More SSFIV

So...Black Friday. What a disappointment. I only made 2 game-related purchases, but I did manage to snag Samurai Showdown Anthology (PS2) for $20 which is sweet because it's out of print and usually sells for around $50 on eBay. It would've been nice to pick up New Super Mario Bros. for the Wii, but I guess I'll just have to wait on it.

Anyway, some new Super Street Fighter 4 info was released last week, and I can't help but comment. The addition of Cody, Guy, and Adon got me all pumped up a few days ago, and then this image...If you click on the image, you can clearly see Guy blocking a thrown kunai, which are the little daggers that Ibuki uses in Street Fighter III! This confirms that the final character announcement will include 1 more new character and more than likely 2 Street Fighter III characters. As a big fan of SFIII, I'm glad to see that Capcom is actually listening to their fans. Ibuki, Makoto, and Dudley are the 3 fan favorites, so in addition to Ibuki, I assume we'll be seeing at least 1 of the other 2.

I'm already thinking ahead with this game and I wonder...will we see a third version of Street Fighter 4 hit stores? We got 5 versions of Street Figher II, 3 versions of Alpha (4 if you count Gold), and 3 versions of Street Fighter III. They could potentially add every character they missed in Alpha and III, plus new ones. The current character total is 31, with 3 more left to be confirmed. Can you imagine if they added even more? Capcom could easily give us a 40-42 character game with a 3rd installment. But will people care?

I would love to see every Street Fighter character ever added to SF4...but then again I would also love a new Darkstalkers game. Or a new Final Fight game. Or a new Capcom Vs. game. Or a new Powerstone game. Or Rival Schools. Or hell, let's get a completely new fighting franchise going! I guess all we can really do is buy Super Street Fighter 4 to show Capcom that people are serious about fighting games still. The success of SSFIIHDR, SF4, and MVC2 should be plenty of proof, but it seems as though Capcom needs a bit more reassurance.

-Brian

lazy dudes

Thanksgiving week has always been hard on me as a gamer. All the commitments with the family/girlfriend/new in-laws tend to get in the way of being able to sit down and enjoy a game for 2 seconds. Add to that an insane work situation, and it's understandable that I haven't been able to really play anything the last few days. Luckily, I've got Black Friday to (kind of) look forward to.

For those of you who don't know, Cheap Ass Gamer is the place to go to find the best video game deals online or in-store. It's a wonderful place, check it out. They've got a huge article on the front page highlighting all of this years' game-related deals. Hell, I was I was looking up deals just now, I got distracted by Gamestop's Buy 2 get 1 free deal and am very tempted to get a bunch of super cheap games I've always wanted to play on the PS2. I saw NeoGeo Battle Coliseum and it was all downhill from there...

Anyway, I'm hoping to snag some sweet deals this Friday. And hell, if Amazon has Black Friday deals as good as last year's I won't even have to leave my house. Good luck to all of you out there Friday morning...be safe and don't be an asshole. Enjoy your Thanksgivings blah blah blah...

-Brian T.

holy shit

I got my first arcade cabinet last night. I was walking to work and saw that someone had left it out by the curb for garbage! I freaked out and tried to find a way to pick it up or at least tell some friends about it who could pick it up for themselves. Unfortunately I had no luck and had to just keep walking my ass to work. 5 hours later when I'm coming back home, assuming I'd missed an awesome opportunity, I saw it from a couple blocks away. I sprinted toward it, made some calls, bought some casters, and slowly moved that thing down the block to my house.
So now I have an old arcade cabinet in my garage...and it looks awesome. The cabinet and wood are both in fairly good shape. It looks like it didn't take too much of a beating during it's time in an arcade in the 80's or 90's before it was taken home. When I plugged it in, some lights near the buttons lit up, but I got no sound or video. None of that matters though because I don't give a fuck about Asteroids.

I am going to mod the hell out of this thing! I don't know the first thing about anything electrical, so I'm not even going to try to restore it. Instead, I'd rather replace the tv screen and upgrade the control panel big time. I wanna completely repaint the cabinet as well. It's always been a dream of mine to get an arcade cab and find a way to make it play Street Fighter. I'm thinking I should just completely gut everything and start fresh. Ideally I would like to be able to have games run off of a console in the cabinet that I could switch out whenever I wanted. I think the most difficult and expensive part is going to be the control panel...it looks like a lot of work to replace it.

Basically I just wrote this to express how pumped I am to get this thing and how excited I am at the possibilities. When I actually start working on it, I'll post updates on the progress. In the mean time, if someone knows how to mod arcade cabinets or can point me in the direction of some helpful websites, that would be very much appreciated!

-Brian

"clever wii pun"

Wow...so New Super Mario Bros. came out yesterday for the Wii and I didn't even know. Where the fuck have I been? How could such a major release of a new Mario game slip by completely under the radar? Hell, I love rail shooters and I've been pumped for Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles and I just found out that came out yesterday too. How am I missing these releases?

Well, to be honest with you, sometimes I forget I own a Wii. Games that I wanted more than anything to be good (Muramusa) ended up being huge disappointments at a time when I felt it was crucial for the Wii to get some must-have titles. I really enjoyed Madworld, but I played it for 3 or 4 hours at a friend's house and pretty much felt like I'd already beaten it. I'm pretty sure Sam and Max was the last new Wii game I bought until last week when I was able to snag House of the Dead Overkill for $12 new. Thanks to Cheapassgamer.com for that find. Are World of Goo and Little King's Story the only crucial games that came out since then?

We all know that Nintendo, as well as 95% of developers, dropped the ball with the Wii. Brian and I were discussing the Wii yesterday about how it was a cautious experiment by Nintendo to try something new that worked and got really big. The fact that Nintendo was basically able to nearly double the longevity of the last gen consoles (PS2, XBOX, GC) is a testament to that. No matter how you look at it, the Wii is a last gen system that decimated the 360 and PS3 in sales for 2 years. That is still impressive to me. Brian is convinced that Nintendo's next console could very well be the definitive home gaming console upon it's release and that Nintendo will once and for all take the video game crown. We'll see...but in the mean time I've got that damn system in my room thirsty for a few more gems before it's replaced.

There's still plenty of time and plenty of potential must-have releases planned for the Wii. New Metroid, Mario, and Zelda titles will ensure we get another 2 years out of the system before we get to see what Nintendo has in store for us next. What else is there though? Any RPGs on the horizon? Comment back and let me know! Help me catch up and get the most out of this thing...after all, I fucking waited in line in the cold on launch day for it. Also, get ready for a review later this week on my most hated Wii game...No More Heroes.

-Brian T.

Final Fantasy XIII 03-09-2010....Hopefully

March 9, 2010. That is the newly announced release date for the long overdue, highly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII. I don’t know about you but I am fucking psyched; especially since it comes out 4 days before my birthday, which will basically guarantee me to get it on its release date. I don’t know where to begin with this game. As of right now I don’t know much except for bits and pieces here and there, but what I have seen gives me the chills.

Probably the best thing to do is let you see firsthand how amazing this game looks. If you watch this video just be sure to pay attention to the minute details that were put into this game such as the stubble on the guys face in the beginning of the video.

Video Games | Final Fantasy XIII | TGS 09: Official US Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Visually this game looks flawless. I don’t know about you but at times I felt like I was watching a movie. Seeing the cut scenes, the care to detail, and the perfection of the backgrounds gives reason to the amount of delays and push backed release dates that we have seen. Thinking about it though, it isn’t a big surprise considering the shoes that needed to be filled with the first release of a true Final Fantasy game on Next Gen Consoles. This game needs to be epic, it needs to show that Square Enix’s Final Fantasy series goes above and beyond gaming and has the ability to make the gamer feel like he is living that story. There is so much in developing a game of that magnitude. You need the music, the story itself, the visual experience, the gameplay, and the characters themselves to make you feel like you need to play this game, because if you didn’t it would almost be like you are missing out on a piece of history.

As you can obviously tell the Final Fantasy franchise is one of my all time favorites. I can still remember beating the first one on my NES or the first time I summoned the Nights of the Roundtable in the FF VII, and hopefully with this one I will have memories. I am sure a lot of people are second guessing the release date of this game. It isn’t surprising considering that it has been in development forever. But do you really think Square Enix would take the time to write a script and hire some tool to read it if it were not true. I don’t think so, and that is why I really think this is the actual release date this time. I could be wrong but we will see. In the meantime here is the video that was released to announce the release date. Let me know if you think this is true regarding the date for this game.

More Final Fantasy XIII Info

Merkin Bitches

Up until a couple of years ago, I hated first person shooters. I thought they were relatively boring and repetitive. Don’t get me wrong I did enjoy Doom and Wolfenstein 3D on my PC, but I went from those to Halo; but to me Halo sucks and there is no convincing me otherwise. It wasn’t until the first Modern Warfare came out that I really go into FPS’s; and not only did it get me in to FPS’s, it also got me heavy in to online gameplay. Because up until this point my main focus of playing a game relied more on the single-player more than anything, where now I feel it is more balanced between single and multi-player.

So after a couple of months of hearing people say how awesome it was, I finally gave it a shot. At first I was fucking horrible at it. I mean I was complete shit. I continued playing though getting better every day, and I can thank online play for this. I know if I would have only played the campaign I think my feelings would have stayed the same about my hate for shooters. From there I moved on to World at War, and by this time I was just walking all over people. I was killing mother fuckers, sicking dogs on their asses, and just downright making people look like bitches. Between Modern Warfare and World at War I spent countless hours running around merking people for the fun of it. But that was then and this is now, and as of last week we were finally able to move on to the next Call of Duty installment, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Let me just start by saying that Infinity Ward took an already awesome fucking game, and made it fucking more awesome. I have already put in almost 20 hours of gameplay in to this game and I haven’t even owned it for a week. It is fucking intense and I have loved every minute of it so far. The campaign mode is fun to play but it does seem a little short. If I had to compare the two Modern Warfare’s, I would have to say the first is better, but on the other hand though the online play, which was amazing on the first Modern Warfare, is even better on MW2. The maps, the quality of gameplay, and the graphics make this game stand out above all of the rest. The addition of death streaks, new perks, no more martyrdom and juggernaut perks, and the customizable kill streaks help to make the improvements over the first Modern Warfare. But why should I continue to review a game that I am sure most have played already? I’m not, but I just wanted to touch on those few features that helped me enjoy this game that much more. Either way if you have not had the chance to play COD MW2 then let me say that you are missing out. I would highly recommend any of the 4.25 million people who haven’t bought this game yet, to go out and buy it because if you love online gaming or killing people then this game is right up your alley.

This past week I have already seen the announcements for Call of Duty 7. Activision is obviously following suit by having Treyarch develop this title. No details have been released but I think it would be safe to assume that we will be looking at another WWII shooter. What I am anxious to see is what changes we saw in MW2 get carried over to the next installment. I don’t know about you all but I would like to see a Call of Duty set in the Vietnam era. I know it wouldn’t have a happy ending, but it sure would be fun trekking through the jungle killing Vietcong. I am sure everyone has their own opinion on MW2, but is there anyone out there who didn’t like this game. Let us know with some comments. One last note, if any of you think that you can show me up in MW2 I would love to see, because I know I can hand you your ass. Look for brofilone13 on Xbox Live.

punch, punch, punch, GIANT PUNCH

Where the hell are all the beat em ups? I'm talking old-school, arcade style, multiplayer beat em ups. Just you and a friend or two roaming around beating the shit out of anything that moved, picking up weapons, and eating random food you find in broken objects. Streets of Rage, River City Ransom, Golden Axe, Battletoads, Final Fight, etc...the list goes on. We all know the big classics. Lately through classics collections, I've been able to play quite a bit of these games and learn about new ones. You owe it to yourself to grab Capcom Classics Collection vol 2 just to play Knights of the Round...you won't be disappointed.

It's easy to remember the big ones from the 90's, but what have we seen recently? We're not even getting remakes of the classics and I can't remember the last 3d beat-em up that came out. What made the transition from 2D to 3D so difficult? I've played very few 3D games that have gotten it right. The Warriors (PS2/XBOX/PSP) is very possibly the best one that I've ever played. Even if you're not a gigantic fan of The Warriors like me, you'll still enjoy the hell out of this overlooked Rockstar gem from a few years back. I also thought that Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks (PS2/XBOX) did a fantastic job at capturing the old feel of playing through one of these games with a friend. But what else has there been in recent years?

Why has the transition to 3D been so difficult for this genre? I recall The Bouncer being my first major disappoint when it was released after it had been hyped up to revive that dead scene. For some reason that game holds a special place in my heart, but I will admit that, yes, it sucks. Remember the transition into 3D for Final Fight? Probably not. Hell, don't even look it up...you'll be embarrassed how such a classic franchise could turn out such an awful game. You don't even have to play any of the newer Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle games to know that they suck, but unfortunately I have and even the HD Remix of Turtles in Time is weak as fuck. Are games like Dynasty Warriors really the closest thing we have these days?

I'm holding a copy of Streets of Rage in my hand trying to figure out 5 old-school styled beat em ups that I've played in the past few years that I actually liked. Please somebody, it's really not that hard. I just wanna hang out with a friend and beat up some thugs. Until some developer can figure out a way to make that fun on my PS3 or 360, I guess I'll just have to stick with the classics. I really hope that Capcom JP will give us a new Final Fight done properly now that Street Fighter has become so popular again...

-Brian T

Apples to Oranges

For about the last 6 months now I have wanted a PSP. My original reason for wanting it was I figured my only real expense was the initial start up costs of the system, a Pandora battery, and a memory stick. At the time I was looking at spending only about $100 total for all 3 things. I figured since I paid almost nothing for it I could take the risk of cracking the system and download my games for free. If I fuck it up it isn’t really a big deal to waste another $40 and get a new PSP 2000. But since my hookup got fucking shit canned at Gamestop, I am now looking at paying about $120 - $150 for a PSP 2000 system alone. So what do I do now?

Well since I am paying full price for the system I have to take a few things into consideration. Do I want a 2000 or a 3000? Both are one in the same with a few minor differences. One thing I do know is I don’t want a PSP Go because it just looks fucking gay and it has a smaller screen plus you lose the UMD slot. Also with the system sliding open, I can see it being more prone to break. The 2000 has the Darth Vader special edition PSP, which I can get for $120 used at Gamestop. But the 3000 has the Gran Turismo limited edition bundle right now for $199.00, which comes with the system, Gran Turismo, and a 2 GB Memory Stick. To me this seems like a decent starter package at a good price. Plus I would also be getting the system brand new instead of used, yet another plus. I guess the deciding factor would have to be whether or not I want to crack the system.

After long hard consideration of this I have decided that cracking the system isn’t worth it. Here is why:
• I eventually will end up with too many games, so many that I do not know what to do with
• With a huge library of games I can never focus on one from start to finish
• I can emulate on my computer and DS; so do I need to emulate on the PSP
• I will have to use outdated firmware
• Games are affordable because I would be happy with buying older games since I do not intend on using my PSP for other than playing single player games (not too worried about online play)
• I would not be allowed to play downloaded games from the PSN store without an extreme amount of work to do so if the system were cracked
• PSN’s store has an amazing library of download content for the PSP that I do not want to miss out on. Plus it is cheap.

Considering all of this I am going to go legit on the PSP. Now it is just a matter of which system. And to be fucking honest I really don’t care. They are both quality products. The only real difference is that the 3000 has some better hardware and technical features over the 2000, for example the display.

I would like the 3000 but I wouldn’t complain if I got the 2000. I would really like to know everyone else’s opinion on which system I should get, and why. Comment back with what I should do.

-Brian R.

samurai showdown...rpg?

I remember sometime in 1997 I had the option to get either a used Playstation or a used Saturn from Funcoland. My best friend had a Playstation with Crash Bandicoot, Twisted Metal 2, and Resident Evil and my brother and I loved hanging out with him because we'd always get to play some amazing games. We were really tempted to go the Playstation route. Instead, we looked back at the countless hours we spent with our Genesis and the Sega Channel (you can count on a whole blog dedicated to that amazing service next week), and decided to get a Saturn.

Within a couple months, I could already feel that the Saturn was on it's way out. The game magazines announced fewer and fewer new titles every month and the wall space at all the game stores was dwindling. In a sort of quest for some new games I ended up deciding to start importing Saturn games. And that's when I found it...Samurai Showdown RPG, or Samurai Spirits Bushido Retsuden. Clicking that link will bring you to a page of screenshots which you must look at.

It was probably about 10 years ago when I stumbled across this game on a hunt for a Samurai Showdown game. My 13 year old brain could not believe what I was seeing. At this point in my life, I was officially a gamer and I mostly played RPGs and fighting games. So for me to see a Samurai Showdown RPG was basically like the first time you ever jerked off...it was awesome. The battle system looked incredible. Instead of pressing "attack" repeatedly to grind through battles, you actually have to input special move motions like in the actual Samurai Showdown fighters. My mind was blown.

Unfortunately, I knew no Japanese and to this day refuse to sit with a translation guide to play an RPG that isn't in English. There was no way I could truly enjoy what people online were describing as an amazing mix of Final Fantasy and Samurai Showdown. I had no choice but to forget about it...until now. A decade later, I think I may actually be able to play this game. All I need is about $200 for a Neo Geo CD and a copy of this game. Some awesome dude is doing a full translation for this game that can be played on the Neo Geo CD. Check this video out and try to tell me this doesn't look cool as hell.



-Brian T.

Nobody Likes Sloppy Seconds

I wonder if writing a review for a demo is even appropriate but I just find it awfully convenient that the demo happened to be released a few short days after the reviews of the original Left 4 Dead. Like I had said before L4D has solid gameplay. Unfortunately I think that was the problem with the development of the original L4d; they focused too much on the engine and gameplay and focused way too little on content. I had hoped that with L4D2 they would have realized their shortcomings with the original and would take a potentially good game that just fell short, and improve on it. I think it would be easy because the workings were there, but they just needed to add a little TLC.

I was getting excited as the anticipation to play the demo grew as it was downloading. I feel you should all know that there I really want to like this game, there are just certain factors of the game itself that hold me back. So the demo starts and the opening clip gets me even more excited, but then for me it all goes to shit. It starts flashing all of the things to expect with L4D2. NEW CHARACTERS, 5 NEW CAMPAIGNS, and NEW GAMEPLAY MODES; wow I don’t know about you, but this sounds like a game of the year edition of the original Left 4 Dead with the extra download content all in one. But wait there was none of that fucking promised download content. Why, because it was turned in to a new Left for Dead. Then the disappointment starts to brew. So I begin the demo and instantly I feel that I am playing the original game again. No zoom on weapons, same run and gun, and same bullshit. Where’s the new guns, the new style of gameplay, where was anything new. Eventually I came across an assault rifle, which I couldn’t zoom with surprisingly, unless if maybe I was just pushing the right stick in wrong. They added melee weapons, which were fucking useless when being attacked by a horde of zombies but once you pick up a melee weapon, you lose your pistol. That was just fucking gay and stupid. So really what is new? They couldn’t have just made some map packs available and offer a download for a gun pack.

I know I know that this is just a fucking demo. But if I were Valve I think that since I already have a critically acclaimed game, I would not need to offer a demo to show off what can be found in the original. You would think that they would want to give a sneak peak at what is to come. Maybe not put all their fucking cards on the table, but just enough to get people whet. That is why I think they really do not have much to offer, or I could be completely wrong and the full release of the game will make me eat my words. Either way I am still going to give the full game a try because part of me still wants to like this game. I am curious to know what everyone else thinks of the demo so far, or hear any opinions that you might have in regards to Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2, which is set to release on November 17.

-Brian R.

first blood

Alright people, I've got some random game-related thoughts. I'm having trouble thinking of a blog because I can't seem to focus on one particular topic right now. I just got the new Game Informer in the mail and I'm inclined to write about the random shit I'm reading about. First of all, the new layout fucking sucks. I hate it. It reminds me so much of a 90's game magazine, but not in a nostalgic way - in an outdated way. For example, the reviews sections reminds me of if you stuffed EGM and Gamepro's review sections in a blender and pressed LAME. I'm not a fan. But whatever...I'll get used to it and I'm sure I'll be fine with it in no time.

I keep getting more and more pumped on Heavy Rain. I enjoyed the hell out of most of Indigo Prophecy and have a lot of faith in Quantic Dream. It would seem that Sony has quite a bit of stake in this title and the long devolpment time leads me to believe that there will be a lot riding on it. I'm sure Sony is doing everything in their power to ensure that Quantic Dream are able to make the game they are promising us with these trailers. I really hope that this game doesn't do what Indigo Prophecy did and ruin an amazing story and fantastic character development by becoming completely retarded when you hit around the 80% mark in the game. It really seemed like Indigo Prophecy was rushed toward the end and it just completely fell apart. Hopefully with Sony's money backing this, this team can create a mind-blowingly unique gaming and storytelling experience with Heavy Rain. I've got my fingers crossed.

All of the Metal Gear content on the PSP is really making me wish I had one. After all, it was in fact MGS 4 that pushed me over the edge to finally get a PS3. Speaking of the PSP, what is with all the awesome PSP shit in the Playstation Store? I was browsing through the PSP demos and decided to take a look at all of the content available for Sony's underrated/overrated handheld. The awesome Capcom support alone blows my mind. Powerstone 1 and 2. Darkstalkers. Street Fighter. Mega Man. Capcom Classics Collections. That's just off the top of my head. I really, really, really (emphasis on really) like the idea of being able to own a portable gaming system where I never have to step foot into a store and I can still get awesome games and demos on a constant basis. From my house. In my room. In my bed. I definitely need to get a PSP this holiday season...maybe I'll get lucky and snag a Black Friday deal.

Holy Shit. Black Friday is 3 and a half weeks away. Hopefully all of the ads start to leak this week and I can start planning my holiday game shopping accordingly. I went shopping early on Black Friday for the first time last year and saved so much money getting stuff for other people that I was able to guiltlessly snag some awesome video game deals for myself as well.

Anyway, the last random thing that's on my mind is...when the fuck are we going to get a new Rambo game stateside? After the success of last year's Rambo, and the official announcement of Rambo V, now is the perfect time. I'd love to see a first-person shooter where you get to play as Rambo very much in the style of Call of Duty. I'd also love to see a 3rd person shooter ala Gears of War. Imagine Rambo getting the Gears of War treatment by Epic...awesome. Hell, even if it was like MGS3: Snake Eater, that would be sweet. What kind of a Rambo game would you like to see? Comment or tweet back.

-Brian T