Tonight  is a memorable night for me. With college taking priority of any free time I have, it's been a nightmare on the gaming side. If you've tracked me for a while, you might know that I've hosted a few tournaments in my time; one included AlexN. I even had a chance late last year to host/run/organize a tournament that had hundreds of spectators, and nearly a hundred competitors. For work tonight, we paired up with a local community, non-profit tournament host Last Action Gamer and threw together a Resident Evil 5 (thoughts on Sessler review) release party. It consisted of a well-sized Street Fighter IV tournament with a little bit of a Rock Band II follow-up. Man, it was fun -- probably one of the better competitions I've ran. Most of the players there knew exactly what they were getting themselves into, and nearly all of the matches were provided with many shock-in-awe screams due to the amount of close, exciting fights that occurred.

I could go into detail of how each match went down, but I'll sum it up by using one as an example: It was Guile vs. Sagat, and the rounds were extremely close each time. In the final of the match, both players were generally low on HP and the timer was hitting some low digits. Sagat moved in with a good tiger knee, knocking his opponent to a mere pixel of health. The crowd was on its toes, thinking it was over. Sagat was all over him, chipping away damage from Guile, who hasn't used his ultra the entire tournament thus far. Sagat pulled a swift tiger uppercut, but it was blocked -- and Guile unexpectedly busts into his ultra when Sagat was coming down. The audience was flipping out; I think everybody was on their feet. And still, Sagat had the smallest amount of HP left. It was epic. Unfortunately for Sagat, the Guile player chained a sonic boom right after his landing with perfect timing, and the player had no choice but to block. The chip damage killed him.

The night went on with many more matches just as amazing. It was sad there was only one person representing Zangief, though. Guess I'll have to as well next time. Also, a used copy of Madden 2001 was given away to what we considered to be the worst player at the tournament -- it was pretty funny.

So did anyone pick up Resident Evil 5? We didn't sell a single copy at our demo station during the tournament and it really didn't see much action throughout the night. It was eventually later replaced by someone who brought a Dreamcast and hooked up some Capcom vs. SNK 2. I got it myself, but will be holding off until I can play it with this goon when I'm visiting him in PA. Something interesting: During my vacation, I'll be running a D&D campaign (NERD!). Was particularly wondering if anyone was interested in listening to an (edited) recording of it if the effort proved worthy (funny, interesting, etc.). Dunno if I will follow through with it, but Penny Arcade has something similar and I've found it rather entertaining to listen to thus far.

Anyway, what an awesome night to be a gamer. Now, I just need to get to work on playing them and I'd be all set. Spring break surely couldn't come soon enough.

There's only company in the world I could say this to.

Dear EA,

• An amazing amount of free time (75%) going towards a Neverwinter Nights 2 campaign alongside of Tyler.
• Lots o' Company of Heroes with Hair, Armpits, and sometimes Nose.
• Recently got the Dawn of War II MP Beta and having loads of fun with it. I love the Warhammer universe -- makes me wanna play Warhammer Online now! ... a lot.
• First college semester + job = Boring stuff to anyone who reads.
• Disappointed that my modem is dropping the entire house when I try to stream Netflix movies all of a sudden. Makes the service a little useless for me.
• GTA IV is falling off the boat for me, primarily because my time is spent. Onto the game's that I wish I had time to play!
• The only show I watch, 24, has somehow pulled off a successful start to it's seventh season. I was calling that this one would jump the shark, but it's doing quite the opposite. Congrats to them!
• This man is now nearing 57 years old and is still being legendary.
• The F.E.A.R. 2 Demo is pretty good. They definitely have something going for them, and as a big, big fan of the first release, I'm looking forward to learning more about Alma n' stuff.
• Resident Evil 5 is certainly on my list of game's to pick up when they're released. The demo is a bundle of entertainment, and I'm hoping to go through the entire campaign cooperatively.
• Hookah bar!

A New Page Too Quick? - Console Lifespan

Here we are, a little past the halfway mark of this generation. A lot has happened since the wave of the green flag; most notably the gaming industry taking a huge jump in popularity. With each passing day the arrival of a new set of highly praised technogoly takes a step closer and closer. Please take in mind that I’m coming from the side of an unbiased gamer who’s just like you. The Wii has done an amazing job in not only catching the eye of the public, but making the industry as a whole grow. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has pushed its potential to a high height with it’s online-driven features while continuing to extend its large library of appealing games. Last but not least, the Playstation 3 has jumped out of its rocky start and is showing that gaming consoles can do much more than play games. Everything is fair play, and there’s not a true path of right or wrong to go down with the cash in your pocket.

But is this how it should be? I come to ask this: Where is the industry going? It’s becoming a scary road for developers, publishers, sales, critics and consumers simply because there’s a lot more money involved. Thousand dollar projects have turned into million dollar pieces of work that take years to release. Everyone is involved in part of something that is rapidly growing, and just as your console’s collection is building and everything is  fine-tuned, a new wave of hardware is unleashed. From certain aspects, the beginning life of a console is an unfortunate one with its many issues and lack of an enjoyable library. The visible problem is the unfinished feeling of the early console doesn’t  allow the full potential to shine long enough.  Generic lifespan that is about five years feels more like three to four. Not to mention that you’re paying the high release price, where as if you buy further down the line you’ll have a better experience at a cheaper price.

I’m not saying that the lifespan should be greatly lengthened, but rather slightly extended by a year or two. Not only would it give us a chance to truly feel finished with the console, but there would be more testing time to improve the system’s initial impact.

Console A Over Console B, Which One? – Exclusives Narrowing Console Choices

Remember back in the day when the game library between Sega and Nintendo were completely different? The comparison between systems has definitely become thin both the gaming and feature department. Nearly all of the titles being released today can be found on the next console. Whether that’s a good or bad thing, that’s up for you to decide. Although, it’s obvious that since there’s so much money involved in devolpment, the only way to turn a good profit is to broaden the game’s audience by bringing it to every console that you can. It may be hard effort spent reworking the title to be smooth in the convertion, but the time required greatly undermines the received profit. Unless you have a low budget or an already popular franchise, the only way a company is going to be decently successful on business is to have the system’s lead pay you handsomely for exclusiveness of the game. Or if we look back a little bit, you can jack up the retail price of a game by ten dollars. With that said, the selection to choose from in the gaming industry is becoming an easy one--you really can’t go wrong.

If there’s some key aspects that needs to be focused on, it’s either more exclusives or better (and also more) features to seperate console A from console B. Corporation’s need to stop copying each other and build original content for loyal buyers to explore. Downloadable arcade games, achievement systems, and even motion controls (According to Microsoft: plans to release a Wiimote-like controller in the future have been in mind) are no longer something you can proudly have by yourself. That leaves the answer of what exactly you spent hard-earned cash on a specific console. Sure we have two, maybe three reasons between each console to persuade your decision, but is that all you should be treated to? As a gamer, I personally don’t expect the world to be handed to me. However, with the industry’s money floating around with our cash in it, I hope for  some sake of individualism.

To be clear, I’m not saying that we need more exclusive titles and features on our consoles so we can point at others and shout, “Ha-ha!” - I’d simply like to see a bigger reason to purchase one console over another.  Look at your shelf and count how many titles are on another system. For me, as an example, I see about a ¾ of my 360 collection available on the PS3. Does the combination of a few exclusive titles and console features make me feel like a proud owner? Well, of course, but I could play nearly the same games on the next console and experience similar features, feeling just as proud.

So what are your thoughts? Sure, the industry isn’t all bad. Gamers spend money on different things but generally have the same experience. It’s a fence that’s hard to choose which side you want to be on, and neither side is necessairly bad. However, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, the only thing I truly want from you next generation is more of a reason to spend money on your console rather than the other guy.

---------------

As I said, it's a fun read because of the time it was written. I totally forgot that Microsoft had a controller with motion control in development ... what ever happened to that!? Anyway, hope you enjoyed.

So I've got a lot of time on my hands coming up, and it's mainly going to be put into that 'getting back into video games thing'. While I still have been playing the occasional vidya, I've been lacking on contributing to the industry -- as well as obtaining experience. One of the best ways to get hyped up and reflect on video games is to discuss such things with a great community. Of course, I am a member of Giantbomb and over a handful of people know me pretty well, but I'm looking to expand on the library of this gaming humanity. I've never really truly introduced myself to the site, and to be frank, I'm still living in '07.

To make a point, I'm looking for a webcam. Budget isn't too much of a concern, but I'm a big fan of consistent 30FPS. Most people out there are more veteran to 'cams than me, so feel free to recommened whatever you'd like. I'm looking to get a video up by the end of this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some hints on what to look for.

Thanks