Bush Mackel

It may come as a surprise to many, but for the past month I’ve been in possession of a PS3. That’s right, Sony’s Playstation 3. Trust me, I’m STILL shocked I ponied up the money to buy one. Well here’s how it happened – As you know, most of my gaming is done on a big ol’ home theater projector these days so watching movies in standard def is like putting a knife in my back.

Sorry guys, it just is.

Here’s the Story Morning Glory
So when I wanted to throw my wife a bone about a month ago and rent Twilight for her (horrible movie) I decided I would rent it on Blu-Ray and play it on a PS3. (Besides, I really wanted to beat my co-worker’s score in Super Stardust HD anyhow)… Everything that night went fine and the PS3 was a very capable device in my humble opinion. Fast forward about a month to present time and I had a WAY overpriced gaming system that didn’t have any games I really wanted. (I never did buy a single game for it). BUT, I was probably going to just keep it anyway since it played Blu-Ray movies half way decently and I can be lazier than the day is long sometimes.

It was at that point that I received word about this baby:

Now I knew that Blu-Ray player prices were far below the horrific price of PS3′s, but I didn’t know you could find a capable Samsung with just about all the bells and whistles for sub $200! Now to be fair, this is a refurb from Tiger Direct, but cNET gave it a good rating for what it wass and Pete gave me the approving nod on Twitter, so I pulled the trigger!

You Did This to Yourselves Sony!
Chances are that this doesn’t excite you like it does me but that’s ok. If on the other hand you have been BEGGING for an excuse to get a player at a bargain – Why not give this a go? And on a final note, I can’t be the only one who feels this way. I’ve said it before that I have BEGGED Sony to give me a reason to buy a PS3… They haven’t done it with their game library, they haven’t done it with their price, and now with Blu-Ray player prices falling, they may have missed me entirely for this console generation.

Over at Destructoid the other day, I saw a post about Grand Slam Tennis for the Wii. These days, I’m way past the whole “Wii thing” but none the less I checked out the game and I guess it looks ok… If you’re into that sort of thing. I’ll admit there was a time when I was all into Virtua Tennis for Dreamcast but I think Wii Tennis killed that genre for me.

It All Started When…
Me and some friends went over this girl’s house after a night at the bars for some friendly Wii competition. And I will say right off the bat that I’m a competitive person. AND I’m pretty good at Tennis in real life. (I bet you can see where this is going). Well this girl, who was pretty tipsy mind you, took us all out in straight sets. I’m talking not even close. Everything I hit had no velocity or spin on it and everything she would hit came off with wicked speed and angles. After that, I pretty much told Wii Tennis it could go screw.

Back to Grand Slam Tennis
So when I checked out EA’s site for Grand Slam Tennis I was more than a bit unwilling to believe its claimes of “superior racket responsiveness and control”. HOWEVER, this is one of the first games to take advantage of the greatly hyped Wii MotionPlus so maybe it WILL be different. Up to this point, I’m still not sold but when and if a video comes out that shows a side by side of a person playing the game and his character’s movements – That’ll go a long way for me.

Putting My Skepticism Aside About Control
The videos I’ve seen of the game still don’t do anything for me. Maybe it’s because I’m a bit older, but the fact that you have Federer and McEnroe in “cute people form” doesn’t make me want to buy your game. In fact, the videos I’ve seen of this game really make it look like a Wii Tennis 2… Big goofy ball, boringness and all. Sorry but I just need fast paced action. Huh? What’s that?… Virtual Tennis 2009?!

Sorry guys, but this post is over.

This past weekend I tweeted that I had finished with the XNA Beginner’s Guide to 2D Games. If you have no idea what XNA is, here’s a quote from Wikipedia:

Microsoft XNA is a set of tools with a managed runtime environment provided by Microsoft that facilitates computer game development and management.

Got it? You can use it to help you make games for Windows and on the 360. Now if you’ve always wanted to make games but never thought you could, this probably isn’t the thing for you. Because even if you have the desire -Without the technical skills to back it up, you’re really not going to be able to gain an understanding of anything from the videos since they build on the fundamentals programming.

And from an XNA standpoint, you get only the glimspsiest of glimpses into XNA and all it can do. For instance, as far as certain effects being built into the system, how to do music, etc etc… That’s just not covered by the Beginner’s Guide. But you know, they probably shouldn’t be because then the guide would’ve taken me 2 weeks to get through. (#):)

What I Made
So what I made was nothing to write home about, that’s for sure. But as far as it goes to get my feet wet in XNA game programming, I’m pretty happy with the Beginner’s Guide overall. It basically steps you through how to make a 2D shooting game where enemies scroll in from the right and you can rotate a turret to aim at them and fire. So while what I made was pretty basic, there are lots of “extra credit” videos linked from the site that show you how to do cooler things like particle generators and stuff. BUT, I haven’t touched those vidoes yet.

Will I Do More?
Really not sure. This was a really fun diversion this past weekend, but I seriously don’t know that I have any desire at the moment to make games. They take up a lot of time and by the time I really finalized something as an Indie developer, Microsoft would probably be launching their 720 or something. ha ha.

The short answer to that is “not yet”. Here’s the longer answer

If you’ve been following along recently, you know that I was pretty much forced into reformatting my hard drive. Of course, nothing is as simple as just that (because of a semi broken mobo) but it all led me to reformatting a spare ATA drive, abandoning my SATA drive for the time being, and really setting it up from jump as a solid dev box. I mean – Figured might as well since I’m doing a lot of web development these days anyway (hint hint) and up to this point I didn’t even have IE 6 on my computer.

So after I got Windows updated to SP3, got all my updates in and then got IE 6 on there, I wondered what else I should put on my new box. Well for me, the first thing to go on is usually Paint Shop Pro (since I’m a Photoshop n00b). After that I thought about installing Creative Suite, but since I didn’t have a full legit copy, I didn’t want destroying my new box on a bitTorrenting spree. Plus, since I’ve used CS products for so long, I figured I ought to buy at least one version in the next couple months.

Onto the Cool Stuff!
So for those of you who don’t know, my background is really in “traditional Computer Science”, whatever that means. And just because of where my life has gone professionally, I tend to do A LOT more of “web programming” than anything else these days… Which is to say that ActionScript, CSS, and PHP are pretty much my constant companions. One of the things that I had always wanted to learn but “never had the chance to” was .NET. I knew I had a full copy of Visual Studio 6.0 laying around so I put that in, but unfortunately that didn’t seem to have .NET on it. Then I remembered that a friend of mine was toying around with XNA for 360 and had downloaded Microsoft’s Visual C# 2008 Express Edition…

And I said why not?

So now I have Visual C# 2008 Express with the XNA Game Studio 3.0 on my desktop PLUS I have Maya 7.0 on there too! YOU may not be excited, but for the LONGEST time I’ve wanted to try my hands at some basic 3D Game Programming and now I’m finally all set to do it!

The Cold Hard Reality
Though the truth of the thing is that I have a TON of things going no right now the least of which is my 9-5. I mean, I just have no idea when I’m going to have the time to start working on this thing. But, back in the days of DirectX 6 and stuff, I don’t know that I had the time then either… I just stopped sleeping. (#):) So we’ll see. How cool would it be to see something up on Live from yours truly?! PLUS, I think I already have an idea of a stellar game (though I’m pretty sure someone has already made it and it’s probably already caught up in M$ Legislation). Stay tuned true believers!

As I write this, I’m wondering if I have seen ANYTHING in the past oh… FOREVER that would make me want to even touch the PS3. Honestly, the only thing that comes to mind is Metal Gear 4. Not that I’m hating on the system, they just don’t seem to have games that would entice me and if they do, I’d rather have them on 360 so I can get the achievements. But we’ve gone down that road before right?

Well outside of the aforementioned Metal Gear, the video I saw for Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 yesterday qualifies as something that gets me excited for the system… Well not really the system since I already have Ninja Gaiden II but whatever. In any event, if you’re a fan of the game you need to check out the trailer for the new one…

Looks like new controllable characters (including Ayane), new bosses and possibly MULTIPLAYER?! I’m more than a bit envious that this isn’t coming to 360 but I still can’t officially buy a PS3. Especially after Sony said “screw you” to all of us and dropped the price on its OTHER system.

On my other blog I’m trying to give some TLC to, I wrote yesterday how today Sony was allegedly going to have some big announcement. Well friendos, today has come and here’s the announcement:

The Playstation 2 is now $99.

WTF Sony. Do you think ANYBODY cares that the Playstation 2 is now $99? Well apparently you think someone does so let me tell you definitively:

“NO ONE DOES”.

I was supposed to write this two weeks ago – So sue me. (#):)

Well sorry this is so late but here it is, none the less; A review of Street Fighter IV from a real Street Fighter fan!

In a nutshell, I DO like the game. Notice I said “like” and not “love”. If you’re sure you know where this review is going, you may be surprised so don’t head off the post just yet!

And without further ado…

Simple and Clean (Utada Hikaru ref)
Street Fighter IV is a pretty game. From the opening cinema to character selection, in game graphics and just about everything else, Street Fighter IV has to get a 5 out of 5 on sheen and presentation. It just looks and sounds fantastic and there’s no other way to say it. Furthermore, when you actually start playing the game, you won’t be disappointed either. Minus the 360 controller, it just feels tight. And that’s a good thing. If you liked Street Fighter II… You’re going to like this game. It’s just like they took Super Street Fighter II, improved the graphics, and called it Street Fighter IV.

Unfortunately, SFII Isn’t the Only SF I’ve Played
I mean, let’s take a look at some of the great games featuring Street Fighter characters that have come between Street Fighter II and Street Fighter IV…

• Street Fighter Alpha
• Street Fighter Alpha 2
• Street Fighter Alpha 3
• Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha
• Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha 2
• Street Fighter vs Marvel Super Heroes
• Marvel vs Capcom
• Marvel vs Capcom 2
• Capcom vs SNK
• Capcom vs SNK 2
• …just to name a few.

Now the point here isn’t to say that so much time has gone by or that this shouldn’t be called “number four”, but instead to draw attention to everything that us gamers have been lucky to have experienced in gameplay including:

• Tag Teaming
• Parrying
• “Super Jumps”
• “Real” Dashing
• Launchers
• Multiple Super Moves
• Various Levels of Super Moves
• …again, just to name a few

Is Street Fighter IV, TOO Simple?
For me, it is. I’m sorry, but it is. And I’m not saying that because I suck at the game either, but… take any of the classic characters like Ken for instance. He typically has the vertical Dragon Punch super and the forward Dragon Punch Super as well as a level 3 Super… Basically a Super for every situation. Plus, he often has a roll, cool kick combinations… and now he basically has one super. Ok, he has the Ultra, but you only get that if you’re getting beat up, and when it goes straight up, it doesn’t seem to do that much damage anyway. Ok, I know that’s just one player. Let’s talk about this then…

I Forgot You Can’t Jump in Street Fighter II/IV
Some of you are saying, “huh?” Well – Let me explain. If you’re fighting Zangief and you jump in on him, he can basically do the Spinning Lariat all day long. This sucks. If you’re fighting Ryu and you jump in him, he can do a Dragon Punch on you all day long. This also sucks. In the Alphas and most games after, you had something called in Air Block which took care of a lot (not all) of this stuff. In Street Fighter III, you had parrying so you could jump in all day long if you wanted. Now you’re saying, “Stop whining that no one liked SFIII”. Hmph. Let me put it another way…

When you play someone skilled with Sagat in Street Fighter II/IV, here’s what happens – They spam you with fireballs to keep you away and chip you down and as soon as you jump in, you get Tiger Uppercutted. The result of this is a very defense filled, measured and boring match. In Street Fighter III, I could jump in on whomever I wanted because I knew I could tech everything.. Resulting in aggressive and truly awesome matches. So you’ll excuse me if I’m a bit disappointed.

Conclusion
Street Fighter IV is a really good game. All the modes are great including challenge mode and playing online. Unfortunately, I don’t think it does enough to revive the fighting game genre. For that, I think people are going to be waiting for Marvel vs Capcom 3 or something but that probably won’t do it either since it’s almost a lock that Capcom won’t do anything to improve the game at all.

I’m a big fan of video games and for me, nothing is bigger and better than Street Fighter.

Don’t know if I could really explain why, heck – I don’t know if I even KNOW why but it’s always been my favourite and it’s one of the few games where I will eagerly purchase it at full price without even checking out reviews.

This has been the case for years and started when I bought my FIRST Street Fighter, Street Fighter II on SNES from Electronics Boutique in Columbia Mall.

Where it All Began
Street Fighter II was the first game I can remember buying and I swear after tax that game was like $70. And back in those days…It was NOT a drop in the pan for 10 year old Bush. What am I saying? I would CRY if I had to pay that much for a game now! (Unless it was Street Fighter of course). Man that game taught me so much… Most importantly, it probably forced my thumbs to become the deadly weapons they are now. The Shoryuken, Hadouken… These were all new to me (and most of the world) as were the motions. Funny that today we kinda forget that D, DF, F+P wasn’t always common place. Well back then it certainly wasn’t and I spent HOURS blistering up my thumbs just trying to do a freakin’ Dragon Punch.

Street Fighter II on Super Nintendo

I Put in the Hours
But the hard work would pay off and eventually I could do every move in the game quite easily, of course with the exception of Zangief’s Spinning Pile Driver. I would go on to win many games… Killing many a foe with Ken’s kick throw – Taking their last bit of life and destroying barrels all in the same moment. Man that game was classic. Now for some reason Ken had pom pom hair but whatchya gonna do? Street Fighter II gave us “Get lost, you can’t compare with my powers”, “Attack me if you dare, I will crush you”, and my personal favourite, “”Go home and be a family man”. Of course it also gave us M. Bison throwing you from seemingly halways across the screen but you gotta take the good with the bad I guess.

Street Fighter Alpha

The Sequels
After Street Fighter II, many sequels would eventually come out with most being better than the last. Outside of Street Fighter III, my favourite would probably be the original Street Fighter Alpha. Even though the roster was smaller than it’s sequels and the gameplay a bit slower, it was just a gem. The music was FANtastic (maybe the best outside of the original SF II) the graphics were unbelievably polished, characters were awesome and the presentation was just top notch. But years after all these sequels, I eventually found Street Fighter III… In my opinion, Capcom‘s crown jewel. Unfortunately amongst my friends, I’m one of the few who thinks so.

Wow. This post went someplace I didn’t really intend it to but hopefully tomorrow I’ll wrap this up when I actually review SF IV!

Let me cut to the chase – Ninja Gaiden is number 1.

I just love spreading it around that others agree that Ninja Gaiden is a REALLY hard game.

But one of the problems I have with this list is that the writers obviously didn’t do their due diligence because instead of naming specific names, they cop out and just say the whole series.

Bleh. Well in any event…

Click on the above image to check out the list and fee free to discuss.

I was and still am a BIG fan of Street Fighter III.

The problem with that game was of all the fighters you had to choose from, only a handful of them were interesting to play and compelling to learn. But if you could get past that and find a character you liked, the game was a masterpiece.

At the heart of the greatness was certainly the gameplay, moves, and most importantly the parrying.

Ohhhhh the parrying!

Parrying Was a Little Bit of Alright
I’m sure I’ve talked about this before, but the parrying in Street Fighter III was so cool because it gave you the chance to never take damage (except from throws). You could parry every attack in the game – From normal moves to specials and even entire supers! Being able to do that, there was no more chip deaths, you could jump freely because you could parry Dragon Punches… And if you played someone who could ALSO parry, man oh man the chess matches you could have.

Here Comes a New Challenger
So Street Fighter IV has no parrying. Before I picked up the game yesterday I was reading a cool e-book I found at http://gootecks.com/. It’s called The 3rd Strike Players Guide to Street Fighter 4. (You had me at hello). Well anyway, it was a pretty decent read… Enough so that I picked up SFIV. But I was also worried when I read one of the passages in the book that said something to the effect of “You know you could jump in safely in SF III? Well, those days are over.” *groan* And let me tell you, I understood that all too well when every time I jumped into Zangief I kept getting Lariated and there was nothing I could do about it.

Initial Thoughts
Um, I dunno. I only have about an hour or so of SF IV experience under my belt and admittedly, coming from Street Fighter III, the transition is PAINFUL. At first I was going to say that you don’t have the trickness coming from cool movesets like you see in Alex and Dudley (SFIII) but after seeing some vids on the net, I’m very optimistic that with another hour into the game that I will be proven wrong. So I guess, WE’LL SEE.