This may be my rantiest and crappiest blog entry ever, but I don't care. I'm angry.
I've given in twice to fighting games in a desperate attempt to join in on the so-called fun, and once again I've been screwed. It was SoulCalibur IV earlier this year, and now it's Super Street Fighter II: Turbo HD Remix. Luckily in this case, not only was Street Fighter cheap by comparison, but the game itself has given me a strong warning about Street Fighter IV before I potentially make another big mistake.
Speaking of which, why don't I list all of Capcom's mistakes?
What the hell is P? Were the original devs using an Irish controller?
What the hell is K? Just tell us whether it's A, B, X or Y please? We shouldn't have to decipher clues just to find out how to do a move.
How do you Charge? Why do they insist on keeping this function a secret?
Where's the run button? It shouldn't be quicker to jump than walk, but then again, all you do is jump because the 360 D-pads are so busted.
I cannot do Zangief's Super move. It either does the wrong move or he jumps. And yeah, I filled the bar too.
Why can't I go back out of the character select screen? Why is every button all of a sudden the confirm button? I don't see the point in this limited functionality. You think they would fix this crap.
Why doesn't the character select screen fill my TV display? Do they think we would just never notice? Jeez, this isn't like the Wii; people actually notice this stuff. Why isn't the gameplay in true widescreen? What the hell is up with that? This was one aspect of the promotion of this game, and it's all a lie!
I could've used the Microsoft Points to buy the rest of the Rock Band DLC that I want, but it's too late now. It's all my fault, but it will never happen again. Unless we're talking about the Super Smash Bros. series, FIGHTING GAMES SUCK.
I recently relocated a TV of mine to another location in the house. I hadn't used it in a while and the remote was a little dusty so I cleaned it. All of a sudden, I dropped the remote and to my surprise, this is what lay inside...
Time Capsule
WOW. Talk about random. Me at age 15. I had completely forgotten about this note.
Back in high school I had a bottle of Coke every day. I dunno how I didn't gain a butt-load of weight from that.
Anyway, what else happened in 2002? Well, with the help of Wikipedia I'm gonna pick out a few things that stand out to me:
- Ansett Australia died.
- Queen Elizabeth died.
- Kath & Kim debuted.
- CNNNN debuted.
- Spider-Man released.
- Xbox LIVE launched, but no one cared until Halo 2 came out.
- The WWF officially became the WWE. N00bs would still call it WWF to this day.
- Kung Pow! Enter the Fist. They are yet to apologise for that one.
- 8 Mile released, and 8 miles of rip-offs would follow for years to come.
- Minority Report. This pre-dates the "Let's hate Tom Cruise" bandwagon.
- The South Sydney Rabbitohs crawled back to the NRL. They wasted so much money on "We're back!" bumper stickers that they couldn't sign players that were actually good.
- Sk8er Boi by Avril Lavigne released, and people worldwide got just a little bit angrier.
- The Bourne Identity released. Michael J. Fox was the cameraman.
I've kept myself out of the wrestling videogame world after getting sick of SmackDown! Vs. RAW's slow motion gameplay. Every year their only new feature was some awful minigame within a match to slow it down.
After a few years out of the wrestling game loop, I caved last week to TNA iMPACT!: The Video Game.
I've been a fan of TNA since it's inception, and although I'm not as dedicated to wrestling a I used to be, I still manage to catch it since it's been on FOX8.
TNA's gameplay and mechanics were good for the most part, but that's basically all you get on the game disc. The game lacks moves, wrestlers, custom wrestler options, weapons and MANY other small things which would normally make for a decent wrestling title.
To top things off, my Xbox 360 would freeze whenever I tried to join an online game. Midway customer support rounded it down to being a faulty game disc as this was a unique case.
So, still with a hunger for a wrestling game, I'm now gonna come crawling back to the WWE SmackDown Vs. RAW series. I have no idea what the WWE series has done over the years, but at this point I don't care.
This whole deal isn't all bad though. The reason why I gave in and bought the game in the first place despite knowing of it's issues was because of the extra content that came with it. Inside the case was a bonus disc with three matches and a documentary on the making of the game. What also lay inside was a card to send away for two free TNA PPV DVD's. I didn't waste any time sending that away when I bought it.
So in summary: A free six day rental of TNA iMPACT!. 345 gamerscore, which took me over the 10000G mark. Two FREE TNA wrestling DVD's, which should be coming soon.
I had written most of this weeks ago, which is why I mostly refer to games released last month. I didn't really get a chance to post, and probably won't post again for a while, because I bought heaps of games in the past month, with many more to come.
Console Crashers
I wanted to show Castle Crashers to a friend of mine, so I took my hard drive to his house and plugged it into his 360. When I fired up the game, I was shocked to see that my game save didn't exist when it was in his console, and when I got home it didn't come back either. I had since started a new, completed game save (and isn't the game just so awesome!) but they really should have noticed and fixed this before release.
The exact same issue is in Braid as well, so I couldn't show off one of the later levels to the same friend. My save wiped for it too, but luckily not only have I already finished it but I really enjoyed finishing it again.
Olympic Cheater Revealed
My friend that I spoke of earlier is a highly proficient button-masher. He played a bunch of Track & Field while signed in with my gamertag.
He thrashed all of my records and half the achievements were unlocked by him. I feel kinda bad about that.
Since then I haven't been playing it at all. The fact that they aren't really my records on the leaderboards actually makes me feel worthless when I play it now.
D-Pad Of Death
I've never had a problem with the Xbox 360's D-pad. This was only because I was yet to own a game that should mainly use the D-pad.
My day has finally come.
After playing a good amount of SoulCalibur IV, my D-pad has become a hideous monster. It's forced me to use the control stick in Bionic Commando Rearmed.
I guess in a way it's good timing that these new controllers with the fixed D-pads may be obtainable, but damn that Microsoft. They should've fixed all these hardware issues a lot sooner.
If my D-pad had red lights they would've burnt out by now.
Playstation NotWork
I've come across a seemingly unimportant issue, but for someone who likes his internet alias to be the same everywhere, this is big.
The letters "XXX" are not permitted within a PSN ID, and as a result the global name of elektrixxx will never be on the Playstation Network. I've had to settle for the horrible alternative of "elektrixx".
I've tried to get some PSN AU support staff to register the alias for me, with a small hope that they can bypass banned phrases, but they can't do it.
A simple thing like this means that the Xbox 360 will definitely be my main outlet for multiplatform games. Sorry Sony, you've lost me for yet another generation, and possibly forever if these PSN ID's are a forever type thing too.
Double-D L C-Cups
The latest SoulCalibur IV bundle comes complete with a school girl outfit, sailor outfit and other junk. This goes perfect with the previous DLC consisting of maid outfits and other stupid garbage.
First of all, don't get me wrong, I dig hot chicks in games, but they really need something better in their DLC than what they're rolling out now.
I don't really need to rant about this in particular. I've already bought a game which features Ivy, Sophitia and other eye-opening women so I can't talk. Instead I'll just conclude with:
When creating custom chick characters you can't lose when you set the physique to max and set the muscularity up a slight amount. The only reason for that is so that their skin shines a little better. You'll see...
I have a fine collection of Xbox LIVE Arcade titles, but I don't get much downloadable content for retail games unless it's free. The only DLC off the top of my head that I'll pay for is anything for Burnout Paradise and the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV content. Even so, this fantastic option of downloading content for Microsoft Points is starting to dig deep.
All these transactions seem micro on their own, but lately the price has ramped up on a few new XBLA games and without a doubt there will be more of the same to come.
Braid, an XBLA title recently released. While I love it and all it's quite fanboyish of me to think it's really worth it's near AU$20 price tag. Castle Crashers is also 1200 points, and so far there's nothing in my opinion that makes it worth more than the usual 800 points. I was set to buy Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode One, but I refuse to pay over AU$26 for it.
I don't feel comfortable with the thought that 1200MSP may become the new 800, but there's nothing I can do about that. I'm too much of a sucker for the instant downloadable injection, and just like Braid and Castle Crashers, if I really want a game I'll pay anything for it. I mean, I actually paid for Fable II Pub Games. Yeah, you heard me.
While downloading games saves me making space for game cases, they now take up an even more expensive amount of area. This combination of great Xbox LIVE Arcade games, title updates, retail game DLC and the new functionality coming from "The New Xbox Experience" is going to hit me hard in particular.
Because I am my crazy completionist self, I will need to have all my retail games (and their DLC) installed permanently on my hard drive, which means that my (so-called) 20GB hard drive isn't gonna cut it.
This would be no big deal if we were talking about PC's or the PS3, but Xbox 360 owners are limited to the custom casing, custom hard drive space and worst of all, custom pricing of the 120GB hard drive. Currently the RRP is AU$199, and although it's easy to find it cheaper than that price, your wallet will still get raped at any retail outlet.
If you love your downloadable content and need to upgrade your Xbox 360 hard drive, that's when it really starts hitting hard. Microsoft never anticipated that Xbox LIVE Marketplace would have so much content at this point in the Xbox 360's life cycle, but we're the one's who have to pay for their mistake.
Right at the beginning, microtransactions and downloadable content feel right, but over time, they'll end up costing you one way or another.
Of course, the elektrixxx armour is totally worth it.
With Defend Your Castle being my only purchase on the Wii in a while, it's easy to see why everything I've written about is all to do with the Xbox 360. C'mon, Nintendo. Pick up your game on WiiWare and Virtual Console already!
I don't consider myself one to play crappy games for points, but now I'm having conflicting thoughts.
Should I really start going down this dirty path of playing games solely for their achievements? What have I become?
It's a good thing I've bought some new games lately, otherwise my standards may have dropped to a new low already.
The Fable Train
Back in June I created a topic on GameSpot titled "Are Sequels Keeping You Out Of The Loop?" and used Fable II as an example of a game that I don't really feel welcome playing because I didn't play the original.
All this Fable II hype has made me feel so bad about not playing the first one that I ended up actually purchasing Fable: The Lost Chapters off eBay for a whopping AU$38. It is cheap by eBay Fable standards, but compared to the 1200MSP Xbox Original I could've downloaded it is a big difference.
It's my goal to finish Fable and clean up on Fable II Pub Games before Fable II releases, but I don't have much time. Even as I write this I'm not expecting Fable: TLC to arrive in the mail for several days.
I just don't want to be alone!
War On Geometry: elektrixxx Evolved
The last time I wrote my experiences with Geometry Wars I went on about how terrible I was and embarrassed myself in the process. Since then, with the help of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 I have improved significantly. In GW2 I have unlocked every achievement with the exception of two from the "Sequence" game mode.
The odd thing is that I still suck at the first Retro Evolved! With two attempts, my games ended at 8,000 and 24,000. I thought going back to the original would open up a new outlet for achievements, but unfortunately that will never be.
Also, only three other people on my list have this game. That's much less than the previous Geometry Wars game. What's the go?
Speaking of games that I suck at...
SoulCXliYur a.k.a Soul Uncalibrated
SoulCalibur IV is the first traditional fighting game I've ever bought. With the Super Smash Bros. series being the only fighting games I've ever purchased it's a weird new world of gaming for me for the following reasons:
- Boobs work better than actual armour, or clothes for that matter
- Boobs are so big and important that they need the Havoc physics engine to contain them
- You're entering the Konami code over and over again to do moves
- In order to read the move list you have to write new letters over your buttons with a permanent marker
A is X and B is Y? Why the hell did they do that for? "K" is not a button, you idiots! Why complicate things? Just tell me what button it really is, okay?!
This fighting game thing is proving to be very frustrating for me, but once again I don't want to get left out of the hype. I need something to prepare me for the Street Fighter games.
Blogger's Block
I've been trying to write an intelligent, lengthy entry about downloadable content and it's effects, but I just can't put my sentences together. I guess unless it's some sort of ranting innuendo filled nonsense it's too difficult for me!
If I had written about Ivy's breasts instead I would've finished off by now.
The first half of this entry was meant for a future compilation of "MicroComments #2", but things turned out differently...
It is the day before Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 releases. I'm giving the original Geometry Wars another go, hoping to just all of a sudden "get it" and be good at the game... Nope, I still suck big time! My maximum scores are all around 50,000.
I just don't get how people can play this. I've been trying my damn hardest to get good at this thing, so that I actually have a chance in the new game.
I've considered some excuses as to why I'm bad at this. My reason is "I sit too close to my TV." That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
I won't buy Geometry Wars 2. It's unfortunate, but if you're like me and your maximum score is about 147,000, you're better off hiding.
One day later...
Well, I've downloaded the demo of the new game, just to check out how good the native 1080p looks on my TV. I've played three rounds of Deadline, and on the first go I went really bad. How bad? Well, on my first death my score was on 303. Yeah that's right, THAT bad, just like on the first game, but... something's happened.
I've started to play just a little bit better on my next two games. I know that the points are easier in this game but even with that considered something has happened to the way I play, and now I feel "comfortable".
So, I began caving in to buy it.
Even though I wasn't interested in purchasing it yesterday, I've now changed my mind, but not completely. I still had the dark thoughts of the last game in my head. My mind wanted to buy Geo Wars 2, but my body would not allow it. I couldn't bring myself to press A on the upgrade screen. I had to force my brother to buy it for me!
My brother wasn't looking at the TV when I dropped the controller on his lap and told him to press A. He had no idea and just pressed A. I then grabbed the controller and hoped that it didn't actually work for some reason, but it was done.
Minus 800 Microsoft Points later...
I've now got the game, and I'm very happy with my purchase. There's plenty of modes, leaderboards, pretty graphics and achievements to keep me happy. But will I get good at it? We'll see. At the moment I'm still pretty bad, but for now I can classify myself as "less bad".
If I suck at this too, I swear I won't buy Geometry Wars 3.
On Sep 9, 2006, I uploaded a Super Smash Bros. Melee video at GameSpot titled "SSBM: Goldeen KO's?". Since then, this six second video has had over 81,000 views.
Out of over 46,000 user videos, mine is listed there as the 16th most visited user video of all time on GameSpot, but why?
My guess is that whenever someone watches this video they think "What the hell?" and replay the video. Maybe only 20,000 unique users actually watched it, and it all happens so fast that many people replay the video several times over.
So many thoughts, not enough brain power to write a proper article. Being hungover would do that, but I'm still awake enough to put all my opinions together into one neat package. And..... GO!
XB Del-Ay
The only Xbox LIVE Arcade titles I care about right now are Bionic Commando Rearmed, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie. Where the hell are they? It seems like Street Fighter and Bionic Commando are getting perpetually delayed. Even right now I'm reading articles in which Bionic Commando has been delayed again and that Street Fighter's Beta has been extended 'till September. Why does it just happen to be the games I care about?
Every week some random garbage comes out, and just when I thought I was gonna get "SOULCALIBUR", I find out the game's single player content has been dropped! I'm gonna have to buy Battlefield: Bad Company or something if I don't get some new achievements soon. I'm so close to 8000G, but there's nothing I want to really play right now.
Tonight's Lotto Balls Are:
5456 0840 0675.
Not really. That's actually one of my friend codes, but who can tell? A friend of mine cringes at the thought of entering Friend Codes and said the Lotto line to me on Windows Live Messenger. I thought it was a very funny comment, but unfortunately it's all true.
Reggie continuously states that Nintendo are doing something about it, but they've been saying that for ages, similar to the Wii's internal storage issues.
WiiWhere?
Since WiiWare has started up, Nintendo's online releases have actually gotten worse. What would have been Virtual Console titles releasing weekly have been replaced by single releases of crappy versions of games that we've all seen on XBLA, except they cost more and have less features, and that's basically all we get every two weeks.
I heard on a podcast that a WiiWare specific media summit of some sort was coming soon, so maybe we will get all the awesome information and announcements we all want. Just like E3, right?
Curse You, Vista!
I was all set to record a video for this blog on Thursday, but NO. Denied, by Vista. I had my entire template set up, including the intro, outro, skits and general rundown of how everything was going down, and as I prepared to record on my Vista laptop, I find that Windows Movie Maker's webcam recording feature has been removed in the Vista version. What the hell?
I did intend to use Sony Vegas at first, but it's just too damn complicated. I don't have a choice now, so I guess it's back to the drawing board for my video content.
It was gonna be really cool, I swear!
Giant Beta
I've jumped aboard the Giant Bomb ship and I'm enjoying uploading what I have to give. The community was a total mess when it started, but since the GameSpot haters have cooled down, profanity lovers have gotten their fix and pornography posters have fixed themselves, the community has turned into a calm, peaceful place where we can say evil forbidden ear-shattering words like "style" and "class". Where one can write up something and not be told that "No valid tags were found" and where our HTML IS well formed.
From this point on there can only be improvements, so it will be interesting to see how Giant Bomb evolves over time. The only thing that's really irritating me is an error that's preventing me from viewing my pending submissions. That, and the fact that some of my submissions are taking up to four days to process.
For me, when I'm impressed by something, I can't think of as much to write compared to things I dislike. When I came off dissapointed by most of what was in all the big 3's press conferences, I had no problem complaining about it!
Sony:
Whoever was playing Resistance 2 in the video needs to learn how to strafe. It actually irritated me watching the player run up the ramp in the building like he had tank controls.
It's obvious why they change the box art and colour of discounted games, but for me I just can't stand buying those differently boxed games. I want originals, dammit!
I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't care about Ratchet & Clank and has no intention to ever play one. Every time I see a trailer or something, it's just unfunny one-liners and lameness, just like Everybody Loves Raymond.
Which do you believe will happen first? Playstation Home completing beta testing, Gmail completing beta testing, Duke Nukem Forever releasing or Chinese Democracy releasing? Hmm, it's a tough one. Visit my blog in 2012 to find out!
MAG seemed like a really good idea, but it didn't occur to me until the next day that I don't really like playing online after a few months of a game's release. Usually, the only people remaining by then are the dedicated fans of that game, who always tear you apart.
The only game I've truly continued to play online is Burnout Paradise. The online community is generally friendly, and the fact that you need to work together to complete challenges makes it an original, pleasent experience.
Nintendo:
The "New" Animal Crossing looked like the GameCube version with Mario Kart Wii styIe bloom added to character models. Where's the detail? Once again a Wii game gets graphically short changed.
The Nintendo ads with actors playing like jerks are just too irritating for me now. With the thirty seconds of commercial time, they could show a guy managing to enter one friend code.
Is this Wii Speak thing gonna cancel out the sound actually coming from our television or what?
You know those guys who have their TV or music up loud enough that it comes through their headset on Xbox LIVE? Well, it may be like that to the max, plus with everyone's mics echoing each other it's gonna make everything even more fun!
They still haven't addressed the Friend Codes issue yet, so Voice Chat is still largely a waste of time.
Microsoft:
I posted these in reverse order, and that's because I actually liked most things Microsoft had to show.
I cannot explain why, but for some reason my most anticipated game is now Banjo-Kazooie on Xbox LIVE Arcade! Sure, there's Gears 2, Rock Band 2, Portal: Still Alive and BK: Nuts & Bolts of course, but the thought of the original going on my console makes me feel warm inside.
My gripes with Microsoft's showing were more picky so I'll keep this one short...
Netflix - Meh! Scene It! - Meh! Lips - Meh! 1 Vs. 100 - Meh! Star Ocean - Meh! Infinite Undiscovery - Meh! Last Remnant - Meh! Last Remnant on Game For Windows LIVE - Double Meh!
Well, that will do for now. Are you angry? Leave a comment!
I just hope my magnificent blog post doesn't make GameSpot crash like my last one.
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