Me playing Street Fighter IV on the tubes...

So apparently, I found this random online match on YouTube of me in action. For once on the tubes, I won (Yay!). Of course my matches are not the greatest in terms of having the perfect execution since I usually drop combos most of the time or I couldn't punish when I had the chance.

Today was a different story with a friendly session of matches against one of the best SoCal players around, which is Dae. Even though I didn't beat him at all today, some matches were indeed close as I had some opportunities, but couldn't clutch it out. Dae is arguably the best Chun-Li player I know in SoCal and this was also the first time I played him, so it took time to figure some things out, but usually you gotta quick with adjustments against your opponents, which is the case here. If u see me in action in these clips, you will notice that I use Bison in a certain style and I roll with it throughout (maybe I rely on some moves too much) because not playing your game just makes you feel a little uncomfortable. So check out the footage of me getting owned by Dae down below and see how beast his Chun-Li is (Also I will do dumb stuff like random ultras as seen out of desperation).





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Getting Hyped for West Coast Warzone...

I'm been back in the lab lately playing Street Fighter IV to get ready for SoCal's biggest tournament, aka West Coast Warzone hosted by John "Teppelin" Rog, happening this September 4-6 (Labor Day Weekend) in the Irvine Hilton. The SoCal SF4 ambassador himself Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez shows off the hotel itself in the promo video above, which is making me consider getting a room for the weekend even though I rather just drive back and forth from my home. Then again, this tournament will be in the late hours and yeah things are bound to happen for sure that is too HYPE. All of SoCal's biggest names in Street Fighter IV will be there as well as other games for tournaments such as BlazBlue and King of Fighters XII (Not sure about entering that too). I think I rather save up some money for this huge event in the SoCal SF scene. So if you're free those days, go ahead and check out West Coast Warzone to witness all the madness (Pool party also on September 4 = lol). Oh I should sign up for this thing soon too.

Here's the website for more details about the epic weekend... and also another promo featuring Gootecks just sitting in the car letting the ladies do the talking (lol).

UPDATE - Almost forgot... Anyone got a 360 arcade stick I can borrow for that weekend? If so, let me know as soon as possible. Don't worry I won't break it.

Being One with the Darkness... The Batman: Arkham Asylum Demo Hands-On Preview

The highly anticipated Batman: Arkham Asylum is out later this month (more like August 25 in normal and limited editions that come with the battarang) and while stores like Target, Wal-Mart, and GameStop already have a demo of this game, that is pretty much a challenge mode demo being a showcase for the combat. The demo that comes out today on the Playstation Store and later tonight or tomorrow on Xbox Live Marketplace is the first minutes of the single player game. Since it is the beginning of the game, you will watch the intro cutscene as Batman brings the Joker to Arkham Asylum and once Joker goes loose, he brings out chaos thanks to Harley Quinn and it is up to Batman to set things right by cleaning up Arkham. Even though the demo provides a taste of what is yet to come in the final game, it is a pretty good taste demonstrating not just the combat, but also what makes Batman famous, which is using stealth and his gadgets to his advantage.

Even though the melee combat in Arkham Asylum feels a bit mashy, meaning you can mash the attack button to take care of normal enemies, it still feels solid as well as flowing smoothly especially when you counter someone's attack by the press of the triangle button. There's also a cape stun move to stun enemies as well as his battarang to attack from a distance, but still you can get away from dealing with a crowd of guards with melee alone. I hope the other gameplay elements in this new Batman game truly shine, which is the stealth and detective elements. Since Batman is a stealthy dude, the stealth has to be pretty good and it is so far from what I played. You can grapple to high gargoyle spots in certain rooms and either glide kick by surprise or hang down Spider-Man style to attack nearby enemies as well. The grappling mechanic also flows smoothly being simple to control with the press of a button as well as being stealthy. As for the detective mode, once you press L2, the screen goes in blue vision allowing you to easily spot enemies, platforms to swing to, hidden paths to explore, and other things to solve puzzles. This especially helps when planning out an attack line for certain areas, which is satisfying when your plan works. Just by gameplay alone so far, it definitely feels like you're Batman and being badass at the same time too.

I'll keep this short and save the rest for a review if I buy this game in which after playing this demo, I'm more stoked than I thought I should for arguably the Batman game fans have been waiting for. The game looks great and the audio is awesome with the voice cast from the 90s cartoon providing the voice work. For now, I'm not willing to waste 100 bucks on the limited edition, but I would just buy it normally when it comes out on August 25 for the 360, PS3, and sometime after on PC.

Loving It Like a Fat Princess Loves Cake... The Fat Princess (PSN) Review

It seems like these days the downloadable services on the three consoles need some highly praised game that is both cutesy and violent at the same time. The Xbox Live Arcade already filled that void with Benemoth's Alien Hominid HD and Castle Crashers while WiiWare has not found its game yet or the fact it is not their thing. The Playstation Network on the other hand finally has its own exclusive game of that kind with Fat Princess. This game has been a long time coming for nearly a year and being highly praised among those curious about such a game called that. The special thing about Fat Princess is that it takes a simple concept like capture the flag and twist it up to a completely different take with flags being princesses that love cake too much. Even though with such a crazy idea of getting princesses fat, this game at its core is a team class-based strategy game with classes that are suited for certain roles and playstyles. When things really click such as the perfect team strategy being executed while communicating through headsets, Fat Princess is truly an awesome game, but be prepared to deal with its flaws as well.

Fat Princess's core game is Rescue the Princess, which is basically capture the flag except with obviously princesses that want to be fat. The class-based system is simple to understand and pick up that consists of five classes. You got the standard warrior class that is focused on close range combat, a ranger class that is centered on long-range combat, a mage class that casts fire or ice spells on enemies, a priest class that heals teammates or sucks enemies' health away, and a worker class that gathers resources to build structures. The worker class especially is key for developing upgrades for the other classes as well as build quick transport tools such as ladders and catapults. With a game like rescue the princess, teamwork is required to be successful, otherwise being disorganized with people trying to do their own thing just leads to chaos, which seems to be the case playing online with random matches most of the time. What I mean by teamwork in Fat Princess is having planned strategies ready to execute, having a diverse group of teammates to charge to the opposing castle (not having an army of warriors rush and get killed), and also communicating via headset, which seems to be rare since not everyone has headsets on PSN. At its core, Fat Princess reminds me of Team Fortress 2, another awesome team class-based multiplayer game that clicks when the perfect plan goes to action, but disfunctional chaos with no teamwork.

Other than the standard rescue the princess mode, Fat Princess has other multiplayer modes as well spicing up the gameplay a bit. Those consist of Snatch & Grab, which is basically rescue the princess in reverse as you have to bring back the opposing team's princess back to her cage three times to win, Invasion, which is like playing a game of Battlefield capturing outposts to drop the opposing team's core to zero to win, Team Deathmatch, which is self-explanatory as seen as many games before, and a random game of soccer with the medieval twist. These other modes are nice diversions from your normal game, but certainly Rescue the Princess is where it is at in terms of fun and satisfaction. If you are tired of the online madness, there is also single player options to explore as well as customizing your character conveniently called getting fabulous. The Legend of the Fat Princess is a six chapter campaign that is pretty much a tutorial and good warmup for the online action with some sense of story told in book form by the announcer of the game. The thing with this mode is playing with AI bots, which can be a mixed bag as they are not the smartest bots to have around as a team or fight making you do all the work and that can lead to some frustration. Other than the campaign, there is the skirmish mode of playing a normal game against bots, and Gladiate, a survival mode of trying to outlast wave after wave of enemies for victory. While Fat Princess delivers on fun times with a decent selection of modes, dealing with the online issues is indeed a pain prevent it from greatness.

Since Fat Princess is mostly an online game with a maximum of 32 players in one room, getting into an actual game is a pain and tiring as many attempts will end up on failure as you back to the press start screen. Plus, it does indeed take a long to join a game in progress as the game has to gather the necessary information and connect to the host. This can also get frustrating when trying to join with online friends as well, which the game allows for that option. The developers, Titan Studios, are indeed aware of the online stability issues as they hope to fix them in an upcoming patch. Other than matchmaking issues, Fat Princess can be at times a little buggy especially when lag rolls around. This is the case when you don't see the cake icon around the menus for a bit after failing to join a game, various other obvious latency issues while playing, and even the game crashing too. In addition, players have been noticing some balancing issues as well in which the developers have been listening to feedback regarding that hoping to be fixed soon. Even though Fat Princess is loaded with frustrating issues, do not let them go over your head from playing such an awesome game.

With its cutesy and charming style, Fat Princess looks great and the violence just makes it look even more sweeter. The graphics fit the game's medieval theme as the characters look cutesy enough with all the customized looks when getting fabulous as well as the princesses especially when they look a bit ugly when being fat after having all that cake. Seeing blood everywhere after dealing with hordes of the opposition feels very satisfying to see. If you are a little offended of all the blood and gore, there is an option to turn it off, but you are losing pretty much the point of the whole game as a whole other than rescuing the princess is to also unleash some violent beatings at the same time. There are also a wide variety of maps to choose from from bases being pirate ships, your standard medieval settings, atop high cliffs, or even in lava-like scenarios as the map changes overtime with paths being blocked off at times due to the lava. At times, slowdown might occur due to online lag, but otherwise the game runs at a smooth framerate. The game's medieval theme and tone also applies to the sound as well from the music to the announcer himself, which is not as annoying as I thought he will be as he will say the important things when they happen. The characters' voices do indeed sound cutesy and charming especially when they fly on the catapult screaming out loud. The honorable mention to the game's music is the song being played during its credits, which is completely random, but surprisingly makes sense for a game like Fat Princess, which you can see below the review (note: this is a possible spoiler if you do not want to have it ruined).

Fat Princess is another great exclusive game for the Playstation Network with its cutesy violence, charm, and satisfying gameplay. It indeed delivers on twisting up the capture the flag concept to have fat princesses as flags along with having a simple class system to pick up and play. Of course, with such a game like this, teamwork and communication is where the game truly shines and when everything clicks from forming up the perfect plan to win. I just wish more people had headsets to take advantage of a multiplayer game like this, but that is probably its own separate issue. If you can deal with the game's current online issues with matchmaking and latency, you will still have a great time with Fat Princess especially at its fifteen dollar price point. After all, I do love this game like a fat princess loves cake.

Score = 8.5/10

Pros:

• Loads of cutesy violence and charm
• Simple and fun class-based gameplay
• A clever twist on capture the flag with the fat princesses
• When teamwork clicks, it feels very satisfying

Cons:

• Filled with online issues especially matchmaking and latency (Update - A recent patch fixed the matchmaking issues and so far it has improved from what I played).
• AI bots are not that smart to have around when playing alone
• With no teamwork and headset communication, the game feels like disorganized chaos

The latest on my YouTube channel for 8/4/09

From the calm and beautiful to some manly drama is some 3 on 3 Street Fighter IV tournament last Saturday. This clip (NSFW by the way because of the languauge used) is courtesy of GetYourTournament's PotatoHead as it is pretty self-explanatory in which dudes fight pretty much over nothing. Supposedly, this tourney ended at around 4 or 5 am, so maybe its a good thing I wasn't there and plus, I had other and better plans that night anyway.

A Resort Worth Going To... The Wii Sports Resort Review

If you ever played a Wii at least once throughout its lifespan so far, chances are you played Wii Sports, which is arguably the perfect pack-in game for a console like Nintendo's Wii. You were likely hanging out with family or friends trying to beat them at bowling, tennis, golf, or baseball. As much of a phenomenon Wii Sports is for the past three years especially among the casual audience, there is more what Nintendo could do to make it a definitive experience for the Wii, which is why the sequel, Wii Sports Resort, is out to improve on what was missing and expand on what the Wiimote is capable of. Speaking of expanding on what the Wiimote is capable of, that is indeed the case for Resort being bundled with the Motion Plus add-on for more accuracy and precision with the motion controls. Nintendo already established the formula for casual gaming success with the first game and the sequel is more of expanding on that formula being a great showpiece for the Motion Plus.

Once you first boot up Wii Sports Resort, you have to deal with a tutorial regarding the Motion Plus with attaching it on your Wiimote and then seeing the true difference with the new add-on in an introductory skydiving sequence to Wahu Island. After finishing that, it is pretty much more Wii Sports from there with more mini-games and diverse activities for players to mess with. There are certainly some standouts out of this sequel that take advantage of the Motion Plus while other sports either do not offer much to the table or basically not fun at all. Those specific standouts are swordplay, table tennis, and archery. Swordplay consists of three games which are duel, speed slice, and showdown. A duel is a straight up one-on-one contest as the objective is to knock your opponent out of the field, which is sort of like American Gladiators in a way. It is definitely a personal favorite of mine especially against a human opponent as you can play it in two completely different styles either by being precise or waggling like crazy. Speed slice and showdown are good diversions from the swordplay duels as speed slice is just about trying to out-slice your opponent at certain objects while showdown takes the gameplay to a brawler-like scenario taking out random Miis. Table tennis is pretty straightforward with your Wiimote as the paddle, but fully takes advantage of the precise motions adding along the spin and all that jazz. Archery though surprisingly impressed me the most being more fun than I thought it would be. With the Wiimote and Nunchuk, it feels like holding a bow firing arrows at targets to score points. Even though there are the standout mini-games in Wii Sports Resort, the other ones just feel okay or not as fun as intended.

Returning from the original Wii Sports are golf and bowling. Golf is pretty much the same old game you played last time if you played the original just with Motion Plus. Then again, there is already a better golf game that takes advantage of the add-on with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 even though if you just want a simple game of golf without all that depth Tiger has, Resort's golf is still fine. Bowling at its core is also unchanged being the same old classic game you love for three years. The new big addition to this mini-game this time around is a 100-pin game, which is pretty self-explanatory being the same game just with more pins. Bowling is still as fun as it is especially playing with friends. Other new mini-games to this sequel are frisbee, basketball, wakeboarding, canoeing, jet skiing, cycling, and air sports. Wakeboarding lets you use the Wiimote sideways to steer around while flicking up lets you do tricks. This mini-game is not that bad, but a little harder on tougher courses to come up with a big score. Basketball also has its fun moments with the three point contest and a light version of a 3 on 3 pickup game. The three point contest is the standout out of that mode as you try to get the perfect rhythm of nailing shots while the pickup game is a stripped down version of a normal basketball game with less rules, lots of slam dunks, and lack of strategy. Frisbee can be enjoyable if you enjoy that activity letting the Wiimote be the frisbee making the motion to throw it, but I did not see it as fun. Most of these other sports depend on personal taste which is the case with me not enjoying jet skiing, cycling, canoeing, and air sports. The jet skiing and cycling do not utilize the Motion Plus that much as they feel like generic racing mini-games. The jet skiing is arguably the closest thing Nintendo will do to bring back Wave Race, but it feels like a wasted effort as it is just a slalom time trial trying to get high scores. Cycling also feels generic as you just drum the Wiimote and Nunchuk to accelerate, but also stamina is a factor in these races, so going at a nice consistent pace is recommended. Canoeing and air sports at first feel like decent diversions, but in the end they are just boring mini-games. Even though Wii Sports Resort has a lot to offer with tons of mini-games, it is likely you are not to enjoy all of them depending on your personal tastes.

Graphically, Wii Sports Resort looks like just another Wii whatever title with the same style seen in Wii Play and Wii Fit. Sure, some effects have been improved especially when playing the water sports, but obviously this game is not meant to be a graphical beast on the Wii. As for the presentation, everything feels organized and simple to access menus especially for short pick up and play sessions. There is also an achievement-like system in the form of stamps of performing certain tasks like a hot streak on the three point contest or a turkey in bowling. These stamps are nice to have around especially for goal-oriented players that want to complete everything. Wahu Island itself feels like the perfect place to fit all these activities in, but I'm not completely sold on it being a character like Shigeru Miyamoto intended it to be. The sound also feels like another title in the Wii whatever series with tunes that will fit certain themes, but do not expect too much from that either.

Despite its hits and misses, Wii Sports Resort is still another must-have game on the Wii. It is great to have it around for short sessions along with playing it multiplayer with more than two players in which the game truly shines. There are definitely some standouts in this mini-game collection with swordplay, table tennis, and archery that utilize the Motion Plus to its full potential. However, there are certainly some clunkers that feel like generic games like cycling, canoeing, and jet skiing. The other mini-games have their fun moments as well along with the returning ones from the original game providing those same good times throughout the years. It is also recommended to have another Motion Plus around for at least two players even though some games let you pass the Wiimote around to take turns, but other games will require more than one Motion Plus for competition among friends. In the end, Resort is a great showpiece for the Motion Plus add-on as well as a great Wii game at the same time which will be another hit among the casual crowd even though hardcore audiences will have fun with it as well.

Score = 8.5/10

Pros:

• A great showpiece for the Motion Plus
• Standout mini-games archery, swordplay, and table tennis take full advantage of that same add-on as well as being great mini-games in general
• Still fun for family and friends especially multiplayer

Cons:

• Not all the mini-games are great as some are indeed clunkers, but still it depends on personal tastes of the sports
• One Motion Plus might not be enough for multiplayer as another one is needed for some of the head-to-head activities

Futuristic Racing gets Fury-ous... The WipEout HD Fury Review

Please note: Keep in mind... this is a review of a downloadable expansion as it will focus on that and not on the original game. Also, photos are courtesy of the NeoGAF Photo Mode Thread.

WipEout HD Fury is the long awaited downloadable expansion to one of the best racing games on the Playstation 3. It nearly took a year, but it is worth the long wait with loads of new content for players to mess with and make the return to the amazing that is WipEout HD. This ten dollar add-on expands the original game to new directions to a point that it is a completely new game than when it came out last year. As if the original game looked jaw-dropping enough, Fury steps it up a notch with more crazy colors and effects. The new tracks, modes, and presentation make Fury arguably one of the best downloadable content to come out ever.

Fury introduces some new tracks from the PSP WipEout games along with new modes Eliminator, Zone Battle, and Detonator. Eliminator makes the game less about the racing and more about the combat of taking out the opposition meaning the action gets way more intense almost like a deathmatch in a first-person shooter. Zone finally gets diversified with Zone Battle and Detonator adding more flavor to the vibrant color changes. Zone Battle is not your typical Zone action adding more racers and you to have to use the boost pads to gain Zone Boost to proceed towards faster speeds while laying out barriers in hopes of the opposition hitting them. What I like especially about this mode is the strategy involved in it where as would you like to throw out as many barriers as you can, save up for maximum zone boosting to win the game quicker, or heal up and shield yourself if low on health. With more players and especially online, Zone Battle becomes very intense like Eliminator and momentum can shift at an instant for players to achieve victory or defeat. Detonator turns WipEout into a shooter as your ship is in a zone firing a gun at mines to score points. Chain bonuses are also added for more points along with bombs, which are self-explanatory. Honestly, while Detonator is a nice diversion from all the racing, it is the weakest of the three new modes in this new expansion, but still fun regardless even though I had more fun in Eliminator and Zone Battle. All these new tracks and modes are played in a new campaign that is as long as the original campaign, but only the new tracks and their reverse versions are played along with the races, speed laps, zone, and tournaments. The new modes are also playable in the old tracks as well as online, which makes the game more crazy with human competition besides the computer A.I. even though they still provide a challenge on harder difficulties and later on in the campaign. Fury's new content is filled with more intense racing and action than the original game had as the new modes do indeed spice up the gameplay in new ways.

WipEout HD remains one of the best looking games on PS3 even as a downloadable title and Fury is proof that it still is and perhaps better-looking than when the game first came out. The new tracks look amazing along with the new zone effects in Zone Battle and Detonator. It totally feels like you're in the future or something like that. Even the presentation in terms of the menus received a facelift to fit along with the Fury theme being a dark tone with black and red colored menus. The menus themselves are also changed for simplicity reasons, which works especially when choosing your craft of choice. As for the sounds, the core sound effects remain the same and new music is added, but expect to hear the same tracks over and over again along with tracks from the original game. So if you have custom soundtracks, take advantage of it in Fury even though I still like the electronica-like soundtrack the game has.

If you still love WipEout HD, you should not hesitate and buy the Fury expansion. For ten dollars, you are getting loads of new content like a new campaign as long as the original game containing the new tracks and modes. Online play gets a resurgence with the new add-on, which is good for the community because Eliminator and Zone Battle are indeed fun with human competition even the computer A.I. is still there to provide a challenge. In addition, Fury makes WipEout HD a way better looking game as if the game looked amazing enough already when it came out last year. All in all, this is arguably the best downloadable content to come out since DLC started in this current generation of consoles, so if you have a PS3, you should not miss out on WipEout HD Fury as the game and DLC costs 30 bucks together as it still feels like a retail game as a download.

Score = 9.5/10

Pros:

• Fury is filled with hours of new content...
• New campaign as long as the original campaign
• New modes spice up the gameplay to new directions with Eliminator, Zone Battle, and Detonator
• Racing and action still as intense as it was all this time both off and online.
• Still one of the best looking games on PS3

Cons:

• Detonator is the weakest of the three new modes, but still a nice diversion
• Expect to hear the same tracks over and over again unless you have custom soundtracks