Street Fighter!

For those who hear the podcast you will know that I am obsessed with Street Fighter at the moment. I have been playing it at any opportunity (and blogging while I'm at work). I don't know exactly where to go with this article, I thought about providing the history of Street Fighter, but other sites do that. Should I inform the masses of the greatness of the characters? Plot? ...lol plot. So that's where my pondering leads me to a conclusion, I will discuss why Street Fighter is the greatest fighting game franchise of all time.

So it all started with the rivalry. That being between Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II, (Street Fighter 1 doesn't exist!!!) Ahem, anyway Mortal Kombat was marketed to the consumer as the 'adult' fighting game because it oozed blood and guts at every turn. What it lacked was good fighting game mechanics. Everything in Mortal Kombat felt stiff, and un-evolved. There was no combo system in place at the time. Characters were limited and far too similar. Pulling off special moves were often difficult and fatalities were nearly impossible even if you knew the button combination. The draw? Graphics and blood. Street Fighter II had game play in spades where Mortal Kombat fumbled around for better pacing and character balance. The ultimate atrocity of the Mortal Kombat series was how utterly stiff it was. Every character in the roster had the same punch and kick with no combo options until later in the series. The kicks were straight and slow and the punches were limited and often useless. In Mortal Kombat the rule of thumb was to throw the opponent or uppercut them, everything else was just setting up those damage inducing moves.

What made Street Fighter head over heels better was EVERY character had a different and unique way of striking. Not only were their special moves different, but strategic strikes were different from character to character. Mortal Kombat failed at being a good fighting game in my opinion because of this fact.

So the war raged on between the two and as history shows Street Fighter came out on top in terms of sales and longevity. But wait, we're not done yet, there's plenty more games to compare Street Fighter to.

Killer Instinct is a fantastic fighting game, but how is it worse than the Street Fighter series? Mainly because there are only 2 Killer Instinct games ever, and their combo complexities tamper with its success. I can understand why KI didn't garner the attention it did, you had to be a master of the character you played in order to compete. I remember a time where I challenged a friend of mine to KI who only had some experience with it. Generally in a fighting game a newb can pick up a character and run with him in a half hour or so. With KI that is NOT the case at all. For me, I knew every character's 10 + hit combo sequences, and varieties of those. This advantage was so severe that I never lost 1 round. Even at Street Fighter II I can lose to an utter newb if they play things tricky enough. Some would argue the tell of a good fighting game is when spamming is not a cause for newb wins but it's debatable. Really though, if Killer Instinct was still around I would almost have to argue it is better than Street Fighter. But since it isn't, Street Fighter wins again.

Let's move on to Tekken shall we? Tekken is my favorite 3D fighter and probably isn't fair to compare to Street Fighter. But I will say one word that makes Tekken worse than Street Fighter. That is "Juggling." Done right a competent player of Tekken can win a match by keeping his opponent in the air with one or two quick series' of attacks. This is often cheap and embarrassing, also proves how broken Tekken tends to be. Street Fighter is not unfamiliar with this issue though for anyone who played Street Fighter Alpha 3 and knew Akuma well. Diago proved the world just what he could do and how broken Akuma was, (Diago is the greatest Street Fighter champion of all time). But with Tekken you could do this with almost any character if you were cheap enough making the game rather imbalanced.

Soul Calibur was also made by Namco makers of Tekken and falls into the same traps as Tekken. The most recent Soul Calibur I find to be well balanced offline but a horrible game online. Because of button lag, a few characters can be exploited in such a way where the person using him in that way cannot lose. I'm looking at you Astaroth and Ivy. After 15 hours of not being able to counter because of button lag, I gave up. For those unaware, button lag is when you press a button and nothing happens on screen for a few seconds. This may sound negligible, but in a fighting game it is VITAL. So basically I see a trick come at me from Astaroth I am used to seeing, I know HOW to counter it, and I even know it's coming, but I can't counter it in time. I would have to be psychic and predict that he's going for the move before it happens and do the appropriate counter before the animation even begins. Why does this make the game worse if the online component is the only thing holding it back? Well because Street Fighter II HD Remix is online and there is ZERO button lag. So Street Fighter wins again.

I could go on and on but I'd rather not. So look for Street Fighter IV everyone, it should be a grand game indeed.

*Ryu: Hadoken! Sagat: Wait, wait what? Ryu: ...hadoken...? Sagat: Yes that, what the hell is that? Ryu: Your end Sagat! Sagat: Sounds like the name of a failed vacuum cleaner to me....*

Resident Evil : Degeneration - The Good, The Bad, and The What the hell is that!?

Anyone who reads our blog, i.e. no one, knows exactly how I felt about Dead Space: Downfall. It left a sour taste in my mouth that only copious amounts of blood and gore could fill. In addition to that, now, it nearly cost me one of the better direct to video game movie experiences of my life. I was left feeling so icky by it that I very nearly neglected to give Resident Evil: Degeneration a shot. What a shame that would have been!

Resident Evil is a long standing series of good horror games that has somehow mutated into an amazing action game. This latest installment was a fully CG movie that followed the continuing adventures of the main character from both RE2 and 4, Leon S. Kennedy, or as he shall henceforth be known, Badass S. Badasserson. The film also takes the female lead from 2, Claire Redfield, and inserts her next to him again. As a sort of reunion of two characters I love of old, it was nice. That aside, the movie was just FUN.

It begins in an airport when Claire, who is now a member of an anti-bioengineering group, arrives, presumably to harass or otherwise inconvenience an arriving senator thought to be behind the nuking of Racoon City years earlier. Shortly thereafter, as with everywhere Claire has EVER gone outside of the bathroom, zombies attack. This new spread of the ever dangerous T-virus is immediately viewed as terrorism by the U.S. Government, who send in their ultimate weapon: Badass S. Badasserson himself, armed with a pistol and a stylish leather jacket. The movie quickly explodes from there into a nonstop action extravaganza of exploding heads, flying limbs, and the constant yelling of the words "Aim for the head!" Fans of Claire will be happy to hear that, as is traditional, she catches a gun in a physically improbable way at the last second to shoot an enemy.

The villain was actually one of the most well made in the series, having a clear motivation for once. Usually, RE villains either leave me confused and wishing I knew what the hell was going on (Wesker) or laughing at their countless silly voices (every other villain, most notably the inexplicable French midget in 4). The only scary villains are the ones with absolutely NO attempt at a story, i.e. Mr. X and the Nemisis.

I'm finding it difficult to continue typing here, as I don't want to give anything away, and if the movie has one major flaw, its not having a whole lot to hide. It was very straightforward, start to finish, without much of a plot to speak of. The only other problem I have with it is a lack of monsters. The only creatures involved were the zombies, and one big G-Virus critter, ala William Birkin from 2. To me, the games hav never felt like zombie games so much as monster games where one of the possible monsters to fight is zombies, but that could just be me.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that if you are a fan of Resident Evil, you will greatly enjoy this movie. It has monsters, silly action scenes, bad dialogue, and just enough absurdity to keep you from taking yourself too seriously. It's classic RE, in all its warped glory, and it has me chomping at the bit for Resident Evil 5. Enjoy.

Five out of Five Shambling Corpses

Resisting Resistance 2

One word review: Disappointing. Resistance 2 is not what you think it should be in any way shape or form. It deviates so much from the first Resistance that you forget you are playing the sequel to a game, that in many ways, brought the words 'next gen game' into full meaning. I will attempt to describe why you should resist Resistance 2.

1. Story Progression - Unlike Resistance 1 where it was unique in telling the story from a third party perspective in narration and generally giving the player a keen understanding of the events surrounding the chimera and mysterious Nathan Hale, Resistance 2 tries to be Half-Life where the story plays out as you go in real time. While this isn't a bad thing, it is when the main character suddenly transforms from a mysterious war hero to trying to be like everyone in Gears of War simply barking out orders to everyone constantly and the writers pat themselves on the back for a job well done. Problem is, there isn't a story here at all. I wouldn't normally mind that if the first Resistance didn't do such a great job setting up a story to begin with. For instance, Gear of War had a crappy do nothing man love story to begin with, so no one hopes for a better one in Gears of War 2 and our expectations are met. But here we have Resistance 2: Listen to Hale Yell A lot 'of Man'.

2. Game play - While I normally commend designers for changing things up in the sequel, this is not the case for Resistance 2. Everything they changed here was honestly for the worse. The health system in Resistance 1 gave you four tiny life bars that could be rejuvenated by picking up health items. Resistance 2 has the Call of Duty 4 / Halo way of doing things where you get shot and sit in a corner to heal for a bit. problem is with Resistance 2 you die so quickly that there are few times where finding cover is an option. Especially when the enemies can shoot through solid objects most of the time, or when 60% of cover spaces leaves your head wide open even while ducking.

Resistance 1 allowed you to have a shit ton of fun weapons (even if most of them were useless). Resistance 2 allows you to only ever have 2 weapons at a given time. The game provides itself the necessary weapons when the situation arises. Far away enemies? Look Nathan there's a sniper rifle right there! Large behemoth monster? Rocket launcher! So, no more fun strategy playing into anything you do, you're just given the solution.

3. Difficulty will be my last game play complaint, but trust you me I could go on. Resistance 1 had the aura of being very hard, and enemies were tough to take down and they had 100% accuracy. But, it really wasn't that hard of a game since you got bountiful health items and ammo. Not to mention it was fun and each level was very short and had maybe 1 or 2 checkpoints. You didn't die much is what I'm getting at. Resistance 2 on the other hand has 1 to 2 hour long levels with hundreds of checkpoints because the developers know you're going to need them. Instead of being a fun FPS with strategic elements like the first game, Resistance 2 has the philosophy that constant trial and error is rewarding. I'm sorry, but trying to cross a bridge getting bum rushed by Drones while enemies with Augurs (shoots through walls) fire away at you (3 hits your dead) while you have insufficient weapons and are dying for an hour straight is not my idea of a good time. Another instance plays out where seemingly endless hoards of Drones come at you in a tiny cornered off section where my only success came in tricking the AI by putting Nathan in the middle of a small staircase. Apparently, that just throws the AI for a loop and not ALL of them rushed me. There are many, many more moments like this where you will die countless times only to move a few paces ahead in the game.

Oh, and need I mention the game comes complete with 2 different enemies that kill you in 1 hit just for the fun of it? Yeah because it does. Fall into the water? Yeah you are dead since the invincible fish army will destroy you. That's right you can't kill them even though you can see them just a few feet away from you in the water. And the invisible chameleon enemies kill you in 1 hit, and you kill them in about the same amount which is at least fair. What I love is there is always a checkpoint before and after these guys because the developers probably felt bad about it.

Alright, so my complaints are in the main game mostly. Which is a shame, because I bought it for the main game. The multiplayer is quite spectacular though. I won't go into much detail but I will say it does what most other FPS games do only better. Capture the flag, co-op modes, death matches so on and so on. Things that will be useless in about 2 years since no one will play it anymore. Which is why I never like to review the multiplayer since it will be obsolete at some point.

Are there any redeeming qualities in the solo campaign? My answer is unfortunately no.

*Technically, while playing you should hear this a lot, "Hale? Haaale? HAAAAAAALE!!!!"*

Dead Space: Downfall

Dead Space was one of the most fun, horrifying experiences I have had in recent years without having to summon up some actual zombies myself. Note: Do not try that at home, kids. It's at best very messy.

Anyways, I ADORED the game for reasons that many of you have probably already heard from one source or another, so of course I was rather eager when I heard that an animated film based on the backstory of the game was on the way. I popped right down to Meijer in the middle of the night to buy it. Within thirty seconds of putting it into my dvd player, I knew I had made a horrible, horrible mistake.

I proceeded to spend twenty minutes watching unskippable previews for bad low budget horror films that I had little to no interest in. You may condemn me for mentioning bad previews in a movie review, but when the movie is ONLY available on DVD, it's a part of the viewing experience as much as anything else is. In any case, after I wethered through that onslaught, I hit play on the actual movie. The animation was that disgusting style I call Americanime. Now, I'm an anime nerd. I love the style, the design, everything about it. What I HATE is when American artists use the fact that anime is popular as an excuse to animate less frames per second, thus leading to that "popular" anime choppieness. It's downright lazy is all it is. In any case this film was literally INFESTED with choppy animation whenever they could get away with it. The dialogue throughout was very badly written, and the voice acting... well... Let's just say the highlight of the voiceacting was recognizing the voice of Cat. From Catdog. Yeah. It really kind of ruined it for me, too.

My main point is that essentially everything about the movie was bad for NO reason. Still, I was a big fan of the game, so I stuck it through, trying hard to not get too upset. Honestly, I was rewarded with some very awesome gore payoffs. That's one thing the movie had in SPADES. The creatures were all properly designed to match, and it pulled even less punches on the gore than the game did, which has to be some kind of record. All in all, the gore kind of saved the rest of it, but only for people like me.

If mindless droning gore and violence is not your idea of a lovely evening, avoid this one at all costs. If, however, you love to see the red splatter, or are a huge fan of the game, it provides some interesting distraction.

6 out of 10 floating body parts.

Longest RPG I have EVER played

I'm a Role Playing Gamer by nature, and for the most part have played just about every RPG out there. Normally, when marketing an RPG developers will claim that their game boasts up to and over 80 hours of gameplay. The only time I have ever reached that amount of time was on Final Fantasy 7 making sure I did everything. And by everything I mean obsessively getting characters to level 99, maxing out Knights of the Round (three times) along with other absurd needless tasks ultimately over preparing for the Emerald Weapon. So, in all actuality Final Fantasy 7 only took me 40 hours to beat the first time, and subsequent play-throughs less and less time. Mastering it only took 86 hours. So I was 6 hours over the average boasted amount doing tasks that were just astronomically useless and only something a nerdy fanboy like me would ever do.

But I'm here to discuss Dragon Quest 8. I just recently got around to playing this behemoth of a game the past few months. I have had a lot on my slate and when I tackle an RPG I like to ensure that it is given the proper time and care. I hate stopping an RPG partway through for another game and then totally losing my place when I come back to it. Where am I going with all of this you ask? Well, Dragon Quest 8 like the title of the article implies is the LONGEST RPG I have ever played. What's more is I haven't even beat it yet. I am damn close though, and pine to finish it by the weekend.

Let's answer the first and most obvious question, is the game any good? Of course it is! I wouldn't have kept going otherwise. The only RPG I have ever outright quit playing because it stunk so much was Star Ocean 3. I'll write another article about the ways in which that game blew chunks. Still, Dragon Quest 8 is a marvelous game. Its best assets are in its amazing graphics, wonderful music score, and well developed characters which is lacking in many newer RPGs. Also, DQ8 has the amazing ability to make me want to explore every nook and cranny of the game. Never have I really felt like I was playing an adventure than with this game. Due to its light tone and atmosphere the game never pushes you in a sense of urgency allowing you to explore whenever you want to and make it feel fun.

The downsides of the game are minimal at best. The battle system can get repetitive during the game, but when you come across bosses the game ramps up to a degree of strategy that I have honestly never seen in a RPG. Normally I'll whip out the move which crushes the earth and is so overpowered you wonder why the developers made it. Most Final Fantasy games allow you to level up beyond your foe to a point where hitting the attack command is the only thing you need to do. DQ8 says screw that and every boss fight is a new and interesting challenge with no real key move to bank on. This becomes a downside only in that the game produces ZERO cave save points. So you run through a cave that takes you roughly 1 hour or less and get owned by some giant Mole boss and what do you get? A game over screen is what. And yeah that cave you went through? You have to do that again too. And anything you forgot to save before adventuring into said cave.

So what makes the game so absurdly long? The answer lies with the games level up system, and expansive world. Never before have I worked so hard to obtain levels in a game before. I am currently 57 hours in nearing the end of the game with no side quests completed for the most part and my characters are on average level 37. Doing the math that's .64 levels per hour. Grindfest is an understatement with this game, and half the reason why playtime is above and beyond my usual 40 hours spent beating other RPGs. The other half is the expansive world coupled with random encounters. Make no mistake Dragon Quest 8 is a large game. Navigating from town to town on foot can take well over an hour or more if you are under-leveled. The random encounters make things all the worse because the enemies come in large numbers and are tough to take down in one turn. Usually it takes three to four turns to get out of a battle, which is a lot by comparison to other RPGs.

Also, let's not forget shopping. While leveling up poses its challenges it's also not an effective way to ensure victory over bosses. Leveling gives negligible status upgrades as opposed to equipment which tends to be very pricey for how much gold you get per battle.

All the above is what attributes DQ8 being the longest RPG I have ever played, and the final hour tally is as of yet unresolved. Will I hit that elusive 80 hours? I doubt it, but we shall see.

*"Flee-party is unable to flee" *hits power button* "flee this b#*@$!"*

Mirror's Edge Unsung Hero of 2008

It's been a while, I know you all miss me. Well this is probably late news for anyone who cares but I'm going to discuss Mirror's Edge. I'm going to sift through the lies it should not have received and cooperate shilling it should have received.

So what is Mirror's Edge? I assume you don't know because the sales of this game were abysmal. Mirror's Edge is a game where you are a hot Asian chick with monkey like acrobatic skills who can maneuver herself around just about any terrain (preferably 21st century colorless architecture) by means of leaping, ducking, diving, rolling, and of course running. As a game, this is just about as cool an idea as you can get. It is at its very basic a first person platformer. So why didn't it sell well you ask? There are probably a few reasons I'll touch on later, but first I'm going to tell you why it should have sold well.

Mirror's Edge spans 10 levels of heart wrenching, death defying leaps and chase sequences. A game that introduces itself as one where you run away from the police while delivering sensitive materials quickly (in the second level mind you) boils down to uncovering some fiendish government plot involving your sister. So it's up to you to save her!

Okay the plot is a mess, but for anyone who touched the demo knows what is enjoyable about the game. That simply is the running mechanics. You can scale the city scape in nearly limitless ways, and try your best to keep a fast pace going. Keeping a fast pace is why it was snubbed by many reviewers. While it is possible to play through these levels without stopping much or at all, the first play through will often leave you lost and confused for what happens next. This can be frustrating but any gaming perfectionist (not someone wanting to whiz through the game just to review it) understands that it will take patience to do well and map out quick destinations. So how can I fault the game for adding puzzle elements? I can't.

Outside of the main quest are the time trials and speed runs. One mode lets you try and race through one of the 10 levels and the other gives you tiny portions to see how fast you can go through them. This is where the game really shines, as it challenges you specifically to find the fastest routes. If you're not into getting better times and improving through practice this is not the game for you, clearly.

On to the most complained about aspect of the game, the combat. Not too sure what the issue is as there is no point in the game where it forces you to fight anything. In fact it's always more beneficial not to fight. But to speak of the system for a moment in no instance did I feel it was poor in any way. Personally, it feels broken for how easy it is. Every enemy I came across I would run up to him do a slide low kick to the groin and proceed to finish him off. From there weapons can be acquired if you want them and then shoot to death the rest of the enemies. The only time where combat is difficult is if you decide to fist fight one of those SWAT members with a mini-gun. Generally speaking that's just a bad idea anyway so I can't blame the developers for judging that if one should fight someone with a mini-gun then that person should die a horrible death.

So what I'm trying to say is, play Mirror's Edge!

"A leap of faith is retarded, there's spikes at the bottom."

PC Gamer?

So I think I may have a problem. I think I'm becoming a PC gamer! *crowd gasp!* Yeah, I know what you're all thinking, I cannot be saved and I cannot be spared the torment of hours upon hours of tweaking, modding, hacking, upgrading, patching, threading, *gasp wheeze.* Truly, these torturous tortures are my fate, and alas, I am not strong enough to resist the thorough lashings of it all.

Honestly though, I am enamored by the PC gaming world. How does it put up with itself? Sure, I'm a lightweight only about 2 years of full fledged PC gaming experience (more if you count the dark years of Diablo II) and wonder why anyone deals with the idea that they won't be playing a new game at its optimum level out of the box, ever. I have had problems with just about every PC game I have ever bought, from Gears of War's save files deleting on their own, to Bioshock having no sound, to the worst problems in Knights of the Old Republic 2 having every PC game problem imaginable.

But you know what? I revel in these problems. I spend hours searching forums for solutions, chatting with others on what works and what doesn't. Searching newegg for the latest and greatest PC parts. Learning what makes a PC tick. Overclocking faq's and FRAPS programs abound! Honestly, I get bored with a PC game now if I've solved how to get it to run. It's kinda sad really. Or maybe it's like working on a used car and getting it to hum just the way you like it.

I am here to help my fellow man though. Below I have a list of the top ten signs you are becoming a PC gamer.

1. You wave your hand in front of your face trying to determine how many frames per second it's going.
2. When opening a bag of marshmellows you wonder to yourself just how far you have to go to make the inside of your computer optimal for making smores.
3. You think the Matrix has you.
4. Things aren't going right so you believe you have to create more men to mine crystals.
5. Honestly believing that sleeping is a form of putting your brain in hibernate mode.
6. First person shooters rarely show your feet, and never show your midsection, you freak out every time you see your sternum.
7. Looking at your shadow, you wonder what shader effects are turned on and what more could be done.
8. Why doesn't grass appear out of nowhere as you walk?
9. You accidentally play a graphics card in a Yu-gi-oh! match.
10. Worst of all, you start buying PC games just to see how well your system can run it.

My friends, if you have any of the above problems please go to your nearest Gamestop and buy a console game, you'll be glad you did. It works right away, always. You'll spend more time playing it than tweaking it, unless you're a tard and put the disc in upside-down.

*A 250ww power supply is not enough to sustain a Nivida 8600GT graphics card, lesson learned*

Game I would like to see (1)

Politics: The Sweet Science

Into politics? Love and hate them? Want to see your favorite politicians duke it out? Well look no further than Politics: The Sweet Science.

Game play for Politics: The Sweet Science goes like so. As many Americans know our politicians like to spat at each other with words, not fists. Politics: The Sweet Science will pay homage to that ideal. Simply put the game play is a blend of ‘speed’ and ‘scrabble’. Two players enter their politician and are given a health bar and seven letters. As fast as they can they must come up with words. The longer the word the more damage is inflicted on the opponent. Obviously as you make words you are given more letters. First politician to string together the most words and eliminate the other politician wins. It will take roughly 20 four letter words to down an opponent.

Sounds simple right? Well of course there are bonuses and combos that can be done. Let’s list them.

1. Combos are allotted if you create 2 or more words before the opponent can come up with 1 word. This gives you a health bonus depending on the size of the words strung together.

2. Just like in scrabble word bonuses are in effect. Different from scrabble though, certain letters are assigned to double and triple word scores instead of spaces (since there are none).

3. Each politician has their own Political Power which can only be used once per fight. For instance, one can slow the speed of the opponent; one has gradual heal and so on.

4. Creating a word that does not exist will actually damage yourself that amount, so spelling counts!

Animation: The top portion of the screen will handle all the animation of the politicians battling it out. The bottom will have your letters, and the middle of the screen is where you place your letters to confirm a word. Far left and far right will have your health bar listed vertically along with your Political Power.

Game Modes: Regular VS mode, Online VS mode, Rise to the White House which is the single player campaign in which you ‘debeat’ other politicians for political supremacy, and Filibuster which is a survival mode essentially seeing how long you can last against an infinite amount of politicians.

This game should be fast paced and hectic fun despite the relatively boring context.

*I have a bad feeling about this*

SPoor!

Ok, the game isn't out and I haven't played it. But reading early reviews of the game has reassured my initial impressions of the game. Through all its charm and intricacy Spore gives us routinely simplistic game play elements not meant for your average gamer, and certainly not your average PC gamer.

Spore may have creativity in spades but what it appears to lack judging from early reviews is game play elements worth its salt. Starting off as bacteria Spore is at its simplest (which should come as no surprise) as you set out running away from larger bacteria and eating smaller ones to then get out of the primordial soup.

From here you reach land and interact with other species really just trying to keep things level. With only one or two game play options talking and eating Spore continues to be simple.

You then get to the tribal stage where your new goal is to ally or destroy other tribes around you. This is RTS at its most basic with only one resource to gather and two options of ally or attack. Snore!

The games next stage is the civilization stage which, really is just another way of saying tribal stage with a prettier city-scape.

Lastly, you reach the space stage where you can travel to distant galaxies destroying or creating where you see fit. Your only real options here are terrifying a planet, taking it over, or inhabiting it freely, or destroying it. This last stage is what I predicted to be the most boring of all, but actually gives you the most options other than the creature creator of course. But my hopes overall were destroyed when I learned this was not an online experience.

When I first heard that we could travel to other planets I thought we'd be interacting with other online users at the same time. I couldn't have been more wrong. The other creatures that inhabit these planets are ones that are downloaded in the Spore system or ones that are pre-made. So essentially you're still dealing with the computer AI.

So that's it. The game completes here and then you are given the option to start over at any of the stages mentioned above. Bacteria, harvest?, Tribal, Civilization, and Space.

Spore appears to be exactly what I thought it would be. The charm in it is how well the creature designer works, and then you essentially get to watch your little dude walk around and do stuff for a while. Not really a game by any standard in my mind. Not really entertaining either. The limited options this game gives the user screams 'casual gamer.'

*Evolve this @#$%!*

Star Wars: Force Unleashed (demo) a Porter Perspective

Yay, another Star Wars game! After the countless awful games that Lucas Arts has thrown at us since Rouge Squadron III: Rebel Garbage we get another potential box with "Star Wars" labeled on it to add to our 'Tower of Useless Fanboy cash-ins.' And please don't email me with a better title for our tower, I like em' long and juicy.

However, if things go the way of this demo...*insert cliche'd Star Wars gushy praiseful phrase here*

The demo beings with a riviting cutscene with Darth Faker (voice isn't actually James Earl Jones) telling his never before mentioned apprentice how he should go about vanquishing the remaining Jedi that Vader was too mutilated (Obi beat down yall!) to take down. He also encourages him to kill off all things that may bear witness to the coming onslaught. As far as covert Jedi missions go, Vader sure didn't plan things well. I mean I can understand not wanting anyone to know you have an apprentice who wields the power of 1,000 mighty vagabonds (we'll get to that) but to send him to highly populated empireal complexes that apparently harbors a Jedi Vader missed just seems a tad....lazy?

Anyway, plot descrepecies aside letting us slay stormtroopers whether forced or not I guess isn't a bad thing. To get to the game, you control the apprentice who despite his odd if even mentally retarted way of holding a lightsabre is perhaps more powerful that Goku in Dragon Ball Z. Don't get me wrong, the way he holds the lightsabre is COOL but realistically borderline retarded and makes me wonder why Darth Vader didn't force bitch slap him for that filthy habit in Young Sith Training class.

Despite this, as the apprentice you can force bitch slap everyone with varing powers right from the get go. The basics are there, force pull, push, force explode? and force lightning. As far as I played it everything felt smooth as butter with minor annoyances. The lock on system concerning what you want to lift is obviously lacking. But actually thinking about it I can't think how they could improve it other than freezing the game in a super bullet time and letting you select any item you see to then start the action up again. It really isn't all bad and what you end up force holding can come into use on the fly whether you meant for it to or not. Force lightning is probably by far the easist to use since you just press it and things die.

The lightsabre portions are also free and easy. You won't find an inordinate of amount of combos like you would in Devil May Cry or God of War, but it's still fun none the less and I don't see it getting too stale since you combine force powers with 70% of what you're doing anyway.

The demo has you going down hallway after hallway killing off stormtroopers and slamming things into this or that. There weren't any puzzle elements to speak of unless you count using the force to unlock a door by moving the joysticks up and down as the game TELLS you to do so.

And the demo wraps up with you fighting a chicken walker (reference understood by Star Wars fans, if you don't get it then serves you right for reading something about Star Wars!). This battle is rather lackluster as you spam lighting and lightsabre at it until its hitpoints reach a certian amount to which you then "Simon says" your way to victory. By that I mean if you've played God of War it's the same thing where a button displays and you react by pressing it when prompted to see a pretty attack that you would otherwise be too stupid to do if the developers gave you the button sequence to do it normally....feel the force of my disdain!

The major flaw I see in the game so far stem from the enemies mainly. I've heard a lot of flack about the controls but I really didn't have that problem. The enemies on the other hand are extremely stupid, though maybe on purpose paying homage to stormtrooper I.Q's everywhere. Never the less, I was annoyed at how simplistic they were. They stand in one spot shooting at you awating you to either throw something at them or stab them relentlessly. They don't seem to work together or come up with uniqe ideas of dealing with a demi-god, but still I would have liked to see something more here.

Conclusion: I'll probably buy it.

*may the force be kickin' it real dawg, peace!*

Forgot this Existed

So I'm thumbing through google under the search of 'Acefondu' because I am indeed that vain, and stumble across this little ditty of a website. Yes I am indeed aware that I am associated with Start Button News no matter how zealously I deny the claims. Google generously links me to the one and only post I have sent to this relatively barren wasteland of a blog submitted back in 2006. How fortuitous for me that I have now discovered a way to mitigate my boredom by wielding the might of the 26 letter alphabet (checks to ensure Cuba hasn't added that sensual 27th letter....good).

So without further ado or do-do if you're 5 years old, I shall type up a review of the Star Wars: Forced Unleashed demo and a few other things if I have time.

*search 'acefondu' on google. You'll get 10 pages of my gaming insights on various websites, you know better ones than this...haha.*

Damn you Lincoln! I mean KEITH!

I'll get you for this, Keith... I'll get you for this...

Watch Out Favre!

It looks like EA has decided to find another loop hole with their Madden cover athlete. Apparently finding retiring Pro Footballers did not help, now they are turning to co-host of the Start Button News podcast Kyle Fulton.

Roster updates will be showing up on the 360 and ps3 shortly...

Madden 2009 Review

This is year twenty for the Madden franchise, and while many people consider each new edition as just a $60 roster update, this game is more than just a roster update.

Now there was a big to-do about the cover athlete Brett Favre, and if you listen to the podcast you should be up to date with the latest on him. Since he was traded to the New York Jets, this prompted EA to create a new cover with Favre in a Jets uniform available for you to download an print off.

Now one of the new "features" to this year's edition is the ability to rewind. Basically this gives you a do over, and in single player having it once is alright, but having it as unlimited has proven to be not only cheap, but also the only way the Lions can make it to the Super Bowl. Now if you happen to be playing against a friend...TURN IT OFF BEFORE YOU START!!!! This is the worst feature to be allowed in multi-player. I can force a fumble or an INT but with a tap of the button it brings the play back for a do over. After the second game of trying this feature, my friend and I agreeded to no use this ever again in multiplayer.

The graphics look great, there is always a improvement over the previous year's installment. However, and this is nitpicking on my part, but at the begining of the game when they show the stadium that the game is going to be played. Now being from Detroit, I know the area around Ford Field. I am really dissapointed on how horrible the stadium look and the fact that they have the wrong building in the skyline. More so that they have the buildings in the wrong locations.

This is a nice an full game, but it gets old kinda quick. Maybe Madden 2010 will be better... but without having any compition, I have my doubts.

7 out of 10

*yawn* Is it time to come back?

This is the first blog post in over a year, and what a year it has been. Kyle and Porter both bought PS3's. I myself found my 360 starting to go on the blink. I have also graduated college, which is most of the reason there has been so little content coming from the Start Button Crew.

But dry your eyes mate! New material is here. Already we have two audio podcasts and more just waiting to be recorded. Go check them out one of two ways

1. http://startbuttonnews.podomatic.com

2. Go to the iTunes store, and search for "Start Button News"

Go do it now.... We will wait for you!

--Keith Dotson

Sony's E3 Showing

Kyle, Porter, and Marie, talked the most about the Sony Press Conference.

Editorial By Keith - Sony, Sony, Sony.....I don't want to type out my thoughts on what your doing with the PS3 and the PSP.

So I will post this video I found....

Microsoft E3 Reactions

So Microsoft showed us what it had to offer at E3. To tell you the truth, they had a good showing.





Editorial From Keith: Microsoft did something that was great this E3, and I am not talking about no more tattoos. I am talking about having every game they showed at their press conference being released by the end of 2007. That's five and a half months for a lot of games to come out.

Now I say the the summery to the conference was put simply "Hi, we're Microsoft. The Wii is outselling us, so we are going to put put a ton of sequels, and these games that you loved for the 360...they are going to the PC. Thanks for coming!" They have good games coming out, but besides Mass Effect, and Bioshock, what is there that is original to look forward to? Microsoft is doing well in the market (that is if you exclude Japan), and they have gone almost 2 years without a price drop. Something that is unheard of...(unless you're Sony, trying to get rid of your 60GB's to make way for the still 600 dollar 80GB). I always thought that the 360 and the Wii would be duking it out for first place,and I was right. The 360 has a strong holiday season to look forward to. Expect me to be in front of my TV the day Halo 3 launches.

Happy Birthday Start Button!

Let's all wish Start Button News a happy birthday. Exactly one year ago today we posted our first video. It's true, we haven't had very many updates since, but we here at Start Button would like to think that the ones we HAVE had have been quality.

Nintendo E3 Reactions

Hello Start Button Viewers

This is the first of three videos coming out this week. We tell you our reactions to the Nintendo Press Conference at the E3 Media Summit.



Editorial From Keith: Nintendo pulled off a big win last year at E3. This year was about keeping the momentum and moving forward. I think they did not achieve that. Not failed per say, but their showing was a bit cautious and lackluster.

I am not saying that Nintendo had no reason to be cautious, in fact they had every reason. The Wii is poised to take over the 360 as leading console of this generation. I feel that they were overly cautious. They only gave out four announcements that I consider to be big.

1. Super Smash Brothers Brawl is going to be released December 3rd.
2. Super Mario Galaxy is going to be released November 12th
3. Wii Mario Kart 1st Quarter 2008
4. Wii Fit.

Nintendo could have done so much more. They have an arsenal that could put them over the top. Games that we know are (or were) in development. The games I was looking forward to was Disaster: Day of Crisis, Project H.A.M.M.E.R., Animal Crossing, and Wii Music. We know from last year these were in development. Nintendo even stated that these were there big games in there 2007 lineup. Yet one look at the press site for Nintendo tells a tragic story. Project H.A.M.M.E.R. and Disaster: Day of Crisis, titles that had entries on the press site no longer there. Reports are coming in the Project H.A.M.M.E.R.'s development is on hold and Disaster: Day of Crisis's development is coming along and is "looking very good".

So I am hoping that one day soon I will get to play all of these games. Until then, I will still play my Wii Sports, wondering of the games that are yet to be.

Awwwww, here it goes...

I have returned to you, my minions. Check back soon for our various reactions to E3, or, as i like to call it, "Gee, isn't Sony cute? Look at them try" day.

Sony Drops The Price...

The headline for the news today "should" read 'Playstation 3 finally drops the price' or even 'After 234 days, Sony does something right'. Whatever the headline turns out to be, it still is the same news. Sony drops the price of the PS3 by one hundred bucks. This ends the week of rumors that swirled around this.

The price drop and the announcement of an 80GB PS3 bundled with Motostorm, came days before the E3 Press Summit. The 80GB bundle will be arriving sometime in August at the price point of $599.


So what does this do for Sony? Besides creating media buzz, it's a step in the right direction. A step in a long journey, but a step nonetheless. Yet it will not surprise me if even the bundle does not come with an HDMI cable.

Now if the PS3 comes with a few more exclusive games, it might be worth the $499. For those that are going to comment that it is a cheaper Blu-Ray player. I will agree with you. It is. Personally I am not going to shell out $499 just to play Russian Roulette with disc formats.

This E3 is important for Sony. There is no denying that. Given the news that came out from GDC, I feel Sony might have something still up their sleeve. What they need is something the gain ground in sales. With Sony being roughly 8 million units behind the 360 and roughly 5 million units behind the Wii, there has to be something Sony can do to convince people to buy a PS3.

The E3 Media and Business Summit takes place July 11th-13th in Santa Monica, CA.

The Internets made me do it!

So, I am surfing around on Youtube, looking at new comments and such. When I see in the related videos this..........



I died laughing. Hope you enjoy. I will be filming more stuff next week for the show.

--Keith

My Milkshake Brought Jack Thompson To The Yard....

Kyle explains how he brought Jack Thompson to the yard. It really is a great story. I remember when Kyle first called me to tell me of this. I was one who told him that Jack Thompson would not respond nicely. Kyle was really being sincere with the e-mail. Below is the transcript of the e-mails.

From: Kyle Fulton

To: Jack Thompson

Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 5:53 PM

Dear Mr. Thompson,

I suppose that there's no real point in beating around the bush. I am a twenty year old gamer who has played everything from the original Pong all the way to the ever-controversial Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas. Many people I know have come to be quite angry at you for your statements about games in general, and, more specifically, games of a violent nature. I realized, however, that getting angry doesn't get anything accomplished. I decided that, instead, it would probably be a better course of action to simply write you a polite e-mail.

The goal of this e-mail is not to make you change your mind, or stop doing what it is you feel you must. It is, instead, simply to give you the gamer's side of the story in a clear, polite manner. Now, if you have read this far, I suppose I can hope that you will read the rest as well, so I will continue to my point.

Many times I have listened to your opinion on the matter, and I respect it as your opinion. This is mine.

Quite simply, it is my thought that although violence may be inspired by some games, the games themselves are not at fault, or the cause. I believe that the minds of the people and children who commit violent acts are otherwise predisposed towards violence. I am a non-violent person, therefore, I do not commit violence. No amount of playing violent video games will ever change that. In fact, if anything, I find playing Grand Theft Auto and the like to be quite a way to release stress. It is a sort of catharsis. Sometimes it's fun and relieving to fight and destroy. These are urges as old as humanity itself. The difference to me is that in our day and age, we have simulated, non-living things to take the urges out on. Simply, I would greatly prefer that my children, when I have them, fight imaginary people than get into real life fights.

The fault lies not with the games, but with either those who commit the violence themselves, or those who, while raising them, never taught them the difference between real or make-believe. My parents did a very good job. I know that if I harm someone in reality, there will be dire consequences, just as sure as I know that video games aren't reality. When someone kills a person, and claims the government made him do it, we lock him in an asylum. We don't attack the government. But when someone kills a person and says the games made him do it, we attack the games. This isn't right. It is simply the sick mind of a violent person twisting to a different thing to blame.

It is the way of our society to blame everything and anything we can for our wrongdoing except ourselves. I feel that it is time this stops. If there were no violent games, then we'd be discussing violent movies right now, and if there were no violent movies, it would be books. As long as we live, we will find SOMETHING to blame.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you have found my thoughts to be well-put and polite. I look forward greatly to your reply.

Sincerely,

Kyle Fulton

From: Jack Thompson
To: Kyle Fulton
Sent: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 6:55 PM
Subject: Re:

I'm not interested in your opinion. I have experts who have testified before Congress as to the harm of these games. They have facts. You have nothing but bias. Don't bother me again.

From: Kyle Fulton
To: Jack Thompson
Sent: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 7:20 PM
Subject: Re:

Dear Mr. Thompson,

In case you missed the purpose of my original letter, my thought behind it was that I believed that you had been treated unfairly in the past. I felt that, though I disagreed with you, your opinion was to be respected nonetheless, and had hoped to discuss the matter with you intelligently. Even now, after your rather short, and, I must confess rude, response, I believe in your right to say anything you wish.

I will choose to believe that you had a bad day or something today, rather than believe that anyone could be so outright rude to someone who is giving them every bit of respect they deserve.

You see, everyone who knew I was sending you this e-mail insisted that you'd respond in essentially the manner that you have. "No," I said. "I'm sure he's a reasonable man who will see my attempt to hold an actual conversation, rather than insult him, as most gamers have." I can honestly say I have rarely been more upset to be proven wrong.

I thought perhaps, even if you so coldly disregarded my opinion, you would at least give me the respect of common courtesy. Though I could go on at some length about manners at this point, I'll choose not to, as I'm sure you are a busy man. Once again, thank you for taking the time to read my letter, even if you didn't really pay attention.

As a small note, however, perhaps your generally disdainful attitude towards the people you claim to be trying to save from the games is part of why they are typically so rude to you.

Sincerely,

Kyle Fulton

From: Jack Thompson
To: Kyle Fulton
Sent: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 8:14 PM
Subject: Re:

I told you to stop bothering me. One more email, and I will have you prosecuted, you jerk.

From: Kyle Fulton
To: Jack Thompson
Sent: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 8:22 PM
Subject: Re:

Dear Mr. Thompson,

I sincerely doubt that there is anything illegal or prosecutable in my actions. I have given you nothing but respect. If you don't like my e-mails, it is simple enough for you to block my address. I do think you need to seriously reconsider the way you treat the general public if you ever hope to execute the changes you desire.

As usual, thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Kyle Fulton

Given that it has been 4 months from the e-mails we doubt any action was taken, or even will be taken.

The video has been up for a few days, and we have gotten some comments on YouTube. Some have really good points.

TKnHappyNess (8 hours ago) Marked as spam

Jack should realize that parents are responsible for what their kids do. Yesterday I went to Wal-Mart, and some kid clearly under 17 wanted his dad to get him Dead Rising for his b-day. The father read the M rating, and the kid was denied. If you can have responsible parents like him, there'd be less and less "violent kids". I'd investigate domestic abuse first long before the games.

I really agree with TK, but apparently all we have is "Bias". Thanks for watching and keep the comments coming.

I will be posting more material next week. I am also going to film more in the next two weeks. It really feels good to get back in the swing of things.

Until next time,

--Keith Dotson

We're Back!

...It's been a while viewers. All three of us have been busy, but I am here to tell you that Start Button News is back. Instead of doing big episodes, we are going to put the individual segments online. To start we have Porter's review of Super Paper Mario and Virtua Fighter 5.

You may notice our new opening. I personally think it looks better.



Just in case you missed it, we put up a brand new blooper reel.



So, we are back. Our next post will be tomorrow. Entitled "My Milkshake Brought Jack Thompson To The Yard".

Until then, Laterz.

--Keith