New Year = Twitter plus Random Musings from Vegas

The new year is here and I decided to spice up this blog of mine a bit as I decided to make a Twitter account and now my Twitter feed can be seen on the right side. Actually doing Twitter is a New Year's Resolution of mine, so now more insanity can happen I guess.


I guess I can also talk about my recent Vegas trip in which I was there for three nights. Two nights and three days seem to be the sweet spot in terms of how long a Vegas trip should last especially going there three to four times a year, but three nights to me is pushing it. Gambling was a pure fail at this trip (Oh well...), but the arcade scene there is truly starting to show its age and it is kind of a scary sight to see.

2009 at Vegas could be the end of arcades there as I think more hotels will close their arcades for better attractions for the 21 and over crowd (like me!!!). The likely candidates are Bellagio, Monte Carlo, Treasure Island, and New York New York (Last year, arcades at Luxor and The Mirage have closed down). The machines keep getting broken and becoming old as they will eventually have no use at all. They should let the kid-friendly themed hotel/casinos keep their arcades like the MGM Grand, Excalibur, and Circus Circus and take out the ones that probably don't need it anymore.

Anyway, GameWorks continues to be the place for arcade gaming at Vegas even though I'm surprised at Circus Circus's arcade/midway in terms of the selection of old and new stuff (That place is still ghetto anyway). New racers and shooters have shown up there since the last time I was there like the Rambo shoot-em-up, Sega Rally 3, which is pretty much Sega Rally Revo on the PS3 and 360, and other random crap by Sega. Actually I want GameWorks to stay racer and shooter focused as I can just play fighting games like Street Fighter IV and Tekken 6 BR back at SoCal because of the scene and playability (Playing fighting games with broken sticks or buttons is a pain and a waste).

Okay, enough with my mumblings with the arcades and off to the crazy stuff which is my first nightclub experience at Jet in the Mirage Tuesday night, which is rare considering who I am. Good thing I came with some of my best friends as it was very fun and crazy for three hours filled with dancing and drinks. When we got in, we were just ready to go loose especially having drinks before going to the club. Other than endless partying, 2008 American Idol David Cook performed the same two songs twice because they were showing it for Fox's New Year's Eve bash last night. My friends and I pretty much hightailed to the bar at Jet as we're not really David Cook fans, so we weren't on TV. Being 21 at Vegas is a crazy feeling as now I have the whole city to go crazy compared to being limited to shopping and arcades when being younger as my entertainment. You're bound to go a nightclub someday even though is not your thing at first, but I had one of the greatest times of my Vegas life there and I like to thank my friends who were there with me for being part of it.

That's pretty much my recent Vegas trip in a nutshell (My friends are still there probably partying and having as much fun as they can). Now I'm back at SoCal to chill and relax till my Winter Break is over by the end of the weekend.

Last post of 2008: The first trailer for the new Street Fighter movie

Sorry for the lack of posts (I was at Vegas since last Sunday - more that madness later if I feel like it), but this is pretty much my last post of 2008, which is the trailer for the new Street Fighter movie: The Legend of Chun-Li starring Kristen Kreuk (from Smallville fame) as the Chunster. All I have to say about this is that the trailer I posted here is in Japanese and the movie will suck.

The question is which movie will be worse - This or Dragonball: Evolution? Its more like pick your poison.

Singstar ABBA - The secret best game ever??

SingStar for the PS2 and the PS3 has been pretty successful (okay not as much here in the U.S. compared to Europe), but combining the awesomeness of Singstar with arguably the most influential pop group around, ABBA, into one game is probably the secret best game ever. From "Dancing Queen" to "Mamma Mia," pretty much all of Abba's hits are available to sing and get embarrassed like this one dude in the clip above taking advantage of YouTube and Singstar's special video feature. Even though I'm not really into karaoke games, this one might as well be the one to get.

The PS3 experience so far... Almost a week already

As I'm downloading Lumines Supernova off the Playstation Network (I do love Lumines), I might as well do a write up of my PS3 experience so far in terms of impressions of games that I can have now. I really don't have any plans to type up a long form review of them anyway (Lumines will be my first PSN game review - maybe WipeOut HD). Other than that, here's what I have so far.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - As the game that comes with the 160 GB PS3, I say its a pretty good choice as Uncharted is a showcase of what the system can do in terms of graphics and presentation. I just beaten it today on Normal and boy, what a great game that felt short and sweet. The presentation aspect of this game is just flat out beautiful from the amazing graphics (Naughty Dog did say that this game didn't use the PS3's full potential in terms of power, but they plan to with the sequel) and the awesome music. It felt playing through a movie with great characters like Nathan Drake, who is pretty awesome after playing this. The supporting cast is pretty good too with Elena and Sully. After playing the Gears games, I felt comfortable with Uncharted's cover-based gameplay with the gun combat. The melee combat is not bad and I would like to see it better for the sequel. Other than a few sketchy sections (I'm not a fan of the boat sequences and you have to stop and shoot), Uncharted is indeed one of the better games on PS3 even though it originally came out last year.

Pain - This downloadable game is free with the 160 GB bundle, so I did download it anyway. I don't see myself playing it seriously and it is a good diversion game to mess around. Its good for a few rounds of jacking your character up for high scores. I don't plan on buying any of the DLC like the movie studio and the amusement park.

Mortal Kombat II - I bought this one yesterday (hey its MK II for five bucks) and its good to keep around as an old-school game (it is the arcade version). Surprisingly, it looks pretty good on PS3 being arcade perfect and great borders surrounding the game screen. Of course, no one plays it anymore online as I just play the single player. I didn't remember the arcade version being too hard, but the A.I. in this port is pretty crazy and cheap. At least, its better than UMK3 and MK vs. DC Universe as for most people, MK II is pretty much the last good Mortal Kombat game (u can make a case for UMK3 however). Plus, what's up with the select button being pause?

SSFIIT HD Remix - I double dipped for this one since I still love this game. Yeah, the online play sucks compared to the XBLA version because the netcode is better and barely people play it when I play online, but everything else is better. The controls felt better with the Dual Shock 3 nailing moves as well as no sound issues compared to the XBLA version (read my XBLA version review if u don't know what I mean).

WipeOut HD - This is one of many reasons why PSN is better than Xbox Live Arcade if u compare to two of them in terms of quality. WipeOut HD is just amazing as I'm almost done with the campaign on novice (I haven't played online yet, but I will soon) and on the final stretch, the computer A.I. do step up to be competitive. No wonder this game is hard according to some people. I am playing with the assists on as I'm still a noob to this game, but I might as well take it off soon. It is also arguably one of the better looking PSN games out today and in general compared to any 360 game in existence. Zone mode is fantastic and beautiful as well as the soundtrack too. I'll be playing this one for a while.

Sonic Unleashed Demo - Yeah, I downloaded this again just to try out the demos portion of the Playstation Store and yes, this game still sucks whether you love Sonic or not.

That's it so far regarding my PS3 experience. Hopefully after Christmas, I'll have more to blog about like maybe LittleBigPlanet and Buzz Quiz TV (This will be my party game replacement for the rhythm games).

Plus, buy Singstar ABBA if u have Singstar.

More Tekken 6 BR clips for the day...

Another day and another Tekken 6 BR video I like to put up here. This one features one of the new characters Alisa and she cleans house with her crazy style of chainsaws, jetpacks, exploding heads, and rockets. I can totally see a lot of people playing as her at SoCal soon. Gosh, this game is too good just like Street Fighter IV.



Here's a clip of Marduk ownage wearing a football outfit as he climbs up the ranks.



Finally some good Lars footage and he's actually a cooler character than I thought. I won't mind learning him soon.

Tekken 6 BR video for the day...

I'm putting up another Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion match video featuring my favorite character (also my main) Bryan and Julia. As expected, Bryan is still a pretty good character as his wall game is still as good as ever along with some new moves. Its pretty crazy that all the new moves and properties (low parrying is now an automatic bound in BR) for the 30+ characters can make a difference in a fight as it gives them more tools to play around with pending on their purposes like launching or a stun. Gosh, I can't wait to play this as it is pretty much the definitive version of Tekken 6 and hopefully it will be worth the long wait on consoles.

The plunge from 360 to PS3: Aftermath

So the plunge happened yesterday as I have now a Playstation 3 instead of a Xbox 360 for a day and so far, I'm loving it. I currently have the 160 GB that came with Uncharted (going through it slowly, but so far its pretty good) and Pain for free (need to play that later). Even though it didn't come with component or HDMI cables, I had to roll with standard def for a bit before getting HDMI cables of my own and it makes a huge difference. At 1080i and 1080p, it flats out looks cleaner and better than the 360 from playing Uncharted and WipeOut HD (loving that game so far too). My only setback with the PS3 so far is dealing with the slow download times (Wipeout took hours to download), but I'll eventually deal with it in the end anyway. I also messed around with Home for a bit and it still has potential, but yeah it had a rocky start of some sort. Tomorrow, I'm going to buy SSFIIT HD Remix again (this time on PSN) and Lumines Supernova once its out on Tuesday via the Playstation Store. I'm also planning to get LittleBigPlanet after Christmas and maybe even Buzz Quiz TV as I need a party game if others come by. And yes, Blu-Ray is truly awesome if u have HDMI and a TV that supports 1080p (need to buy The Dark Knight again I guess).

Is the plunge worth it? I think so, I'm only buying Skate 2 next month and then the madness heats up again with my most wanted game Street Fighter IV (still buying the Collector's Edition and the Tournament Edition Arcade Stick). I guess I have to buy Killzone 2 too now that I have this system even though I'm getting tired of first-person shooters taking over the gaming world currently.

Off-topic: Here's another Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion video with Zafina and Kazuya matches. I'm loving some of the new stages so far like the Fountain and the Skyscraper stages (Great BGM too) while other new stages feel weird and random like the Spanish stage on tomatoes and a forest filled with sheep.