another subliminally pro-saturn entry

I want you to stop for a second and think about how many different game controllers you have actually held and played with for different consoles over the years. Go as far back as you can remember. You didn't have to own the game console, but if a friend did, it counts. Keep in mind that the Genesis, Saturn, XBOX, PSX, PS3, NeoGeo CD, and many others actually had TWO distinctly different controllers. I have used 18 different controllers for home consoles. 18. That's a lot of controllers. The strangest thing though is how little they've actually changed.If you think about it, controllers basically took 2 paths. There is a Nintendo path...and there is a Sega path. Both Nintendo and Sega started with extremely similar-looking controllers for the NES and Master System respectively. But when the two launched their 16-bit consoles, the real innovation began. Let's start with the Genesis. First Sega released the 3 button pad, establishing contour and the "boomerang" shape that is still prevalent today. They soon released a six-button version that, while smaller, made all games (especially fighters) easily playable on the Genesis.

Nintendo came out of the gate with an awesome controller with the SNES as well. It had triggers and the 4 face buttons were arranged in a diamond shape. Moving along the timeline, this diamond-shaped controller and basic SNES design should be noted when you consider how Sony got into the console business. For those of you who don't know, Sony was originally hired by Nintendo to create a disc-based add-on for the SNES to compete with the Sega CD. Upon the Sega CD's massive failure, Nintendo basically fired Sony and decided to stick with cartridges for the N64. Sony took what they'd been working on and and made it into the Playstation...which destroyed the N64 without mercy. The funny thing is though, the original Playstion controller was basically identical to the SNES controller. It added another set of triggers and the exaggerated boomerang shape, but even the diamond-shaped button layout was the same. Hell, the Dualshock 3 is essentially an SNES controller with analog sticks attached if you squint at it hard enough.

Sega, on the other hand, stuck with the 6 button route, added triggers, and created a controller that many argue was FAR more comfortable than the PSX controller for the Saturn. When they released Nights, they also launched a new 3D controller with an analog stick which essentially became the Dreamcast controller. Just in the same way that the Dualshock 3 is an SNES controller, the XBOX 360 controller can be traced directly back to the Genesis just by looking at it. The basic shape and contour match and the analog stick placement is identical to the Saturn/DC controllers.

Nintendo basically decided when they launched the N64 that they were never going to made a good controller again so they released the horribly designed N64 controller which many games required you to have to jump back and forth between the d-pad and the stupidly placed analog stick. While fans of Goldeneye swear it's a great controller, everyone else realized it sucked. It also started Nintendo's trend of making their buttons whatever the fuck and size and shape they want. The Gamecube controller is a disgusting little mess and as much as Nintendo is once again trying to revolutionize controllers with the Wii, that controller pretty much sucks too for most practical games.

It's interesting to note that while I grew up mostly on Sega systems and the Saturn controller is my favorite controller of all time, I actually find the Dualshock 3 to be the best controller on the market despite the fact that I was never a huge fan of the SNES design. What about you guys? I'm curious to see if people who grew up on Sega systems prefer the 360 controller and if SNES owners prefer the Dualshock 3. Comment back and let me know!

-Brian T.

Next Gen Console Hardware: "Failed"

Like I was starting to say before Brian T. swooped in and exploited my sexuality; you would think that with the advancement of technology today we would not be seeing the failure of next gen consoles like we do. For instance my Sega Genesis worked flawlessly up until I sold it, and I am pretty sure that it is still working today if it was taken care of. I never had a problem with my NES except for the pins wearing out from heavy usage. That is to be expected though and it is not a direct result of hardware failure, but with newer consoles though it is the complete opposite. Recently I read that 60% of UK Xbox 360 owners surveyed have experienced some sort of hardware failure. That is a staggering number, which to me is unacceptable. I myself have experience hardware failure, 2 times with 360’s and twice with Nintendo DS lites.

First let me start by saying what happened with my 360’s because these were the ones that are really comical and painful at the same time. FYI, I am on my 3rd 360 now. So I got my first 360 in the Summer of 2006. From the first minute it always seemed load, but everything I read and everyone I talked to said it was normal. Eventually after about a year and a half it got to the point that it was loud enough to hear it upstairs in the bedrooms. So after about a year and a couple of E74 errors I decided to call Microsoft. The conversation got to the point that I asked the technician if he wanted to hear the sound my system was making and he said sure. After turning it on and him hearing it I was quickly asked if there were any smoke or flames emitting from the unit. All I could do was laugh, and was told since it was two weeks out of its original 1 year manufacturer’s warranty I would have to pay $100 to have it fixed. That’s bullshit if you ask me so I put it up on eBay.

My second 360 was yet another console sporting the Zephyr chipset. I got a good run out of it, until it finally red ringed on me on November 9th, 2009. And if anyone recognizes that date it is the day before Modern Warfare 2 launched. So of course I instantly went in to panic mode. And in case if you don’t know there are 2 ways that a 360 can red ring. One is a prolonged period of different sorts of malfunctions, and the other is just a sudden 3 red rings with no warning what so ever. Mine was the latter of the 2. And if you go to Wikipedia here it will show you a list of all of the different sorts of failures that can be experienced with the red rings. I experienced them all. Since my 360 still would kind of work I decided to trade it in to Gamestop and upgrade to an Elite. Long story short, I take it to Gamestop, he turns it on, goes to play a game and it freezes. Then he turns it off and turns it back on and sure enough it red ringed right in front of him. So I got screwed on the trade in price but ended up with a new Elite that is quieter and cooler than any 360 I have owned.

Finally we move on to Nintendo DS Lite. I have had two that have failed on me. The first one the display went bad and by bad I mean that the picture was pixilated. The second would only charge if the unit was on. As soon as I would turn it off it would stop charging. Both times I was able to warranty it out and have it replaced with a “new” refurbished unit.

So I guess the gist of this blog is to hear if anyone else has had any of their own misfortunes with any of their consoles. It seems that these failures are becoming more and more common. I am also curious to know if you have, how was your experience with their customer service? For me Nintendo hands down had the best service. They sent me a new unit before I had to send in the broken one, which is better because that way I do not have to wait for them to get the unit, check it out, make a decision to repair it or replace it, and then send it out. Microsoft should consider taking this approach because with the sheer number of 360’s that fail, it would only be fair to us the consumers.

-Brian R.

flower POWER!!!

I feel as though the world of gaming journalism, as well as the gaming community have all let me down. Apparently, a little game called Flower was released in the Playstation Store on February of this year and nobody thought to tell me. To be fair, the only thing I really cared about on February 2nd was the imminent release of Street Fighter 4 so I'm sure I had tunnel vision when it came to games that didn't have hadoukens. I can easily see how this title could slip by unnoticed, forever forgotten by all but a small few...but I refuse to let that happen. This game is fucking amazing and everyone with a PS3 should play it at least once.I was watching the X-play Video Game Awards show last night and I kept seeing this game nominated for different awards. I thought to myself "How the hell is this game getting nominated for so many awards when I've never read or heard a single review on it?" I remember seeing it in the Playstation Store while browsing and I vaguely remember seeing a screenshot when Game Informer previewed it earlier this year in the DLC column, but that's it. So I decided to go ahead and just download it on a whim.

Wow. I literally started laughing to myself within 10 minutes of playing this game because it was blowing my mind. The question "Are video games art?" has been answered and the answer is a strong, confident FUCK YES. All you essentially do is control the wind using the Sixaxis controller and any button of your choice as you blow petals off of flowers in vast, richly-detailed natural environments. When you blow a petal off of a flower, it blooms and you accumulate more petals onto your windstream. The more flowers you cause to bloom, the more life is restored to the world. If this sounds like an extremely abstract description of the fantastic Okami (PS2/Wii), then I guess you would be far off. And the comparison is a welcome one. The visuals are quite often awe-inducing. The music is phenomenal and works in many ways like the game REZ (DC/PS2) where your actions in the game directly control the music. For example, whenever you pick up a petal a chime or a piano note may play. Continue picking up strings of petals and you will add entire arrangements to the music that are always perfectly in time and perfectly in tune.

There is one drawback that may turn some people off from this game though and I should probably address it. Like many original downloadable titles, this game is short. Apparently you can complete the game and unlock all the trophies in under 5 hours of play. I find this to be completely justifiable considering the price is only $9.99. Most new games are $59.99 and give you an average of 20 hours of play, so in actuality you're getting a pretty awesome deal. I used this same reasoning to convince everyone I knew to download the WiiWare game Lost Winds. Trust me, you won't be complaining about the price or length once you actually sit down and play it and can appreciate what this game is all about.

I know I'm almost a year late on this one, but better late than never. Go download and play Flower right now. I gotta go try to squeeze a few minutes of play in before work...

-Brian T

Is it Gay to Get a Blow J From Another Man

You would think that with the advancement in today’s technology, somebody would have invented an authentic virtual reality experience that simulates another man giving you, the player, an intense blowjob. Many of you may remember in the 90’s when rumble vests hit the market. These vests would basically just vibrate in the same way that controllers do today, but at the time, the vests were marketed as authentic accessories that could simulate every punch taken in Mortal Kombat and every cumshot to the chest taken in the hard to find N64 classic “Cumshot City: Wet and Wild”.



What I, Brian Rossi, would like to know is…when are we going to get a next-gen update that will finally allow me to live my true gaming fantasy of getting a sick, nasty BJ from another man? Do we really need another Halo or Madden game on the market when we don’t have a single homoerotic oral sex simulator? No. Let’s get it right people. You wanna fix the economy? Fix the housing/mortgage crisis in America? Do you want our soldiers out of Iraq? Call your local congressman and demand what all freedom-loving Americans want…a Wiiware download where you use your Wii remote as an anal or oral probe.
-Brian R.

saving sega

Capcom announced Mega Man 10 today for WiiWare which is pretty awesome. I'm a pretty big Mega Man fan, so it's always nice to see more of a classic. The game will have the old-school 8-bit look, which I still commend Capcom for doing with Mega Man 9. Updating the classic gameplay for newer generations has given us some good and some not so good Mega Man titles, but how many times have you ever seen a developer actually go back to what made the original titles so good in the first place?

Sega, out of any publisher or developer, has had one of the biggest falls from grace in video game history. And while their hardware decisions in the mid and late 90's had the biggest impact on the company, Sega has fucked up even bigger with some of their biggest money-making franchises. Obviously the first thing that comes to mind is Sonic and the fact that there hasn't been a great classic Sonic game in over 10 years. Somehow Sega makes money off of the mediocre and shitty Sonic games they put out and continue to drag this legendary gaming icon through the mud. The closest attempts at classic Sonic gameplay recently seemed to be the Sonic Rush series, and even those took too many steps away from the original formula. But what if Sega just went all out and made a Sonic the Hedgehog 5? All sprites, all midi. It would cost them nothing and they could release it digitally at $14.99 and make a killing.

What about Golden Axe? The first 3 were classics (I was lucky enough to play the 3rd as a kid through the Sega Channel), but I remember for the Saturn title, Sega decided to make a fighter. It could have been cool, but it kinda sucked. And then after a 10 year hiatus, Sega put out Golden Axe Beast Rider as if to say "Hey, remember those really awesome Golden Axe games you used to play? Well this game is a bomb that will destroy every good memory you ever had about the series...fuck you." Why doesn't Sega just made Golden Axe 4 and give us a proper beat-em up. Or better yet, Streets of Rage 4!

Anyone remember Sega's laughable almost-attempt at a new Vectorman title?You can see why this piece of shit got cancelled...at least they came to their sense with this one. They still managed to fuck up classic franchises like Shining Force with bland titles that had nothing to do with the original games for the Genesis and Saturn.

The point I'm trying to make is that Sega needs to stop trying to find shitty new ways to ruin classic games and just go back and pretend it's still the early 90's. When Golden Axe Beast Rider was announced, nobody got excited. Nobody cared. All you had to do was look at the game and see that it wasn't Golden Axe. If Sega wants real Sonic fans to get excited about the next Sonic game, maybe he shouldn't look like fucking Taz. This could easily become a two-part blog, but I'm going to stop myself now before I start thinking about all of the ways that Sega has let me down.

-Brian T

Glitching is for Pussies

It has been a couple of weeks since I have written my last blog entry. Main reason being I am getting fucked in my ass at work, which has left me little time to do so, and the little time that I do have I would rather be playing video games then writing about them. I am sure you all can understand that. The only game that I have been playing since November 10 is the new Call of Duty, and I am sure the same goes for most. It is an awesome game all around. The campaign is good, most of the special-ops are fun, and without a doubt the online play is amazing. But like any game it isn’t perfect and it mainly isn’t the games fault itself.

The fault comes from the douche bags online that can’t just play the game the way it is meant to be played. What am I talking about? Let’s start with the huge increase in the amount of faggots running around with grenade launchers now. I guess since they can’t rack up kills with the martyrdom perk, they need to just run around blowing everybody up. Then there are the douche bags that do nothing but run around with the double shotgun setup and do nothing but try and stab you. Why would you want to do nothing but run around and stab people? How could that be any fun? If anything it is just fucking annoying. It goes against the entire concept of the game. You remove any skill or challenge that you would face if you just played the game the way it was meant to be played. And last but not least the gayest of them all are the idiots who run around using the javelin glitch. Their goal is to run and try and stab you, and if you kill them while the glitch is in affect it automatically sets off the javelin. The other thing they try and do is find your spawn point so they can run in and kill themselves along with 3 or 4 of your teammates. What the fuck is this. This is all bullshit. Play the fucking game right and stop being such pussies. I cannot stand people who fucking cheat. Grow some balls and play the game fairly. Your numbers don't mean shit and the win is worthless if you have to cheat to get it. And just in case you don't know what I am talking about here is a video of the javelin glitch.



So can all of this be overcome? Of course it can. If you are good and can play the game right, then these pussies don’t stand a chance. Let them continue what they are doing because other then pissing me off, once the game is over I still come out on top, even with their bullshit tactics. I can only imagine what kind of shitty numbers they would put up if they weren’t doing this.

I am curious to know what you all think about people you meet online. Also I am curious to know what you think about the maps on Modern Warfare 2 because if you ask me I think they are just mediocre. Comment back and let me know.

FYI for everyone. If you are like me and sick of these cheating bastards, report to Microsoft that they are using the javelin glitch and they will get their xbox live accounts banned.

-Brian R.

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

Nobody Likes to be Ass Fucked

So I was just going to let Brian have the Left 4 Dead blog but with it being Halloween and all, and with my hate being so great for this game, I cannot resist. The problem is where do I start; and do I even fucking waste the time giving credit where credit is due?

I suppose I will start with the good, what little bit there is. Left 4 Dead has solid gameplay and controls. There you go, that is it.

What, were you expecting more? Like what about how the zombies constantly generate in a new place every time. Are you fucking kidding me? Is it mentally fucking possible to even remember where each zombie would generate from considering the mass amount that flock you at any given moment. Come on we are not playing Mario Brothers on the NES anymore. We have advanced enough to make sure that there is enough content in a game anymore to make it almost impossible to remember where enemies come from, regardless if it is random or not. Right or wrong, and that alone is not the only shit that was weak as hell in the game though.

Next we have the major lack of weaponry and the similarity and repetitiveness of every goddamn level. Does anyone remember in Clerks 2 when Randal described the story of the Lord of the Rings in about 1 minute? Well I will do the same but in about 10 seconds. Here we go. We start at the beginning, fill our ammo and fight for a health pack if we are playing co-op, regardless if you are out of health and almost dead, start running and shooting, and finally get to the last door, hopefully before some asshole closes it on you, and then repeat again. Fun right? Then there are the weapons. Talk about a huge let down, only 4 weapons and some grenades. Fuck the fact that the weapons are upgradeable; a fucking Uzi is a fucking Uzi. And really we should say that there are only 3 guns because who really tries to use the sniper rifle when you are being gang raped by a hundred zombies. Because of that this is how Left 4 Dead made me feel, gang raped for $60 worth of bullshit.

But we were all taught that we should learn from our mistakes. Hopefully Valve got this same life lesson at one point in time. In less than 3 weeks Left 4 Dead 2 will hit the shelves. Will I buy it though? No, but I am definitely going to rent it. I believe that everyone should get a second chance. Like I said the gameplay and controls were real good. If they add more weapons and change up the levels a little, then I think that Valve will have a real solid game on their hands. Lastly I didn’t think I should bring this up but should I mention that fact that Left 4 Dead 2 is probably nothing more than promised DLC for the original Left 4 Dead. Who else feels like this is a gang rapping? Let me know by commenting back.

-Brian R.

"Good...bad...I'm the guy with the gun"

If you haven't watched Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness, you need to immediately get up, go rent/buy them, and watch them consecutively...then you can join the rest of us super rad people here. Trust me, you'll thank me. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Evil Dead trilogy is a series of 3 films written and directed by Sam Raimi that star cult classic Bruce Campbell. Unfortunately, this is a video game blog so I'm not going to go into detail explaining how incredible the movies are, but what I will go into detail about is the first Evil Dead game for Playstation, Evil Dead: Hail to the King.

First of all, take a look at the packaging, pictured above. You don't have to know shit about Evil Dead, you don't have to know who the hell Ashley J Williams is, you don't need to know the first thing about Deadites, Boomsticks, cabins, or time travel. All you need to see is Ash on the cover of the game, covered in blood, holding a chainsaw over his head and you know this game is going to be super duper badass. Well, hopefully. At this point we can only assume it's going to be awesome. Upon starting up the game you'll notice that Bruce Campbell lends his voice to create a very convincing Ash. The game takes place after Army of Darkness so Ash is already a seasoned Deadite killing machine at this point and has plenty of sweet one-liners to top it off. In fact, pressing triangle actually just makes Ash say a one-liner at any time. Definitely a nice touch.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning. You have to watch a little movie explaining the premise blah blah blah. When you get to take control of Ash the very first thing you're going to notice is...well, the control setup. I should probably mention right now that this game is a major Resident Evil clone. It's pretty shameless sometimes. The controls are the same so you have to rotate Ash and press up to move forward. The game also uses prerendered backgrounds, limited inventory, item boxes, and an identical save system to Resident Evil. And I'm not saying this as a bad thing; I love Resident Evil. Obviously the backgrounds still look pretty good by today's standards because they're prerendered, but any 3d model looks exactly how you'd expect it to look for a game that's just about a decade old.

So you start off in the original cabin which looks amazing, and you have a chainsaw and an axe. So far everything I've said sounds pretty cool...but then I actually played the game...and unfortunately it kinda sucks. As much as I want to love it, it's not very good. The nostalgia will wear off quickly as you become unbelievably frustrated by the awful fighting mechanics and constant onslaught of enemies. Everything awesome about this game is offset by how annoying it is to fight. As soon as you start to explore the cabin, some sort of flying demon appears that can swipe at you from pretty far as well as spit across a room. Unfortunately the fixed camera and sub par control response made my first attempt at this game a complete failure. I could not get a bearing on where the stupid demon was so I could attack it. So I basically ran in circles wildly and died within 45 seconds. I restarted and ran into a smaller room where I could plainly see where everything was and proceeded to button mash square to chop the stupid fucking thing nearly 20 times before it died. SHITTY.

And that's just one enemy. If you can force yourself to keep going, probably for the sheer fact that Bruce Campbell does an awesome job with the voice acting, then you'll eventually be swarmed by enemies that you can only attack one at a time. You have a goddamned chainsaw for a hand...that's fucking awesome. Unfortunately it's pointless using it when up against more than one enemy because you're completely vulnerable when you do. There are other little things to nitpick about, but again, any problem you have with the fundamental mechanics of the first 3 Resident Evil games is going to transfer over. Don't like the inventory system or the save system from RE? Then you won't like the inventory or save system in Evil Dead either. Either way, nothing can top how awful the fighting is, so really nothing else even matters.

The bottom line is, if you love Evil Dead, you should own this game just because. You can find it pretty easily on eBay or in stores that sell used Playstation games. The Dreamcast version seems slightly harder to come by, but most DC stuff is these days it seems. If you're not familiar with Evil Dead, then you probably don't need to waste your time. It's not the worst game I've ever played, but it's not good either. Believe it or not though, I still like it a lot more than either of the Evil Dead games on PS2 or XBOX.

-Brian T

Look at me, I'm in a Nutshell

I still remember my first real experience with video games. I was about 4 or 5 years old and my grandma’s neighbor got a Nintendo. I can picture in my head the awe that everyone had once it was set up with Mario Brothers playing on the screen. Unfortunately I only got one crack at it and I died trying to jump on the first goomba.

I will be brief with the earlier systems because I did not have much as far as a library is concerned due to the fact that I was fucking hindered by being a kid and only got games on special occasions… i.e. holidays and birthdays. I owned all of these consoles in this order: Atari 2600 (thanks to my dad), NES, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Sega Game Gear, Playstation, and Xbox. I got my PSX in high school and let me say that video games were becoming less and less important in my life at that time. I stilled played them, but they fell second to friends and partying and I was usually partying while playing them. I got an Xbox when it came out, but I was really, really heavy into the partying. I sold it and then about a year later got a second one only to sell it in a month. So to be honest I would really say that my gaming career went on hold in the PSX era if you can even call it one. The time period between PSX and Xbox 360 is kind of foggy for me and it was no one’s damn fault but my own. And trust me I know that I missed out on a lot of good shit that was associated with the PS2 and original Xbox; but I have time and am slowly going back and making up for shit missed.

In my time I have come across some bad ass games that I will always remember. Mario, Sonic, Excitebike, Zelda, Tony Hawk Series, The Secret of Monkey Island, Dragon Warrior, FFVII, Destruction Derby 2, Skitchin’, Sewer Shark, Street Fighter II’ Special Champion Edition, Mortal Kombat 2, Eternal Champions, and RC Pro-Am are just to name a few. So don’t get discouraged and say you can’t trust my judgment based on my history, which might not be as extensive as the next persons. That doesn’t change the fact that I know what’s good and what sucks. Besides, just because I didn’t play them when they came out doesn’t mean that I don’t sit at work and play them on emulators for my computer. You gotta love free shit.

By now I am sure you are wondering what I do have to work with and talk about. Well as far as consoles go I have an Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, and a Nintendo DS Lite. I am in the works of getting a PSP 2000. Why a PSP 2000? Because the PSP Go is a fucking piece of shit joke. Who only wants to download games? No resale value, what if you hate it you are stuck with it, and it makes it harder to pirate games (jk). Emulators that I have are NES, Super NES, N64, Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Color, PSX, Game Gear, Sega Genesis, Neo Geo, and Turbografx 16. Some of these are on my computer and I have some for my DS too. I have every NES rom, SNES rom, N64 rom, Gameboy and Gameboy Color rom, Gameboy Advance rom, about 200 DS games (.nds files), every Genesis, Sega Cd, and Game Gear rom, about 35 Dreamcast games (.iso files), every Neo Geo rom, and I am working on building my collection of PSX, PS2, and PSP games (.iso files). So as you can see, I do not fuck around when it comes to video games. Slowly I am working my way to filling up by 2 TB external HDD with rom’s and iso’s.

My goal is to fucking own it all. But most of all I still want a Neo Geo, a Turbografx 16, an Atari Jaguar, a Sega Genesis, Sega CD, and a 32x. Basically I am working at attaining everything that I wanted or had as a kid but don’t have now. Someday I will have them but in the meantime I obviously have more than enough to fucking go around. Can you beat this or even match it? I would like to know. Plus I am always interested in new and improved emulators, so let me know where to get them and how well they work.

-Brian R.

Zombies Ate my Neighbors

I was 8 years old when my Dad showed me Night of the Living Dead. I had never experienced actual fear until that point in my life. When I went to go to sleep that night all I could think about was what I would do if there was a zombie outbreak. Since then I have fallen in love with most things zombie related. A lot of people have. And because of this, zombies are popping up all over the place. And people are eating up all the bullshit. Anything with a zombie on it is automatic gold these days it seems. Though not as trendy and topical as vampires, the general consensus is that zombies are "in" right now. And leading the zombie army on the video game front is the wildly popular Left 4 Dead and soon to be released sequel.

If you think I'm about to suck this game's dick and sing it's praises, you're wrong. I honestly don't see what the big deal is. I will say up front that I have only had about a half hour with the PC version. I'd been super excited to check it out for months and when I finally got the opportunity, I was completely underwhelmed. It was just an FPS. The zombies were intense, but there was nothing truly scary. It was fast and...uh...there were a lot of zombies onscreen at once. But no matter what, I always felt like I was constantly just spinning in circles firing blindly at the ridiculous masses of zombies.

There's nothing that makes Left 4 Dead feel like legit zombie survival experience. Throwing a ton of zombies at me isn't going to scare me any more than if I was being swarmed by a hundred of anything. If 100 chickens were running at me, I would be equally scared. Personally I think that the Nazi Zombie mode in Call of Duty: World at War is the best zombie survival game I have ever played. In Nazi Zombies you're holed up in some small area fighting off waves of zombies as you rebuild barriers over windows and try to upgrade your guns.. You're fighting for your survival in a place you can't escape from..kinda sounds like Night of the Living Dead actually. Or Dawn of the Dead. Or Day of the Dead. And that's the way it should feel. Left 4 Dead has you running and gunning through a lot of zombie infested cities...kind of like Land of the Dead. And you know what? Nobody likes Land of the Dead better than Night, Dawn, or Day.

Essentially Left 4 Dead and Nazi Zombies are doing the same thing. You have four maps to choose from. You can play with 3 other people online. You fight waves of zombies with various guns. Unfortunately I never felt like I was up against a zombie horde in Left 4 Dead. I felt like I was shooting a bunch of zombies trying to get to the end of a level. Little things make a difference as well. For example, Left 4 Dead technically has 8 weapons whereas, depending on the map, you'll have at least 15 weapons available in Nazi Zombies. Left 4 Dead gives you infinite ammo on your pistol and you can dual wield them as well. There's no infinite ammo in Nazi Zombies so you always feel that every shot counts. Nazi Zombies is basically a mini game and it's better than Left 4 Dead.

I can't be the only person who has figured this out. Anyone agree? Disagree? Are you planning on picking up Left 4 Dead 2? Comment or tweet us and let me know! Also check back later in the week because I'm gonna be playing the hell out of surprise halloween themed game for a special review!

-Brian T

War What is it Good For

Up until Call of Duty 4 I was never much of a First Person Shooter kind of guy. With the exception of Wolfenstein 3D and Doom on PC, I hated FPS’s. Halo especially, which I still hate to this day. I played Bioshock when it first came out and didn’t like it. All because I had some hate towards FPS’s, I think I didn’t give some good games the play they deserved. And to be honest I think the hate stemmed from the fact that I fucking sucked at them. When Modern Warfare finally came out I decided to give them one more fare shake. Besides all of my friends were playing it and everybody kept saying how amazing of a game it was. So I bought it, got good at it, and now I fucking love shooters. And I’m pretty confident in saying I will fucking hand most people there asses in COD4 or COD 5. With that said maybe I should go back and revisit Bioshock now.

This last week I have been playing Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. This is a fucking cool ass game that I think should a got a little bit better of a rating across the board. Unfortunately I only had the opportunity to play the campaign mode because I was so stuck on that, I never got a chance to play any multiplayer online. Codemasters set out to create a game that simulated and presented the feeling of realistic all out war. With this installment of Operation Flashpoint, I think they have succeeded.

Bad Ass Shit:
• Open World Setting – Allows many options when confronted with challenges. Flanking enemies, going head on, or avoidance all together
• Real Reaction to Injury – Getting wounded in the leg makes you limp and you can’t run. If you are wounded in the arm you can’t steady your weapon as well
• Weapons – Very realistic. Switch from single shot, burst, or full auto. Grenade Launchers, RPG’s, mines, and various grenades. Gun firing ranges are realistic and hit detection is above average.
• Artillery and Missile Strikes – Fucking awesome. The look and devastation that is caused makes this an awesome addition to your arsenal when it is available.
• Vehicles – Flying a helicopter is like using a flight simulator
• Realistic Simulated War – This game can make you feel like you are really in combat

Shitty Shit:
• Sound Effects – Had the surround sound turned to “11” and still thought I should be feeling these explosions not just hearing them.
• View in Vehicles – Could only look forward when driving or flying. Thought you should be able to turn your head and look out the side windows.
• Button Layout – I don’t know if it could have been better or if I am just stuck on Call of Duty’s button layout.

Indifferent Shit:
• The Story – Sets up real well but once the game starts it is just mission after mission with no fillers. But realism is the goal and that is how it would be in real life.

I wish that I would have had more time with this game. Unfortunately Gamefly fucked me and didn’t send it out on the release date so I got stuck renting it. I could have almost bought it with the amount I ended up spending on late fees. But the real question is; is this game worth buying? For me I would have to say yes ...kind of. This game does kick ass. Even though I did not experience the multiplayer, from what I have read about it, the game there is some real potential there. Unfortunately the game is fucked by poor timing. If you’re like me with 2 kids, a wife, a full time job, and no money tree in the backyard, then you need to prioritize which games are a must. With Forza Motor Sport 3 coming out next week and Modern Warfare 2 coming out next month (both a must have for me), I would much rather wait until after Christmas when all the price drops start to happen. Maybe I’ll pick up a used copy then. That way I can fully enjoy the game in its entirety at my pace because this game is definitely fucking worth it. Has anyone else played it and agree/disagree? Comment back and let me know.

-Brian R.

give me all your 360 games

So thanks to Brian, I now have an Xbox 360. Finally, I'd been putting off getting one for the longest time, but I finally knuckled down and shelled out the money for one. I spent all my money on the console so I don't even have any games. Brian let me borrow Assassin's Creed and Skate 2 to play until I can grab a few games of my own. Until then I'm living in 2007 playing Assassin's Creed for the first time. I won't waste anyone's time going into detail on my opinions of this game that most of you have already played, but I will say I'm liking it a lot thus far. Either way, the point of this particular blog entry is simply to express my joy. Of course now I'm posed with a very big question...what game do I buy first?

The first game I got for the Atari 2600 was Space Invaders. The first game I got for the NES was the classic SMB/Duck Hunt combo cartridge. My first Genesis game was Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition. My first Saturn game was Christmas Nights. DS, PS2, GBA, XBOX, DC, WII, PS3...I remember my first game for each new console. I want to make this first purchase count. I have a pretty decently-sized catalog of games to choose from and I think I've got it narrowed down to a few right off the top of my head. Keep in mind I'm trying to go with 360 exclusives.

-Dead Rising is probably at the top of my list right now (barely) for the simple fact that I fucking love zombies. This is definitely more intriguing to me than Left 4 Dead. Plus I gotta get acquainted with Frank West before TVC comes out next year...

-Mass Effect looks amazing. It looks so amazing that I actually know almost nothing about it. I remember people talking about how great it was when it came out and I remember all the positive reviews, but I didn't have a 360 so I didn't want to get myself all psyched on a game I couldn't play. But now I can play it and I bet it's cheap as hell.

-Gears of War...I have mixed feelings on. I've never been blown away by this game because I've never felt comfortable playing it. But it's cheap and I'm willing to give it a serious try.

-Blue Dragon got me super pumped a while back when I first started reading about it and then after it came out it was buried in a sea of mediocre reviews. But you know what? I've played plenty of RPGs that were supposedly mediocre, but I loved nonetheless. Legend of Dragoon (PS) is a perfect example.

Do I go with one of those 4? Viva Pinata? Crackdown? Lost Odyssey? What have I been missing out on? If you had $20 - $30 to spend on a 360 game, what would you get? I'm trying to stick with games I can only experience on the 360, but I know some multiplatform games are better on the 360. I'm actually looking for some reader feedback on this. Everyone and anyone with an opinion on the matter should let me know, preferably by the end of the week. Friday is payday and I haven't bought a game for a couple of weeks...

-Brian T.

and suddenly our blog name makes sense...

Hi, I'm Brian Tasch. I'm a Steet Fighter fanboy. I have Ryu tattooed on my arm. I own just about every Street Fighter game released in the US, as well as a few imports. I will buy anything SF related...comics, clothes, manga, posters, action figures, anime, controllers, and yes, the 1998 JCVD Street Fighter movie. I love Street Fighter more than a person should love a game. If the disc for SF4 had a bigger hole in the middle, I would probably try to fuck it. So I'm sure you can imagine my excitement at the official announcement of Super Street Fighter 4.

First off, let me say that anybody who didn't expect Capcom to release another version of SF4 is a fool. Either that or they've never played a Japanese fighting game before. Every Street Fighter has at least 3 upgrades/sequels...even the shitty EX series. Hell nearly every fighting game in general has at least 1 or 2 incremental upgrades. Depending on the franchise, a lot of these games don't get released in America...but that still doesn't change the fact that truly competitive fighters are designed to be tweaked and rebalanced. I honestly don't understand why people are so up in arms about SSF4. Why would you NOT want more characters, backgrounds, ultras, and moves? Why would you not want shitty characters to get better or overpowered characters/moves to be nerfed? How many of you would honestly choose Street Fighter 3: New Generation over Street Fighter 3 Third Strike? Probably none of you. So for all the complaining people are doing, I don't really see the downside to having another Street Fighter game be released.

People are going to find a way to complain about anything they can, but let's be honest: Super Street Fighter 4 is probably the best direct upgrade to a numbered SF game...ever. It took 4 versions of SF2 to add 8 characters and we're getting at least 8 in the very first sequel. There are going to be 33 characters in SSF4...that's INSANE. Alpha 3 is the only SF game with more characters on it's roster with 36 fighters, but it still took Capcom 3 years and 3 versions of the game to get there. Add to that necessary balance tweaks (which believe it or not, ALL fighters need), new moves and ultras, new backgrounds and music, better online, bonus stages, and new challenges and you've got an amazing retail upgrade to one of the best fighters ever made. How can you possibly complain?

Obviously nothing is official in terms of pricing yet, but we have been promised that it will not go for the full $60. Realistically I see the game retailing for $30 to $40...and I'm definitely leaning toward $40. Brian mentions that he wants to see it go for $20 and cited recent GTA expansions as a price model. GTA isn't made in Japan though. Plus we're getting all new intro and ending movies for all the characters. This seems like a much more expensive expansion. The cost to not only add all the new content, but to localize the game must be taken into account as well. I'm not saying I wouldn't love to pay $20 for this game, but I would expect to pay at least $30. Also, don't think for a second that Capcom wouldn't charge you the same amount of money for a retail package SSF4 as they would if they were somehow able to make this DLC by the spring. They're trying to make money. It would cost more for Capcom to patch SF4 than it would be for them to simply add to SF4 and re-release it. The more Capcom makes off of this, the more fighters we're gonna see from them. The fact that Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is even being released in the US is a testament to that.

But you know what the best part about Super Street Fighter 4 is? Do you know what's better than new characters, new ultras, balance tweaks, bonus stages, etc? What really makes it worth it to go out and buy a brand new hard copy of this game? We will never have to listen to "Indestructible" again.

Super Street Fighter 4 is a long way away (spring 2010) so you can rest assured I'll be discussing it quite a bit as new information becomes available. For now I just wanted to tell everybody to chill out! We should be stoked for an upgrade to an already amazing game, not nitpicking and complaining. The fighting community is the biggest it has been in years and it's almost entirely because of Street Fighter 4, like it or not. Keep playing Street Fighter 4 and then go out and buy Super Street Fighter 4. And fight me and Brian. Our PSN IDs/Gamertags are along the sidebar. Do note though that I think I have a fairly annoying Bison.