Well it was a small thing in a local Gamestation store but it still felt pretty good, I got about £35ish pounds worth of stuff at the end of it and for you American folk that's around 70 bucks. What was weird is that it was played with infinite timer, luckily not much turtling happened at all but this could have been disastrous if there was a Dhalsim or Guile player...
Anyway, I stuck with Balrog for the most part because a fair amount of his combos are pretty easy and I didn't want to risk getting hit by a mashed DP or command grab as Akuma because his health is so low. You never know if people are gonna mash hard in these tournaments and a few people did so it was probably a good idea, although I should have had more confidence in my execution as Akuma, I just wanted to win.
I got to the semi-finals after tearing through most people so I switched it up and picked M.Bison who I mained in vanilla IV, dominated the other semi-finalist and went onto the finals. For this I just thought...meh I'll try it so I picked Akuma, the other guy picked Sagat at first and went on to lose the first game and then he chose Balrog for the remaining games (2). I was really pleased with my performance and I had a small crowd seeming impressed by me as I was hitting all my links and fadc combos while shutting him down with the vortex.
In the last round I read my opponent by throwing a fireball and expecting him to headbutt through it, as soon as I saw that headbutt animation start I did the Raging Demon and caught him on the way back down, the demon finished him off and I was crowned the winner of the tournament. Feels good man.
I was really pleased with my performance, as Balrog I hit my EX loops pretty flawlessly and my links with Akuma were spot on too, I've not slept in over 24 hours now so I'm really surprised my reactions and execution were so on point. In earlier games vs a Ryu I did Balrog's Raging Buffalo on reaction to fireballs twice and managed to get some big damage.
Anyway I basically won a sealed copy of Guitar Hero 3 (which I will never use - gonna sell it) along with a 360 faceplate and Tekken 6 calendar. They were also going to give me a copy of SSFIV on either 360 or PS3 but they knew I had it for both systems already and let me pick a game in the store, I ended up picking Just Cause 2 on PC which I've wanted for ages!
All in all, it was a lot of fun and was kinda cool to be playing so well, I forced myself to do certain combos 20-30 times in a row in preparation and that paid off big time. It would have been even cooler if I had my custom stick artwork in place while at the tournament but that has yet to arrive.
15 Comments
I can’t quite remember if it was Christmas or my birthday but I was given a Dreamcast as a present, I think it might have been my birthday as I recall having to go to school the day I got it and thinking about it all day while I was there.
I remember my Dad telling me when I got home that he had watched the intro of the game and thought it was awesome. I darted upstairs, fired the machine up and started playing. (well, watching)
This guy is as cool as he looks. What a sight it was, I started watching the intro and was just blown away by the graphics, I was only like 11 years old so I wasn’t really a graphics whore or anything but jeez, the Dreamcast was just a giant leap over my PS1 and N64. I couldn’t believe it.
I don’t think I was really that used to voice acting in games either and this was a fully voiced game with stunning visuals, I was enticed throughout the entire intro and immediately after I just wanted to kick Lan Di’s ass across all of Yokosuka.
Think of how good those visuals must have been back in 1999. When I actually started playing though I felt like a kid in an arcade or something, I had never experienced this level of interaction in a video game. I spent ages just going around Ryo’s house and seeing what I was able to interact with, even found a Sega Saturn inside there!
After leaving the house and actually starting to progress through the game I came across many more moments of being engrossed with just seeing what I could interact with. I freaking loved look through all the shops even at the most mundane and boring stuff such as cartons of milk.
I hate you Lan Di, even if your dress sense is pretty rad. The arcades within the game are an excellent touch too, I thought it was brilliant that you could play classic arcade games from within Shenmue, it was presented really well too and never broke immersion. It’s a game that just oozes character and innovation. I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of it and loved the characters.
I didn’t totally dig the fighting system, it was fine really but sometimes felt a bit odd. Although somewhat funnily enough some games in recent years actually manage to feel more clunky than Shenmue and this was released in 1999!!
I don’t really think any game since has given me more of an initial wow factor than Shenmue did though, it was just something else and it wasn’t all about the graphics, as stunning as they were (are!) the game also delivered a compelling story and some fantastic gameplay.
There's some sweet scenes between Ryo and Nozomi.The music in Shenmue is also fantastic, if you watch the intro you will see what I mean, you can also see why the game was praised for its visuals so much too. I would also recommend the theme song, brings back a lot of memories and is an exceptional piece of music.
To be honest I wish I had more to say but it has been so long since I’ve played it that I can’t really remember a great deal about certain aspects of the game, however I now have a Dreamcast and I will be picking the game up in the summer to replay it. I can’t wait.
I just hope Shenmue III gets created someday.
Shenmue II is a worthy sequel that continues the story and introduces some great new characters. 1 Comments
It's rad. I swear this game must be a complete ballache if you play it on the harder difficulty, even on normal it's a pretty damn challenging. I went with normal as I am fairly new to JRPGs, played mostly western ones!
At the moment I'm on a boss fight that has multiple phases to it, it took me like 10 minutes for each attempt and I still ended up getting owned right when I was close to finishing the thing off. I ended up running out of SP (mana) and didn't have enough potions/items to restore it, due to this I basically had no chance even though I was really close to getting the kill. I couldn't do any magic attacks, heal, debuff the enemy of buff myself or my party. It sucked, I was so close too!
That said I do enjoy the challenge. It really is an awesome game, the characters and story stand out to me the most but the battle system is also a lot of fun.
It actually reminds me of Pokemon, just think of the Personas as Pokemon and you can see the comparison. Different Personas are weak to certain elements (like electricity, fire, water) so in that sense it is also similar to Pokemon.
Would recommend it to anybody though, if you own a PS2 or a BC-PS3 it's totally worth picking up.
1 Comments
After scanning eBay for a short while I managed to find a Dreamcast that was said to be in excellent condition so I took the plunge and bought it.
Ended up paying around £20 which wasn't too bad, it came with 3 games, 2 memory cards and the cables. (composite video instead of aerial lead was a nice bonus)
When it turned up the next week it was just in a standard cardboard box with padding inside, didn't know it wasn't gonna have the official box but wasn't really bothered.
I hooked it up in a temporary position to do some testing next.
Had a bit of a surprise when I turned it on, the LED was blue instead of orange so I had a look online to see if my memory was failing me but nope it wasn't. As I thought Dreamcasts have orange power lights across all regions so I'm pretty sure this machine was modded, I don't mind because it looks damn nice!
Now for some game, controller and memory unit testing.
Great news! MSR booted up successfully and went on to play perfectly. I was really pleased with how the system looked on my TV too, I have a 42" HDTV (Plasma) and wasn't expecting it to look good at all but it actually looks damn impressive for composite. I'll be buying an RGB scart cable for it soon and hopefully a VGA box in the future so it will look much, much better when I get ahold of those.
It actually looks on par with the quality of my PS2 connected to the same screen but via component which is surprising, my Dreamcast also doesn't require any zooming in and fills the screen completely which is great. When using my PS2 I have to make use of zooming options in order for the game to fill the screen up without black bars showing up somewhere.
The controller is a little bit tatty but looks nicer now after a clean, same with the VMUs but they both work fine and have no damage to the screens. I'm not really too fussed over the controller being a bit tatty though because I can buy a brand new and sealed one for £6. (700+ in stock on eBay)
My games so far, not much of a collection but only just started really. DS randomly in the shot too.
Virtua Tennis 2, Virtua Fighter 3 and MSR all came with the Dreamcast itself, they are quite tatty but the cases aren't cracked at least. Sonic Adventure I bought separately and it's in good condition, a few marks on the case but no scratches anywhere or cracks.
I was more worried about the Dreamcast not being in good condition but I was really pleased when I got it. It's in great condition with no marks on it anywhere, I did give it a bit of a polish and clean after I unpacked it and afterwards it was spotless. Controllers and VMUs are easily replaced and very cheap to buy new these days so they were an afterthought!
All in all pretty pleased with the purchase, just need to be on the lookout for some deals now to kick start this collection.
10 Comments
Official Xbox Editor Jon Hicks has told CVG that the mag will next month reveal the return of a "substantial franchise" - as an Xbox exclusive. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=242499
Duder! Could it....could it be Shenmue III? Most likely just getting my hopes up once again but that would be freaking amazing and one of the biggest shock announcements I'll have ever heard in the gaming industry.
As I say though, it's incredibly unlikely but after some intense Google research (more like 10 seconds worth) I came across this nugget of information which has fueled my hope for this to be Shenmue III some more;
Sega recently told Famitsu magazine that Shenmue 3 is still talked about as a possibility at the company. The problem is poor sales compared to the costs of making the game. Sega assures fans that were there ever an opportunity to revisit the franchise then it could happen. http://gamer.blorge.com/2010/01/30/sega-hasnt-given-up-on-shenmue-3/
Further reasoning for my belief that this could be Shenmue III is that Shenmue is hailed as a classic, innovative and way ahead of its time. I think it's earned the right to be called a substantial franchise as it has one heck of a legacy. Shenmue II was also released on the original Xbox (exclusively)with English voiceover work, the Dreamcast version had Japanese voicework only.
Still, I am like I say most likely getting my hopes up for nothing.
When you consider how much of a ballache it is to install that game and get it patched up you know that's a sign that somebody has no intention of playing it for a while.
Update 07/06/2010; I now really want to play again for some reason and I'm strongly considering it. Oh snap son...
I'm now enjoying Final Fantasy so much that I actually don't want it to end, the story has really gripped me.
I've gotten over finding Vanille's voice incredibly irritating, I now rather like it and think the characters are all pretty damn cool. (with the exception of Hope)
Snow is made of win, what a guy. Sazh is also extremely awesome.
Playtime is creeping up to 21 hours now, fortunately I have quite a while to go yet.
Might as well make it remotely relevant to something I've been doing though.
So, Final Fantasy XIII. I thought I'd have hated it judging from reviews and gameplay footage but that is not the case. I have been enjoying it from the very beginning and it's not really felt boring like many of the reviews claimed the first few hours of the game are, it is very, very linear though but it's my first Final Fantasy game (that I've stuck with and consistently enjoyed) and I'm pretty damn pleased that I got it.
However, it's a bit RPG crazy at the moment as I still have Persona 4 to finish (I'm only 20 hours into that) I also have Persona 3:FES to play and then there's Lost Odyssey. On top of that I'm also only 16 hours into Final Fantasy XIII so it'll be a while before I finish that yet.
I'm a bit worried I won't get finish it before Super Street Fighter IV comes out because when that hits I will not be playing anything else at all for a while. Too many games, too little time - always the case.
Log in to comment