One Prestige Later: favorite maps, load outs, and other random bits

Yes! Another MW2 post! Well, I haven't finished Spirit Tracks yet, so I'm holding off on that for a while. But I have finally prestiged, which is when you hit the level cap (in this case, 70) and decide, "I'm so good, I'll do the rest of the world a favor and reset all my stats and do it all over fresh!"

The Big Post Christmas Post

Christmas is now officially over for me. No more Christmas Eve, Day, or Post events. Just a plain old night at home with my GRE breathing down the back of my neck and the New Years right after it. What did you get for Christmas? And what would you wish you could've gotten for Christmas? I mean, as a gamer, most of your gifts will fit the electronics bill. There are a lot of ideas you could have gotten.

Finals are done, but here comes Christmas

Finals were a big pain in the ass, but as soon as they finish, I now have Christmas to deal with along with my sister.

In the meantime, I've close to Prestiging on MW2 and got myself Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the DS. I'm probably going to make some entries on some hilarious tactics, classes, and moments from the upper echoleons of MW2 and of course, talk about Spirit Tracks and Christmas gift giving.

Happy holidays everyone!

Scarred for Life: Weird Fighting F

Most college campuses are pretty big. And during a long day of classes, you're likely to unwind in a place that will become a regular stop. For me, one of those places is the study lounge, known as the cyber lounge by the regulars. Many of the regulars have laptops, and several of the friends I've made in there play a lot of games. But one day, one of them brings in a Japanese homebrewed fighting game which roughly translates into Weird Fighting F. Good luck finding any other information about it besides that link. As it's Japanese, it'll be hard to find more information as most searches (since I assume you're reading this in English) will turn up zero information.

TF2 is back with the War Update

Brought to you by TF2: The War Update

Team Fortress 2 is about to bring us all back to everyone's favorite class based shooter. Every time they update the game with new weapons for a particular class, the number of players spike as everyone, new and old, come to try the new items that change the fundamental strategies of TF2. When the last Sniper update came by, it gave Snipers the bow which allowed them to play at medium range. The updates that came with the Spy gave us annoying little invisible campers. And of course the Heavy got sandwiches.

Now the new update promises something new that, as usual, gives us all something to talk about. Like the last Sniper/Spy update, we have two classes getting new stuff at the same time. Unlike the Sniper/Spy update, heck, unlike all the other updates, it gives us something to do while they roll out the sneak previews. During the preview time, which typically goes for a week, Demomen and Soliders get points applied to their class' team universal for killing each other while playing. The class that gets the most points gets to brag and an extra fourth weapon to their load out.

I'll be getting back onto TF2 sometime this week to contribute. Will you?

Brutal Legend @ Karen's

Finished a big podcasting project for one of my classes. It's a funny little romp through whatever games we had on hand and the best moments comes from my friend, Karen, as she plays different games with hilarious results.

Here's the first and hopefully not last installment of ___ @ Karen's: Brutal Legend.

Balance Analysis: Arakune

This right here encompasses what you can expect from Arakune in Calamity Trigger. As part of the top three, he was typically 3rd or 2nd in the hypothetical S tiers, somewhere near Nu but definitely below Rachel. When you play Calamity Trigger, fighting against Arakune is a massive pain in the butt. His drive, or special ability, gives certain attacks a unique property that curses your opponent. Once cursed, Arakune can summon underworld insects (lovingly nicknamed bees) by pressing any of his four buttons. Arakune is known to have combos that do 6,000 damage without even needing meter to do supers (as a point of reference, Tager, who has the most health, has 13,000 points of health). His new form in Continuum Shift gives him a much more interesting dimension of strategy besides curse and spam bees.

iListen to something else on my MP3 player

This past week, the folks over at dustloop managed to get their grubby mitts on the clean versions of the new musical themes to the characters on Continuum Shift. This entire week, I've listened to nothing but the character themes to the new characters from the game like Hazama and Tsubaki, with awesome titles like Gluttony Fang and Condemnation Wings. So it just gets me to thinking just how important music can be in a game. Just think about the past months' games like Modern Warfare 2 and Assassin's Creed 2. It's easy to take music for granted when you have such important game play elements like multiplayer balance and mission variety. Here are some games and their songs that do such a great job, it's hard to think about the game until the consider their music and sound.

Fight game character spotlight: Hazama

This is Hazama, one of the new playable characters in Blazblue: Continuum Shift. As a new character, his true potential has yet to be discovered, but lots of veterans are counting him out because of his low damage output. While this is true, his attacks look really fast and his drive, Ouroboros, gives him interesting play styles. Ouroboros lets him shoot out chains with spear tips as a projectile, and regardless if it hits the opponent or not, Hazama can slingshot himself forwards and do some pretty trippy stuff. Here's an example of a player in Japan who had discovered some cool tricks with Hazama.

Assassin's Creed II gets it right

The first Assassin's Creed got a lot of publicity from Ubisoft. It was a new IP building on the popularity of parkour, so everyone got excited. When it came out though, the opinions were divided right down the middle. Some people thought it was good citing its open ended, free running world, the interactive way the buttons are mapped to you body. Other thought it was a buzz kill because of it's long, drawn out pacing, repetitive mission structure, and lack of variety outside of the main story missions. After it ended, it was made obvious that this new franchise would be a trilogy, and everyone was left to wonder what to think of AC's future. Now the sequel is out and it literally follows in it's predecessor's foot steps. Big publicity, lots of positive buzz, and so forth. Unlike it's predecessor, it seems the folks at Ubisoft (Ubisoft Montreal specifically) heeded the gaming community's complaints and made the sequel everything we wanted AC to be without everything that dragged it down.

Brutal Legend is the most metal game this year

I received Brutal Legend in the mail a week ago from Jack's Big Rip Off sweepstakes. A month of eating at Jack's and I had a new game to show for it. I was skeptical after seeing reviews because of it's bait and switch tactics of showing off a beat'em up game and suddenly having an RTS game on our hands. However, this is a Tim Schafer game, so I wasn't about to walk away from it. I've played Psychonauts. I know was Tim Schafer is capable of.

Today is a good day for rock

Brutal Legend arrives last night thanks to my gratuitous win in Jack's Big Rip Off. I'm pretty lucky considering that I could have won Skate 2 (which I've already played and sold) though I didn't win a big fancy gaming room. Just played a bit tonight but I have no time for anything big so this weekend I'll break up the MW2 multiplayer sessions with Brutal Legend.

30 levels later: My journey refreshing my skills on MW2 multiplayer

I've finished campaign mode two days ago and had a blast getting into spec ops mode with a friend just yesterday. I'll get back into spec ops of course to beat every level, but MW2's infamous multiplayer was calling to me. Glory days long past of racking kills until my rare chance to call in helicopter support. Oh those unlucky days on Crossfire where my team got bogged down in the hangars and got carpet bombed mercilessly, but it was still loads of fun the first time through. Here is my complete experience from level 1 to level 30, from shell shocked newbness to competent kill streaker.

Tearing myself away from Modern Warfare 2

This past week Modern Warfare 2 was released this past Tuesday. It's a common in-joke in the community that productivity would drop sharply as soon as the game was made available to the public. People attended the midnight releases, called in sick for work, and just sat themselves down to the sequel to one of 2007's most critically acclaimed games. Indeed, when one of my own classes was canceled due to furloughs on Thursday, I originally planned on going home to play it then come back for my campus club meeting in the evening. I ended up getting sucked into the game and stayed home.

Konkuri is a great site for amateur tournament makers

Months ago, I stumbled across Konkuri thanks to the Download Squad. It lets you organize tournaments painlessly with a good range of customization such as round robin or bracket tournaments, the number of rounds per set, and randomly generating matches.

King Of Fighters XII embarrassingly marked down to $11 in Japan

Reported over at Kotaku, the game touted as a revival to classic fighting franchise, King of Fighters XII, has been marked down to ¥980 yen or $11 in US dollars. Even games a year old don't go down that harshly and KOFXII is barely three months out.

"Tires don exits" or the controversy of balance

When you play fighting games, one thing is bound to cross your mind: "[character x] is totally cheap and overpowered."
Do tiers exist? Are all characters balanced? An infamous Internet meme was sparked by this issue. One disgruntled Smash Brothers player got onto the Smash World Forums and angrily posted "Tires don exits." To this day, this phrase is invoked in order to either defuse a serious discussion on balance or to just troll the thread.

Inevitably, it's this humble writer's belief that there's no such thing as a perfectly balanced game. Characters are bound to have more tools and options to make them more appealing from a technical standpoint. In order to get a better idea of where I'm coming from, I present to you this video at Japanese tournament, Kohatsu. It arguably has the best players of their representative characters, Nu and Tager. Nu is the archetype zoning character with low health; where Tager is a grappler who gets in close to grab you, and who has lots of health to compensate for range.

Blazblue: Continuum Shift intro revealed

The new intro to Blazblue: Continuum Shift has been unveiled--courtesy of intrepid arcade goers at nicovideo and someone who of course transferred it to YouTube. The high quality version is here but you need to have an account at the nicovideo.jp website (and it's in Japanese).

A number of things you get to see besides the attention to detail Arc System Works put into highlighting in the video:

• At 00:20 you see how Noel's drive, Chain Revolver has changed. Not only is it darker, but apparently the rumors that you can jump-cancel it are true.
• At 00:26 you see a new move from Litchi.
• At 00:47 you see one of Tsubaki's distortion drives (or super moves).
• At 00:58 you see an ominous glimpse of Hazama's astral heat (do want).

As you can tell, I'm dedicated fan and am glad to bring you this latest bit of news about the sequel. Hopefully the wait for the console release isn't too long.

How do they game in North Korea?

As both a citizen of the United States and a student journalist, I see North Korea as a mysterious black hole. Because of (the beloved) Kim Jong-Il and his authoritarian state, we know next to nothing about what goes on in there except: 1) they have nukes 2) the media is suppressed and 3) Kim Jong-Il starred in Team America.

First Microsoft Store/Party opens.

So the first Microsoft store has opened in Arizona. It was a big deal I guess. Here are two things I thought was interesting in the video:

1. All the people that are cheering are employees. Employees told to be excited by the higher ups. Notice all the people who are cheering are wearing solid colored shirts, all in colors of the Windows logo.
2. A couple of suits are at the end of the unholy gauntlet of happy Windows employees. Obviously they wanted to keep an eye on their investments.

[ via Download Squad ]

Trying Tatsunoko vs. Capcom at Gameplay

Thursday, the week was coming to a close, and I had finally finished the presentations that had been weighing on my mind for the past month. I head for the Sunset lounge at the USU and crack open my laptop with my friends when one of them asks if I want to come with them to Gameplay, down Spring street. Reluctantly, I tag along for their little shopping trip at a mildly-used game store near campus.

Duane and BrandO put your favorite game songs in rap format

Unfortunately, as I point you towards the Adventures of Duane & BrandO, it seems the pair has broken up--not to worry you new adopters! The saga shall continue as "The Adventures Of's".

Some of my favorite songs are hilariously-translated into hip-hop songs. These gems include Sonic the Hedgehog, Megaman 2, and Punch-Out!!, with hilarious lyrics making references to characters and trends. My favs are the segments in Sonic the Hedgehog with Metal Sonic, Knuckles, and Dr. Robotnik (and yes, its fucking Dr. Robotnik. Not Eggman.).

Check them out and support them. I mean, they're releasing LPs for god's sake!

[ The Adventures of DnB brought to you by youtube ]

The Youtube video roundup

Here are my favorites from the past week or so:

Ryu combo exhibition video from EVO09
An exhibition video of some gnarly combos from Ryu, in almost all of his major incarnations, and SFII, all the way to SFIV. Some combos are for exhibition purposes and are tool-assisted. Others can actually be used in competitive play (especially the ones towards the end from SFIV).

Poor Akuma. Raging Demon sucks hard in SFIV
'Nuff said.

Italian Spiderman: the trailer
There is no way this is not real. Watch out Japanese Spiderman!

The rest after the break.

Know your fighter: Jin Kisaragi

Blazblue is the game I want to get better at. As a new IP, I get the head start at adopting the game engine and pick up a character to main and compete with. True, it was out in Japanese arcades for over a year before I got my hands on it, but the majority of the Western audience will be like me, starting at the same time.

Before I start, I should point you to this page. This will explain any terms you may be unfamiliar with. There's a link to go backwards to an onslaught of additional information you may need. It's pretty much a one-spot stop.

What was interesting in my absence

I've come down with a bit of a cold and have been bogged down with homework. Doesn't mean I've stopped reading my feeds though.

• Stabbing little girls won't fix your Internet - Gizmodo
• Not only is Ryu Ji Hye hot, but she's Chun-Li - Real Cute Asians
• More details on Modern Warfare 2, Spec Ops, etc. - MTV Multiplayer
• Great moments in fight game history - iPlay Winner
• My girlfriend wrote about me and this is totally not a plug - My boyfriend is a gamer
  

My paper on casual games in the industry (or something along those lines)

Some of you might've have been interviewed by me informally. Curious on how it turned out? Here's how I'm turning in my article, after the break.

NBA Live proves how unpopular it is with failed 1,000 person achievement

Remember NBA Live 07? Course you don't! A three year old basketball game? My god, that's like a mediocre 10 year old game! And for salt in the wound, people still love games from the NES and the Atari, By god those are old! This game is three years old and People still play Goldeneye!

"Ooooh! Sick burn dude! Wicked sick one bro. Brofists!"

Truly this was the opposite of some of the more whore-ish achievement games out there. Avatar has a reputation of being an awful game, and yet you can get 1,000 points practically with no trouble at all. You just need to mash a button over and over a few minutes, and free points to brag about. But this one? It's nearly impossible to get, and failing to get it even worse, just proves how unpopular the game is and how stupidly ambitious the developers were.

For more, hit the link for Kotaku's post.

Boosting session gone awry via Kotaku

My journey through the harsh world of Street Fighter 3rd Strike

A few days ago, I was lucky to find a disc of Street Fighter Anniversary Collection. How lucky? By my own estimates, the disc by itself could go for $30 easy due to how few copies of the Xbox version exist. Drop by on eBay andd you'll find copies with the box and instructions going for $40, almost as if it was still a new game! But I got it for $12 for just the disc and a free empty box to boot to protect it. The owner acknowledged the rarity of the game and congratulated me on finding the game for cheap. By the way, I got the game from Game Place, which was a nice bonus.

Brutal Legend: Tim Schafers's newest delight

The demo of Brutal Legend is out! Rejoice! (At least, it was out about three days ago as of this posting). So naturally I downloaded this hefty 2 gig demo. After all, I won the game in Jack's Big Rip Off.

Mandatory plug about how I won and you didn't

Blazblue: Continuum Shift announced as update, wallets everywhere brace themselves

Blazblue: Continuum Shift has been announced and the signals are getting mixed. Lots of places call it an update. Maybe it'll be a downloaded update? Others call it a sequel, and thousands recall how Street Fighter III took three sequels to get to it's current version (It's called Third Strike). So what will it be? And just how will it impact us?

Re-entering Oblivion: Top 7 thing I'm gonna do.

Oblivion went up for Games on Demand and it was a nice thought. Then I got into Fallout 3 seriously because of all the DLC they had released for it. Then I remembered Oblivion was made by the same guys as the dudes who made Fallout 3. Then I got a coupon for 20% off any used game at Gamestop and promptly forgot about the meagerly overpriced digital download version.
I bought Oblivion again for three reasons.

Facebook's fun new disease, social gaming

Lately, a string of Facebook apps or flash games have been assaulting our friend feeds, taking up legitimate news of what our friends are doing with news like, "Katie has bought a tractor on Farm Ville," or "Michael just leveled up in Castle Age," or "Jonathan is playing some game, join too to do all sorts of crap."

I swore to myself I'd never join one of these "social" games, but when my girlfriend asked me to join Farm Ville, it was the first step to starting a new reason why I should open my laptop even if I was in the middle of class, because dammit, my blueberries are going to wither if I don't pick them on time!

Shadow Complex avoids 'Metroidvania' comparisons just barely

Shadow Complex has been available for quite some time, but the fun hasn't quite worn off yet. Many people tout it as a Metroidvania knock off. Others call it a Metroidvania homage. Either way, Shadow Complex can't escape this comparison of classic game design from Metroid and Castlevania. A lone player exploring a single, massive dungeon, slowly treading on new ground more and more by collecting upgrades and weapons. So is it blatant reliance on tired game design, or a game to add to the Metroidvania term?

The week in a roundup

School's about as hectic as ever. I can't say my brain will let me focus on posting during the week, but at least I can get something out over the weekend, a time when other blogs usually take a break in terms of posts. So here's a quick update on things.

Play as a celestial body in Solar

Courtesy of MTV Multiplayer's spotlight showcase of Solar, I managed to find out about an interesting indie game on the Xbox Live Marketplace. I'm a fan of games with quirky settings and back drops, and this game proved to be one of the quirkier. What other game let's you play as a star which, depending on how you play the game, is actually quite an asshole?

A hard game to spell correctly: I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1

In journalism, we have to get names right, and unfortunately, the exact name of this game is hard to remember exactly. I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1 (henceforth, A Game With Zombies, or just Zombies) is the kind of game you think up of when you're drunk, then proceed to make after the hangover. You're not drunk anymore that it impairs your ability to program, but when you thought of the concept, you had just downed three Jack Daniels and finished watching Shaun of the Dead.

Guess who's coming to dinner?

Zombies takes the classic gameplay of Robotron and pits you against not only zombies in a classic top down perspective, but also a bevy of seemingly belligerent abstract constructs. Some of them look like dust bunnies while other times they annoying, flashing gifs your grandmother sends you because she thinks they're amusing. And all of them want to kill you by brushing up against you.

You move around with your left stick and shoot with the right with pick up weapons spawning randomly around the map, from machine guns to shotguns to flamethrowers. All while enemies constantly spawn and try surrounding you. It can be played with three other friends, dramatically causing the game to spawn more enemies to match, and the game becomes an addictive survival testing to see how long you can live. There's just sheer joy to be had when you can shooting in any general direction and mow down 10 to 20 zombies a second and hundreds more are still there to replace them.

So at 80 points, roughly a buck, Zombies is a cheap, economically fun game for those bored and on Xbox Live. Just look for it under the indie games tag.

Splosion Man: everything you want as long as they're splosions

As someone who's into fight games, I tend to gravitate towards certain games. I'm obsessive about beating a game with everything I can collect or beat. 1998: Banjo-Kazooie and to this day I'm still collecting those damn jiggies on the Xbox Live version. Just last year I played Mega Man 9, while still infuriatingly hard, is easier then most other Mega Man games, and I loved how it took no prisoners. Now I'm at the end of summer and playing Splosion Man.

Splosion Man is about a man who splodes (presumably, exploding) his way through the scientific laboratory he was supposedly created in. He has no qualms against the men who created him. It's just that he can only do one thing, and do it well he does. He splodes.

All you need to do is get from point A to point B, start to finish. When you explode, it's usually to jump, which he can do two more times in mid air. He can also splode to wall jump, and course just to destroy everything around him.Only problem is that the levels get progressively harder and more complex to traverse with a variety of ways to die, often times simple one hit kill scenarios like falling acid or being crushed. Other times you'll encounter enemies who simply knock you around, and if they do it enough, you die.

I haven't even passed the first world yet, and I know the levels are gradually stacking the odds against me. As a gamer used to Japanese game design (difficult, relentless, heavy memorization) I take a certain amount of joy of try, try, and try again game play. Some will definitely get frustrated, but the game is rewarding beyond design. It has a wacky sense of humor that'll have you laughing all the way.

For 800 points, it's a nice game that won't break your wallet a whole lot. You get a meaty single player campaign, an enjoyable multiplayer campaign, and loads of rewards like gamerpics and bragging rights.

Oh God: Our first look at Bioshock 2's multiplayer

Bioshock 2 multiplayer video from PAX.

Hoo boy, has Bioshock forsaken me. I shall admit that I was genuinely interested in Bioshock 2. Yes, it's missing Kevin Levine, brains behind the first spectacular Bioshock, and some people are worried that visiting Rapture after it's lost it's luster is a bit tired.

Lots of people thought it'd be more interesting to do a prequel while Rapture was in it's downfall, seeing how Rapture was like in it's prime and how it became a dystopian wasteland, but instead we play as a Big Daddy in the same dirty Rapture, but there were redeeming things like the mysterious Big Sister and the dynamic between you and the Little Sisters but this multiplayer is just something that just isn't Bioshock. Here's my case...

Why should I care?
You play as a random splicer trapped in some sort of twisted deathmatch in the name of testing new products. In Halo, you already develop a connection with Master Chief, a spartan. In Call of Duty, you learn to identify with people of your faction and their voices and quirks. But in Bioshock, you played as Jack, a no name mute the player gained an interest in for his mysterious circumstances. You're not playing Jack in multiplayer, but random, nameless splicers you should be used to killing by now. Splicers are meant to be cannon fodder to your weapons and plasmids. You shouldn't be playing them.

The controls
The aiming sensitivity in Bioshock was slow and precise. Enemies were large and methodical and you aim was slow to reflect the overall pacing of the. Sure you can just speed it up for multiplayer, but the controls have already taught us that Bioshock was a detail oriented, methodical monster. Not a twitchy fire fight crazy game.

Maps
I just realized this while typing this down, but all the maps will be indoors. What can expect from multiplayer map size and diversity when I know they will be first and foremost indoors? Ok, so it could take place in wide open rooms to simulate large open areas, but still...

It reeks of shoehorning
Come on, everybody should've been thinking the same thing when they announced this feature: Why? Bioshock was a beast of an immersive, single player experience. We've never thought of multiplayer before, so why start now? Are the guys over at 2K Games just itching to join the same bandwagon as Halo and Call of Duty?

Slowing down time with Marvel Vs. Capcom 2

I've never been good at Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. Before it's release to the Xbox Live Arcade, it was next to impossible to get a home version game. I didn't jump on the Dreamcast bandwagon when it was still alive and good luck finding PS2 or Xbox copies. This left me with the arcade version, which of course means I'll never get around to getting decent practice in it, let alone focus on my own unique team.

It's now available to play at home and even after a few hours of playing it, I can only admit my grasp of the game is "loose" at best.

Don't get me wrong. This game is nearly nine years old and it's community is still rampant as ever for a reason. Having a three person team consisting of various characters from Capcom and Marvel, duking it out in a frenzied, frenetic tag team match is fun against friends. But MvC2 is among one of the fastest fighting games on the competitive scene, and my brain can hardly keep up with the action. This coming from a person who plays Jin and Tager to a certain degree of mid tier skill.

Still, the game is as fun as ever as you'd expect the game to be when you see it in the arcade.

Everything is still the same, and I had the chance to play it online with my friend Ed (the best fight game player I know). The netcode seems nice enough as I experience zero lag in a normal match with a friend and my favorite part is the post game room, which summarizes the last five or so games with your opponent with each character and team you've played out with your win/lose results.

Well, there's nothing much more to say. If you've been playing this game for the past nine years, you can finally play it in the comfort of your own home with all it's quirks and perks.

Enjoying the Lost Planet 2 demo to death

Sequel to one of the 360s launch titles, Lost Planet, Lost Planet 2 was announced earlier this year as Capcom's surprise for 2009. I played the first one and it was good, but I never expected it to have the go ahead for a sequel. However, the demo proved me wrong, as the sequel looks like it's going to be upping the fun factor (if not sacrificing a big story).

Lost Planet 2 is takes place years after the first. The icy, frigid climate of E.D.N. III has thawed thanks to the hero of the first game and more suitable, temperate lands begin to appear. You play as a soldier in the NEVEC corporation who's still waging a war against the native insectoid monsters. Full details are sparse now, but the demo gives me this one basic feeling: Keep the combat of the first Lost Planet, add four player co-op and throw in big boss battles. As this is Capcom, I could only think of one thing while I was firing heavy ordinance at the giant salamander in the demo: Monster Hunter. The salamander has even been touted as a monster who isn't even the biggest in the game, and this one can still swallow you up and let you start shooting its guts.

The controls are still familiar from the first game. Third-person viewpoint, anchor grappling to higher land, and an awesome variety of mechs with cool weapons you can also tear off and use on foot (and re-attach as well). As the game is in 3rd person view, you develop less of a feeling for the power your weapons are putting out compared to Call of Duty and seeing the gritty details up close and feeling the force feedback, but the movement in Lost Planet makes up for this. After you move forward a bit, you're introduced to the lovely giant salamander.

I've only played with A.I. bots so far since the online pool of players for this demo is somewhat unreliable, but you still get a sense for the intensity you're in for by yourself. Monster design from the original is still present, so glowing spots are pretty much the "shoot here" signal, but by yourself, your small arms probably aren't gonna put much of a dent in the monster (it should be different if you work together with someone).

How you combat the monster gets pretty interesting. When you daze it after a inflicting enough damage, you can grapple onto its back and unload on the glowing spot on its back. You can also crawl into its agape mouth and go to town on its internal organs (though you get the same chance if you get swallowed against your will, which will hurt more).

As I haven't played online, I haven't been able to fully explore a lot of the things that are going to set this apart from the first. Riding shotgun on a friend's mech, using the injection gun to buff team mates, and overall team work to split up targets on huge enemy Akrid monsters. But if you download this game (currently only for gold members) I'm sure it'll at least provide a passing interest on Lost Planet 2.

StarCraft II LAN Petition Hits 100K [Blizzard]

StarCraft II LAN Petition Hits 100K [Blizzard]: "

The petition to get offline network play added back in to Starcraft II has hit 100,000 signatures. Doesn't mean Blizzard will shift away from funneling everyone into Battle.Net. But six figures is a credible number.

In late June, Blizzard defended the removal of LAN support - and thus the end of the LAN party for this game - as a way to 'ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy.' The petition, in a quite pleading tone of voice, asks for LAN support to be saved, for reasons of lag, customer convenience, and the game's heritage.

I'm thinking the $$ behind getting everyone on Battle.net or else is going to speak well more loudly to Blizzard than 100,000 voices, no matter how reasonable their requests or respctfully they're worded. It makes me wonder if there ever was a useful Internet petition.

More than 100,000 Sign StarCraft II LAN Petition [VG247 via VE3D]

"

Batman's got it good in Arkham Asylum

Arkham Asylum is destined to be Batman's best game ever (though it doesn't have competition). As many have already brought up, Arkham Asylum isn't tied down by any movie tie in deals, the this one's freed up to explore much more interesting territory, and boy is it interesting.

In all the years I've seen Batman, Arkham has always been a mysterious area to me. Bad guys go there, do hard time, and eventually escape so Bats can throw'em back in. This time around, you, as Batman, will be spending a lot of quality time in Arkham Asylum with it's psychopathic inmates running around as they like.

The demo took me through three elements that Arkham Asylum is going to blend into gameplay. Combat, puzzle work, and stealth. Combat-wise, Batman borrows liberally from the mechanics at work in Prince of Persia (Sands of Time anyways). You have a basic attack button, counters, and a cape stun along with a dodging. When surrounded (and you will be surrounded) you simply push in the direction you want to go while attacking and Batman will fluidly sock the enemy in that direction. You can easily build up impressive looking combos beating down one thug then suddenly sending a flying dropkick to the dude behind you. You'll usually find yourself in combat like this one Batman is forced to walk into an area with thugs already out and about.

The puzzle as I called it, is more of a problem solving situation. A security guard is being held hostage by a psychopath and it's my job to take him down in one swift move without being noticed. With detective vision, built into Batman's cowl, all of Batman's detective work is boiled down to a special x-ray vision that gives you all the info you need. With it, I was able to spot the gargoyles near the ceiling and grapple from one to the other until I was in a prime position to drop on the would-be killers head. Detective vision looks like it'll be awesome to play with on, if the next scenario is anything to see.

The stealth element is presented as a group of enemies on patrol armed with assault rifles which will cut through Batman pretty easily. With detective vision and some (thankfully) quick crouch walking, I was able to silently takedown two enemies with no trouble. Next, I grappled to a gargoyle and hang down to sleeper hold an enemy walking by. He doesn't go quietly, but it works to my advantage. The last two enemies see his body dangling from my cable and detective vision lets me see their heart rate and how they're obviously nervous. From the shadows, I could hear them panic and throw around questions like what they should do (I threw a batarang to cut the cable suspending the body, just to freak them out more).

This stealth gameplay will by far be the one to yield the most interesting gameplay. This predator stalking his prey mindset really lets you feel like Batman picking off the henchman in the classic 90s cartoon. I even found myself swooping down right in front of the last bad guy going, "Boo!" shortly before knocking him out with a 3 hit combo.

The demo ends there, leaving you with the prospect of a boss fight with some sort of mutated inmate the Joker personally sicks on you, but the demo pretty much got me interested in having a longer at the retail version.

To the stars and back: Fallout 3 and it's last DLC, Mothership Zeta

At long last, we've come to the end of Fallout 3's downloadable content. It's certainly been a long year, and the DLC's gone through it's bumps and hurdles, from the overall satisfaction to Operation: Anchorage to the bugs on the initial launch of The Pitt, but Mothership Zeta certainly feels like things are going out in a bang. Though it's not the best dlc for Fallout by a long shot (Point Lookout was the best, followed by Broken Steel), Zeta certainly has it's selling points that makes it one of my favorite.

Zeta's biggest fault is that it's linear, like Anchorage. Like Anchorage, there's only one main quest line and you can only deviate in the order of the objectives, so there's not a lot to do after or in between the main quest.

Unlike Anchorage however, or even the Pitt, you're free to use whatever weapons you bring along (with the exception to the opening of the mothership, where you make a prison break on nothing but your bare knuckles) and the new items the dlc introduces are an energy weapon enthusiast's dream. Admittedly, I only looked at this dlc at the chance at bringing alien technology back down to the Capital Wasteland, so let's take a look at the weapons and unique variants to find.
(italics are the unique variants to the weapon proceeding it)

Alien Atomizer
- Your basic laser pistol. About as effective as an assault rifle, but nothing compared to what you'll find later on

Atomic Pulverizer
- At first glance, it looks like an Atomizer with slightly more damage. Unknown to casual players, this weapon has twice the chance to crit then the Atomizer (x2 compared to x1) and has the lowest action point cost in the game, tied with the laughably weak ritual knife. This thing can turn packs of enemies into dust when pair with the Grim Reaper's Sprint perk.

Alien Disintegrator
- The alien rifle of your offworld invaders. This weapon is extremely accurate and boasts a nearly non-existant reload time, if it's even considered reloading. You merely tap the rifle and it reloads! This is what you use if you favor V.A.T.S. gameplay.

The Destabilizer
- Say hello to the only fully automatic energy weapon in the game and the base damage for this thing is crazy! But its' calculated for three round bursts, like the assault rifle since it's fully automatic, and yet it only shoots off single rounds in V.A.T.S. so it's pretty weak in there.

Shock Baton
- The first weapon you come across on the mothership. It's base damage is pretty mediocre, but it has added electric damage over time. Not much to say for this one but...

Electro-Suppressor
- This one lacks the electric damage over time and doesn't add much damage, but on critical knocks down your target. Considering players with high luck and crit chances, this weapon can even the playing field quickly on strong melee creatures like deathclaws. Even better, sneak attacks are always criticals, so it'll always induce knockdown.

Drone Cannon
- The heavy weapon introduced in the game, it lacks a certain usability because it fires single shots that don't explode on impact like frag grenades. The explosive radius is pretty big though, so those experienced in using Miss Launcher can get used to using it.

Drone Cannon Ex-B
- This is about the same, but much more useful as it explodes on impact. This combines the best aspects of Miss Launcher's power and the Missile Launcher's explosion on impact.

MPLX Novasurge
- A unique Enclave Plasma Pistol, this pistol is nearly three times as strong as a normal plasma pistol and has a crit multiplier of x3! Not only that, but the extra crit damage is nearly the same as the base damage (before the Better Criticals perk). This thing is pretty much Alien Blaster lite in terms of power and critical without the trouble with repairing it.

Captain's Sidearm
-Pretty much like the Metal Blaster, but of alien origin instead. Uses three ammo to shoot 6 shots though, which makes the damage to ammo ratio a bit steeper then the Metal Blaster.

Blazblue TWO wishlist

It cracks me up every time someone says "The game hasn't been out for even a year and you already want balance changes?"

For your information, my dull witted friend, though the console version has been out less then a year, the game as a whole (I'm referring to the arcade) has been around for one to two years plus the console version is a straight up port concerning game mechanics and general character balance (except for astral heats, which are useless in a competitive sense).

So here is what I'm wishing for in Blazblue Two, organized by characters.

Ragna
- Buff his Soul Eater drive so it actually makes a difference. Do whatever it takes to let Ragna absorb more health, from nerfing Blood Kain to tweaking how strong Ragna is.

Jin
- No changes really necessary, though some argue he needs more flaws to be more appealing in a cast wide balance sense.

Noel
- No buffs or nerfs come to mind.

Rachel
- Personally my favorite in terms of balance. Her move set favors a lot of rushdown, which makes spectating her matches so awesome. However, her vitality reflects her rushdown perfectly.

Arakune
- Remove his Zero Vector's ability to curse on block. He already has plenty of devious tricks to get his drive attacks to curse on hit through sly teleporting and mix ups. The ability to curse on block can lead to some tough match ups and most of all, a possible loop (which he doesn't need).

Carl
- His ability to loop (called the ClapTrap) is essential to Carl play. His ability to loop his opponent is balanced by his absolute bottom tier stats (lowest guard strength, lowest stamina, lowest damage output).

Nu
- Find a way to limit her extreme zoning. I personally want to increase the start up frames on her drive swords so she can't throw them out rapid fire. Her swords come out fast for projectiles after all. Even Ryu needs frames to wind up his hadouken.

Tager
- Admittedly, this list is in response to Tager's horrible match up to Nu. No othe character screw with Tager more then Nu. Even Arakune has openings Tager can exploit. What if Tager had an ability to spend his electric gauge to "reverse" his "polarity"? He starts a special attack which start to drain his electric gauge and it can't be stopped until it drains completely. During this special state, when Tager blocks, he moves forward instead of backwards (hence, he's reversed the knockback effect from blocking, or his polarity). Blocking moves him half as much as the regular knock back, and instant blocking moves him up as much as regular knock back. This changes Nu matches considerably in my opinion, since she can't throw swords out all day without fear of punishment, as long as Tager has gauge to use this reverse polarity power (in addition to spark bolt).

Bang
- More nails to use would be a positive if his damage output remains unchanged (which is abnormally low for such a beefy stamina character).

Hakumen
- A normal run, please. Also, longer active frames for his drive counters.

Taokaka
- Can't think of anything. She's pretty much a complex, low damage output, combo-oriented speed machine with a nightmare set of mix ups attacks.

Litchi
- I got nothing to say frankly. I don't know what the rest of the community thinks, but I think she might be fine the way she is.

Wasteland Profile: Naomi

Name: Naomi
Alignment: Evil
Wasteland Occupation: Enclave Double Agent

Lots of things influenced Naomi to become the way she was when she left the vault. Her friends were jerks, the adults seemed like hypocrite, and she slowly grew to hate the way how the vault felt so constrictive.
But when she left the vault for the first time and killed her first raider with the pistol she stole on her way out, she would change forever. She loved the sound of gun fire, the clang of profiting caps, and the lovely streak of red her enemies left on the asphalt. She wasn't necessarily evil though. She was just a bitch. A selfish, slightly psychopathic, bitch.
But then she got a plasma rifle from her new android friend (a former assassin as well) she found a new sensation: the smell of her enemies melting into goo.
She became obsessed with old technology. If it shot rays of light in the most dangerous spectrum, she was pullng the trigger. As she reveled more and more in the death and destruction she sewed for her enjoyment, she realized she'd grown accustomed to the taste of power.
And so she decided that if she had all the technology, all the power, all the infamy, she could single handedly judge the Capital Wasteland. The Enclave was a nuisance, and the Brotherhood of Steel was a do gooding boy scout, but she had earned their trust, and that would be her stepping stone to power. She'd wipe out the Enclave with their help, then quietly rise through the ranks of the Brotherhood in order to facilitate the spread of purified water which she infected with the forced evolution virus. It would not be President Eden or the Enclave who would inherit the would, but Naomi, the Devil incarnate.

Wasteland Journals: Sarge

If my characters from Fallout 3 kept dairies, I'm pretty sure it would go like this...

Name: Sarge
Alignment: Neutral
Wasteland Occupation: Mercenary
Bio: When Sarge left the safety of the Vault, he quickly learned two things: 1) It's hard to make friends and 2) Money's the only friend you really need. Sarge quickly picked up a gun and made himself a gun for hire on the Capital Wasteland. He doesn't think too much about good or evil, or rather, he won't. He's only concerned about how he's getting paid.

Day 14: Picked up a distress signal from some Brotherhood Outcasts. Figured those guys always have some neat tech to shoot dudes with, so I'll help them out if they loan me one of their sweet laser rifles.

Day 16: Finally out of that simulation of "Operation: Anchorage" those Outcasts wanted me to finish. It was fun and all but knowing I was just a cog in the wheel of the American army was annoying. Luckily, the Outcast let me pick up the Chinese stealth suit that was locked in their vault. You know, after dealing with a slight mutiny and all.

Day 24: Deathclaws are getting more and more active nowadays. This stealth suit let's me skulk around and plug holes in the back of their skulls at least. Figured I'd put their corpses to good use and make me a Deathclaw gauntlet.

Day 25: I should probably lay off the gauntlet. It's easier to track me even when I'm invisible since this Deathclaw gauntlet just turns people into a fine red mist all over me.

Day 29: Hving som trubl typin. radiashun Poisinin hurt bRaiN. Pit have lots.

Day 31: Finally finished my business in The Pitt. The arena games in The Hole were murder on my body. Not only did those gladiators mean business, but my geiger counter was going crazy while I was in there. Luckily that's all I had to worry about. These so called "trogs" are pretty weak sauce compared to super mutants. Plus this silenced assault rifle called the Perforator works wonders with my lifestyle.

Day 44: Decided to take down a Mutant Behemoth on my way over to town. Decided to lay down a mine field of bottlecap mines and sprung the trap he set that would make him come barreling over the hill over. Stealth suit didn't fool him though, so I had to turn on a Stealth Boy. Boy do I love laying down mines and luring people over them!

Day 51: Heard from another merc one day how there's some nice swag down in Vault 106. Boy was he wrong. Air tastes purple and freaky hallucinations. Not going down there again! And all I have to show for it was this cheap bobblehead!

Day 55: Running out of ideas to make more money. Either I've already worked the contract or the person's dead. Well, I can either help get Project Purity running or head down south. Heard there's a steamboat. I think it's heading to Maryland or something.

A casual perspective on fight game terminology

God bless your hearts for listening to me when I get technical on fighting games, but I doubt anyone understands me. Really, only two or three people really understand the jargon I use when I start talking about fight games, so how about I enlighten some of you on some of the important terms, jargon, and mumbo-jumbo you'll commonly run into?

Frames: This refers to a measure of how long a specific animation of a character lasts. Instead of measuring a passage of time, it measures the frames of animation that makes it up. Active frames refers to the part of the animation when the attack actually hits. Start up frames refer to the frames before the active frames actually kick in. And finally Cool down refers to the frames before you can do anything else. Basically, you have to wait for the animation to finish before you can start moving around or blocking, which is where we have the term...

Punish: We use the word punish to refer to capitalizing on your enemy's mistakes and counter attacking. Say for example you throw out an obvious uppercut that I block. Since you have to wait for the cool down on that attack, I'm basically going to punish you for your mistake of throwing out such an unsafe attack, preferably with a super move!

Whiff: Basically, an attack that misses. It's pretty straight forward.

Invincibility: This is usually a period of time during a character's attack where they're completely untouchable. Ryu's dragon punch is infamous for this, as it usually beats a lot of attacks because he's invincible while he executes it, and if an enemy tries to attack him, their attack will miss, and they get a face full of fist.
In fact, people commonly refer to moves like this as DP's, or dragon punches, even if they aren't even uppercuts. DP just refers to a move that has a healthy amount of invincibility.

Super Armor: This is a little different then invincibility. Instead of a move letting a move pass through them, the character will absorb the attack instead, and continue on with the attack. A lot of bigger characters usually have moves that have super armor due to their strength and size.

236, 214, and other combinations: This is the universal way of demonstrating how to execute special attacks using number notation on an arcade stick. Here's how to imagine it...
7 8 9
4 5 6
1 2 3
5 stands for an arcade stick in neutral. As you can see, 236 means quarter circle forward and 214 is quarter circle back. If you see 63214, that's half circle back. Once again, we just refer to 623 as DP's, cause it's faster. These number are, for the most part, universal in understanding among fight game communities.

360s and 720s: In almost every fight game, there is a character who works by grabbing enemies and tossing them around like ragdolls. It seems like every big grappling character's biggest throw command moves involve moving your joystick in 360 degrees and the corresponding attack button. Even stronger versions are usually 720 degrees, or two spins.

Cancel: So you know moves have cool down, right? Well, some moves can strategically "cancel" into another, that is, to cancel the cool down animation altogether and segue into a new attack. Ryu has an old cancel where you go from his crouching medium kick and go straight into his fireball once it hits. So instead of kicking and waiting for the kick to finish, Ryu throws out a fireball as soon as the kick connects.

Link: This requires more skill then canceling. Linking a move means knowing exactly when the animation for an attack ends and doing another attack that will presumably connect if your timing is good.

Stuff: Used as a verb, this is when an attack completely beats out an attack if they both happen to meet each other at the same time. Taking Blazblue's Tager as an example, he has an attack called sledgehammer that moves him forward as he swings his arm, and this will stuff just about any attack that comes his way. Tager will usually use sledgehammer to move across the screen safely without having to worry about incoming attacks.

Jump in: Refers to any generic attack where you try attacking while jumping on top of your enemy. Why jump in? Because you must be blocking high in order to actually block it. Which leads to...

Overhead: A character's unique attack that also must be blocked high. Overheads are usually unique attacks so a player can try breaking someone's guard without having to jump in on them. A lot of newer players have the wrong impression that blocking while crouching will somehow magically stop everything, while in reality, we have overheads to stop this kind of train of thought.

Turtling: A strategy where the user runs away and blocks any incoming attacks. This usually involves a lot of waiting and baiting and punishing any aggressive attempts. It's basically playing it safe, but is very boring to spectate. Lots of competitive players frown on turtling.

Rushdown: The opposite of turtling, where you throw caution to the wind and pressure the opponent with lots of rapid attacks, whether they connect or are blocked. The enemy can't fight back if they're blocking, right?

Spam: Repeating an attack endlessly. The reasoning is that "if it works, then use it!" usually accompanied with "I don't know how to do anything else." For example, Akuma from Street Fighter can just hang back, turtle, and spam fireballs the entire match. Good Akuma players can employ different strategies (Akuma is usually a rushdown character), but spamming fireballs is basically a one track strategy that can be punished quickly by decent players.

Flow chart _____: Going off of spam, this is a relatively new term coined from SFIV and Ken. Flow chart Kens were notorious for using his DP at every chance, even if commonsense dictated that it'd be easily blocked. Flow chart characters are usually people who have fallen into a routine they're comfortable with but are also predictable and the chart usually consists of a number of basic technique everyone uses liberally, but is repeated ad nausea in this case. Here is the chart that started it all. Jin Kisaragi from Blazblue is starting to gain popularity as a flow chart character as well.


That's all for now! Hope you found this enlightening!

Move over SFIV, here comes Blazblue

Months ago, I got my first taste of Arc System Works new Guilty Gear successor, Blazblue, at Tilt arcade. It has since then moved on to Arcade Infinity before awaiting it's console release. Now, I'm not the most elegant arcade stick player, so I'm thankful for it's release on pads for my thumbs. Now that I don't have to pay a quarter per play, how much more fun is it? I've talked about the game in brief before, so what's happened to the console version?

Work for it son
Now that you have all the time in the world to play this in the comfort of your own home, you're gonna need it. I'm not gonna say there are some awesome unlockables, but what you do unlock is pretty nice. Interesting artwork (my fav is "Noel's Birthday 12/25") home version Astral Finishes, and a decent story mode to work through. Yes, compared to SFIV's dodgy arcade mode "story" where we see your characters paper thin reason to venture out and punch faces, Blazblue's story has some meat on it. It's a big conspiracy revolving around Ragna and the Azure Grimoire he's stolen, aka Blazblue. Each character's story and ending interweaves with others and yet doesn't due a weird anomaly which Rachel's story helps explain. Not only has the awesome music made the transition intact, a few new songs have been added for our pleasure, including Bang's install theme and the new home console theme.

Show'em what you're made of
Now, like every other good fighting game with online capability, the netcode responsible for how you play online is great yet is lacking in some places. However, Blazblue definitely has things SFIV could take notes on. Player matches set up lobbies, so more then one other person can join you. This means two people can have a match, while the others not only wait in line in the lobby, but can view the match in real time! A great way to pick up some tips on the fly or watch how your opponent works. The method in which the game handles latency is also impressive. Even in decent level pings, the latency is good though it may occasional lag a few frames (if it's not perfect that is). The opening intro always lags as it picks up the slack, and by the time the match actually starts, it's as if the game has gotten a hold of the perfect way to smooth over the latency.
On the other hand, "ranked" matches have some shakey legs. As ranked matches go, you should get a random match based on your skill and have a fight on equal terms. It gets things right at first glance because ranked specifically has double blind character selection, but when you look at it in depth, you can actually cherry pick your matches, which defeats the purpose of it being ranked in the first place. You can see their level, favorite character, among other things. the only sembalence it has to being ranked is the fact you have one match and are promptly sent to find a new match if you want.

Dustloop!
The game itself has been sweetened since it's arcade release, so it's a good a time as ever to try this game out. It seperate itself from the crowd by having lots of offensive and defensive options, small but well thought out character roster and design, and a story that you'll actually care about. Story mode itself is kind of anal on the definition of 100% complete, since getting every character's story 100%'ed wil take a while, but the alternate endings and good story overall make up for this this caveat. Lastly, I want to let it be known that one of BB's achievements pays a hilarious homage to Guilty Gear called, "Ride the Icening" which is a reference to Ky Kiske's "Ride the Lightning" which in itself is a reference to Metallica's song of the same name. Well played Aksys, well played.

And so my brain returns from Anime Expo (part 2)

Way back when I was still a naive con attendee, the dealer's room was the only thing I went to during con. Now I know there are more interesting things like panels and main events (when programming operations are on time anyways). Still the biggest life pulse of Anime Expo to me is the dealer's room, or exhibit hall. Although it's Anime Expo, there were plenty of things for a gamer too. Afterall, this year is getting a lot of good fighting games, and fighting games are at home with anime as anything else. What was there?

Capcom booth
There biggest presence there was Tatsunoko v. Capcom in it's localized form. None of the new characters promised to fill the void of one of the removed giant characters were present. In fact, both giant characters, PTX and Golden Lightanwere still there, but the most popular characters that I saw were Ryu, Morrigan, Ken the Eagle, Jun the Swan, Tekkaman, Megaman, Viewtiful Joe. People also played some Soki, Casshern, Alex, and Chun-li.
The game is an ambiguous mixture of fast gameplay from tags and air combos and slow methodical character movement. Dashing was underplayed for a lot of air dashes and jumping in and fireball game was weak because almost every projectile in the game has tremendous start up animation. However, when you launch you opponent, people familiar with MvC2 style air combos would feel right at home.

Aksys booth
Their booth was hawking all sorts of Blazblue tie in merch from Japan, like mini posters, t-shirts, and the game itself of course. Their biggest item was the bundle bag, which was a canvas bag carrying the game and almost every piece of swag in the counter including the shirt, poster, Mana drink, and more (I have no idea what the drink tastes like, but it imagine potions from rpgs). On the side was maybe one booth for Battle Fantasia (meh) and both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Blazblue in play. The 360 had sticks while the PS3 had pads. Competition looked relatively tame, but there was one person who was obviously domination. I find out afterwards after getting my Tager beaten by his v-13 that he was apparently the best player from NorCal. What a humbling experience!

Various used gamer booths
There was a large assortment of smaller used game store booths displaying their niche Japanese import games. There wasn't a whole lot interesting since I was caught up in Blazblue fever on my 360, but there were plenty of interesting DS games. One which caught my eye was Super Robot Taisen Original Generations for the DS (or something to that tune anyways).

And so my brain returns from Anime Expo 2009 (part 1)

Anime Expo has come and gone again, and like the years before, I staffed in the infamous Access Control, aka The Red Vests. Over my 5 day reprieve from reality to help organize and also enjoy AX, among one of the biggest events were guests of honor Daisuke Ishiwatari and Toshimichi Mori, figure heads of the Guilty Gear series and the new Blazblue game. There were a lot of interesting booths in the dealer's hall, including a large enclosed booth called, "Manga Gamer" and the long awaited english localized Tatsunoko vs. Capcom game over at Capcom's booth.

Ishiwatari-san and Mori-san

The day of the big Ishiwatari, Mori panel, I was working the dreaded registration hall. At roughly 9:30am, it was a good time to ask my squad lead for time off. Staff do encourage us to enjoy AX to it's fullest when we find the time, and for staffers to enjoy panels during their shift, we fill the spots with volunteers, or green vests. So I ask for my leave and presumably left my position in the hands of some green vests. Upon arrival of the panel, probably over two or three hundred people had arrived before me and gotten in their seats.
I took me seat, next to relative normally dressed attendees, though I could see the occasional Ky cosplayers or (ack) Bridget cosplay. The entrance of Ishiwatari and Mori was met by a storm of applause a barrage of flash photography. As they settled down in their seats we got the gist of what everyone was here for; Q&A. There were a lot of good questions, both as being genuine inquisitive, or getting a lot of laughs. My favorite for example, was directed at Iron Tager, a character from Blazblue. His unique power let's him magnetize his opponents in order to draw them closer to him. One smart person however, asked how he's capable of using a cell phone (from his win pose) if he's magnetized. Another interested thing is that Mori-san, the creator of Blazblue, pronounces it Blaze-Blue. However, every time someone at the mic pronounced it Blaz-Blue, the room filled with the loud murmurs of people in hushed, but heated argument, obviously in reaction to why the person pronounced it so incorrectly.
After the panel, everyone was invited to the autographing session being held on the opposite end of the convention. Around 100 or so people had shown up and I received a ticket marking me as the 70th in line. There were plenty of people just getting autograph boards signed, but also Guilty Gear fans getting Guilty Gear games signed, posters, and art books as well. Unfortunately, the line was cut off at around number 50 and I was left out to dry. Luckily, two other staffers were with me in line, and as they tried exerting some staff privileges, I joined them, and luckily, became the last three people of the day to get autographs from Ishiwatari and Mori.

From AX 2009

From AX 2009

Watching or playing, Ghostbusters the video game is cool

There were plenty of copies of Ghostbusters when I walked into Blockbuster. I was just returning Prototype when I remembered that Jonathan reminded me that this game was coming out. In it's early development I didn't care too much, but when it began taking shape with the help of Dan Akyroyd, Bill Murray, and the other who were apart of the Ghostbusters movies and it would essentially be Ghostbusters III, I immedietely knew it was only a question of how good this game would be.
You play as the nameless rookie who's joined the Ghostbusters team. The only reason they've hired you in the first place is to have a guniea pig to test out Egon's new experimental (and potentially explosive) gear. From then on, we have the perfect way to convey the game as the movie, Ghostbusters III, while still partaking in the story like Ghostbusters the video game. A new ghostly menace rears it's ugly head into New York City, starting with some familiar ghosts like Slimer and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, working it's way up into the culmination of a new enemy worthy of Gozer's fame.

The Good

• The story is top notch, the writing is like watching the original Ghostbusters, and the humor is exactly as you'd expect coming from Dan Akyroyd and Harold Ramis. I rented this as a game, but it's more like enjoying Ghostbusters III with you sharing an integral part of the story.
• On that note, everything retains their look and feel from the movies. The ghosts are hilarious caricatures of their human lives, the Stay Puft Man is still hilariously large, and the cast still whip out quotes like a blockbuster movie.
• This game can also be genuinely creepy on your first play through. This game is not a horror game, but walking down a dark hallway as the surroundings begin to reflect the sinister nature of the specter I'm tracking down, with her figure darting in and out in the distance. Ghostbusters was always more of a comedy/action movie to me, but this game has it's creepy moments too.
• Everything is destructible. Nearly everything can be blasted by your trusted proton stream or slime blaster and everything has a certain weight of physics. It feels so natural for this to be in place since the Ghostbusters were always accused of wanton destruction of public property, so just letting her rip for the saking of being a public nuisance if hilarious.
  

The Bad

• It feels like a bunch of things important to a game took a smal backseat ride to the narrative. They don't ruin the game entirely, but they're certainly annoying to the game overall.
• The game is a third person perspective "shooter". I put quotations on it because when I think of shooters, I think of squeezing off some bullets into a target and putting them down while I move on. It's different here though. You're not shooting a gun, but essentially a laser, and the the laser wears down the ghost's health until you can capture them. In a normal shooter, you put your crosshairs over and shoot. In here, you need to hold the crosshairs over the target and blast it with the proton stream, but it doesn't necessarily phase the ghost. It's kind of annoying as the ghost darts around the room while you try to hold your beam over them to weaken them.
• You'll sometimes get lost in the maps, even though they're usually linear, but you don't have a map to help getyour bearings.

Now it's certainly not the perfect game, but but as a sequel to Ghostbusters II, it's absolutely satisfying. The story might feel a little like a linear game story, but the voice acting and writing of the original Ghostbusters crew really puts the shine on this game.

Snagged the last rental of Prototype

I managed to grab the last rental copy of Prototype for the 360 today. I just left my house to drop off some part timing applications at a local clothing boutique and shipped my bow at the UPS store when I decided to check Blockbuster on the off chance they weren't relevant anymore and had some copies of Prototype for rent. It's at the opposite side of town from the UPS store, so I had quite a trek, but in the end I became the last person to rent Prototype.

Initial impressions?

The Good

• There is no moral ambiguity here. This is like a return to Hulk: Ultimate Destruction from the Xbox era. You play as someone powerful in an open city environment. Get destroy'in however you want.
• Awesome sense of motion. When I spotted this game a year ago, I saw Ultimate Destruction coming back, but also the speed and wonderment of parkour from games like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Mirror's Edge. When Alex Mercer wants to get someplace, he gets their in style.
• It has a surprising sense of stealth gameplay. You can literally steal someone's skin and move around without wrecking shit up if you want to apply a more subtle approach. Sure, as a sandbox action game, the results will be the same: destruction everywhere, but you can either go in plowing through everyone or disguise yourself as a soldier and walk right up to your mark so you can eat him in one sudden swoop.
• Great way it narrarates itself. You get a taste of how hell descends over New York in the beginning, but after your little taste of power, you play the actual game proper as a flashback, the moment you wake up as an infected powerhouse. As you unravel the mystery of the infection and yourself, you consume key figures in the story and experience their memories, which are then put into a web of knowledge called the Web of Intrigue.

The Bad

• Wildly rambunctious control sometimes. I want to jump up some buildings, but sometimes the geometrical design of some skyscrapers make scaling them wild and imprecise. The same goes for targetting enemies as you pretty much lock on some random enemy and hope you get the target you want as your flick the right stick.
• Sudden jumps in difficulty. The first time you meet the Hunters, it will be a maddening experience. Enemies that aren't clearly cannon fodder will more then tear through your HP like tissue paper. Get ready for some trial and error as you figure out what power or weapon will be best as you run like a little bitch from their attacks.

This is one wild game that I'm probably not even a fourth through yet. Time will only tell if all this mad destruction is genuine fun or only skin deep.

Offensive engineering: a thankless but rewarding job

For many veteran players, the engineer is inherently easier to play on defense. Simple set up a dispenser, build a sentry, and upgrade both, and you have a very difficult line to break. It's not unbreakable, but it can make stall the enemy as they build an ubercharge or get a competent demoman or spy. But for, I find defensive engineering boring. Whenever I play engineer, I love playing offense.

It's certainly more difficult. Engis aren't meant to take much punishment, so putting them closer to the frontlines is bound to get you killed. But offensive engineering is very rewarding when it works. You'll know you're responsible for keeping teleporters up to supply the frontline with fresh combatants and reduce the travel time for the slower characters. Injured players can fall back on your trusty dispenser t reload and heal. And of course the sentry is there to protect everything, though offensive sentry gunning is a different part altogether.

Build your blu SG in surprising nooks and corners and use the ambush tactic to weaken the enemy defense as your team mates catch up. Playing an offensive engi is fun especially when you work on SG placement because it essentially makes you two fighters in one. Your enemy has to make a choice: kill you or kill the SG. Either choice ends in their death most of the time.

Do I need a reason now?

My wiimote has broken...

After maybe half a year of regular use, my wiimote faced idleness as my interest in the Wii faded. Now one day when I decide to give Brawl another go, I discover that the 3rd party rechargeable battery in my wiimote has overheated my 'mote. Now my Wii will really be idle for awhile.

Question is, while my mind is actually thinking of the Wii for once, I'm seeing Nintendo's E3 and E3 is supposed to get me excited about something. I'm still as doubtful as ever about it, seeing as I only have Mario Galaxy 2 and a Metroid game helmed by Team Ninja. Not shabby, but not something I was hoping for from E3. Muramasa is still coming, but by the time it's released, I might have sold my Wii. The 360 is just catering to my tastes better, so Nintendo, consider one more fan lost.

Tricking out Team Fortress 2

I've been spending a lot of time on Team Fortress 2 since the Sniper vs. Spy update landed and after weeks of playing, I've gotten around to even reskinning several things in my game. Nothing too extravagant, but just little things to make the experience more subtle.

Heatshielding shotgun
This might be a bit much, but since I like playing support engi and battle engi sometimes, I thought skinning my shotgun would be a good idea since I'll really be spending a lot of time with it. Nothing's more rewarding then luring a scout back with your shotgun only for him to get riddled by my sentry.

The Backstabber's knife
The spy is a gentleman first, assassin second, scoundrel third, and a prick fourth. His default butterfly knife seems a bit too plain and out of character for a person of his caliber. When I think butterfly knife, I don't think pinstripe suit. This skin makes the butterfly knife look like the gentleman's sophisticated butterfly knife. The gold band in the middle really sells it.

Four-slot grenade launcher
This is a necessity, not an option to me. The grenade launcher shoots 4 grenades, and yet the model has six slots. This stems from the beta having six slots but reducing it to four when the retail version launched for balancing reasons. There's really no excuse for Valve to simply leave a six-slot grenade launcher shooting four. INEXCUSABLE!

Western revolver
With the Ambassador out, using either the revolver or the unlockable is a big toss up in terms of ability. However, in terms of sexiness, the Ambassador wins hands down. That's why the western styled revolver puts some style into your by-the-book revolver. The Ambassador isn't the only gun that can do engravings!

Whack-on monkey wrench
Short but sweet: monkey wrenches always need to be red. They just look cooler that.

Orange illuminated builder/destroy PDA
Now that this skin is up, I forget what the original PDAs looked like. The big thing is that this skin taught me how to remove the obtrusive option overlay that tells you which number is which building. After you spend an hour playing engi, you instantly memorize how the buttons go (1. sentry, 2. dispenser, 3. & 4. teleporter entrance and exit respectively). These PDAs are skinned so that you cna have a reminder whenever you need it, but with the building hud down, I can actually see trouble heading at me while trying to build. Also, it lights up under low light conditions!

Golden Lady Ambassador
Let's face it; just like the incorrect six-slot grenade launcher, the Ambassador suffers some serious visual problems. There's no hole for the bullets to shoot through, the skin reflects incorrectly sometimes, and the texture of the gun overall is kind of crappy. The Golden Lady remedies those problems and highlights the most important feature of the Ambassador: a gold engraving of the Scout's mom off the beautiful silver finish.

skins courtesy of the fpsbanana community.