Woof. 2016 huh?

I guess this is where I make a joke about making a joke about writing the traditional "year in review" paragraph and what even does that look like in a year like this one? Ok, with that out of the way...

Despite everything else, 2016 was another fantastic year for fans of good-ass video games. A bevy of inventive new IP was released from development teams around the world in all sizes, and favorite franchises that had lost their way managed to reclaim the spirit of what made us love them ten or twenty years ago. Game creators seemed less afraid to take risks and just get weird, and great strides were taken to increase diversity and inclusivity in games, even if we still have a long road to hoe.

Between moving into an actual house and starting my eldest in kindergarten and my youngest in preschool, several experiences deserving of my time had to be passed over. Which isn't to say I didn't play plenty of games (I did), and I'd like to tell you about some of them.

Best Surprise

DOOM

It has been 22 years since the last real DOOM game, released in the era of Mega Man X, Earthworm Jim, and Tie Fighter.

Since then, the gaming landscape has gone through upheaval after upheaval, and after a pathetic attempt at making a DOOM 3 in 2004, most people were convinced that the franchise was simply an artifact of another age, irreconcilably out of place in the modern era of video games. The scant bits of footage and brief beta access people were given to what would become 2016's DOOM, compounded with tales of development hell and the stark reality of an 8+ year development cycle to, painted a dire of picture.

Luckily for us, it turns out developing in hell might not be so bad when you're making a game about murdering hundreds upon hundreds of hellspawn (no but really investing that much time on a product that seems to be going nowhere must have been real rough on everyone involved. Shoutouts to the hard workers at id, I hope you all were able to practice enough self-care and eat dinner with your families on most nights).

To put it plainly, DOOM manages to recapture the essence of my memories of playing the original DOOM in 1993, translated for a modern context. Unlike most modern shooters where you can expect to spend more time hiding than shooting, DOOM forces the player to stay mobile and get right in the thick of it, with a wide array of tools and weapons that allows each encounter to be treated like a frantic tactical puzzle punctuated by screams and explosions.

The story and atmosphere bring together a perfect ratio of attitude and irreverence and gore and metal and metal to make every moment in the game a delight, even as you're punching the eyeball out of your 50th cacodemon. DOOM has reclaimed the throne as the single-player shooter campaign to beat, and if the ending of the game is any indication, the folk at id may already have something in mind. Now that they're back in a groove, I hope it doesn't take them quite as long to release a followup. I think my heart will have stopped trying to pound its way out of my chest by 2018.

Runners-up: Stardew Valley, Watch_Dogs 2

Biggest Disappointment

Street Fighter V

I love Street Fighter V. As a person who enjoys fighting in streets I have practically zero complaints about the game, and none of them are about the core gameplay. In the competitive circuit, Street Fighter V is hands-down the biggest game in the scene, now or ever. Entry records have been shattered at event after event since the game released, viewership numbers continue to climb, and the prize-pools have never been more rewarding for the pro players out there.

That said, I can't help but think about all the potential for growth that was lost because of the repeated bungling by Capcom and their inability to message anything clearly as their plans changed throughout the year.

Maybe if they had recontextualized the initial release as a "tournament edition" or some kind, made it DLC-only with the proper full-release slated for July, they could have dodged all the criticism for selling what felt to many like a half-baked product at full-price. Then it would have been less a story when Ibuki had to be delayed for a month, and games writers would have been less eager to label future DLC releases as "late" when in fact every other bit of content arrived on time if not early according to their initial roadmap.

Call your "Season Pass" a "Character Pass" (a good lesson they learned for 2017), don't install a fucking rootkit on PC (even if it was gone within a few hours of the update), and who knows how many more casual players could have been brought into the SFV fold, and the fighting game community as a whole.

I guess it's all up to you now Injustice 2 *gag*.

Runners-up: Inside, Mirror's Edge Catalyst

Best Game to Buy at Release and Barely/Never Play

That Dragon, Cancer

This is a category that usually is more about me facing my buying decisions balanced against my dwindling free time, but 2016 is a special year.

By all accounts That Dragon, Cancer is a brief game, topping out at around 2 hours total play-time. It's the sort of game you can get through in an afternoon or evening, start to finish. I, however, have never even booted it up once (did install it though!).

Through a series of vignettes, the game tells the autobiographical story of a family contending with an infant son diagnosed with terminal cancer, up and through his eventual death. I don't think I can handle playing this game. Between my own issues with mortality and my children and my ability to become intensely immersed in video games, I'm fairly certain this game would ruin me for quite a while. I do want to play it... some day, but probably not any time soon.

Runners-up: The Last Guardian, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE

Best Moment or Sequence

Overwatch - PharMercy

I don't even play/own Overwatch. Ok I did mess with the free weekend before it released for 20 minutes.

I don't care! I love the characters and how diverse and colorful they are and I especially love the fandom that has sprung up around them. Every character in Overwatch is oozing with personality, but most of the details surrounding them have been left incredibly vague. This has created a perfect storm for the fanart fanfic shippers out there to go to town with their favorite pairings and I eat it all up.

Which isn't to say that these couplings are entirely unearned. For some characters, like my and Waypoint.com's OTP (one true pairing), it's a marriage of mechanics that inspires a deeper imagined relationship, like in the clip below:

For the uninitiated (how did you find this blog?), the game is being played from the perspective of Pharah, a soldier that wears a power-suit capable of flight and specializes in bombarding enemies with explosive rockets from afar. During the battle, Pharah fires a concussive blast from her wrist launcher, propelling her unsuspecting opponent into the pit below. Unfortunately, her target is Roadhog, a particularly tricky foe that manages to use his hooked chain to snag onto Parah's teammate, Mercy, and drag her into the pit alongside him.

Mercy, who serves as the team's combat medic, can float to slow her descent but is incapable of actual flight herself. However, she does have a special ability that allows her to tether herself to a nearby ally and fly directly to them. Seeing Mercy in trouble, Pharah immediately hurls herself down into the pit after her. At the last moment, Mercy turns to find her waiting friend and latches on, as Pharah activates her boosters and lifts both of them back to the relative safety of solid ground.

This small interaction is one of an infinite number of ways the various characters in Overwatch can compliment one-another, both mechanically and narratively, and in my eyes that's Overwatch's greatest gift. It has provided creative people from around the world with a shorthand to celebrate the different ways people can love and care for one another.

Runners-up: Rez Infinite - Area X, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - Epilogue

StarvingGamer's Top 10 Games of 2016

10. Stardew Valley

What a pleasant surprise this was. I've invested untold amounts of hours into games like Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing and The Sims and Fantasy Life and Stardew Valley takes elements from all of those and mashes them up into an intensely satisfying busywork experience. Maybe it's a fault of my min-maxing or maybe the numerous updates the game has underwent since I last played it have solved this problem, but I did run out of steam halfway through year 2 when my farm had become a well-honed production machine and I had already explored and looted my way to pretty much everything of note in terms of equipment and crafting materials. Maybe during a slow month I'll start over and see how everything that has changed in the latest version.

9. Rez Infinite

I'm a bit late to the Rez party. I was aware of it (mostly by virtue of urban legends surrounding the trance vibrator) but had never experienced it until my wife bought me a PlayStation VR. The core game is extremely enjoyable, if a little dated. While playing I often found myself wondering how the game was meant to be experienced without VR, and if that was the original intent 15 years ago when it first released. Then I tried Area X. I had the biggest, doofiest grin on my face the entire time. It sold me on the importance and future of VR, and left me wishing there was more of it!

8. Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator-

Thanks to the advent of Discord, our little GiantBomb fighting game community has blossomed. This means I have more people to chat about, and more importantly play, fighting games with. Instead of relegating myself to combo trials and training mode, I've actually been able to fight against cool humans and avoid the additional salt that comes from losing to randoms. Lucky for me, I was able to latch on to Leo Whitefang immediately as he's a character that can get results with minimal effort. Yes, I'm a bad player playing a character who just sometimes mauls you and it's fun and no you can't stop me I'll keep doing it also ban I-No.

7. BlazBlue: Central Fiction

Read above paragraph, only instead of Leo they added Mai Natsume, a character specifically designed for beginners with a simplified moveset and significantly lower execution requirements than is typical of a character in BlazBlue. The ability to hop in and immediately start getting results made this the first BlazBlue I've been able to play against other people with minimal frustration. Every fighting game should include a character with the same design philosphy as Mai.

6. Thumper

Coming in under the wire, I decided that instead of spending a few hours on The Last Guardian and still not forming an opinion, I would dedicate the last day of 2016 to seeing the ways Thumper mixes it up past the first world. Needless to say, I was blown away. The frantic sense of speed afforded by the PSVR, combined with the pounding soundtrack and eerily twisted visuals pushed my senses to the limits as the rhythms became more complicated, the mechanics more dense, and the tempo more frantic. Just sitting here thinking about it, I can almost feel myself hurtling forward toward the screen. Also this is the only game that has made me internalize and sight-read a 5/8 time signature, which was a treat. I'm excited for 7/8.

5. The Witness

I love puzzles. Many of my fondest memories from childhood are of getting comfy on a bed or a couch and reading through a book of logic puzzles. When I heard that all the puzzles in The Witness were going to be line puzzles on grids on panels, I was skeptical about how much depth there could actually be. The prerelease buzz got me, though, and I'm glad it did. The way The Witness takes such a simple concept of moving a line through a maze and turns it on its head, then turns it inside-out, then turns it into a goldfish, then eats the goldfish but really it was a combustion engine all along, is intensely challenging and immensely satisfying. Then you find the secret. Then you find the other secret. Then you realize the secrets have secrets. Then you curl up in a ball because The Witness has bested you.

4. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice

I've been dedicated to the Ace Attorney series since the beginning, and with every game they build and build on the existing fiction in new and unexpected ways. Spirit of Justice is no different, with an intricately woven series of trials, a slew of cameos, and new hidden truths for all the main characters to discover about themselves and each other. I'm still only about halfway through the final trial as of writing this, but I feel confident in this game's placement on my list. I can't wait to see how it ends!

3. Final Fantasy XV

This game is good! It's sooo good! Unfortunately I had to sacrifice The Last Guardian to "Best Old Game" contention in 2017, but it was worth it. I dove into Final Fantasy XV hard. I hunted every hunt, quested every quest, dungeoned every dungeon, and never once got tired of it (maybe once; you know which dungeon I'm talking about). The game's unique take on action RPG combat gives players the utmost freedom for expression of tactics and skill, with the potential to take down significantly stronger enemies with enough preparation and patience. It's unfortunate that the story can't be properly appreciated without watching a mediocre anime and a middling movie, but the game rewards that effort by spinning a heartfelt tale of brotherhood, camaraderie, love, loss, duty and dedication. I had more than one instance of intense feelings, and as crazy as it sounds I might jump in for a New Game+ to see all the story tweaks they end up doing to help clear up the third act of the game. Also a quick protip, learn Airdance as soon as possible. Trust me.

2. Monster Hunter Generations

What to say here? Monster Hunter is the best, and Generations brings drastic but welcome changes to that tried-and-true formula. Most notably, the fact that each weapon can now be wielded in any of four distinct hunter styles effectively quadruples the number of options when tackling a monster, and enables players to more effectively focus on their strengths when they play. Unlike previous games where I had to maintain a wide variety of weapons to deal with different monsters, I was able to overcome almost every creature in Generations using either a hammer or greatsword in the aerial style. Using a monster to boost myself 30-feet in the air, only to come back down on its head with a massive charged slash attack never gets boring.

1. Street Fighter V

Surprise surprise, my most disappointing game in 2016 is also my favorite game of 2016.

It's been a rough year for Street Fighter V. The game had a shaky-ass release and never fully recovered, at least in the eyes of the public. Even now, almost a year later, Capcom isn't even close to catching up and repairing their relationship with the casual audience.

As an online warrior, though, none of that matters. That's because with Street Fighter V I have had the more fun playing with people than any other fighting game. Thanks to the numerous small tweaks to lower the execution barrier for people with bad hands like me, I can play the game secure in the knowledge that when something goes wrong, it was my decision making and not my inability to perform finger acrobatics in a satisfactory way that got me. While small, the cast is varied and incredibly well balanced, and even if my preferred strategy of keepaway is somewhat weaker in V than in past iterations, I'm never so disadvantaged that I feel like it's more the game beating me than the other player.

Capcom claims to have plans for the game through 2020, and 2017 will be the first big indication of what exactly that entails. Beyond the recent balance update and some new characters, there are dozens of quality-of-life tweaks that I'm hoping will be made sometime in the next year to bring the game's quality up to a level that is more easily recommendable to fair-weather street fighters.

Maybe you picked up the game on a whim over one of the numerous winter sales, or maybe you've been on the fence ever since you first heard how busted the game was in February. Well, if fighting against other people is what you're looking for, there's no real reason not to jump in now (unless your internet is bad also it sounds rough for Australia?). Our SFV community is going pretty strong. You can find us in a couple places:

• http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/general-discussion-30/fighting-games-general-ex-plus-a-1790649/
• https://discord.gg/nGXFQg2

Stay safe and stay sane and play some video games in 2017.

The homebrew train keeps on chugging, this time with the Spelldancer (homebrewery link)!

The inspiration for this comes from something like 15 years ago when I was dreaming up different fictional universes when I should have been paying attention in lectures. What if a spellcaster couldn't speak? How would they fulfill the verbal components of a spell? Well, what if there was a sort of sign-language equivalent to arcane words of power. Ok, well what if that sign-language actually took the form of dance? Thusly: Spelldancer.

From a mechanical point of view, the core concept is to be a squishy hybrid damage dealer, something between and Eldritch Knight and a Rogue, leaning more heavily in the Rogue direction of things. Because I needed the feeling of a continuous dance to be embodied by the gameplay, I gave the class a momentum-based mechanic that powers up as you hit with stuff. Of course it's hard to balance momentum-based things to not be too weak at the start and not be too strong at the end, but I think I struck a pretty good balance, factoring in the standard D&D fight length of 3-rounds.

Or maybe this class is still bustabust. I dunno. Anyways, I'd love to get any feedback you guys have. Eviscerate all my ideas! Yay!

Update: I made a custom background to go along with the class, and threw it all into Homebrewery which I just discovered and spent way too much time messing around when I should have been sleeping.

Some of you may remember earlier in the year when GBer @joystick_hero was recruiting for his D&D campaign and I was one of the lucky few who managed to join. Well we've been playing for... almost half-a-year? So we're taking a break in the action to run a short interlude campaign and he was magnanimous enough to let me build out a custom class.

Which is here: http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/Sk8ZYC40

Steelshapers! Originally I was trying to design this as a 4e class which was a nightmare and I quickly gave up. Now I think I've pretty much made a complete class. The core concept is to have a melee class that's light on damage, but high on utility and crowd control. If any of you would like to give this a read and offer feedback, I'd be very appreciative. I'll try not to be too precious about my ideas.

UPDATE: Since this got bumped, the game is well underway with a full roster or 9 players, but if/when someone drops out I'll be back looking for more so if you're interested feel free to post in here and you'll be the first people I ask.

~~~~~

After getting back into "tabletop" roleplaying thanks to Tuesday Night DnD! hosted by @joystick_hero and being massively inspired by Austin Walker's Friends at the Table actual play podcast, I have decided to MC/GM/DM my own game of The Sprawl.

And I need players!

This Is Not a Table (Ceci n'est pas une table)

What is it?

This Is Not a Table is a game of The Sprawl hosted through Roll20 on Thursdays, running approximately from 7:30PM-11PM PDT. The game follows a split-narrative between two groups playing on alternating weeks. The targeted start date for Group A will be July 7, with Group B following on July 14.

What is the setting?

Not only does my game us a hack of The Sprawl similar to Austin's podcast, I am borrowing heavily from his COUNTER/Weight campaign in terms of general setting and narrative beats. If you're a listener of FatT this may be an awkward or even sacrilegious experience for you so buyer beware.

If you haven't listened to season 2 of FatT (which you totally should except maybe not right away if you want to join this game) this is a cyberpunk mecha noire anime space opera sort of deal, set in a far flung future where warring factions of space-socialists and space-hyper capitalists have reached a tenuous peace and are engaging in a sort of cold war.

Who is the DM?

I'm Aaron, a full-time father who has been away from tabletop roleplaying for far too long. This is my first time MCing a game in about a decade and my first time MCing this style of tabletop game ever, but I feel like I have a fairly solid grasp on things and the test sessions I have done so far went relatively well? People claim they had fun is all I'm saying.

What do I need/need to know?

A microphone is a must. We will also be running our voice (and a majority of our out-of-game communication) through Discord as well so make sure you have access to that. Other than that, I only ask that you be responsive and communicative in between sessions. Also know that I will be recording all sessions through OBS and likely making them available, if for no other reason than so that our other players have the option to keep track of both sides of the story.

What if I'm new to tabletop games?

As a game, The Sprawl is less concerned with mechanics and rules and more focused on building scenes through collaborative storytelling. The only thing the player needs to bring to the table are imagination, creativity, and a willingness to really play their role. Your job is to tell me what you want to do, narratively, and my job is to fit the rules around the move you're making.

How do I get involved?

As a game, The Sprawl is designed to handle up to five players. I currently have two core players playing every week and a husband/wife couple alternating between playing and childcare week by week (hence the split narrative). This functionally gives me two groups of 3, meaning I can handle 4 more (or 2 players every other week). This is going to be a first-come-first-serve sort of thing, but don't put your name down unless you can really commit the time. I'm actually EDT so starting somewhat promptly is pretty important so I can get to bed by 2AM.

Thanks for reading and hopefully we'll be able to start playing soon!

So I live on the East Coast now.

Maybe it's the darker nights, maybe it's the separation from friends and family, probably mostly it's just the getting older, but no year has been filled with more existential dread than 2015. On the bright side, every anxiety-filled minute spent unable to sleep is another good minute for playing video games because my kids are in bed and I don't want to be left alone with my thoughts.

The releases of several high quality, time-crushing games hitting triple-digit hour marks this year, alongside a bevy of smaller narrative experiences from developers of all shapes and sizes, went a long way to keeping me sane. Of course, given how many of these games had such a strong thematic focus on mortality, the nature of consciousness, and often near extinction-level events, maybe they didn't really help my psyche all that much? Eh, better not to think about it.

Because while every year is a good year to be not dead, 2015 was a particularly fantastic year for being not dead and a player of video games. Allow me to cling to the illusion of cosmic relevance by telling you about some of the games that made an impact on me this year.

2015's Old Game of the Year

AKA "What are you thinking, releasing your game in December?".

The Talos Principle

A lot of people were talking about this game at the end of last year. Ok, maybe it was just Chris Remo on Idle Thumbs. But between having too many games to play and having already spent too much money on having too many games to play, I just had to let this one fall by the wayside.

Which worked out for the best, as it turns out. I ended up circling back around to Talos Principle when the release of the "Road to Gehenna" expansion reminded me A) that this game existed and B) that I really wanted to play this game. 3D puzzle games with an omnipotent voice that becomes gradually more sinister in nature are right in my wheelhouse, and I couldn't help but feel myself identifying strongly with the "salvaging the final vestiges of humanity" themes present throughout the core game.

Then I got to Road to Gehenna and hoo boy, what a fucking fantastic intersection between the nature of personhood and AI and the nascent formation of BBS communities. Not to knock the actual gameplay, but at a certain point I was looking up walkthroughs for any puzzles I felt even slightly stymied by simply so I could hurry along to the next terminal and advance the plot because it was sooo good.

It's not a universal recommendation, some of those later puzzles get really gnarly and unlike Portal where there's lots of forward momentum every time you figure out the next step, in Talos Principle there's a lot of staying still or even backtracking which can make significant progress feel like no progress. But if you grew up on the internet in the late 80s and early 90s and enjoy stories about AI that can make you question your sense of self, you should definitely check it out.

Runners-up: Assassin's Creed: Unity, This War of Mine

Best Surprise

SteamWorld Heist

I actually didn't know about this game until last Friday night when I decided to watch the GB quicklook for it. The guys who made that kinda generic-but-solid digging game followed it up with a 2D, turn-based tactical RPG? What? And it's really good!?

Since I had just wrapped up Picross e5 and Pokémon Picross is apparently a microtransaction nightmare, I needed something I could distract my brain with while waiting for exhaustion to take over and put me to sleep at night, and SteamWorld Heist sounded like it would fit the bill. To my pleasant surprise, I discovered a game that hits almost all the bulletpoints that make up a strong TRPG:

• Varied characters/classes that promote unique styles of play
• Special abilities that encourage use and can generate explosive turns when used in conjunction
• Equipment system that can't be simply min/maxed and isn't cumbersome for players constantly swapping characters
• Quick and easy save scumming

I'm having one of the most satisfying experiences in years with one of my favorite genres, so much so that even though I wanted it to be my "before bed" game it's turned into my "any time I have a free minute like when I'm using the restroom or at a red light" game and I'm pretty sure I'm going to run out of game soon and then what will I play in bed?

Pokémon Picross sounds real rough.

Runners-up: Her Story, Until Dawn

Best Intensely Personal Narrative Experience

Cibele

Let me tell you a story.

So before I had a real girlfriend, I had a series of internet "girlfriends". This is at a time when, for most people, the most efficient way to show someone across the country a picture of yourself was to develop a photograph, stuff it into an envelope, and mail it to them. At one point I actually somehow talked my parents into buying me a plane ticket to fly from LA to... Chicago? to stay with a girl's family for like a weekend.

What the fuck mom & dad? What the fuck girl's mom and dad? In retrospect it was one of the craziest things that was only made slightly less crazy by the fact that I was a big enough shithead to chicken out at the last minute which was a whole other ordeal. (To be clear, the girl was totally not a creepy 40-year-old murder guy and we actually became friends later on and even hung out face-to-face once, but now that I have kids of my own I can't imagine myself ever feeling ok with doing something like that when they turn... I dunno I think I was 15? 16 at the time? without the additional layer of peace-of-mind that stuff like webcams and cell phones provides us with today.) Nina Freeman is a good few years younger than me, but swap VoIP conversations with AOL RP chatrooms and this game is me during my first two years of high school.

Which is why Cibele hit me so so so hard because every stupid line Ichi said trying to be a cool flirty guy was something I typed into an IM at some point. Every time Nina struggled to juggle various conversations about who was or wasn't doing what with who among a group of people who had never even seen each other before was a struggle I had experienced. And watching Ichi and Nina finally get together and do body stuff then immediately have a falling out was like a weird look into an alternate universe where I actually went through with it and took that flight (although I'm pretty sure no weird body stuff would have happened since I was going to be staying at her house with her parents and also we were 15).

I am Ichi. I am Nina.

Runner-Up: Emily is Away

Biggest Disappointment

Undertale

Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. Wait. Wait.

Undertale is not a bad game. No one who likes, loves, bleeds for Undertale is wrong for having that opinion. I feel like I'm a hair's breadth from being right there with you.

On paper, Undertale should be everything I want in an indie RPG. It's heavily inspired by Earthbound, my 9th favorite game of all time, has an intensely wry sense of humor, encourages non-standard styles of play, and takes full advantage of the unique features of the medium to create a narrative that subverts your expectations via the game's mechanics.

But man is it super duper not fun to play. Full disclosure: I got to the Undine fight, died a couple times, got crazy tilted (I was also on a losing streak in the SFV beta at the time which didn't help my mood), and proceeded to delete the game in the ultimate ragequit. Then I reinstalled it a few months later, banged my head against the fight a few more times, and haven't been back since. And in all that time, not once did I actually enjoy the act of playing the game. I'm not a hater of bullet hell mechanics in general, I love me some Ikaruga, but for whatever reason its implementation in Undertale never went beyond fluctuating between being boring, tedious, and frustrating for me.

I really really really wanted to like this game. So many people whose opinions I place a lot of stock in absolutely adore this game. The spoilers described in the GB GotY podcasts sound like amazing things to experience, but I'll never get there unless they add a mode that mitigates the bullet hell stuff entirely.

Runners-up: Code Name: S.T.E.A.M., Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

Best Game to Pay Full-Price for but Not Play

AKA "What are you thinking, releasing your game in December (part deux)?"

Xenoblade Chronicles X

Look Xenoblade Chronicles. You're real cool. Your UI is a beautiful cluttered mess. Waiting 30 hours to introduce a major game mechanic that recontextualizes the entire experience is one of the greatest things. But Fallout 4 came out first and I have a lot of settlements I have to maintain. All these microscopes aren't going to collect themselves. I've gotta help my doctor robot girlfriend download her consciousness into a synthetic human body and raise a militia to stop all the anarchy. Oh also my son is missing so I should probably try to find him at some point.

Life with kids means I'm usually on the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to getting TV time, not only because everyone else gets priority but also because if my kids aren't watching TV then I'm probably chasing them around and too busy to play. And it's just so much easier and less obtrusive once everyone is asleep to boot something up on PC. I'll definitely be giving this game a lot of my time in 2016 (early Old Game contender?) but I knew there was no way I'd be able to invest a satisfactory amount of time in it for GotY considerations so it didn't make the cut.

Soma thanks you.

Runners-up: Invisible, Inc., Rebel Galaxy

Best Moment

Life Is Strange - Chloe's Request (Episode 4)

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

To catch you up, Max goes back in time to the day Chloe's dad dies and saves his life, drastically altering the present, leaving Chloe paralyzed from the neck down, strapped to machines, and confined to a wheelchair. After a day talking about Chloe's life, future, and the strain her injury has placed on her parents, both emotionally and financially, the two friends fall asleep while watching Blade Runner together.

At it's core, Life Is Strange is about two things: unforeseen consequences and Max struggling to keep Chloe alive. Both of these ideas converge the next morning when Chloe asks Max to help her commit suicide by administering an overdose of morphine.

If you've been paying careful attention, Max's next move is telegraphed from a mile away. She's going to go back back-in-time to undo saving Chloe's dad's life, but before she does she has to make a choice. And even though you know there's no real consequence, even though she knows there's no real consequence, Max is going to have to live with the knowledge of her decision for the rest of her life.

In the end, my Max couldn't do it, and even if it was for just a moment in a reality that wasn't going to exist any more, Chloe's attitude of bitter resentment was crushing.

Runners-up: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - Mission 43 (the bottom floor), The Beginner's Guide - Stop adding lampposts

StarvingGamer's Top 10 Games of 2015

10. Until Dawn

As much as I hate horror anything, I absolutely adore this game. Yeah it scared the shit out of me even though I only played it during daylight hours with the blinds wide open, but the way it handled the Quantic Dream formula and perfectly twisted it to fit the genre was incredibly impressive. In 20 years when they make a TV show about the 2010s and a character says "get monked!" we'll know. We'll know.

9. Tales from the Borderlands

Man did I think this sounded dumb and unnecessary when they first announced it. Man was I super-duper wrong. Rhys and Fiona are excellent protagonists with personalities that allow them to shift between a wide variety of emotional responses without feeling out character, and they are supported by a strong cast with their own unique wrinkles that make them both likable and unlikable in all the right ways. Also Rhys crying on Sasha is one of the cutest, sweetest moments I've seen in a video game ever.

8. Her Story

Yeah, the actual plot is kinda dumb/far fetched, but this game does two amazing things. It fully leverages the UI design to give you a powerfully immersive sense of place, and it builds the narrative in a wholly unique manner only possible in a video game. I am extremely satisfied.

7. Fallout 4

Settlements! They're so janky and busted but I can't stop building settlements! I'm not even good at it! Also I love having a real excuse to loot literally everything. I think I have close to 300k caps now and I don't even know what I could ever spend it on. Curie is great. Piper is great. They are my waifus.

(GB image compression is a bummer, source file here)

6. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

If I had more time to play this game it would probably be higher on the list, but that doesn't doesn't diminish the fact that it was an incredible evolution of the MH formula that managed to bring many new players to a franchise that I love dearly. Also I feel completely justified buying two different giant strap-on devices for my 3DS to get the interface as close to the "claw" grip as possible.

5. Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void

What a perfectly fitting end for the trilogy. Blizzard takes their galactic soap opera and cranks the melodrama to 11 and it is glorious. Kerrigan literally turns into Phoenix and Raynor maybe commits suicide (I mean obviously not it's Blizz but what if!?!?)? John de Lancie chews the scenery with his reverse-echo voice like nobody's business and you get AoE Voidrays. Also from what I hear it is a much better eSport than HotS was although I haven't had a chance to check out the new season of GSL yet.

4. Soma

I literally beat the game this morning. Did I mention I hate horror games? Circling back to the existential dread for a bit, Soma hits on all of the issues I've had with digital transference of consciousness in sci-fi narratives and actually makes me feel a bit more grimy about Talos Principle and Fallout 4 (and Naruto. Naruto is really fucked up if you think about it. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is a mass murder every time). Even if all the parts with monsters were majorly anti-fun, they were never punishing enough to deter me from pushing on to the next narrative bit where things became even more gross and twisted and I got to fumble my way around some other future technology thing.

3. Life Is Strange

I just have one question: To all the people out there complaining about the dialogue in Life Is Strange, how many of you have spent enough time around teens from the Pacific Northwest to authoritatively know how they talk nowadays? Also what is your home address and the police are on their way.

2. The Beginner's Guide

Remember how I praised Her Story for delivering its narrative in a uniquely video gamey way? The Beginner's Guide is that x100. By incorporating himself into the experience, Davey Wreden strings us along by building expectations and subsequently subverting them in the most devious ways as he pulls us through the twists and turns of his darkening monologue.

1. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

This game is weird.

How do you take a traditionally 6-10 hour game narrative and stretch it across 80+ hours of gameplay? I guess in the case of MGSV, you don't, and there's definitely a thinness to the story that makes it feel like something was lost from what most people think of as a "good" Metal Gear.

But none of that really matters when the game is so unbelievably fun to play. MGSV does 3D stealth in a way that, most importantly, is far more fair than previous games in the genre, and as a result the game is much more enjoyable. The shooting is solid enough to keep the action manageable when things get dicey, but there are so many ways to approach each mission and so many tools at your disposal that you are completely empowered to turn every location into a ghost town by strapping balloons to the backs of all your enemies. And gun emplacements. And tanks. And bears?

Which isn't to say that the narrative is bad, just a bit sparse and maybe trading in some of the gleeful insanity of the older games in order to maintain its dire tone. But stun-knife D-Dog is amazing. Also Quiet is amazing (although it felt a bit weird the way she kept shoving her ass in front of the camera whenever my family was around). And that ending. Oh man, between that and the incredible strength of the gameplay, I am super duper duper bummed out about what seems to be the future (or lack thereof) of the franchise.

If I don't get a game from V's perspective during the events of MG1 & 2, Konami will feel ashamed of their words & deeds.

So bummed!

GotY!

On November 1, the folks at Canada Cup aired the trailer for Evo2016. It was mostly sizzle, but the few bits of steak we got told us two things: that Evo will continue running as a three-day event (July 15-17) still being held somewhere in Las Vegas. It sounds like business as usual, but as the dust settled on Evo2015 there were some rumblings about the possibility of moving to a larger venue (the Bally's could barely contain us this year) and extending the already packed event to run an additional day, Thursday-Sunday, to help accommodate the numerous growing competitive scenes and make room for the new fighting game releases slated for early-mid 2016.

Then the dates dropped, followed by this tweet from Joey Cuellar (AKA MrWizard), admin for Shoryuken.com and Evo showrunner:

Of course nothing is near to set-in-stone at this point, but the notion of trying to limit Evo2016 to seven games means a lot of worthy entrants are going be left by the wayside. Here are what I see as the contenders in alphabetical order:

BlazBlue: Central Fiction

The newest iteration of BlazBlue is hitting the Japanese arcades in a couple days and seems likely for a 2016 release on consoles. While BB was responsible for one of the hypest matches of Evo2014, it seems unlikely that it will be able to develop enough momentum to overtake its sister series, Guilty Gear, by the time Evo2016 rolls around. And in an Evo with only seven games, it seems really unlikely that we'll have two airdasher games.

Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator-

Giantbomb's Best-Looking Game of 2014 is going strong, even if Kazunoko insists that America is free (or did he? I think he did). As the biggest airdasher in America, and with the -Revelator- update already out in Japan and coming to consoles soonish maybe GG sounds like a shoe-in. After all, it's the game that got us on Sports Center. Even if BB:CF is going to be the (slightly) newer hotness, I can't see it overtaking GG in popularity or demand.

Killer Instinct (Season 3)

KI is a tough one. Obviously belonging to the house of Dave Lang is a huge plus for any GB fan, but it simply hasn't been there in terms of numbers comparatively speaking. It's unfortunate because KI has consistently had some of the most interesting character designs in fighting game history, particularly in season 2, and season 3 is coming just around the corner. What if Rash is out in time for Evo!? Between secret Japanese tech and one of the stupidest comebacks in fighting game history, I'll personally be really sad if it doesn't make it back for 2016.

The King of Fighters XIV

It's slated for a 2016 release but it's unclear whether or not that's going to happen before or after Evo. A lot has been said about the visual direction of the game, but in the end what really matters is how it plays. (People still play MKX after all o_O.) KoF has made several strong showings at past Evos and their unique take on the 3v3 system helps foster many unique, hype-filled situations. That said, the US KoF scene has never been very strong and SNK only seems to be further alienating their players with the loss of those gorgeous sprite animations from KoFXII and XIII.

Mortal Kombat X

As the biggest western fighting game, it's hard to imagine Evo2016 without MKX. Now that the folks at NRS have cooled it a bit with their balance patching and allowed the game to breathe, there has been a ton of diversity in playstyles and character choices at tournaments. The warring factions aspect between team Yomi and Sonic Fox plus the beastly players from Europe always makes for compelling storylines. Plus it's the only game to have a player lose a FT10 exhibition match 0-13. There will be new DLC characters coming next year so we'll have to see if they're going to continue the trend of releasing character that are busted/OP or maybe they've learned their lesson and we won't have a repeat of the Tanya army. I mean, sure they've made the same mistake like 15 times now between four different games, but maybe?

Pokkén Tournament

Alright, I'll be honest, I don't know much about this game other than the fact that it's coming out Q2 next year, it's some weird Pokemon/Tekken mashup, and it's being backed by Nintendo so they could end up making a big push for it in the FGC. I mean, they probably won't, but they could.

But they won't.

Street Fighter V

The game. This is what Capcom is going to be pushing next year for the Capcom Cup basically guaranteeing it the premier spot next Evo. Less informed viewers from all around the world will be able to wonder "what happened to Chun-Li's boobs" and "how is Mika not constantly falling out of her costume?". Will the return to a more footsies/reads-based style and lower execution barrier signal the return of American greats like Alex Valle and Mike Watson? Will Daigo just be unstoppable? How will Cammy players survive without set-play? Will everyone just end up playing Dhalsim? Also by then there should be at least 4 DLC characters and maybe even I will enter if I make it out there. I can't wait ahhhhhhhhh!

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (4)

If any game is going to get two entries in Evo2016, it's going to be Smash. Smash 4 has been going strong with expanded character diversity in top-8s. With Zero's insane 53-tournament win streak finally ended by Nairo, everyone is looking better and better at the game. But what about customs mannn?

Super Smash Bros. Melee

It's crazy but Melee is still somehow getting bigger. Honestly, if it weren't for Street Fighter's pro-tour status, I wouldn't have been surprised to see it supplanted by Melee as the marquee game at Evo2015. The five gods of Smash have also been finding the fight to top 8 harder and harder as the community around them continues to level up their skills. Hopefully Leffen figures out his visa issues soon. We need more of that hair.

Tekken 7

Tekken 7 is doing its best to keep the torch for 3D fighters from burning out. It's hard to say where things stand with this game in regards to Evo2016. We don't even know if it will be out on console by then, and with Pokken for Wii U coming will Namco want to make the effort to bring the arcade boards out here again, especially with Tekken evangelist MarkMan ending his tenure with MadCatz? With this year's Namco Cup happening almost entirely in Japan, it's real hard to gauge whether they're seeing the success they want and if they'll be interested in expanding more globally next year to something more akin to the Capcom Cup. If they do, then I'd expect a slot at Evo to be a certainty.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Mahvel lives! No seriously, between Frank West winning a major that included FChamp and RayRay and all the amazing work Samantha Hancock (AKA Persia) has been doing on the periphery of the scene, Marvel has never seemed stronger. Everyone is good at Marvel now which makes it an incredibly beautiful game to watch with blindingly fast character movement and the tension in knowing that even the most random stray hit can transform itself into a character-killing combo. I know a lot of people dislike the game because of TAC infinites or just how confusing it can be to watch if you're not familiar with the mechanics, but I'm going to be super angry if UMvC3 doesn't make it back in 2016.

Ultra Street Fighter IV

The King is dead, long live the King. Look, in an 8 or 9-game Evo I would love love LOVE to have USFIV there. Justin Wong is finally getting back to his roots with Elena and everyone is just so fucking good at this game now. There are going to be 32 players at Capcom Cup this year and I can't even begin to imagine how insane that is going to be. Few competitive games have had the luxury of time and strength of community necessary to reach this level of skill across such a broad selection of competitors. But the fact remains that SFV is going to be the CapCup game next year and unlike Melee and Smash 4, the crossover in players between USFIV and SFV is likely to be far closer to 100%. Maybe we can get a cool invitational exhibition between past Evo champions at the MadCatz booth or something, but unless Evo expands its scope in 2016 I think that USFIV is going to need to be one of the more painful omissions.

So there you have it, the games that seem to at least be somewhat in contention for one of those coveted Evo spots. I think I'll go ahead and make a poll thread too but I'd be curious to know what your thoughts are. Which games do you want to see in the lineup? Which games do you not want to see? Is there anything that I missed? Here are my personal picks, although I think that omitting Smash 4 is actually crazy and impossible and that sadly KI probably should be the one to go.

Here's a cool bonus video where Gerald from Core-A Gaming talks about the three fighting game player archetypes as theorized by ex-Infiltration BFF Laugh.

It's amazing how demoralizing it can be when your normally rock-solid computer randomly hard crashes, costing you a couple hours and over a thousand words of typing. That's what happened to my already delayed post-Evo blog that I am finally dragging myself back to the keyboard to type up now. It's going to be a long one so buckle up.

It was always hard to justify the Evo trip while we lived in LA, what with the kids and a lack of any reliable child care in our immediate area. But after moving across the country my wife and I realized that we could probably con the grandparents into a month of free babysitting. I casually suggested that we schedule our trip some time around Evo weekend and she was super into the idea. #bestwifeever #hashtagsinablogpost

We flew out to NorCal, hung out with my wife's family for about a week, then bid the babies au revoir and shot down to Las Vegas so my wife could gamble and I could watch people play video games real good. Thanks to a delayed flight, we didn't make it to the Bally's until very late Thursday night. Not only did I miss early badge pickup, we didn't end up getting into our room until an hour after the clock ticked over to Friday. On the bright side, this meant the very first true bit of Evo I got to see was a sleepy Daigo waiting in line to check in, still wearing his neck pillow. He had the honor of being the first of many eCelebrities that I would creepily photograph while trying not to be noticed but completely being noticed and then immediately ignored as the person tried to pretend they didn't notice me ohmygodisthispersonastalker!?

Also Nemo was there with a small entourage. He is a tall man.

Four hours of sleep later, I woke up to try and get an early run on badge pickup at 7AM. The more fool I, as everyone in Vegas decided to get an even earlier run and the line was stretched across the entirety of Bally's by 6:30. An hour later, badge in hand, I drowsily staggered my way into the second line to enter the venue that had reached the terminus and folded back upon itself one-and-a-half times as frustrated hotel security fought to wrangle the eager masses into something more resembling an ordered progression and less a Möbius strip of fightstick-appendaged humanoids. I may have accidentally entered the line somewhere closer to the halfway point as I was confused by all the bends and turns.

Ahem.

A couple of Japanese gentlemen were intrigued by my CPT2014 Champion Select tee and asked to take some pictures of it. I obliged as I had just, er, cut in front of them, and by 8:20 we had made it inside. Woe be anyone with an 8AM pool who was not super on-top of their Evo badge/line game.

I made a beeline for the MadCatz booth, conveniently located just inside the doors to the viewing hall, because I knew those Rivals TE2s were going to go fast. Lo and behold, another big line! With seemingly only one person working the register and a lot of indecision from customers, things were going slooow. Luckily MarkMan was there to thank us for our support and hand out random trinkets. I got some sunglasses for the car and a selfie. I also realized that I had never taken a selfie and had no idea how to take a selfie. You guys are going to see all (3) of my bad selfies. Sorry.

So joystick in hand I did what any Evo attendee would do in my situation, went back to my room because who in their right mind would carry a heavy, $200 box around with them all day? My wife was about to head out to get breakfast so we went together and ate at what would prove to be the restaurant with the best cost-to-taste ratio of the entire weekend. Vegas food is expensive! Back at Evo I went looking for the Namco panel because I foolishly harbored hopes that some Tekken x Street Fighter news might finally be coming out for Harada other than him once again insisting that it still exists.

It was the worst-attended panel I had ever seen. It probably didn't help that the doors to the panel room were never opened except for when people wandered by and randomly peeked their heads in to see what was going on. There was absolutely nothing indicating to attendees that anything was happening inside. I actually spent a good five minutes standing by the doors wondering if I somehow was in the wrong place before someone else walk in past me and I sheepishly followed. Lots of Tekken talk happened. Basically the only slide they had was a picture of Lucky Chloe. There's some new employee ex-Jpop idol whose job is to become a good player? Someone asked a question about the lack of black characters in Tekken 7. Michael Murray's rambling answer at one point included him assuring the audience that he has black friends. I died a little inside. No Tekken x SF news.

At several points during the panel I found myself nodding off and almost falling out of my chair so when it ended I headed back to the room to take a nap. But first I wanted to try my new stick out on the PS4 I had lugged from the East Coast back to Cali. Then I wanted to take a shower because I felt all gross. Then I decided that fuck it if I'm at Evo I should be doing the shit I can only do at Evo so even though I've had my fair share of negative things to say about this game that I've never actually played, I went to the Killer Instinct panel.

Compared to Namco it was like night and day. The doors were still closed and there were no signs outside saying "KI Panel Here!" but the room was packed with standing room only by the time I got there so I headed to the back to hang out with the water cooler and hold up the wall. There was a huge focus on merch which everyone else was real hype over, but I just wanted to hear Keits say smart shit about fighting game character design. They did a reveal of Shadow Jago and shared a few tidbits about the legacy of creating Aria. They also gave away a pair of KI/Evo 2014 LE Razer Atrox sticks to people tweeting while attending the panel. One of the two dudes selected left early (ouch!) and I was the first runner-up (thanks buddy!)! They offered to mail it to me and it actually just arrived a few weeks ago which is fine since it's for a console I don't own/a game that's not out yet on PC and actually the button spacing is wider than a TE so I don't even know if I'm actually going to use it but woohoo free stick! I also ambushed Keits afterwards and gushed like an idiot and he took a picture with me.

Then I went and took a nap. The rest of the evening was spent taking candids of random players, eating dinner with my wife and her friends who drove up from LA to gamble/keep her company, and watching people getting eliminated off-stream before the Persona 4 Arena Ultimax finals and the Ultra Street Fighter IV semis. I saw Champ's surprise (to me) Seth pick against Haitani. His could have won off the strength of his footsie game if he wasn't dropping so many combos. Inco Rufus went on a rampage through a few players including Smug and Matsuri. Valle fought valiantly but eventually fell to Eita and all the MCZ boys were there to watch Misse take out Bonchan. Also during the semis Zhi kept walking back and forth trying to make sidebets on all of the matches. He was super organized with a clipboard and everything.

Also the cutest thing ever. Sako was there with his wife and baby girl, and by the time it was Sako vs Tokido, his daughter was falling asleep in his wife's arms. They were standing just under the jumbotron when Sako took a game. His wife jumped up and pumped her fist and their previously-sleeping-now-awake daughter looked at her like, "WTF mom?", before putting her head back down and nodding off again. Sako ended up losing that match. So sad.

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A night's sleep happened, followed by breakfast. After that, most of Saturday was spent aimlessly wandering unsure what to do with myself. I didn't really care to watch any of the pools going on (not a Smash or KI fan, I was mad at MKX, and UMvC3 is almost always garbo before top 32), so I looked at booths, tried waiting for people to stop playing the Dancing All Night demos so I could have a turn but they never stopped, and I ended up impulse buying an Evo balltop and a few buttons plus an 8-way gate because square-gates gross me out.

Also Amiibos are a scourge that must be stopped.

The Capcom panel was just as jamming as the KI panel, although Ono only showed up for a few minutes before it actually started. They did the big "fight money" reveal which I feel like I have been more-or-less calling ever since Street Fighter V was announced (self high-five) and trolled everyone by heavily implying a character reveal at the beginning of the panel then telling us to wait until Sunday at the end of the panel. I battled my way through my social barriers and got up to ask a question about in-game currency and training mode since I have always been a lab-monster at heart and was basically told "lol no" so sucks to be me I guess o_O. Haunts was there. He's a pretty cool guy.

Cut to: Tournament Hall

I'll say this, for as much as I may personally dislike the dial-a-combo counter-breaker system of KI, the finals that day were pretty hype. I still think Thunder's DP is kinda BS, but maybe I'll finally understand why it isn't once the game is out on PC and I get my dirty mitts on it. Thankfully there was so much gloriously lame play. SleepNS's ability to outlame his opponent despite basically being at a full life-bar deficit and there being effectively zero chip damage in KI will be one of my top fighting game moments of all time, and I was there to see it in person! Rico's depth of character knowledge and plasma throwing/laser blasting prowess was also incredibly impressive.

Mortal Kombat X and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 semis also happened. I have a vague recollection of UMvC3 being full of blowups but honestly, my brain was still reeling from the insanity of KI so I can't think of anything specific other than KBR being a boss.

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On to finals day!

I was one of the people with a viewing hall pass which worked out for me because not only did I need to get my dose of ultradavey and jimmychensor, the oft-delayed and much hyped Luffy v Santarou match was finally set to be held at the MadCatz booth. I also got a chance to try taking panorama shots and I learned that I do not have the attention span/steady hand necessary to take panorama shots. So here are some panorama shots:

The room was pretty empty for the entirety of the Guilty Gear Xrd top 8. Even by grand finals, there was only a smattering of people scattered across the front few rows. That still didn't stop the entire room from freaking the fuck out at the moment "what-are-you-standing-up-for" Woshige will always be known for. I missed most of MKX because I was watching Luffy completely flounder during the exhibition. I think he said something about a hangover? It wasn't a total blowup but Santarou managed to stay in decisive control for the entire match. My Rose pride took a critical hit that day.

Going back to MKX, there was a lot of USA chanting for SonicFox's wins over Honeybee and A Foxy Grandpa and I appreciated all the strong Kitana play. I'll admit that despite all my misgivings over NRS's patch policy, by the end I started getting some of my MK hype back.

Then it was Smash time AKA lunch time. I wasn't in any rush and actually wandered around for a while after going to the completely wrong hotel looking for a restaurant that didn't exist, yet somehow by the time I made it back to the venue there was still an hour of Melee left to play. So I found an outlet, camped out in the hallway, and talked my wife's brother through a draft of the practice college application essay he was working on. It worked out that as I was wrapping up so was Melee, and it was interesting being able to observe how little overlap there exists between the Smash and Marvel audiences.

I've always been a fan to big body teams in Marvel so I was thrilled that KBR was doing so well that weekend. Frutsy and Apologyman actually had the two teams I thought were best suited to shutting KBR down, so when he stomped both of them back-to-back it felt like victory was guaranteed. Of course everyone else played extremely well. The cultural representation and team diversity was amazing and even without the "Gods" it was easily one of the best Marvel top 8s I've ever seen. I get that some people were salty about KBR's win for personal reasons that I'm not privy to the details of, but I couldn't be happier for the dude. Like me, he loves the game and even though they wouldn't give him the mic at the time, listening to his victory speech afterwards was super inspiring.

I saw Fnatic for a brief moment. He was far less successful trying to get sidebets going for Marvel than Zhi was with USFIV.

Finally, the main event! Knowing that everyone else was waiting for me to finish so we could drive back to LA, there was part of me hoping that USFIV would end quick-ish. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA NOPE.

When it comes to storylines, the USFIV top 8 had one of the most perfect narratives you could hope for. Ever since he beat Jwong in... 2010? Gamerbee has been a fan favorite who keeps getting painfully close to glory without ever quite taking it home. He has so much heart and works so hard and it's always heartbreaking to see how crushed he is after another loss. That became the through-line for my USFIV finals experience, with me sitting on the edge of my seat rooting for Bruce to take it all the way. There was a minor exodus of attendees after both Rog and Du were eliminated, but everyone else knew we were really there for the Gamerbee show.

As bad as I felt nervously glancing at my phone clock during the match of a thousand Elena's lifebars, I could help but enjoy what was some #kissesfingertips-caliber lame play. I didn't know about Infil's victory using Chun earlier in the tournament, but all I could do was grin like an idiot while he kept throwing Kikokens. I think it was the first time I actually heard people in the viewing hall boo which made the whole thing even more delicious. People got hype again for the Juri pick and then it was grand finals.

Honestly, I don't even know what to say here. It was beautiful and poetic and tragic and bittersweet. The stick malfunction was so perfectly timed, you couldn't write a better story if you tried. If you haven't watched it yet you definitely should, also what are you doing reading the blog?

I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the privilege to attend my first Evo in this golden age of fighting games. Not only that, but several of the top 8s were simply the best I have ever seen for their respective games. I got to creepy stalk so many of my favorite FGC people and breathe the same air as them. With the community continuing to grow at this rate it probably won't be long before Evo has to abandon the hotel ballrooms for something more akin to a convention hall, and I'll be doing my darndest to keep attending in the future if I can.

Who knows. Maybe I'll even build up the courage to pay an extra $10 to get bodied by total strangers.

SFV and Rising Thunder at Evo2016!

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Yeah, I haven't posted in a while. I was busy trying to beat Broken Age. Apparently getting older did nothing to stop me from sucking real bad at adventure games. But I have been plugging away making videos here and there. Actually, right after bitching about how annoying run-cancel combos with D'Vorah were I decided to try and see what run-cancel combos were like for A-List Johnny Cage. Basically, they suck.

I just don't see the point really. He gets less damage than Stunt Double. He doesn't need to run-cancel to keep his strings safe since they're already safe. There's literally only one relevant string that he has that can be punished and it's only by Tempest Kung Lao burning meter. So I guess in that one matchup... no it's still worse than Stunt Double. He can't even run-cancel his fireballs which is the only thing worth using in neutral. Ech.

I had to redo Ermac. They nerfed the falling damage from Tele-Hold so that it scales so there are better combos to be done. Not much else to be said here. I also decided to jump on the Jason bandwagon since he was just released.

Jason seems really cool, especially his Relentless/Unstoppable variations. He has lots of good hitconfirms that have tons of range, good damage, and great command grabs. His corner carry is ridiculous. Most of his BnBs go more than half a screen. Is he actually a good character? I have no idea, but he definitely doesn't feel like filler. If the rest of the DLC characters can maintain this level of quality, I'll be extremely happy with my Kombat Pass.

I should probably get around to playing story mode.

I spent 3.5 hours recording 1:40 worth of usable footage and boy are my hands tired. No, seriously, D'Vorah started as a mere curiosity and turned into a total combo nightmare.

Let me level with you: I am bad at fighting games. I love them, and I love playing them, but I simply am not very good. My execution is butt. My best character in SFIV is Balrog. I am human garbage. But I still like experimenting with combos and making videos because on a video, I only have to get it right once. At first I thought D'Vorah would be a cool character to mess around with because of her potential vortex abilities using her aptly named Vortex Swarm. Quickly I discovered that the timing simply wasn't there. The swarm fired on its own leaving her not enough time to set up a proper meaty and none of her good combo enders put them in the right position.

So I went to the Test Your Might forums to see what other people were doing with her. That's when I found out about Wasp Grenade Run Cancel combos.

When I saw that Hellfire Scorpion could cancel his fireball I wondered if that would be a viable way to extend combos, but I was having too much fun with Inferno Scorpion to care. Now I'm glad that I skipped it, because Run Cancel combos are HARD. One of the reasons I can do MKX combos better than most fighting games is because most imputs are buffers, not links. But Run Cancels are the linkiest of links out there. You have to mash out a bunch of inputs in a very tight window making it extremely easy to lose potential frames. Just watch the inputs as I do some of these combos and when you suddenly see me push a billion things in a second, you'll know it's a Run Cancel.

I try to do optimized combos whenever I can but I'm 99.9% sure that none of these combos are optimized. I know for a fact that you can do a Run Cancel in Kombo 1 for a stronger ender but I got it, like, once in 100 tries before I started recording. You can do better chains after the B+FP Run Cancel but the timing window is even tighter. The cool thing is that the skill ceiling for using her seems incredibly high and I can't wait to see someone doing absolutely bananas shit with her. That person is not me, but I'm happy with what I came up with.

I also forgot to do the obligatory useless X-Ray combo but whatever. I need to figure out who has the easiest combos and do my next video on them.

More Scorpion? WHAAA!?

I finally saw some of the Scorpion footage from the Fatal 8 and realized (duh how dumb am I) that Scorpion has a much meaner Vortex than simple Hard Knockdown into Oki like I had based my previous videos around. What does that mean exactly?

Well first I guess I should define Vortex for non-fighting game players. The idea is simple: you put your opponent into a situation where they are forced to guess, and if they guess wrong, you do damage and put them right back into the same situation again. Rinse - repeat. Scorpion's Vortex works off of two key tools, his ability to Recapture the opponent (put them into a grounded state mid-combo) and his Teleport attack that puts the opponent into a prolonged stagger state where the only action they can take is to block.

Once Scorpion's opponent is in the stagger state, Scorpion can choose to go Low, Overhead, or Throw. If the opponent guesses wrong, they might get put back in to the vortex. If the opponent guesses right, Scorpion can spend meter to make his offense safe (unless there's a 5-frame punish out there? I honestly don't know). So the new video is based around that idea: maximize damage putting the opponent into the Vortex and maximize damage keeping them there.

I also adjusted some Ermac stuff but I haven't gotten around to editing that footage yet. I think next I might want to try Cassie? Or maybe Jacqui. Definitely one of the new characters because I have to get out of my comfort zone. Thanks to whomever hasn't gotten tired of these blog posts yet and is still bothering to read them. :D