A Transition from Console Gaming to Pc Gaming

In the past, PC gaming intimidated me. I have all these numbers and specs to keep track of and I need enough of these numbers in order for my game to run properly on my pc. These questions just didn't exist on console gaming.

But this semester, I took a computer engineering class that familiarized me with everything that a good employee working at Fry's Electronics would be familiar with. So a month ago or so, I finaly took the plunge and bought myself a 512MB AGP video card for my pc. Its pretty old, so yeah, I had to get AGP. But where am I now?

Well, I've finally gotten rid of that stupid fear of messing up my pc after opening it up. An open pc isn't like an open flesh wound. Besides from dust building up and overexerting yourself on things like slots, I've learned in class that there's usually nothing to worry about when your pc is opened up.

I've thouroughly enjoyed Team Fortress 2 as I've had it for year but couldn't play it before. Now, I have new found confidence in opening up my pc again someday to upgrade more compenents to play Left 4 Dead and so forth.

Current specs

• 2.7 Ghz Intel Pentium Processor
• 1.5GB RAM
• 512MB Nvidia 6300 AGP Card

Future goal

• 3 Ghz Processor, most likely Intel
• 2GB RAM
• A New motherboard to support...
  
• 1GB Video Card PCI-E Card
  

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for the Wii Just Ain't Happening

via 1up

The Wii isn't just different from the big boys in terms of processing power either. Because it's such a smaller system, the file size limits on it's shop channel items are also smaller. How small?

According to the 1up article at least, the file size cap is around 4oMB. Heck, half of the downloaded games on my 360's hard drive average around 500MBs or so. The sheer character roster of MvC2 alone would warrant a couple hundred megabytes.

So yeah, quite the low blow to the Nintendo camp. At least I'm cross-platform in terms of what systems I own.

Six Days to Fallujah Cancelled Over Negative Reaction

via gamepolitics

Konami's controversial military shooter, Six Days to Fallujah, has been canceled.

In case you've been living under a rock, Six Days to Fallujah is no ordinary military shooter, because it uses a real battle from the war in Iraq as a setting, Fallujah.

It may be no surprise that a game like this was canceled. Our military is still in Iraq right now, dealing with insurgents as we speak. Obviously, the first thought against this game is that it takes our military and the men and women serving it for granted and belittles their effort. What a disrespect this is to the people who died protecting us.

On the other hand, I don't want to forget the loss of a game that would've really been a provocative. The game was clearly made with tastefulness in mind. Iraqi war veterans (who weren't offended by it) even contributed to it.

Obviously, we'll go there eventually. I bet people didn't think we'd make a game about the Vietnam War or the Gulf Conflict, but we have in due time. So this particular incident won't be an exception (and no, I don't count Call of Duty 4. It tip toed around the settings, countries, and it was an dramatization involving nuclear weapons).

Norwegian King Refuses Name Change to Washed Up Video Game Mascot

via joystiq, among others

Norway; when I think of Norway, I think of vikings, not blue hedgehogs that seem uninterested in being in good games.

King Harold V refused to allow 6-year-old Christer to change his name to Sonic X. Certainly any sane figure of power would've refused such a naive 6-year-old request. Actually, the request to become a nerdy punching bag change his name never came to fruition because he wasn't considered an 18-year-old adult yet.

At least that gives him time to consider a new name when he grows up, like Nico Bellic or Chris Redfield.

Gametrailers video on Muramasa

via kotaku

This game's atmosphere is looking really good. I like to compare it to Okami, but the art style is of course different. However, my biggest worry is that this game goes the way of Viewtiful Joe, Okami, and Shadow of the Colossus. Gamesradar has no problem shoe horning these games all the time when the topic of good games that didn't sell come up, and Muramasa just strikes me as a game with an ambigious financial future.

Look the facts: the developer and publishers aren't widely known, it's of the beat-em up genre, it's heavily involved with Japanese mythos. Hardcore audiences are sure to eat it up, but what about Joe Schmoe? Your mother? The manager deciding on what to order for his next shipment of games?

MvC2 craze in it's ending stages?

via kotaku

A strange new site has popped up with everyone's favorite internet staple, the countdown clock.

People, that is, internet people, who are immensely bored and have nothing else to do, have deciphered that the new site, Tu4ar.com, is an acronym for Marvel vs. Capcom 2's player select screen's [annoying] theme song, Take You For a Ride.

After all the other hints, like ESRB ratings, arcade sticks, and achievement reveals, this looks like the final nail in the coffin that our long awaited dreams to pkay MvC2 without having to dredge ebay will finally come to fruition!

Now this is a L4D movie

Courtesy of Kotaku some days ago, I stumbled across a photo set they posted from flickr. Some dashing pals got their photos ready to do some real life L4D plus an additional dude who looks to simply be cannon fodder for the hunters. It's a cool set of pics for people who really dig L4D.

L4D on flickr

Super Smash Federal Government Brawl

Spotted this on a random trash can on campus. What's up with using Yoshi as a poster child for anarchy? Or am I missing something here? Cause obviously they're using a US Postal label to get their message across.

In case you were wondering...

I've recently upgraded my pc, making it possible to play Team Fortress 2, which I bought a year ago but couldn't play. So I've been catching up with all the stuff I've been missing like the Medic update, Heavy update, Pyro update, Scout update, and all the little things like the mini updates for the Spy's cloak and Engi's little toys.

I'll bring it the front tomorrow probably, but right now I have to finish other things. Just finished the SFIV tournament and the Howie's game day a week before. It's been pretty hectic as Vice Prez of Gaming Club.

Never Mind Control the Unluckiest Adventurer

Wednesday I decided enough is enough and level skip everyone in my DnD campaign. My other campaign just got cancelled due to inconsistent scheduling and I was just two levels away from getting my second job class (called a paragon class).

So now everyone is level 11, ripe for their paragon classes, and some decide to even craft new characters to try new classes, especially the new ones introduced with the new primal power source. Ron, for example, scrapped his ranger in favor of the new druid class.

But this wasn't all about giving my players a new sense of power at level 11. No, with my players at level 11, I could now throw much more interesting monsters at them! Case in point, the Exalted Brain in a Jar.

I didn't have much of a story. Just throw together a flimsy excuse to start a fight. New guilds breaking the rules? Ok, we're in a guild too, so let's show'em how its done! Then, throw a big zombie pack at them as a feint to get them used to the new powers. Then, suddenly, bam! Someone just got dominated out of nowhere. In other words, brainwashed by a mysterious, as of seen entity.

By dominating Ron's druid, I could command him to attack his own allies in addition to attacking them directly with the Brain's psychic attacks. Unfortunately, Ron was terrible at throwing his dice, because he kept throwing twos and threes on his attacks. It was the equivalent of just putting Ron to sleep and having him become useless rather then brainwashing him and turning him against each other. 

Arcade Day 2 at Howie's

CSULB Gaming Club had it's second arcade day Saturday at Westminster Mall's Howie's, and despite a smaller number of people showing up then normal, nothing quite beats that feeling of playing on a local area network with seven other friends on Left 4 Dead.

In case you don't know, Howie's is a godsend to non-pc gamers. I've only recently upgraded my pc, and even then, Team Fortress 2 kinda chugs along. Howie's not only has over 50 360s linked together with a wide variety of games to choose from, they also have a large stock of pc's rigged for optimal gaming over a variety of games at high end settings.

So far before, my experience with L4D was limited to the 360 and online. At most, one other person can join with me on a second controller. Anymore players would be online and even then, I'm sharing a split screen.

On a PC, L4D truly shines for someone who's primarily a console gamer. Eight people on a lan, all in the same room, smack talking each other and hearing their reactions as you play as an infected during versus mode and tear them apart.

We were cut down to 4 people when Team Fortress 2 started, so the only game type we could play was Arena, which was straight up death match as opposed to the traditional objective based game types (like capture the flag or territories). Later on though, when things really died down (only 3 of us left, not even enough for a proper game) we joined up a server online and things got exciting again as we joined the BLU team and tried our hand at playing a much part in a much larger team. As I played a medic, healing people and in return, leeching points off their achievements, my friend Juan played an engineer and tried his hand at support the team with a forward base with a dispenser and teleporters. His brother played a dedicated sniper; I didn't see him change classes once.

All in all, it was a great job well done for the club. Good impressions from the members and all around good time too.

The DSi and How My World Got Weirder

Over at my photo blog, things have gotten weird ever since I got my DSi, but not in a bad way.

When I got my DSi, I was optimistic about enjoying it. The biggest reason I think I'm gonna like it is because it'll use firmware updates. This may let the DSi stay up to date and make small, fresh tweaks. Not necessarily big changes like a new layout or something, but maybe small fixes like new picture altering options like colors and frames and fixes for maybe a difficult wifi connection.

Not to mention SD card support. Easy access to pictures (my laptop has a card reader), and possibilities to experienced hackers and home brewers.

Personally, I like the new DSiStore. The new games up for sale on the first day were really interesting in taking advantage of the camera. It's a little tricky getting it to recognize your face, but even Birds & Beans, a straight port of a Warioware mini game, is addictive.

The Arcade Troll: Puente Hills Mall's "Tilt" Arcade

After much Internet dredging, I found an arcade within a reasonable distance that has the up and coming Arc System Works' Blazblue. Of course I pencil it into my schedule, and this past Wednesday, I was able to drop by the Tilt arcade of the Puente Hills Mall.


So how was the experience in general?

It was a pretty first rate trip. First of all, I'd like to say a Beard Papa is right across from the Tilt arcade, so that was a huge plus. What I did for change was basically buy a single creme puff with a $5 bill, and use the rest of the change on the quarter machines in the arcade.


Tilt arcade is a very nice, diverse arcade. It has very distinct sections for fighters, light gunners, and racers, with Blazblue being in the center of the arcade just for me!


Blazblue was of course my main attraction. I might have spent up to $5 in quarters on it. Doesn't sound too bad does it? That's because it costs 50 cents to start a game and challenge someone, but rematches are only 25 cents! That's a big plus to the mentality of the challengers, as it doesn't cost too much to fight someone else and improve your skills.


The game is a smooth, aggression oriented fighting style. With only four attack buttons, small link combos are easily achieved. The normal seasoned fighter mentality will work on these buttons. Mash the jab button twice or thrice, link a medium attack, link a heavy attack, and finish it with a drive attack, which is usually the strongest attack and includes the special effects that are unique to each character. For example, Ragna's drive attack absorb health and Jin's freeze his opponents. Advanced combos of course exist, courtesy of youtube for their existance, but the use of four buttons encourages less focus on manipulating buttons and more on rushing your opponent.

It's a very refreshing way to fight after two months of SFIV mania. You can full on run in this game, air dash and air block, and jumping in is actually relatively safe compared to the dragon punch fest in SFIV.

One of my gripes is that with four buttons, special move execution overlap and depend on arbitrary buttons. A quarter motion backwards with the heavy attack button yields a completely different attack then quarter motion backwards with the light attack button. This can be a little confusing when your character has plenty of special attacks, but I guess it adds to the sense that you should really main a character when you fight against other people rather then casually playing all of them (in fact, when you get a new challenger, you're forced to play as the character you were winning with. No character switching until you lose).

After Blazblue, there were other notable games. Let's Go Jungle is a SEGA developed game that houses it's gamers in a jeep shaped cabinet with gun turrets. Unlimited ammo, but limitless enemies, plus it mixes things up every once in a while with arcade style quick time events and even a segment where you use oars instead to whack frogs away from you with the right timing.
There was also Brave Firefighters, the arcade style firefighting game (with my partner strangely more interested in shooting water out at random then putting out fires) and even the Ferrari game which utilizes a three-monitor display to give you an enhanced peripheral vision experience.


I heartily reccomend Tilt arcade to anyone within range of it. From my location in Westminster, CA, it's nearly the same distance as to Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, except the traffic never comes to a dead stop, so the drive actually feels faster.

note: photography was actually not allowed in the arcade. Consider yourselves lucky I snuck these photos!