 2 picks to win ABDC Season 3...

The third season of America's Best Dance Crew starts tonight on MTV and here are my picks to win the whole thing (I already mentioned them on my Twitter, but here they are in action).

Quest (My #1 pick)

Team Millenia (#2 pick)

Sleeper Pick: Beat Freaks



Remember those episode recaps I did for Season 2 last year? I'll do them again, but they will resume next week.

UPDATE - My sleeper pick is added, which is the Beat Freaks. Also, here's my rankings heading towards next week.

1. Quest
2. Beat Freaks
3. Team Millenia (rocky start, but I'm generous)
4. Ringmasters (We'll how long their "flexing" style last)
5. Dynamic Edition (Another sleeper contender despite their clogging style)
6. Boxchutthz
7. Fly Khicks
8. Strikers All-Stars

I'll say the competition is way more even this season compared to the last two since those seasons, u can tell who will win right away (look at Jabbawockeez and SuperCrew) and who will go far (Kaba Modern and So Real Cru for example). It will depend on the themed weeks which crew will stand out from the bunch.

3 Arcade Games that u should be playing...

The arcade scene (at least in SoCal) is still alive and well with places like Super Arcade at Walnut, Arcade Infinity at Rowland Heights (over at Diamond Plaza), and Family Fun Arcade at the San Fernando Valley. Only a handful of arcade games are pretty much worth your attention and here are 3 picks of what u should be playing next time you go to a place like the ones I mentioned.

Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3 DX

The current #1 racer at arcades is the Maximum Tune series and a new expansion of sorts for 3 (hence the DX name) just came out recently at SoCal. It is basically more Maximum Tune 3 with the option to go 825 HP with your car along with a new course (Nagoya Speed Ring) and new music by Yuzo Koshiro. There are also other features involving ghost battle in which I forgot how it works now. This race is still as addictive as ever even though it is not the best looking racing game at arcades now, but people are still playing it like crazy customizing their cars and having numerous IC cards.

DJ Max Technika

I saw this at Arcade Infinity and it is something different even though I think it is already a franchise. It is a DJ game where you touch the screen to correspond with the beats compared to something like Beatmania. It is very Japanese with the whole anime look and song selection, so basically the DDR-like crowd will like this.

Street Fighter IV

The arcade version of SF IV has pretty much one more month till the console versions come out in which the scene will change, but it doesn't mean SF IV will be dead at arcades as tournaments at places like Arcade Infinity will keep it alive. The console SF IV is a good tool for practice as the arcade version is a different beast in terms of competition and tournament atmosphere. Anyway, I'm talking about this game too much.

So the next time you're at an arcade, especially in the Southern California area, play these games whether or not you're good at them and bring people along for the fun.