Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

  No, this is not a rant, this is just your regularly scheduled update with your old pal Sunny. If you haven't gotten the pattern, every Sunday (or Monday morning, if I'm lazy on Sunday) I will make a blog post talking about games I've been playing. Enough introductions, let's jump to it. 
 
I finished Arkham Asylum on Friday night. If you read my previous blog post on it, you would know that I really like it. Those opinions have not changed. I have to say though, the ending is rather anti-climatic. I won't say anything else about that.
 
Yesterday I rented Mortal Kombat vs. DC. I have never played a game in the series before (sue me) and seeing this game leans towards a more causal audience I decided to check it out. The combat is simple, yet satisfying. During fights, you see the characters get cut up. Cloths get ripped, etc. That's a really nice touch. There is a story more, but the story is less than interesting. It involves characters getting under the influence of "rage". Rage acts as a spreading disease in the game. Every character gets controlled by it, and it makes them...well...rage. (hence the name of the blog) Also, I wanted some extra trophies, but seeing that most of them require doing combo challenges, that won't happen.
 
If you were on the forums at around midnight last night you would probably know that I was looking for PC games that would run on my laptop. I found some. Last night, I played the free version of Peggle Extreme from Steam. I don't want to talk in-depth about a free game, so I'll summarize using an innuendo. Playing with balls have never been so much fun. 
 
Today I bought Plants vs. Zombies. I got it on disk, because I don't have a credit card, and I got home only to find out that you can't register the game on Steam. Damn it! No achievements for me. I played a little of it, because it's Sunday afternoon, I don't play much games now. I really like it. It has a great sense of humor and a ton of charm, and watching the plants slowly kill the aliens is fun to watch. 
 
    I connected my laptop to my TV and played it like that for a bit. I'm used to playing games on big screens, so it only makes sense. It didn't really make much difference, it was just bigger. I also went on Giantbomb (as pictured) and man...does it look sexy on that screen. The black is the perfect shade and whatnot, the colors look good...you have to see it to get what I'm saying. 
 
Well, that's all I've been up to. Tomorrow is school for me, I was out for two days due to being sick, so I expect some make-up work slap me in the face. Until next time, peace out peeps!    

Got a mother lode of 360 games in the mail this past week, most of them look pretty promising. After finishing the single player in Uncharted 2 and messing about a fair bit in multiplayer, I'm ready for some backlog stuff again.

Game 1: Tom Clancy's EndWar 

 

 BEFORE: Don't know what to expect here, to be honest. My experience with RTS games is limited, but this one promises a fresh take on it, anyway. The reviews were generally on the good side, but there wasn't really a crazy amount of buzz. 

AFTER: The first achievement popped four minutes in, that was pretty quick. The voice command tutorial seemed to work well enough that I just had to play the first few missions to see if it held up in the field. Three missions in, feels pretty solid so far. Seems kinda easy, though.

Game 2: Resident Evil 5

 

 BEFORE: I bought two copies of this game and gave one of them to my brother, since I've heard that co-op is the way to go. I'm a Resident Evil virgin, so this is going to be a new experience. The focus on co-op is apparent in the opening menus, I'm doing this session alone, though. 

AFTER: Whoa, this game is... different. I needed 45 minutes and three continues to beat mission 1_1 on Normal and get the first achievement. The controls felt very slow compared to other shooters I've played, but popping zombies in the head and collecting gold got really satisfyting once I got over the hump. Can't wait to play this in co-op now. Also, after playing through Uncharted 2, the voice work and animation in the cutscenes here don't hold up.  
 

Game 3: 50 Cent Blood on the Sand 

 
BEFORE: This should be quite a contrast to RE5. 50's quoting Eminem in the opening screen track. I played and liked The Club, I should be able to have some fun with this. Expecting ridiculousness and lots of it.
 
AFTER: Even more ridiculous than expected. Wild and crazy arcade-style effects and a pretty good tempo to the shooting. Way fun. It's pretty good with the achievements too, the first one (for a successful melee attack) popped near the 6-minute mark, and another 30 minutes yielded a bunch more. Could not put this down right away.  
 

Game 4: Mortal Kombat VS DC Universe 

 
BEFORE: Fighting games was one of the genres I didn't foresee myself getting into when I started playing games again a few years ago. I'm also more familiar with the DC Universe than Mortal Kombat, so this should be interesting. I've heard good things. 
 
AFTER: Jumped straight into arcade mode with Scorpion, mixed opponents. Got two achievements in the first match, one for Free Fall Transition and one for Klose Kombat, both worth 25G. Pretty generous. I'm seeing some cool moves here, this should be fun once I get my Hori stick out and learn the finishers. 
 

Game 5: Bionic Commando 

 
BEFORE: There were a few things said about this game when it was released that kept me from buying it at full price, mainly about the collectables. I love collectables when they're done right. When they're not done right, they become an annoyance. I also tried the multiplayer demo, and it left me indifferent. I'm totally willing to give this a try at this price, though. Not expecting too much. 
 
AFTER: Damn, the Grin guys put their logo in the intro cutscenes. Clevery done. This could have used some more polish. Combat feels pretty goot, though. Not quite 10 minutes, finished the first challenge for 5G. I'm gonna have to play through this one later, though I'm already aware of the idiotic twist. 
 

Game 6: F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin

 
BEFORE: Playing this as the last game before I hit the sack at 2:45 AM may not be the greatest idea. I tried the demo for this game when it came out, it seemed OK to me. Not enough to warrand a full-price purchase, though. 
 
AFTER: Bad idea for sure. I spent the better part of 40 minutes trying to finish the first mission because I missed the instructions and I couldn't find them again. This game look pretty. The atmosphere is almost tangible, and there are even some scary parts in there. Shooting seems solid, too. Should make for an interesting diversion someday, though I've got a feeling that once November rolls around, I won't have room for any other shooters than the obvious one.

   I've been experimenting with retro gaming since its been a long while that i've done so.I've since gotten back into the Mortal Kombat Series,not that crummy old Bulls**t thats been out lately,but mainly the 1st one all the way to i say Deception.When i played the 1st game,i had a ball,but then i forgotten so much how hard it was to pull a Fatalitie off,even the simple ones were so complicated being that each game changes the workflow in button smashing and combinations you need to pull off in order for your kombantant to pull off they move.I think i attempted Sub-Zero move like over 5 times and Kanos a good 20x(no lie).Despite that i enjoy this game still this day.I gotta say,what the hell was midway thinking when it came to making these button concepts.I mean making a move for each fighter is one thing,but when you gotta go thru all hell tryna figure out let along remember the patterns.It creates a pounding pain in your head.So when i told a couple of people on my messenger list,some of them were playing it also and realized that it was pretty hard to pull some of the moves off.So from there,i had decided to take some time,while practicing and come out with a Walkthrough to explain the finishing moves in how to do them,and help people out.I believe it'll help those who need a lil help or new to the series.
 
You can check out the walkthough on the following link.

Hey giantbomb.
I've never really been into blogging or anything, mostly because whenever I thought about it, I realised that I would actually have to sit down and write something. So I think I'll try and stop being a lazy butthole and write just about once a week. That seems easy enough. Just a blog a week. No problem.
Also, I might possibly start doing some video blog type stuff. Before I do that, I really have to do something to make it unique. Something where I could be like: "Hey you guys! This shouldn't have been a written blog! There is actually something interesting and co mpelling content within this video! I sure hope you are entertained!"
Not that I talk like that normally. 

This is Edge Maverick. If you're listening to this, YOU ARE THE LAST HOPE!

So I guess I should start with what's going on in my life and... y'know. Videogames.
So lately... I haven't been doing much of anything lately. Really I've just been taking advantage of my summer and being super-lazy and bored. I'm having t o start cross country practice this week. Hurray. I am so excited right now about cross country. You can tell from my punctuation. And totally-not-sarcasm. Speaking of dumb school stuff, I had to read animal farm. Pigs turning into men. I can't contain myself.
Anyways, I've been renting a lot of videogames. Some of which are and Star Ocean: The Last Hope. I pl ayed alittle bit of Fi nal Fantasy 12, but not really quite enough to tell you guys my opinion. Same for me replaying KOTOR. (I played it a long time ago and I just got back into it) So I like videogames.

They're actually pretty good.

So I've been playing a good bit of . A lot.
And me being something of a casual fighting game player (I never really like Street Fighter or Marvel vs. Capcom and stuff like that), I would have to say that it's a pretty fun easy-going fighter. I don't really mind the T-Rating at all. It really doesn't matter. I don't know if my general positive opinion of this game has anything to do with my DC fanboy-ism....
Who am I kidding. It has everything to do with it.
I'm pretty good with Green Lantern.
Actually, I kind of have a problem with his whole super-movelist.
Half of them are hammers. And there's a brickwall. And there are some hands and fists... I dunno. It's just doesn't seem very creative.  I'd like some more variety. And flying. But that's just me being a fanboy.
Now, some people have some complaints with the plot. I really don't give a crap. It's basically an excuse for these two worlds to be fighting each other, and it's basically a super-campy let's-fight-for-no-reason festival.
I love it.
It really goes along with the whole DC-Universe-Justice-League-Crisis-on-Infinite-Earths-type-stuff. It's always had stuff about like, worlds merging and stuff. It just works really nicely. Plus, ever since Sonic Adventure 2 I've been a sucker for dual campaigns happening at the same time and then coming together at the end. Cool stuff.
The freefall kombat and the klose kombat stuff is kinda cheap, but it breaks up the action pretty nicely.

I don't have live so I can't really say anything about the online stuff, biut I've been playing a lot of local multiplayer wiith some of my buddies. They always pick Baraka or the Flash (cheap bastards) but it's been pretty fun. Anyway I'm tryin' to get through the DC campaign right now because I would like to play as Darkseid. I've beat the arcade mode about 5 times with Shang-Tsung. That dude has the best fighting game yell EVER. He just always goes "AH-BOH-DOAY!!!!!" or something of that nature, just in different pitches and volumes. XD


Star Ocean is okay. It's just an easy-going fun little action RPG. It's alright.
The best thing that I can say about is that the main character has the greatest name ever.

So that's pretty much all I've been playin'. I'm hoping to play some more games soon, and then maybe write about 'em.
I might get into filmin' some vloogz (god I hate saying that, it's a VIDEO BLOG GODDAMMIT) later and start getting back into video editing.
Oh god. I have to go back to school in two weeks... This sucks.

Anyways here's some youtube videoes. At the end of this blog post. Iguess they'll kinda have to do with this blog that I'm writing and I wrote. Watch them. Or don't.




































Seeya next week!

Well for someone thats given up achievements ive earned a hell of a lot of achievements in the past week, ive kind of gone overboard for some reason, perhaps its because I want to get to 60k, im not quite sure.

Godfather 2:
Loved this game! it was seriously fantastic, I must just like the whole gangster genre because I really loved the first one as well. The new strategy element (although very very simple and something I wish they had gone into more depth with) is fantastic and reminds me a lot of the old PC game Gangland which I happened to love as well. The combat is very...unpolished? it kind of feels like a late ps1 game in some respects, not least of which is the archaic cover system that simply doesnt work. Loved the game so much that I had no problem getting the full 1000/1000. Cant wait for the next one.

Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe:
Wasnt impressed by this, after playing through arcade mode once I was done with the game and continued only for the points, the fighting system is bland and its just very meh. I liked the premise of the game, the whole crossing over of universes thing but other than that I didnt find much to enjoy. I found myself really missing the little mini-games that used to be in the Mortal Kombat games, they really added some character and humour to an otherwise bland game. Got about 520/1000 with this, the rest of the achievements were insane combo and online ones which I just could not be bothered with.

AC/DC song pack:
Rented it just so I could get the points from it, I was really suprised at the format of this, its literelly just a stand alone, stripped down version of rock band with only 18 tracks in. Im not a fan of AC/DC at all but it was pretty fun, some of the guitar parts caught me off a couple of times but other than that I breezed through it, a few of the charts are pretty fun, especially Thunderstruck which features a mega-long and slower version of TTFAF's intro. The only achievement I didnt manage to get was the 100% a song on vocals, that was just beyond me. Got 215/250 out of it.

Rock Band song pack 2:
Again rented it just for the points, there were a few fun songs in there and I managed to get all the achievements without any problem, I already had some of the DLC but meh, it was alright, I played through on guitar and Dani California took me off guard at the end, christ that song is hard at first. Got 250/250 out of it.

Broken Sword:
Yay! I played this on the Wii and loved it, I originally started it when I was like 9 or something so finally getting to finish it was fantastic, I didnt really like the new hint system though, it took a lot of the challenge out of the game and managed to just make me lazy and click it rather than work out the solution to a puzzle. The new (I think?) Nico bits wernt great though that may just have been because I was looking to play what I remembered rather than any new content. Also is it just me or did they make that goat puzzle a lot easier? I remember being stuck for days on that before but here I did it in like a minute by accident. Would definitely play the second one if they bring it out.

So yeah this was all in the space of under a week, ive got a day or so until my next 3 lovefilm games come to me so ive got time to play one of my own games for a change, im thinking mass effect, never managed to get too far into that.  I need a job.

Seriously, in my opinion i think that many comic book and video game fans have wanted to see this for years and years.  They made Marvel vs. Capcom and then they Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.  They are so many characters that they could pick from so that people would be using they same people over and over because there are not enough playable characters.  Yes, i understand liscencing and contracts could have gotten in the way of earlier proposed like this but i think that there are enough fans that those buisness tycoons will understand ( actually i doubt they would but it makes this sound better).  So let me think about what you think about this proposed idea and how you think that it would come out ok?

Superman TAS was so goddamn weak. Like, there was this one episode where a helicopter with a minigun gave him a lot of trouble. Absolutely retarded.

You know, I wasn't crazy about JLU, mostly because they totally butchered Hawkman, but I always wanted to see them do "Identity Crisis." That sort of story would've been perfect for that format.

Season 4 of Batman TAS sucked ass. All the art looked worse then before because Bruce Timm decided to simplify the animation style, and Batman went from being a grim badass to just being an insufferable jackass. Avoid it like the plague.

Doomsday in the DCAU is not Doomsday. Doomsday in the comics killed Superman. Doomsday in the DCAU got fucking lobotomized by Serious Superman. Lawl. Utter fail.

Unless Serious Superman from the parallel dimension took the equivalent of Kryptonian steroids or something, there's no way that he could use just his heat vision to lobotomize something like Doomsday. It's moronic.

And no, I don't particularly care about Doomsday, but they royally fucked him up in that episode. Dini and co have a pretty good batting average with their body of work, and some ideas are certainly better then what the comics had (Heart of Ice, etc) but they lay some stinkers too. I'm more then happy to point them out.

In fact, the entire Justice Lords story was ridiculous. I mean, I like Wally West as much as the next guy, but his death causes the entire JLA to turn into a bunch of fascist super-dictators? Really? Cmon, you couldn't even convince most of fandom that the destruction of an entire city on some coast would turn a hero into a villain, the death of a Flash ain't gonna do it.