Burnout Paradise Online is going to get better...

With the second major update to Burnout Paradise coming out sometime next week according to their countdown, the folks of Criterion Games are already cooking up a third update codenamed Cagney which will make the online multiplayer what it was originally meant to be. For the many players that wanted Stunt Run, Road Rage, and Marked Man in online multiplayer got their wish granted with Criterion's announcement of those modes making it online. They are calling it EasyDrive with the three modes available to those who want to gather high scores like a single player stunt run, but taking out the opposition will also increase the multipler while getting taken out loses the combo. Online Road Rage makes its return and it is team based like Burnout Revenge of two teams of 4 with the same goal of one team racing to the finish line while the other team chases them to take them out. Online Marked Man is basically the same as when played single player, but now plays like Juggernaut in Halo 3 to me of one person being the Marked Man and if one takes out the Marked Man, he then becomes the Marked Man. For more details on Online Stunt Run, Road Rage, and Marked Man, check out the article from Criterion's own web site. These modes won't make the new update next week, but I expect them to make it after the first major wave of DLC surfaces with the new areas and cars. All I can have say now is this will bring me back to Burnout Paradise just like what the Legendary Map Pack did to me with Halo 3. 

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Bundle = Not Worth It for 360 owners

Okay, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is out sometime in June and the obvious bundle is also out at the same time. Good thing it is not as mandatory to buy it now with the previous Guitar Hero releases had bundles. As seen in the pic above, the game comes with the Gibson Les Paul, but now with an Aerosmith faceplate. If you already have 2 guitars to play Guitar Hero III if u bought Guitar Hero II on 360 and Guitar Hero III's Les Paul, then what's the point of getting another one unless you're crazy for another wireless guitar. For PS3 owners, this is more worth it for another guitar since Guitar Hero II didn't come out on PS3 if u didn't buy another Les Paul separately.  Then again, bundles for Aerosmith have to be pre-ordered to be purchased on its June release so retailers are doing something right for once with this series. I'm still on the fence on buying GH Aerosmith anyway, and luckily if one of my guitars don't break, I don't need to waste another 100 bucks on another Guitar Hero game. I might as well skip it with Ninja Gaiden II and hopefully MGS4 PS3 out the same month if my financial status is good enough.

Slightly off-topic - Soul Calibur IV is out on July 29 and will have a limited edition as well being 80 bucks. I'm a sucker for limited editions so I might as well get this one too since I like the Soul Calibur games, but not as much as the Tekken games especially playing Tekken 6 for the past month.

Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack Impressions

So the new Halo 3 maps came out today with the Legendary Map Pack and quite simply, they are flat out fun to play and way better than the Heroic DLC.

Let's start with Avalanche, the biggest of the three and a throwback to the Halo CE map Sidewinder. Significant changes were made towards movement with tons of man cannons. Since this is a big map, it is also vehicle-heavy with Mongooses, Warthogs, Ghosts, Wraiths, and a Hornet. The map itself seems symmetrical and designed for Objective-based games like Capture the Flag and Assault. For those CTF and Bomb games, they bring nice moments of vehicle and man cannon madness of dropping to an opposing base with a warthog or mongoose to arm the bomb or get the opposing flag. There is a long way and a short way to navigate around this huge map and usually vehicle control will dictate the momentum of matches. I never had such fun in a huge map which surprised me since I'm not a fan of the big maps in the Halo games. Avalanche is truly worth a play-through with 8 or more people.

The next map is arguably worth the 800 Microsoft Points alone, which is Blackout, a direct remake of Lockout from Halo 2. From the snow of Lockout, Blackout is now in the nighttime at an oil rig in some wintry place. What I mean by direct remake, nothing is significantly changed for the map, but it seems bigger than it used to be. The weapons are at the same places (Spikers are the exceptions at some spots) and close-range combat at its finest. Lots of Slayer and Team Slayer matches happened at Lockout when I played Halo 2 and Blackout promises more playtime and memories in the times to come. This is highly recommend for 4 or more players for matches to feel somewhat special. It is also surprisingly fun for SWAT as well. Personally, my favorite strategy for rack up kills is the Bubble Shield and Sword combo as people will fall for it. Other than that, get ready to throw some grenades in tight spots.

Finally, there's Ghost Town, which Bungie described in the first place as a Counter Strike-like map. It seems that way to me with tons of opportunities for cover and many indoor places for close-range combat. The map's size is medium-sized, but big enough to try out some Objective-based games. Even though I recommend Slayer and Team Slayer for this map as well with Active Camo and Overshield present. This map can cater to long range and short range action, which offers somewhat of a balance. It is also surprisingly fun to play SWAT and Team SWAT with many opportunities for long-range headshots with the Battle Rifle. In the end, I'm also surprised how this map can to be fun to play in for 4 or more players.

Bungie arguably released the best DLC for a Halo game with this Legendary Map Pack. All three maps can provide memorable moments for saved films and interesting to mess around with Forge. Avalanche is now favorite big map in Halo 3, Blackout still remains the greatness of Lockout from Halo 2, and Ghost Town is one of the better maps in the game period. It is safe to say I will be playing Halo 3 again for a while with this new set of maps. Don't wait for this one to be free in a few months and spend 10 bucks (800 MS Points) as soon as u can to experience Halo greatness again.

The King of Iron Fist Tournament returns again.... The Tekken 6 (ARC) Review

Please note: This is the review for the arcade version of Tekken 6 not the upcoming PS3 version.

Namco Bandai brought back the Tekken games to their glory with Tekken 5 and its upgrade, Dark Resurrection. It focused on what made them great and also delivered on the storyline, which I think does the best job at it in the fighting game genre. Tekken 6 is the latest entry in Namco's famed fighting series and continues the story of the Mishima bloodline with Jin Kazama now heading the Mishima Zaibatsu, which was once owned by Heihachi in Tekken 5, and currently taking over the world being independent from the rest of them. The only other entity that can oppose Jin's company is the G Corporation and they offered up a huge price for anyone to capture Jin alive. All of this war and chaos starts the 6th King of the Iron Fist tournament for those fighters who want vengeance, the fame, and the power. While some may call Tekken 6 simply Tekken in high definition, its new gameplay changes make it enough of a different game for new players to learn new moves, combos, and strategies with their favorite characters, and that to me what makes the game fun.

The character lineup for Tekken 6 is a staggering amount, which is 40. The new characters are actually fun to play as and also high among the current tier list. Among them are, Leo, who is actually a girl going after Kazuya for killing her mother, Miguel, a Spanish brawler, Zafina, a spiritual lady with an unorthodox fighting style, and Bob, a fat dude who knows karate. The returning characters are all from Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection with favorites like Marshall Law, Paul Phoenix, Bryan Fury, the Williams sisters, Christie, Steve, King, and more. For veterans of the series, the old characters are still play the same way with the same moves, but some of them have different animations, which gives Tekken 6 some sense of freshness. Then you have your boss characters, which is a totally different story I will mention later.

The single player game for Tekken 6 remains the same of fighting a set of characters till the last boss. Along the way, a bonus fight may occur with a huge robot named Nancy, which is an example of the wackiness the Tekken series had provided over the years. The last bosses were kind of cheap most of the time and Tekken 6 is no different with Azazel, a huge dragon that fills up nearly half the screen that can use rock-like projectiles and its size to its advantage. Other than that, the difficulty for the single player game is around the same as Dark Resurrection, which is not that hard, but the computer A.I. can give a fight most of the time. Let's just say be prepared to lose some quarters if you are really determined to beat Azazel. but he is beatable like past Tekken bosses such as Jinpachi from the last game.

The overall gameplay mechanics for Tekken 6 is still the same Tekken you know and love with some new additions. One of them is the bound system which refers to the juggle combos. This usually happens when you use a slam-type move to the ground during a juggle which gives you another chance to continue the combo with a low or mid attack. Sometimes, using these bound-type moves will cause the ground to break in certain stages that are multi-leveled to a lower level. The other major addition and often controversial before its arcade release is the rage system. Your character will be in rage when he or she is low in health and some signs of red glow will show up as seen in the screenshot above. Once in rage, you can inflict more damage to your opponent than normal and vice versa if your opponent is in rage. This usually can lead to comebacks in certain situations and rare death combos which makes the last seconds of a match more intense kicking in the nerves of not making a mistake. Despite those new additions, Tekken 6 is still a juggle festival for high-level players and fun for casual players because of its flashiness compared to other 3D fighters.

The arcade version of Tekken 6 uses a card system similar to Tekken 5 and DR. One card is a character of your choice and customize it to your liking as long you win matches for more money. You still gain money from losing matches against human opponents, but not that much. The character customization is still the same from Tekken 5 of various color changes and additional clothing. New to this game is more weapons (Bryan's shotgun for example in one of the first videos shown) that can be used during fights, but for no damage which is another example of Tekken's wackiness. Even though it is a little pricey to purchase a card (well from the place I play Tekken 6), it is worth it in the long run to brag about your winning record and show off a cool customization.

Graphically, Tekken 6 looks pretty sharp. For those who think it is Tekken 5 HD, think again because it improves significantly. The characters look great with more details added to them than previous games. The environments also look beautiful and diverse, which is a staple of the franchise. From an open snow stage, a graveyard with thunder in the background, a water stage similar to Tekken 4, and more. The ground does receive damage and will break as mentioned earlier meaning there are destructible elements in some stages and look great as well. The water effects also improved from previous games with splashes acting like splashes. Performance wise, the only time of slowdown is during the character screen at rare occasions. Despite that, the fights run at a smooth 60 frames per second with no sense of any slowdown.

The sound for Tekken 6 is the usual expectations of the franchise. Blocking sounds different now which seems harder than previous games and the hits still sound the same. There is little character voice acting when they are introduced before fights, but they seem accurate to their personalities which is good enough to me. Musically, Tekken games deliver great soundtracks and this one is no different of various rock, electronic, and orchestral. Even the announcer sounds better and not as annoying as some would say.

Overall, Tekken 6 is another great entry to Namco's successful franchise. The new gameplay additions make the fights more entertaining and intense giving players to new ways to mess with your favorite characters. It looks sharp in high definition and sounds great as expected. The wackiness that the series has maintained since its inception is still here in various places with a cheap boss and playing as a bear. The card system still remains addicting for the arcade scene of showing off a customized character and maintaining a winning record. Quite simply, Tekken 6 is flat out fun to play at the arcade which is a rare opportunity these days since only a handful of arcades here at the United States have the game.

Score = 9 / 10 

Samoa Joe = Finally TNA World Champion!!! The Lockdown PPV Recap

Turns out that Lockdown was another good PPV for TNA (They always deliver every year with Lockdown anyway). Okay I haven't watched it yet (maybe tomorrow if it is up online somewhere) and read the results. For the long version and more details, go to WrestleZone's article. Let's go to the obvious news....

- Samoa Joe is the new TNA Heavyweight Champion!! - In arguably the best match against Angle since their first match at Genesis 2006, Joe finally wins the big title. This match was promised to be MMA-focused and did deliver on that front. Good old fashion wrestling in this match with no interference despite Karen Angle being there just to watch and Kurt ordered her to leave.

Team Cage defeats Team Tomko in Lethal Lockdown

- Lots of heavy spots in this match like a ladder at the top of the cage (reminding me sort of the good HIAC matches in WWE) as promised with Rhyno surprisingly getting the winning pin.

Booker T & Sharmell defeated Robert Roode & Peyton Banks.

- Hopefully this is the last match of this feud, it got too long for me.

Gail Kim & ODB defeated Awesome Kong & Raisha Saeed.

Super Eric won the Cuffed in the Cage match

- It is like Eric Young is TNA's version of Cena except they cheer for him and I hate his superhero gimmick.

BG James defeated Kip James

- Kind of the not looking forward to this match for everyone, but this match signifies Kip's heel turn.

Roxxi Laveaux won the "Queen of the Cage" match.

Jay Lethal retained his X Division Title in the Xscape match 

- Great opening match from what I read.

Overall, Lockdown delivers and hopefully Joe has a long title reign. For Sacrifice, TNA's May PPV, we already have Joe vs. Scott Steiner for the TNA Heavyweight Title. Kind of nice that TNA is mixing it up with title contenders (well Big Poppa Pump has had that briefcase for a while) and King of the Mountain is likely in June, so it will be interesting how TNA will handle Joe's title reign.

Music Video for the Day (4/13/08) - Paris, Tokyo

One of my favorite songs from Lupe Fiasco's latest album, The Cool, gets the video treatment, which is Paris, Tokyo. This is really a chill song to listen to and the video also gives you that chilling vibe. Another good video from one of the best artists in the music game now (Looks like Hip Hop Saved My Life didn't get too much love for the video playback and I still hear Superstar on Big Boy's neighborhood on 105.9 FM every morning). Hopefully, this single can attract the mainstream crowd because I think it can.

Maximum Tune 3 Soundtrack Appreciation

With mainstream music continuing to suck these days (there are some exceptions), I always ventured to my favorite genre of music for escape, mainly electronica and techno. Other than that, it is mainly game music I have been listening to. A couple of months ago, I was crazy about the Super Smash Bros. Brawl soundtrack (yeah I downloaded the whole thing) and that was amazing. Lately, even though it is kind of late to the party, I have been blasting the Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3 Soundtrack.

I have mentioned Maximum Tune 3 in a previous post, but the soundtrack alone sells me to the game, composed by Yuzo Koshiro, who did the music for the Streets of Rage games too. His music is just flat out fun to listen when playing the games he has music in mainly Streets of Rage 2 and the Maximum Tune games. Especially, for Maximum Tune 3, it is basically perfect driving music to listen to while driving compared to racing games here at the United States filled with crappy licensed music (Burnout Paradise for example). Plus, it makes you want to go fast in straightaways and whatnot when out on the freeway. Usually for racing games like Burnout and Forza 2, I usually listen to the electronica and techno other than the crappy mainstream rock EA tends to put out in their games.

Pretty much the whole soundtrack for Maximum Tune 3 is a blast to listen to. Here's the YouTube links to the album thanks to Yuzoboy. If u like electronica, techno, or trance, then I recommend listening to this soundtrack.

1) EntryMaxi3

2) SelectMaxi3

3) Inexhaustible Energy

4) In Your Dream

5) Get Down to the Drive

6) Top-Flight Mechanics

7) Wanna Try One Last Time

8) Get You Cornered

9) Love to Rise in the Summer Morning

10) Evil Association

11) Cause You're Different
12) Supreme Folly

13) Control Your Body

14) Shrewd Critic

15) Feel The Moment

16) Black Pressure

17) Phantom of Blue

18) Result Maxi3

19) Just Flat Out

20) Midnight Sanctuary

21) Shine

22) Opening Maxi3