Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition

When it was announced that Arcade Edition would be coming as a DLC add-on for Super Street Fighter IV I immediately set aside the $20 to buy a points card for the 1200 point add-on. When I finally sat down to play my favorite fighting game of the generation again I was met with a patch that completely ruined the experience for me.

Arcade Edition adds a lot of new features to the core game: 4 new characters along with Endings for Arcade Mode. In addition, it adds some more Online Features such as more Replay Modes, the ability to follow players, and the ability to play in lobbies specifically made for Arcade Edition, as well as Super. The Arcade Edition Mode changes some of the characters as well, otherwise known as a balancing. Overall, it seems like a worthy pickup for the price. However, it's what those changes do that really send me over the edge on this one.

What Arcade Edition effectively does is break the game in favor of god characters, aka Yun and Yang. While it makes for some great buffs for Makoto, Fei Long and Hakan, it effectively neuters other characters like Guile, Ryu and Chun-Li. Unnecessarily so as well, since Super was already pretty well balanced. Taking Fei Long and Makoto from bottom tier to Upper Tier is a big stretch in my opinion, as it really just makes the game unbalanced and unfun. For offline players hoping for some achievements, they've effectively made Arcade Mode for this Edition a lot tougher, meaning spamming isn't as effective, and trying to get Evil Ryu and Oni on the highest difficulty a chore, even with Zangief, who is now almost useless against Seth, who by the way, you have to finish with a Super and/or Ultra in order to face either of them in addition to prerequisites. So if you're looking for achievements, Arcade Edition is a no go.

For the competitive Street Fighter player you really have no choice but to buy this add-on, and for that this review isn't for you since you already know how severe the changes have been. As for online play, Capcom has seemingly borked their netcode once again, so more inputs are dropped, meaning practice for competitive and casual play has also been hurt as a result. And this change is for everyone, not just the Arcade Edition mode.

In addition to these negatives, there aren't any Trials for these 4 new characters, making it harder to learn them and how to combat them in battle. Finally Capcom has stated that Costume Pack(s) will come later for them, so in essence, you're really not getting a complete package here.

So without an additional patch for balance changes that are desperately needed, Capcom has effectively ruined Street Fighter IV. In the meantime, I'll continue to play Super Mode since it's still extremely fun to play.

Score: 1 out of 5

Computer Woes

It's been a long time, hasn't it? What have we missed? Memorial Day. E3. The NBA and NHL Finals. Oh, and my hard drive dying on me, forcing me to buy a new hard drive and completely re-install my operating system and compatible software. It's been magical, that's for sure.

But I thought I'd start off with sports and a congratulations to the Dallas Mavericks and the Boston Bruins for their Championship Runs. The Mavericks bested the Heat in 6 games, forcing Lebron James to criticize the people who are against him as well as the media for misreporting "the decision" over a year ago. If the media misreports something, I'm sure people will know about it earlier than 365 days. To say such a thing when his camp handled the entire thing is laughable at best. It just goes to show what kind of person James is, someone who wants to blame others for their obvious mistakes.

Speaking of mistakes, the Canucks have fans that live in their city. I've heard of riots before, but not after losing. Apparently Vancouver did this back in 1994 when they lost to the Rangers, but they weren't the home team then. It's sad to see a beautiful city like that get trashed by hockey fans. I'm sorry Vancouver, but you're not allowed to go on picnics anymore. At least not until you learn some table manners. Boston though, you guys are classy. Outscoring the Canucks 30+ to 8 in 7 games is classic. Your fans were obviously used to winning titles so they were too tired to riot. 4 titles in 6 years (Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins) is something special, too.

E3 happened, and Nintendo unveilved their new system. Microsoft announced Halo 4 and a Halo remake (Which looks terrible by the way). Sony announced that NGP would be the PSVita, and be $249/$299. Overall, it was nothing to write home about. My game of show had to be Skyward Sword though, as it sounds really cool.

But finally, onto my computer woes. I should've updated sooner, so I'm sorry for that. In the bustle of things it really puts my priorities elsewhere. I plan to update sooner rather than later. So until then, see ya!

The Cursed Game

With E3 approaching, I thought I'd take a timeout to go back and talk about a game that is really hard to forget, especially for me. Perhaps it's denial or foolish hope, but for the final time I want to talk about Metroid: Other M. Essentially, the game is something that comes squarely at the blame for Nintendo, not Team Ninja for its' release.

The decisions behind Other M's release are questionable at best. Terrible dialog, bad voice acting, a cliched and convoluted plot, etc. Essentially, while not the worst game in Nintendo's history, it's seemingly the most damaging because it has the potential to outright kill one of their long-standing franchises. All of which comes squarely at the blame of Yosihio Sakamoto and Nintendo. Usually, in the squabbles of fans v. developers, the developer usually has the upper hand, but in this case, where seemingly nothing makes sense, is explained or justified, it comes to the desk of those who were in charge, and that was Nintendo. I can't explain why it was released in a seemingly incomplete state, no one can. Anyone who thinks they know really doesn't because they don't work for Nintendo.

It's not the game fell short of expectations. If the game fell slightly short of its' expectations, it wouldn't be brought up repeatedly. It's that the game fell short in every single area, and fell short either slightly or greatly. Counterintuitive and questionable gameplay mechanics, unmemorable music, mediocre controls, and an awful story. Metroid, and the character of Samus Aran deserve better than what Nintendo thought their fans deserved with this.

In essence, Nintendo lied to their consumers whole-heartedly. They said the game was classic Metroid, it wasn't. They said the story was about Samus, it was about Adam. They said it was a great game, it wasn't. It seemed like at every turn where complaints were brought up by the press and fans alike, Nintendo ignored them. Nintendo has a history of ignoring their fans, and usually they're right and the game turns out awesome. However, in this case is one that I can truthfully say that Nintendo was wrong to let out the door. And in all honesty, out of their entire E3 2009 Press Conference, Metroid Other M will probably be remembered as the worst part about it, even worse than the Vitality Sensor.

Gaming Returns

For the 25 days or so that Playstation Network was down, I played a few games. Some on Xbox 360, some on Wii, some on Playstation 3. Online multiplayer isn't really my thing, and therefore the loss of the online service didn't really affect me all that much. However, it's good to have it back and is nice to see my friends list being populated every time I turn my system on. But during that time, here's what I played.

Mass Effect 2, Insanity
I'm not one for difficult games or playing through games on the hardest setting, but Mass Effect 2 compelled me to do so for some reason. I wanted to play through the game with a Female Shepard, and while I didn't play through Mass Effect to get some bonuses, Bioware was nice enough to release the PS3 exclusive comic mere days after completing my run. But alas, it started out extremely hard, but ended quite easily if I do say so myself. I managed to beat it, save everyone, and get my last achievement in the game to finally complete it. It was nice to do, but I don't think I'll do it for Mass Effect 3 unless they dumb it down quite a bit.

Gears of War 3 Beta
I'm not a big multiplayer guy, but I'm surprisingly good at Gears. I managed to get a 1.0 K/D ratio and 1.0 W/L ratio before I felt drained from playing it. I didn't get the Gold Retro Lancer for the retail version, but I got everything else. I could've gotten it, but I just didn't think it was worth my time to do so. Overall, the multiplayer seems very solid, and it makes me excited to play it come September.

Portal 2
I didn't play this quite as heavily as I did everything else, but when PSN finally came back up, I played through the co-op campaign, which was immensely better than the single player one. I also managed to get my 19th Platinum Trophy in the game, which meant a lot considering I haven't gotten one since last August. Portal 2 is a great game, just not as good as Portal. Hopefully the DLC will rekindle my interest in the game.

Red Dead Redemption
This was a new pickup for me, but I'm still playing through it. Right now I'm in Mexico, but the story is really dragging at this point with missions starting on one side of the country and actually taking place at the other side, which really makes it feel unnecessarily padded. Still, I'm enjoying it, but not as much as I was before I hit Mexico. The voice acting and story are similar to GTA4 in the sense that the hero is there for a purpose, but that requires him getting his hands dirty. While the characters fit the times I'm sure, the vast range of characters seems unnecessary. Game of the Year worthy? No, because Mass Effect 2 is better. Plain and simple.

Heart Strings

A man can only take so much before he says enough is enough. I think I have finally reached that point with the Washington Capitals. They were my first sports team. Over the years I've watched them and hoped for a Championship Team, but every year they fail. After the last 2 years you think they would've broken through, but no, it remains no. And for the foreseeable future it seems like it will remain no despite having one of the best players in the league.

I don't know who or what to blame, but I think I may be done. I'm tired of getting my hopes up, and as a life-long fan, that's discouraging. My heart just can't take the disappointment anymore.

Celebrate

Today we celebrate. For the death of a terrorist mastermind? No. We celebrate because some semblance of closure can now be brought to those that were lost over 9 and a half years ago. Most died against their will, while others went out like heroes. Yesterday, the Navy Seals did their job to perfection, with no deaths on their side and no innocent casualties were taken. When it was announced that the President would be speaking in roughly a quarter of an hour last night, no one knew. People speculated that it was about Libya, but then more reports came in about American bases across the globe upping their security. But it was the last rumor that turned out to be true.

Osama Bin Laden...was finally killed.

President Obama gave us closure last night with a speech that just presented the facts, and even though it took him a bit longer to come to the Podium than we thought, it was worth it. We knew he was gone, we knew that we took him out, and we knew that we could ease our minds a bit and remember the ones we lost. Today, we celebrate the lives we lost. We celebrate people. We celebrate freedom.

General Update #5354

Today's blog post will be one of those all-in-one specials that everyone loves to not read. Topics are coming to me nowadays, but narrowing down my topics and focusing on them is tough, so bare with me just a little while longer.

Stanley Cup Playoffs
The NHL Playoffs are underway, and the first round is almost over with. The Detroit Red Wings, Nashville Predators and my Washington Capitals have already advanced to the Conference Semifinals. So far, there have been a lot of overtime games as well as comebacks that always make things very interesting. Right now, everyone is watching the Vancouver-Chicago series, one that started with Vancouver being up 3-0, but is now headed to a decisive Game 7. If Vancouver loses, it'll be the third consecutive year that the Presidents' Trophy Winner loses in the first round of the playoffs, not to mention the third consecutive year Chicago would eliminate Vancouver from the playoffs.

PSN is down
Playstation Network as most Sony fans call it was compromised by hackers, or so Sony says, and has been down since Thursday. There's no end in sight, and it's really bad for Sony since last week 4 top tier games came out for PS3, including one that was download only. Portal 2, Mortal Kombat, SOCOM 4 and Arcana Hearts 3 were big names, but because of the outage, multiplayer is inaccessible. For me, it means I can't earn money via remote races in Gran Turismo 5 (which has probably cost me roughly 3-5 million dollars so far) and I can't play through co-op in Portal 2, which I hear is excellent. It's a tough break for Sony, but it really shows that hackers, modders, and the like really do hurt regular consumers, even if they don't want to.

Happy Easter
I'd like to finish off this blog post by wishing everyone a belated Happy Easter!

Sonic Colors: Dim the Lights

I've heard a lot of praise for Sonic Colors. How it was a return to form, the breaking of the cycle, the pinnacle of 3D Sonic games. While I can say it is the last of those three, I cannot say it holds true for the first two. While Sonic Colors starts off strong, it slowly deludes itself into mediocrity in what is otherwise an already short product.

Sonic Colors is a 2D/3D Platformer on the Wii where you play as Sonic and only Sonic through 45 regular stages and 7 boss fights. The premise is that Dr. Robotnik, or Dr. Eggman for those unaware of the series' history has built an intergalactic amusement park and Sonic must free the aliens that are powering it. While most of the early stages are designed great, around the latter half of the third world is where the game gets a little dicey with its' level design and never really recovers. You can go back and play older levels with newer alien powers you unlock, and given the game only lasts 4-5 hours, you probably will do so for the fear of buyers' remorse potentially setting in.

The graphics and music on Sonic Colors are top notch, and once again challenge Nintendo for what looks really good on the Wii, however Sonic Colors only runs at 30 fps unlike Mario, but considering speed is Sonic's thing it's not that big of a deal. What is a big deal is the controls. Sometimes the game is a little spotty with the controls, and you won't jump properly, nor will you move quite enough forward or back to avoid Sonic from dropping into an endless pit. These are things that have held true to 3D Sonic games ever since Sonic Adventure. Why Sega can't avoid this problem is beyond me, and has plagued the series.

Sonic Colors is the best 3D Sonic game to date, but that's not really saying much given the series' past. While it may be a good first step to breaking the dreaded Sonic Cycle, Sonic is still stuck in a continuous loop of mediocrity. Sonic Colors is just a lot less mediocre and approaching the good category.

No Shutdown

The President got on TV just a few minutes ago to announce that there would be no shutdown of the Federal Government, stating that a compromise had been reached that would cut roughly 39 billion dollars from last year's federal budget. The pending shutdown would've happened because a fully controlled Democratic Congress didn't pass this budget last year. The budget is mainly a stop gap to keep spending up for the next few months. The Republicans are looking to the fall to start debating an entirely new budget where they have more say about what may or may not go into it since it will be their first budget.

While some will say this is good for Republicans as something similar allowed Clinton to get re-election in 1996 I whole-heartedly disagree. Bob Dole lost in 1996 because he was a major player in the Republicans caving when they gained control of Congress in 1994. People who voted Republican in 94 felt betrayed by those they voted for, and in turn either didn't show up at the voting booth on Election Day in 96 or showed up to vote against those that betrayed them. This eventually led to an economic boom in the mid 90's and lasted mostly through the Bush Administration. The difference here is that we're still in major military conflicts overseas, which is hurting our economic status in the world.

Cutting 39 billion dollars from a 3 trillion dollar budget isn't going to solve anything. Cutting 390 billion dollars would help, but it'd still be a drop in the bucket to the amount of money Government is spending on a yearly basis.

By George it's been a While

I haven't updated my blog in a while, so it's time to get down to some brass tax and discuss a few things.

The Final 4
The National Semi-Finals were great, which produced two great games with Butler and UConn advancing to the Championship. Kentucky could've won in the final seconds but a poor shot led to a Connecticut win. Virginia Commonwealth fought hard against Butler, but the Bulldogs were too much. My guess experienced paid off there. However, the Championship game was one of the worst, if not the worst College Basketball game I have ever seen in my life. Butler couldn't shoot the ball at all and the game went for minutes on end without the score even changing. I know the NCAA is proud of their parody but have the refs call a few fouls to get some free throws so some mild interest can be maintained throughout. I was watching baseball with 15 minutes to go in the game because of it.

NHL
The Washington Capitals are once against Southeast Division champs, and may be on their way to a second first place rank in the Eastern Conference. They will most likely face the Rangers or the Sabres given the current schedule outlook, but they could face the Canadians or Hurricanes as well. Vancouver, who wrapped up the President's Trophy a couple of weeks ago lost back to back games handily to Edmonton so it appears they might be limping into the playoffs, like the Flyers are. Who, incidentally might lose the Atlantic Division to Pittsburgh if they aren't careful. The Playoffs will surely be exciting but one thing's for certain, my team will never win.

Video Games
I've mainly been simulating B-spec in Gran Turismo 5 lately. I'll most likely stop when I get to level 35 so I can get the best car in the game. After that, it's anyone's guess. I also purchased the Borderlands Game of the Year Edition and playing through the DLC packs. They're fun, but fast travel was definitely needed. Either that or the elimination of travel padding. I beat Playthrough 2 so now all enemies are now equal to my level, which is just great since it'll mean much more experience from here on out.