No, this isn't a post about how throwing is cheap. I'm not really happy about being thrown as much as the rest of yas, but my complaint is somewhat different.

Why the hell did they have to change the buttons you use to throw in this game? I am so used to the throwing system from games past where it's just close towards and a button. this two button horsecrap throws me off every time because no matter how long I've had SF4 for I'll never get used to this new button scheme. Can anyone explain to me the benefit to this new system? It just seemed arbitrary that they changed it in teh 1st place.

Used to be if someone was being a throw monkey I coudl just hit them back with their same tactics but I never seem to get this new crap to go off properly.

There are so many damn games for the 360 that I have yet to play and I sometimes make some bad picks when I am staring at the gamefly queue. I think my overall desire when it comes to this stuff, like everyone, is to pick the good ones. So like most people I look to review sites and other opinions to get a sense for what exactly is good. Well, you can't always rely on others, and sometimes if you do you might miss a gem you would have loved.

Phantasy Star Universe is a game that when I first played it on the PS2 over a year ago I loved the hell out of it. Then as I played it I got a little irritated, then loved it, then irritated, then ditched it entirely. Now I love the online game they have made. It's a psudeo MMO that plays a bit like Guild Wars. However I didn't really like the monthly fee for it. Now with a better setup (I have a 360 now as opposed to a PS2) I find myself wanting to go back to it. The only problem is the games not up to snuff anymore. Hell, Sega didn't even bother to allow the game to use the chat pad and that's kind of stupid. Also now with a Gamefly account and  a gold live account can I really justify a monthly game fee?

So I am left at a crossroads, to play or or not to. Right now I'm itching bad for a MMO but my PC can't play any of them, plus the ones I was interested in I already played to death. On the horizon is the Champions MMO and I really hope that sees the light of day on the 360. You hear how it's coming, but they never really say when or if the only version coming anytime soon is the PC version.

I'll just play in Paradise City till then.

So I rented Rumble Roses XX from gamefly as I was oddly curious how the game played. The PS2 game was not totally terrible, but this was complete crap. Now I know this is probably an obvious choice for crap, but let me explain. The biggest problem with this game isn't that it's a giant excuse to see virtual boobies or that the games wrestling engine isn't really all that hot. No, the biggest problem here is that the unlocakables and achievements are completely nonsense.

The game has no story, or direction to speak of and also nothing to give you any sort of direction. No, in order to unlock all of the various characters, costumes, and other nonsense, you have to just randomly play the game and get things without knowing how you did it, or go to gamefaqs and read the unlock faq. Now when you look over the faq you notice most of hte unlocks involve beating a certain character a number of times, or beating a character when they have the title. The matching is random. So if you want to beat Dixie 10 times you have to just keep playing over, and over, and over, and wait till she shows up.

Needless to say, this takes FOREVER!

Anyhow, the game sucks so stay away from it. The boobs aren't even all that great to look at so I'll save you that trouble.

So, Picked this up yesterday and I have to say, other than a few annoyances with some character tweaks they did the games fan-freeking-tastic! The controls on the 360 aren't as bad as I was dreading, but then a few months with HD Remix helped that out. The matching service isn't terrible but it coudl use a bit of help from time to time. Having to pick quick match about 10 times before you get one is irritating but you can also just set hte game to allow players to join you while you play arcade mode. The game also let's you prioritise weither or not you want it to look for the most stable connection for those jump in matches, which helps.

Now the gripes, Blanka looks and sounds terrible. Youc an get over the sound by setting him to Lapanese, he sounds slightly better there. His look is like how he looked in SFEX, whihc is bad. His attacks aren't as fast as they used to be, but they did add a few tweaks to him that sort of make up for it. Still it's hard to look at him as it looks more like someone in a blanka costume you'd see at an anime con, blech.

In the end, great job Capcom, now get some more freeking sticks and pads out there for sale!

So I really love the new Street Fighter that was released last month, however their matching service is pretty crappy. I know it's better than the stuff that was offered in the past but it still needs major work, especially in this era of online games. It usually takes on average 5-8 attempts to get into a match with someone that has a ping under 100.

For those of you not familiar with how the service works, first you select that you want a multiplayer match, then you select ranked, then you wait while it populates a list of several matches you can choose from. Then you select down to get the match you want, and then you either get into the match or your told that the match is no longer available. If the match is no longer available the system takes you back to the menu in which you choose a ranked match or not. So you have to go through the list populating and go downa nd select another then maybe you get in or not. The system is seriously frustrating.

Ther eis a quick match option, but there's no parameters on it. You can't tell the system to give you a quick match with a ping under a certain amount or with a paticular ruleset turned on. If your in a match with a ping over 100 the game starts to become borderline unplayable. The further away from 100 the ping is the worse it is as the game's constantly laggy and rewinding on itself which really throws off the flow of the game.

I really hope Capcom learns from these issues when SF4 comes out next month and gives us a better matching service. Also while the thought of people being able to jump into your game like in the arcade sounds great, I hope there's again some kind of limiter so that it only allows people with a good ping or else that feature could quickly become useless unless it comes with a friends only filter.