This is how we do math... IN THE STREETS

Take this:


Plus this:


and you get THIS:




Ahhhhhh. :) That was a fun Sunday afternoon project. There's a few things I would have done differently, but not much. For a first time mod I'm pretty damn happy with the way it turned out honestly. The fact that I didn't short out the circuit board and catch my hair on fire was a victory in and of itself. I also installed an octagonal restrictor gate on the joystick (to make it feel more like an American-style joystick). It was weird going back to it... I wonder if I've used a square gate for so long that I'm better with them now? It doesn't matter too much because it was the cheapest part of the lot. The new buttons I installed are AWESOME though. They're super sensitive and I'm already noticing some combos are flowing easier because of it. Swapping the gumball for the bat-top on the joystick was a good move too... it feels much more "substantial" in my left hand now. That's staying for sure. As for the art, well I really liked it when I saw it linked in a couple of forum posts, so I just sort of cobbled together some templates that I liked (definitely wanted to keep the Street Fighter 4 "splatter" motif) plus that particular image and worked them together. I think it worked out pretty well. :)

In more Street Fighter news, they released the FREE "Power Pack" update. This adds an online tournament mode. While there are still no online lobbies (a grave oversight in my opinion), the new championship mode really takes care of some big problems I had with the online mode. Mainly, the fact that there's a double blind select now (so you're more likely to see people playing other characters instead of trying to counter your pick) and a disconnect % (so you can see if they're a sore losing wanker who disconnects before they get a loss on their record). Other than that, Championship works very much like regular matchmaking: you can play Arcade mode while you wait for your match in the brackets. The cool thing is that if you win the virtual tournament, you're allowed to save your replay for studying later. Finding replays is not an intuitive process at all but once you know how it's simple to find them. It's really interesting to watch top players' tactics, as you would imagine. Capcom is making a huge push to make Street Fighter 4 as significant as the impact that Street Fighter II had. While I think that's an unattainable goal, they're doing a great job reaching for it. Now put a player match lobby system in there and you'll have crafted the finest fighting game this generation Capcom!

It was like Daydreaming in Freshman Study Hall... BROUGHT TO LIFE

A couple of things about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. One, it makes a great first impression. The first level sees you touch down on the Wookie's home planet as none other than Darth Vader. One of the things that I enjoyed about this level was that contrary to using his character skin in Jedi Outcast, Vader has a purposeful stride that he maintains through the whole level. He never breaks into a run, which differentiates Vader into "Stoic Badass Evil Sith Lord" from the original Star Wars trilogy versus "Crazy Flailing Ninja Jedi" that have become the popular depiction from the new Trilogy. Of course level 2 places you in the shoes of a new school Jedi immediately after the great prologue. Hmm.

While the game still makes concessions to the more tangible game-iness of showing Force "waves" when Vader uses Force Push (for example) I was still overwhelmed by a feeling of "Classic Star Wars" in this prologue. Even when you fight the Jedi ninja at the end of the level, Vader still uses his economy of motion to put him down.

As for the rest of the game and Vader's Apprentice, well... it's actually better than I thought it was going to be. It still seems to suffer from average problems of games in this genre (mainly, camera control and keeping the enemies you want to attack on the screen), loose, floaty jumping, and frivolous combos that are never more useful than your bread and butter combos. I'm not sure how I feel about levelling up (as opposed to the genre heavies' method of purchasing new combos through currency earned by defeating enemies) but it seems pretty good and doesn't altogether limit the all-too-important feeling of progression. The combat has a nice solid feel to it, but the aerial combat feels slightly lacking, like it's not as well integrated into the general game flow. I may have to unlock more aerial combos and perhaps my opinion will change. I do like that the (seemingly mandatory in games these days) quicktime events flow presentationally, even if you fail. As opposed to being hit by a "Game Over" screen or a hard cut back to pre-quicktime battle, it flows/animates pretty naturally back to the beginning of the event. Hopefully that small but intelligent design decision is repeated throughout the game.

Oh yeah, one thing that bothers me is that man, game artists/modellers/texture artists/whoever CANNOT get human faces right. They end up looking all doughy and weirdly doll-like. At least the lip synching animation is done well, when the Xbox 360 can actually be bothered to synchronize the sound and the animation. Will have to install to the hard drive and see if it makes any difference...

Definitely more fun than I thought it would be. It's worth putting some more time into.

War... War Never Changes

But apparently we'll finally get to see how Las Vegas has changed in the Fallout universe. Other encouraging news is that it is being developed by Obsidian Entertainment, who employ many of the original developers from the first 2 Fallout games. I'm interested to see how Obsidian veterans will handle returning to a franchise that they made so special, and also how New Vegas compares to the New Reno that they established in Fallout 2.

What do you get when someone plays Ryu like Sagat?

You get this Street Fighter 4 International Exhibition video. In all seriousness, this is probably one of the best match videos of any fighting game I've ever seen. The players are two of Japan's best players, the Dhalsim player being the one who most recently won their national tournament and the Ryu player being one of Japan's best ever Street Fighter players. The play-by-play commentator is Capcom's Seth Killian who by his own right is an incredible player as well. Even if you're only slightly familiar with the game, you should be able to detect the incredible skill on display.

Stuff like this makes you get psyched up and want to practice. Only to have your execution skills fail you during yet another scrubby Ken match. :(

What the... Where's my grappling hook?

I found a deal on Tenchu: Shadow Assassins for the Wii ($25 shipped), a game that seems to already have fallen under the radar after its release on February 3rd. Usually this is a bad sign.

Tenchu, for me, is an underdog series of games I always find myself rooting for. I can't help it. I've certainly had my ups and downs with new entries in the series over the years, but I find myself always checking out the latest release, if not purchasing it outright.

Tenchu, as a general rule, seems to have problems evolving its game design past what was established in 1998 by the original Tenchu: Stealth Assassins. The basic tenets of the game was to set your ninja character in a wide open map with a particular target to assassinate (usually). There are various guards/rival ninjas patrolling, civilians loitering, and animals sleeping in between you & your target. Your goal is to complete your objective without being seen (no surprise there). Tenchu adheres to the Thief series approach to combat: You can engage in open combat when you're seen, but your character is not very good at it. The best method to disposing enemies is the series' trademark stealth kills. The marriage of stealth kills plus the level design is what made Tenchu appealing to me. Stalking some poor sod walking along a dimly lit Japanese alley while watching from the rooftops to jumping down and slitting his throat seconds later... There really weren't too many gaming experiences like that at the time.

So the fact that this latest entry felt so different was simultaneously refreshing and alienating. On the one hand, seeing Rikimaru effortlessly dispatch a sleepy guard of questionable intellect felt as good as it ever did. On the other hand, the pace of the game feels much slower than previous entries in the series. It's much more methodical than the action-oriented feel the series started to take with Tenchu 3 onwards. With the original developers back on board, the game's controls are now like the original game instead of Tenchu 3's vastly superior implementation. I found it odd that aesthetically, the game seems to embrace the "mystical" nature of fictional ninjas more. Whereas before your ninja would be standing in a dark area, now when he finds a dark corner to hide in he is covered in a shroud of shadows, with streamers and a black mist hovering about him. It's an odd jump.

These things altogether are not inherently worse than the old games, just different. If there is one thing that I can point to that leaves a bad taste in my mouth, it's the fact that the levels are more stiflingly designed so far. That trademark Tenchu open level design seems to have been traded in for a more directed linear experience. For those familiar with the genre, it's like going from playing a level from Thief: The Dark Project to playing a level in Splinter Cell. I just feel that this style of level design directly hampers the Tenchu experience.

Also, no grappling hook -> rooftop stalking. what.

RESIDENT EVIL... FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Achieving High Scores

I've spent a good deal of time on playing Resident Evil 5. While I don't think it outclasses its predecessor, I also feel that the game is still executed incredibly well; it's hard to make lightning strike twice, much less five times, right?

I was interested to come upon the realization, however, that I may almost be having more fun in Resident Evil 5 now that I've seen all that it has to offer. I feel like a lot of the fun in the game comes from the execution (quite literally in some cases) of the game's mechanics, moreso than whatever hackneyed story scenario the game throws you into next. This is best established in Resident Evil 5's sub-game, The Mercenaries.

I know The Mercenaries is not new to the Resident Evil series, having been added to the series in RE3. I'm more familiar with it in terms of Resident Evil 4 onwards. It's funny to think that I never really had a taste for this bonus game in RE4, but somehow it has turned into an addictive little arcade-type title in RE5 that I keep coming back to. I think part of what I had to do is overcome my RE4/RE5 playstyle, which is to handicap enemies and use the ultra stylish melee maneuvers to find them off. Since Mercenaries limits you to a strict time allotment, this narrow focus tends to limit the high scores you can achieve. This in turn limits you from unlocking new levels/arenas to play in and new characters to use in these arenas. A loosening of my typical brute force strategy was required.

This leads to a new kind of frantic pacing in the game. I found it interesting that RE5's admittedly obvious detour from survival horror to nonstop action has probably benefited this side game more than the actual campaign. Many of RE5's "arenas" are reproduced in Mercenaries, often to greater effect than in their respective scenario in the storyline. Having 8 different selectable characters also gives a replayable edge to the mode, as the weapon loadout and inherent damage ratings between the different characters benefit different playstyles.

On top of all that, this mode can be played with a second player, online or locally on your Xbox 360/PS3. I highly recommend you try it; you might be surprised about how addictive trying to achieve a high score in a Resident Evil game is!

Hello My Friends!

So, I believe an introduction is in order. This is my little spot on the internet. The focus of my blog is to record my thoughts and observations mainly related to my favorite pastime - gaming, particularly the television kind. Here you'll find my thoughts & impressions of games that I'm currently playing, nostalgia flavored reminiscence of videogames past, and idle musings on industry trends. I mainly am publishing this blog as place for my friends to keep appraised of these thoughts, but if you find yourself coming here from elsewhere on the Web, welcome and I hope you'll find something enjoyable from my ramblings. Future blog entries include something I've wanted to do for a long time, which is to record a formalized list of my favorite 50 games. Please leave a comment on the blog. Intelligent comments and discussion are always welcome!

As for the blog title/URL, anyone in the know should be able to mentally hear this quote in their heads. If you don't know what it's quoting, you'll know soon enough. :)