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

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

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

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?

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...

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...

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

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