Having been a teenage boy in the early to mid-90s, I was aware of many fighting games. Mortal Kombat, Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown, even crap like Art Of Fighting and Fighter's History. I dug it all, but the one I loved was Street Fighter 2. When this came to the US, it was a gigantic deal. There had been other 2d fighters before, but nothing anywhere near as good as this. The characters were huge, they screamed their moves over kickass music, they threw FIREBALLS for Pete's sake. Where the hell did this come from? And how do I play it?
Since I had limited access to an arcade, the answers to that last question came largely in the form of Gamepro magazine. Like every videogame mag at the time, they were in love with SF2 as much as I was, and printed strategy guides for damn near every character. Every character I wanted to play, anyway. Blanka, Chun-Li, Dhalsim, and my main man Ryu. I couldn't pronounce his name ("It's RYE-oo, right?"), but I could throw a hadoukenbefore I ever spent one quarter. On the few occasions I made it to an arcade, I sucked, but that didn't matter because I could do all the special moves. What else is there?
Then I got an SNES, and with it a copy of Super Street Fighter 2. Holy cow, Street Fighter at home?? The number of hadoukens I could throw ... my God. I even got one of those flimsy plastic fighter sticks they sold at the time, and used it all of twice before going back to the controller. I never beat the computer on more than 4 stars, but I did get good enough that none of my friends would play me anymore, which according to Sun Tzu 's The Art Of War means I totally win.
Unfortunately, winning that way meant I didn't get to play much Street Fighter anymore, and I really haven't since then. I picked up Alpha 2 for the Saturn way back when, because what else was I going to play on my Saturn? That was cool for a while, but again the computer was only so entertaining before it had to start cheating to win. And my friends still wouldn't play me. So, from them until now, I was fighterless.
But now there is the internet. And now I have SSF4. And now begins the long process of learning to play all over again using a proper joystick, and then beating up the computer, and then, finally, finding people to play with. It doesn't matter anymore that my friends still don't give a shit about Street Fighter. It doesn't even matter that I'm knocking on 30 years old. The teenage me who dreamed of throwing a hadouken at a real live dude will finally get his chance.
After having spent about 15 hours (according to Steam) on Civ 5, I have some more to say.
First off, taking enemy cities is difficult enough to require planning and strategy, but not because the owner of said city has garrisoned a dozen units inside it. Rather, cities themselves can defend now, and bombard from range. Combined with the ability to garrison one unit inside, they can be quite formidable. I've thrown four units at an enemy capital simultaneously and come away empty-handed. This is good, because the days of mammoth empires of a dozen cities or more are effectively gone.
The reason for this is that the maintenance and happiness costs of more than six cities or so quickly become prohibitive, and I am thankful for that. In Civ 4, it was trivial to build an economy capable of supporting as many cities as one wished, and since happiness was calculated on a per-city basis, all that was needed was to address happiness problems in each city as they arose. Now it is civ-wide. The net result is that an empire of 3-6 cities seems to be what most AI civs end up with, and what I found most sustainable as well. This is far more manageable in the end-game.
Encounters with enemy units are more realistic. Not only could I not imagine a spearman taking out a tank anymore, it's cause for severe worry when a warrior unit meets a barbarian spearman. There's a chance my warrior has enough xp and superior positioning to come out on top, but I'd better be real sure.
Thankfully, however, the AI is stupid. This is nothing new, but without the crutch it used to have of huge stacks of defenders or giant empires, it is very plain just how simple it is to outsmart. I'm not sure there's a good solution to this. From a programming perspective, it's a large enough problem space that it would take a much more sophisticated program to be able to traverse enough of the possible solutions to each scenario to put up a good fight against a human. In other words, I wouldn't expect a fifty-dollar piece of software to be able to adequately comprehend the complexity of the game world it must play within.
Many of the leaders from past Civ games have returned, and it is good to see that their "personalities" haven't changed. Montezuma is still a homicidal maniac, and Gandhi would still rather give you his sister than go to war. The new leaders seem to fit in well by and large, although their characters aren't as well-developed as the old guard. It is a welcome new addition to have them speaking their native tongue in diplomatic interactions. Others have complained that diplomacy is damaged because there are no longer any numbers indicating how a particular civ feels toward you, but I'm finding that this isn't all that necessary. The expression on your opponent's face and his words at your arrival are generally telling enough.
The focus of the game as a whole is decidedly military. There are victory conditions for those focusing on science or culture or diplomacy, but the systems supporting those are ... not as robust. In Civ 4, it was possible to beat the game by making enough cities with enough cultural influence to dominate the globe. A particularly influential city could effectively annex a lesser enemy city without firing a shot, simply by swallowing it within cultural borders. This mechanic seems to be gone. The space race is still here, but I have to admit I've never found it all that compelling in the past and haven't tried for that victory yet. I can't imagine it's all that different, given what I've seen so far about the tech tree.
All this being said, I am satisfied so far. I plan to continue playing this for many hours, and am curious to see the direction the game heads with future patches and expansions.
Opening cinematic contains dude who is hell of old. Title screen music markedly suckier. Tutorial mode kind of clunky. Nowhere near as slick as the guided walkthrough with Sid Meier in Civ 4. Independent city-states are a cool addition. Made allies of three surrounding, one of which provided me with free military units from time to time after I helped it out and eliminated a rival city-state for it. One unit per tile is a god-send. I hated the military stuff in Civ 4 because it was an endless slog through gigantic stacks of units and took forever just to get geared up for. Now there is a good bit of strategy as far as positioning, since you can only surround an enemy with so many units and some are better in rough terrain or open, or attacking foes IN rough terrain or open, etc... Pwning Gandhi will probably never get old.
I did not "get" the first Dead Rising. Heard a lot about it, bought the game after playing the demo, and gave up after meeting the first boss. What game were all these guys talking about? This wasn't about killing zombies, it was Pokemon Snap and then fight a douchebag on a movie set. I gave it away to a friend (who has played the shit out of it and loves it) and decided the series just wasn't for me.
Until Dead Rising 2: Case Zero. This was the demo they should have made for the first game. The endless hordes of zombies are there, but it also introduces the most crucial mechanics involved in the game proper, as I've since found out from reading. Namely, level up and figure shit out, and then restart with all the levels and knowledge you've gained. If I'd realized that was what the first game was about I wouldn't have quit in frustration and would probably have spent a ton of time on it.
Well, now I can, I guess. It's 20 bucks on XBM, so I'm gonna buy the sucker again and spend this weekend with it. Hopefully it will click this time, because Case Zero sure has me hungry for killing a ton more zombies.
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