I can stand the hate. Whether its because I'm using a new character, having a bad game, or just being outplayed; when the the eventual blame game comes, its usually from one person. So just admitting i suck for whatever reasons usually brings out the helpful side of others. I usually just refrain from insulting others and eventually that one person on my ass will turn around or he will start looking like a jackass. If it doesn't work out that way, I can strug it off usually no problem. after all its just a game, and just like real life, you are going to run into jerks.

However, I encountered something new today. I''m not sure if he was trolling or really just an asshole. The game didn't start off smooth, we had a trilane with one jungler, so obviously the single lane can only hold out long enough before they get run over. Its going to happen, at least in my level of play, the only thing is can the trilane get some kills or the jungler get enough levels in time to make it worth while?

Yeah, things didn't go well. we were down 5 to 9 when we lost one tower, and the mid lane guy was just flipping out and calling gg. Unless we are down by more than ten kills overall / a fuck ton of towers got taken out with thiers standing happy, I don't call a gg. Well this guy decides to go into full troll mode. I mean he's deliberately using his skills just too late, he's constantly just bitching about the whole game in the text, the works. I mean the stuff he did, he must be good at the game to sabotage each teamfight. I didn't even notice it until after I was one of the first ones dead and just observed what this troll did.

Funny thing is, when the jungler got enough levels to join in the team fights, we caught back up. But it didn't matter, since at that point he was determined to make sure we lose. Even if we won a team fight, he would stand there while the rest go on to heal or move to the next objective. He would feed, just enough to not have an obvious end game score that he was feeding. I mean other trolls can take notes on this play. Anyway, we would finally lose and both teams said they had reported him. I honestly don't mind the lost if he had been a noob player doing the same shit. Trolls be trollin' and if he was who he claimed he was, its just that much more sad really. A part of me really hopes that the guy was young and just going through a phase in life. Cause it would be even sadder if he was a grown man doing this.

For those of you that are interested the match ID was 203823700.

My overall take from that game was a wake up call to stop playing the game for at least the week if not longer. Its like the same feeling you get when you start looking up really weird shit on the internet, or find out there's wanted signs for a flasher in the neighborhood park. You just say to yourself, that you need to distance yourself away for a while since there's plenty of other stuff in your life that is worth your time. I really don't know why I was affected enough to write this, but I guess the troll was effective enough to make me want to get this off my chest.

I was just surfing around today and as I hit articles that seem interesting enough for me to actually click, I'll click it to open in a new tab and just continue down the page til I hit the end and I'll just go through all the new tabs I have. Well, when I went to an article on www.geekscoop.net I totally thought I had clicked on a GB link. I mean the layout, the buttons and the placement of everything is the same as GB.

I'm not sure if the Gb crew should be flattered, or start calling lawyers over this. I really have no idea if a website's layout can indeed be copyrighted. Or, just maybe, GB had indeed just used a template and I have finally found another website the uses the same template. Who knows? I tried to click around the website to see if maybe some parent company was indeed the link between GB or something that would make sense in having some other website use the same template, based on shared assets or something, but the site seems fairly new.

I don't know, maybe somebody can school me on this topic.

Alright, lets start off with some history.  
 
Way back then Capcom used to release yearly updates to their fighting games usually in sets of 3s. But now there is this thing called the internet, and blah, blah, blah, insert something about cats instead. Yeah we've all heard it before from both sides so why the fuck is anyone acting like they didn't see it coming.  
 
To get my big main point out of the way: Any publicity is better than none. So if you guys really want to hurt Capcom, STFU and just not buy their games.  
 
I know its the internet and we all love to complain behind the safety of our computers, but please, every time you complain, you're really helping more than hurting Capcom. If you are really mad at Capcom, every time anyone post anything about UMVC3, just start posting in all the threads around it, so it gets so buried come November nobody is even going to care or know a new product from Capcom is out. Seriously people, vote with your money, with a release date in the holiday season, you won't be short on games to buy anyway.  
 
To everyone else that's on the fence for whatever reason, just side on not buying it. Unless you are still good enough to this day to jump online and not get completely demolished, the amount of stuff they add probably won't matter to you anyway. Yes, just about every character will get new moves and old moves will have new properties, (and to some that means basically an entirely new game), but there will always be people that doesn't think its enough. So guys, just draw the line. If you really were hoping for something like the kombat tower, or single player experience that means something, then simply don't buy it. Remember any publicity is better than none, so STFU.  
 
  
As for where I side with this; I probably won't buy it. This is coming from somebody that has all three versions of SF4 (and yes I also have MVC3 since day one). Maybe its the fact that I was better at SF4 than I was at any Vs games. Or just maybe I've had my fill of fighting games and if I really want to play a fighting game I can just play SF4 AE instead meaning Capcom has indeed saturated the market enough. It may also be I'm growing up and I should probably take my work life more seriously and devote less time to games. Either way, I just cannot see myself dropping money on this right now. As the history of Capcom is known to be, everything comes in 3s right (UMVC3 is the 2nd one in case you weren't keeping track)?  
 
For anyone else that has the one last bit of doubt stemming from supporting the fighting game scene, just donate some money to the streams instead. I really do like the fighting game genre and community, so as it stands now, buying Team Spooky lunch for a day (that's what they'll probably spend it on anyway) will probably help more since I didn't see myself playing MVC3 a month after it came out.  
  
If anybody had kept track of my other post about UMVC3, I'm being consistent since I said I would only buy it if it was indeed 15-20 bucks being a DLC while the disc is 40, just like AE was. Seeing as that's not an option, I guess I won't get it then. Maybe when more time passes, I'll come back for the third installment or when I see UMVC3 on sale for 15-20 bucks.  

TL:DR  
Any publicity is better than none. So if you guys really want to hurt Capcom, STFU and just not buy their games. The more you bitch and troll, the more publicity you're giving them. 

It’s MahVal BayBee!!!!!

Ok I just had to do that. I had just finished a 3 hour session today and at the end of it I’m not so much burnt out but in shock and awe as to just I have played. So much that I rather spend the rest of my play time going through mission/training mode, and just messing around to see what is possible. (I have played about 50 matches so far, both online (only friendly matches with people on my friends list), and off)

The first thing I did when I popped the game in, I had to remap the buttons. I didn’t even look at what the default buttons are, I just knew this is a versus game and so I wanted the buttons to play like them. From what I’ve read, the magic combo system is back with a twist so I just mapped the face buttons to be light, medium, hard as the same as jab, short, medium is just about all the other fighting games. This way the muscle memory is still there and I felt right at home.

But this sure isn’t the same games from the past. As a direct comparison, lets just take MVC2. Now the general, general feel from MVC2 is that you have one guy to lead, and the second guy will be the assist to it makes it easier to get in, and the third anchor can be just someone that is descent in both departments or go all in and have another really good assist character. Generally in MVC2, if you lost one character, its generally over already unless your opponent starts to relax too much and let his guard down. However in MVC3, its seriously a whole new game.

To get the most damage for the least work, you have to tag characters in and out frequently (extended aerial combos, DHC, etc).I would not be surprised if some old school players stick to their guns and have a team that revolves around one character only, but that is now just only one way to play the game. Without making this into a big rant, I’ll just simply say, no matter what your play style is, there is a team that will work for you. Super defensive zoning, Rush that shit down, Traps for days, its all there.

I can see I’m about to write a full page already, so I’ll just leave my last paragraph on the early criticism from the only people that I care about; the old school MVC2 crowed. From all the FrameAdvantage vids I have seen, the old school crowed generally likes it but has only one reserve about it; the damage output is too high. I can understand that since there have been matches where I was afraid to use my assist even since a random super could catch them and they would be already half dead. Then there is also the fact that one long combo with a super finisher takes off over 50% of most characters’ life. But as long as Capcom kept their promise and there is no such thing as infinites in this game, the damage output makes up for it. Remember guys, in MVC2, just one touch from someone say Magneto even if he’s the only guy left, he could turn the entire match around (the MVC2 crowed accepted that). The same thing is happening here, except the barrier of entry is just lowered so more people can get into this game easier. Before you get all elitist and say: “back in my days, I had practice for 8 hours a day just to learn this combo thing..” Just stop. While some dexterity should be required to stop the button mashers, Fighting games (imo) should be more about the mind games of controlling space, getting in, and making your opponent second guess himself that he might as well slap a wig on. Forcing people to have hands like Liberace is not the point.

This is only my first impression after all, watch I go back on my own word latter down the line. But what do you guys think? Is the damage set too high with too easy of controls?   

GT5: Why PD?

Welcome to another Perch of StaticFalconar. This is the last of my retrospective blog of gaming in 2010.

            Yesterday I had written up the timeline of giant mess that was the dev cycle of GT5. That blog wasn’t meant so much as a slight or being apologetic in why people should hate or love GT5. It should really just be taken as a lesson and move on since PD has just that and constantly patched the game since its launch. Even with all the patches, I still have some gripes with it.

            Alright, lets get the BS stuff out of the way. If you are complaining that GT5 didn’t let you paint cars or crash them realistically enough you probably should not be playing GT5 to begin with. There are plenty of other racing games out there and no matter how many patches come, PD was never about that. Even with the damage modeling that GT5 has, it was added in the last moment after another delay was announced. So instead of asking based on what others have done (or personal wish lists), I instead ask based on the logistics of real life racing and past GT games. 

            I recently got my B-Spec level to the point of 24 hr endurance races, and I was honestly kind of disappointed that it wasn’t split into classes. In real life there would be the top of the line Le Mans Prototype (LMP) cars that look like spaceships and GT cars that actually look like cars you see in real life but prepped for racing in different HP ranges. Those are different classes in real life as the GT cars have no way of being fast enough to keep up with the LMP cars. So there is a winner in each class as a result. You can see where I’m going here and no the endurance races aren’t split up in classes. That could have been a real easy way to add in more races in general.

            That brings me to my next gripe. In all the past GT games, I could always count on a crap load more races then I actually had to do. But now, there is no Evo Vs Sti or meeting of the Audi’s, or any spec racing that is specific to one car (or type of) only. Ok, I shouldn’t say none, but it’s a lot less of them. I mean, you got the WRC license and its completely absent other than the special event test which gives you zero incentive to play it once you beat them. At least Nascar showed its head as a race that you could grind, but there is no F1 event and you cannot even use them in the single player when you do actually unlock it. Why the fuck not? You don’t think its already broken that I could use LMP cars in an event filled with GT cars and even the Formula GT (GT’s version of an F1 car before they had the license)? Hell, I could even use the Red Bull X1 which has twice the power of a real F1 car and probably better aerodynamics as well. But no, I can’t even use an F1 car to grind some races when I have a bunch of other overpowered cars for the same events already. Then there’s drifting, I personally haven’t really gotten the hang of it yet, but that’s because I have no incentive to. In GT4 it was incredibly hard to drift and even if you did look up drift set ups online, the game engine made drifting too stringent. Now however, from the few times I tried to drift it was much easier already. Come on PD, you could have easily added way more events then what GT5 had. 

             I realize the patch did bring in new events that give greater amount of XP and money compared to other races, but once you beat them, you can’t repeat it for any extra. The online feature is a real hit or miss. There have been tons of flex your HP muscle in drag runs and Nascar like races, but also the super technical ones where the host turns every single aid off including the driving line. I realize having the stability control or skid recovery control may seem like a cheat to the hardcore, but I haven’t memorized every track yet so the driving line is a nice guideline and reminder to brake every now and then. After all, the person that follows the brake line religiously can only go slower than the person that truly knows the track. In between the two extremes, I have been in plenty of races where half the field knew how to drive with enough courtesy and those that love bumper cars are usually bad drivers that gets smoked anyway. Maximum penalty like 5 second force slow down time (and mechanical damage) when you bump into someone may seem excessive, but it certainly serves its purpose when you see somebody deliberately mowing you down. 

In GT5 Prologue, there was a system in place where heavy higher HP muscle cars can race against smaller less powered sports cars but its equal based on the PP points assigned to each car. Depending on the track it would be a fair race or a slaughter. Perhaps I just said the reason why they abandoned it, but I am still mildly disappointed. Other things like being able to add ballast weight or restrictor plates to fine tune your car made it much easier for everyone to have different cars, yet be relatively equal still. Yes there are 1000 cars in GT5 but I can only favorite 100 of them to play online. Why PD, Why? Photo mode is great but why do I have to play glitch tricks on the camera just to get pictures of the interior like as if I’m sitting in it? Part of me probably shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up with the track generator, but when I see how far along Mod Nation Racers and LBP has gone perhaps I was too optimistic that the two Sony exclusive companies would talk to one another.

To end this rant on a positive note, I should mention I actually do like having 1000 cars. The whole standard versus premium thing doesn’t mean that much to me since I always play in the bumper cam to begin with. While, not as noob friendly as Forza 3 (where you can rewind any mistake), things like skid recovery makes it possible to have some fun and kick out the back end of your car a little bit without being too strict on you. The AMG School was the final kick I needed to get comfortable with the Ring. Finally, The Red Bull X1 deserves its own mention since driving that thing is more like playing an arcade racer except you cannot drift. If you thought taking a turn at 200 mph in an F1 or LMP car was crazy, just wait til you can take the same turn at 250 mph in the X1. Its not until you inevitably spin out still somehow that you realize its still meant to be a sim racer.

Alright, I’m finished building the wall (of text).  I still do like GT5 and will probably still play it when I have the time until I have collected most of every car I wanted. Even after then, as long as the online community is strong enough (or more constant updates), GT5 will be a regular game in my rotation. Still, even without the stupid complaints like “Why can’t I crash this car realistically enough?” aside, GT5 still could have been a much larger game then it was. As much as Jeff don’t give a fuck about the franchise, he got it right when he said GT5 was trying to be too much of everything. Yeah, go ahead and leave your personal wish lists and asinine comments like “I don’t like GT5 because it doesn’t play like an FPS game”. Even though my this blog really was my personal wishlist of what could have been done with logic, it wasn’t until towards the end of it that I realized my blog was just that.   

GT5: The Dev Process

Welcome to another Perch of StaticFalconar. This is a retrospective blog on gaming in 2010.

            Think to a time back in school before you really learned how to study. Not only was the material new but so was the school and nobody really knew how to study for it. Add on to it your personality is of being a perfectionist. This class really wasn’t more of take a test as much as do a project, and you can turn it in whenever. That is the basic analogy to the dev process to gt5.

            Out of all these events that happened, there was only one single thing to blame for all this: HYPE!!! Five years ago was when the hype machine started from Sony since they needed to push all the brands they had for the PS3. Even though the first trailer was released in 2005 at E3, PD has been working on Tourist Trophy which they released 2006. So then they finally had time to get started on GT5 right? Well one year later in 2007 they did release GT5 Prologue so it really seemed like progress was being made. Then of course years go by only snippets and rumors appeared. Well in 2009 just when it seemed like something was finally going to be released, PD was all like here’s Gran Turismo………… for the PSP!!!!.

            PSP? Really? So they haven’t been spending all this time making GT5? Well according to an interview at E3 that year GT for the PSP has the same physics engine as GT5P. So then in the time since GT5P they have made some 800 odd cars for GT PSP and with one year left they made GT5; that’s in 3D, has head tracking, a “track editor”, weather effects, day/night cycle and the last minute damage modeling. All those features as well as getting the Nascar and WRC license probably was in the works for more than one year, ever since prologue perhaps. Too bad they only had 200 cars done to their liking and with most of the past GT games having more than 600, why not just add in the assets you have from GT PSP? That would put you north of 1000 cars, what can go wrong? Lols.

            As projects go, things may have been in the development phase ever since the end of GT4. But 5 years ago, the most they could have done was get close to new cars to model. A new physics engine probably took a long time as well since I actually do notice a difference in the engine since prologue. Add to it the fact that when the game was first in development, PD only had the concept specs from PS3 to work with. You know, the PS3 that is supposed to output everything in 1080p and 60fps?

So PD probably had a much higher expectation of what the PS3 is capable of and rendered everything picture perfect. In fact the premium cars had so much detail in them that most of us would probably never appreciate the detail in them. PD said it took them 6 months to render every model to premium standards and constantly wants to update the physics engine since they noticed the car behaved slightly differently on a bump on the track in a super exotic car that most of us will probably never drive.

Yep, in trying to get all that done, they forgot about making the game, play like one. Five years had gone by and PD seemed to flip flop on their design choices. Prologue had a ranking system for their cars called the PP system which is real helpful in trying to find what kind of race you are looking for. They also had subtle fine tune tweaks like adding and subtraction weight and HP by 20% so races between different cars that are slightly different could be leveled according to the PP system. But that is a start of a different blog as I ranted on enough. 

SC2: Following Streams

Welcome to another Perch of StaticFalconar. This is a retrospective blog series on games in 2010.

            Part of why SC2 is as big as it is due to the streams. There must be some magic formula that I haven’t quite grasp on, yet I know its there. Ok, to have that sentence make sense, you gotta follow my train of thought. As much as I like SC2, I can never get into it as much as say SSF4. There is a real simple reason why.

            SSF4 or any fighting game really, is more about high dexterity and reflexes. Sure in games like Guilty Gear there’s like 5 different bars you have to keep track of to know what your character is capable of. But its all right there as well as my opponent. I don’t have to remember to scout other than open my eyes, be aware and read my opponent. This translates real well on the stream as it doesn’t matter the quality of the commentary I can easily follow along.

            This isn’t the case at all in an RTS like SC2. Just playing the game, you have make an extra effort to scout and the entire game itself is a slippery slope where if you make enough mistakes, there is just no way you can come back from it. But somehow the streams seem to keep up with it all due to the commentary. Most streams have the commentators on one screen and yet they somehow just know from the timing when shit is happening. Sure they aren’t always correct and there times when by the time they tune into a battle, its half over. Yet if it wasn’t for the commentary I would be utterly lost.

            This could also be due to just me knowing and being better at fighting games then RTS ones. Yet if I was more proficient in just knowing the timing and what to look for, there could be a disagreement in where I should be looking and which base I should be commentating on. Of course, since I never been to any SC2 event that had been streamed, there could be more that goes on behind the scenes. With the power of Korea in the production of certain SC2 streams in my mind there is a team of people looking at every base and army from both players and the producer gives live notes to the commentators on where to look just like an NFL game. Ok, that probably not true.

            Regardless, the commentary for SC2 streams is really top notch no matter how they do it. On top of that, SC2 as an E-Sport is seems to be very viable and sustainable. Before SC2 came out, one could make the argument that it was all based in Korea only, but that is simply not the case anymore. Korea may still have the biggest scene, but due to so many non-Korean streams I see or hear about, I am inclined to believe there is a growing scene for SC2 that’s more legitimate then ever.  

So what say you guys? If you were to just see a replay of a high caliber SC2 game, can you follow along it enough to give commentary to at least your friends? Or perhaps guys like Husky and Day 9 have a natural talent that makes them that much more worthy of their fame.

Tomorrow, a game everybody loves to hate; GT5. 

SC2: Innovation and why it doesn’t matter.

Welcome to another Perch of StaticFalconar. This is a yearend series of blogs about my gaming experience in 2010.

            This topic was of course brought up as the fine line that divided people that doesn't get it and those that do. So instead of trying to defend Starcraft, I will instead defend the need for innovation (or lack of). 1 lets get this out of the way; saying you hate this game because its not innovative makes as much sense as saying you hate a game because its not an FPS. Just like not every game has to be an FPS, not every game has to be innovative.

            You know that game called Football (or just think whatever version of any sport that you like and follow) right? Well, that game is like FN old man. It needs to be innovated some more right? No. Other than perhaps rules in the name of safety and reduction in exploitation of certain rule sets/fairness, the game is fine as is. Same thing for Starcraft 2.

            Starcraft 2 took what worked and refined it with better graphics and constant patching. In fact, due to the number of units that got added and subtracted from SC1, SC2 is a very different game but just with the same core principles as SC1. Don’t like the concept of map control by building units and taking chances of when to expand as well as scout? Then SC2 just isn’t for you. Sure if you liked the Warhammer series where its more micro heavy instead of just purely a race of teching up versus massing stuff and when to expand/detect/etc, then SC2 may not be for you either. But even Warhammer did have the tenants of all RTS games where you are rewarded for map control. SC2 does this by getting you more resources when you build a base its just more simplified in a more micro heavy game like Company of Heroes. Kinda funny since if you like microing, you think microing your workers which SC2 demands of you should be something you don’t complain about. Either way, that may not be something you hated and I’m just rambling on at this point.

            Back on topic: Innovation. Innovation for the sake of innovation is redundant. Innovation because you think the old ways could be improved by making a new system as a whole is the only reason why one should go through that path. Oh, still don’t like SC2? well I never got into Halo, Modern Warfare, MechWarrior, or even Half life. Does that mean I have to hate those series, no. Stop being a Xenophobe. Just because you don’t get it, doesn’t mean it’s a bad game. The following any game has is the one true indicator on just how good it is. SC2 has one big ass following. And it totally extends beyond just Korea, the emergence of guys like Day 9 and Husky shows there is an american audience that is interested in SC2 as a spectator sport. 

            Alright, I kinda felt like most of what I wrote today was just me ranting, but honestly, you either get it or you don’t. Tomorrow’s blog will still be SC2, but more on the stream scene and my own stance on RTS games as a whole.

Heavy Rain: The Adventure Game’s Magnum Opus.

Welcome to another Perch of StaticFalconar. This is part of a series of blogs on gaming retrospective in 2010.

            Heavy Rain actually doesn’t do anything new. The whole interactive adventure game has been around since Dragons Lair and even before in stuff like choose your own adventure stories. Since the gameplay is mainly moral choices and precision of pressing buttons there is going to be much more work in putting together a good story over what the viewer will see. Unless the player actively tries to see every single outcome (and that point, some of the magic does rub off), there would be much work that the player will never experience.

            This is why the game took 5 years and why a very strong storyboard was needed. Yes its sad some stuff got cut out, but the work required of it is just so much. This is probably also the reason why most of these games are regulated down to click and point adventures with a very linear story telling instead of what is heavy rain.

            At this point I thought I had more to say about the topic, but apparently not. The reason why games like Heavy Rain will never have as big of a budget or dev cycle to be as grand as heavy rain is too apparent. Its just too bad, the GB staff thinks that the one and only hurrah this type of game is going to get in a very long time: “is just a nice concept that could be learned from, but not necessarily a great game in execution.”. Perhaps there wasn’t paranormal shit to explain the loop holes.

Personally, the game had felt very complete to me as in the first play through I was very amazed and dazzled by all the smoke and mirrors. Loopholes and pace of the story aside, the game as a game was perfect. I wouldn’t be surprised if the director’s cut edition with Kinect support (jokes), isn’t already out that includes all the paranormal shit and fills in the loop holes. Of course, for most people that would be too little too late.

Oh wells; Tomorrow, SC2.