What else are you playing?

[Maj]

Not that i play a whole lot of video games outside of Street Fighter, but i figured we should have a place in case anyone wants to discuss non-fighting games.

Lately, somehow, i've been hearing a lot about Indigo Prophecy and mostly good things, so i decided to check it out. Man what a waste of time. It's an action/suspense game with an elaborate mystery story with lots of Matrix elements. Fairly interesting, but the game is totally designed for people who don't play video games. I mean, all you do is walk around, interact with inanimate objects, and choose questions/responses during conversations. Whenever there's an action scene, two sets of flashing red/yellow/blue/green lights appear on the screen and you're forced to play simon with both analog sticks. Over and over. For hours and hours.

All of the pointless things are interactive and all of the cool stuff is on autopilot. I couldn't even finish the game. I played for like 4 hours on the day i rented it, and couldn't bring myself to play it again after that.

You know, even mediocre action games give you enough tools to put together something cool. There will be a dash maneuver that you can use to cancel recovery on a slow attack, or something quick that you can use to cancel the dash so you can wavedash, or some cool option select you can use to dodge attacks. There's always something you can find that makes you feel like you're doing something advanced. But Indigo Prophecy wasn't down with any of that. Just rub up against all the walls, desks, and people in every room hoping for an interact button to pop up so that they can patronize you with painfully uninformative hints at the spooooky plot.

[Magnetro]

Not that i play a whole lot of video games outside of Street Fighter, but i figured we should have a place in case anyone wants to discuss non-fighting games.

Lately, somehow, i've been hearing a lot about Indigo Prophecy and mostly good things, so i decided to check it out. Man what a waste of time. It's an action/suspense game with an elaborate mystery story with lots of Matrix elements. Fairly interesting, but the game is totally designed for people who don't play video games. I mean, all you do is walk around, interact with inanimate objects, and choose questions/responses during conversations. Whenever there's an action scene, two sets of flashing red/yellow/blue/green lights appear on the screen and you're forced to play simon with both analog sticks. Over and over. For hours and hours.

All of the pointless things are interactive and all of the cool stuff is on autopilot. I couldn't even finish the game. I played for like 4 hours on the day i rented it, and couldn't bring myself to play it again after that.

You know, even mediocre action games give you enough tools to put together something cool. There will be a dash maneuver that you can use to cancel recovery on a slow attack, or something quick that you can use to cancel the dash so you can wavedash, or some cool option select you can use to dodge attacks. There's always something you can find that makes you feel like you're doing something advanced. But Indigo Prophecy wasn't down with any of that. Just rub up against all the walls, desks, and people in every room hoping for an interact button to pop up so that they can patronize you with painfully uninformative hints at the spooooky plot.

Gears of War. I've been playing that game at my friends house a lot since I don't own a 360. It's a really fun game. I guess it's in the third person shooter category or something since it's not like the other normal shooter games. I think it's very balanced and the only way to win versus good players is to have teamwork. If you don't have that just play Halo2 or something.

Me and my friend already did a video for that game 'cause he found some funny bugs one of them being useful. http://www.denjin-video.com/magnetro/movie.wmv

[Vega Omega]

I"m addicted to guitar hero 2. My friend just got it for christmas, and i've been over there everyday since then playing it.

[jchensor]

I'm stuck on FFXII. Yes, I'm a Final Fantasy junkie. I played so much yesterday, I spent the entire night dreaming about License boards.

- James

[desk]

dead rising, just bought myself a 360 for xmas... and I did genuinely have a nightmare about zombies yesterday...

[Maj]

Wow, i feel ripped off. I just finished all the Predator missions in Aliens vs Predator: Extinction (PS2) and there's no ending! After you win the last mission, it just goes to the standard recap screen with the options Replay, Save, and Quit. Of course there are little bits of story at the beginning of each mission but damn, at least kick down a picture and a victory quote. What the hell kind of single-player console game has no ending??

The game was hard to find too, cuz it's over three years old now and it was never popular in the first place. It's basically a Starcraft clone. Then again, you could say that Starcraft is an obvious xcopy of the AvP franchise. Aliens are obviously the inspiration for Zerg - fast, cheap, and expendable. Marines play themselves. And Predators are basically Protoss, except with a slightly different motivation. They're the expensive, self-healing, concentrated units.

This game would actually be good if it was a PC game. The character designs are awesome and the visual effects are nice. But having to use a PS2 pad instead of a mouse kills it. Only reason i played it was cuz i'm a big fan of Predator.

[laugh]

Tekken and Guitar Hero1/2 has been taking up most of my gaming time for the last month. Made my cvs2 game shitty and hell.

[fullmetalross]

I was playing that doujin game, Monster that people On srk were talking about..

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread. ... ost3591183

So I installed it at about 2:30 it's now 7:30, I've probably played for like 3 hours... and I found an infinite with the first character I decided to learn SWEET! still sort of a fun game for random matches, and the game has good damage scaling so eventually it's only doing like 1 damage per hit, and it only works in the corner, but still fun times. I love fighting games!

[ShinjiGohan]

Outside of EX projects, only other side things that I have is finishing my CigarBob like cab before Evo North, and finish up like 5 RPG games that I have waiting for me lol

[Xenozip.]

^ Monster is a fighting game.

-
Outside of fighting games I occasionally play Wipe Out XL and XG3. My brother plays Balloon Fight and 'Fire and Ice' regularly. We also both played SMT: Nocturne for a while, but nothing else really seems to hold our interests for very long these days.

[Maj]

God of War 2 demo is awesome!! It ends on such a cliffhanger. Only 17 days until the full version comes out, and i can't wait.

[Maj]

Lately i've been playing a lot of Burnout. It's surprising since i've never cared much about racing games before. Intensely life-like simulators bore me, whether it's racing or flying or operating a tank. I guess it took me a while to figure out that i enjoy arcade-style racing games. So i unlocked about two thirds of the stuff in Takedown and maybe half the content in Burnout Revenge before i got bored of them. Overall i (slightly) prefered the gameplay in Takedown, but the shortcuts in Revenge were dope.

The funny thing is that the only reason i bothered trying out Burnout 3: Takedown was cuz it looked like the most promising prospect for doing a backflip with a car for the intro of SF? Guile Exhibition (Evo2k7 Edition). Originally i was hoping to use Daytona USA, but Daytona master Shirts didn't get back to me in time (or ever).

My brother bought an Xbox360 a few days ago. I'm looking forward to Burnout Paradise. Are there any good two-player co-op games out? I've played through Marvel Ultimate Alliance on the PS2 so i don't want to repeat it on the 360. I heared the TMNT game was pretty whack. He's been playing through Assassin's Creed which is amazing in many many ways, but falls short of perfection in many others. It's definitely one of those games that could be used to make a thoroughly entertaining hijinks video.

[Xenozip.]

Monster's online scene is at a standstill, pretty much no one plays anymore. Akatsuki Blitzkampf is also at a standstill, there's only about 4 people who play it, and they only do so randomly/occasionally. And I'm done with BigBangBeat for basically ever. I gave Samurai Shodown 5sp a try for a week or two, and I could see how I would enjoy it if it had a steady and diverse scene, and if I played it for months. Sadly it doesn't have a scene and I don't have the energy to play it for very long.

So that leaves:
- IaMP
- Melty Blood

I'd like to think I still play 3S, but I only play it occasionally lately with a select few people.

[Maj]

What makes Melty Blood so popular? The fact that it came first? It doesn't seem to be anywhere near the best doujin fighter.

[Xenozip.]

What makes Melty Blood so popular? The fact that it came first? It doesn't seem to be anywhere near the best doujin fighter.

It's no longer a doujin fighter per-se. It was originally a doujin fighter that was based on a graphic novel for the PC (which iirc was based off a manga -- or perhaps the manga was based off the graphic novel too?). But anyway, the inspiration for the fighting game came from the novel-story you could "play" or "read" with various side stories and different story arcs. And then later, after the fighter gained a certain level of popularity, it was officially bought and became syndicated and released in the arcades with some heavy tweaks and new characters. The technical definition of doujin means independently-made (like an independent film without corporate sponsorship), so you can't really classify it as a doujin anymore once it became syndicated, anymore than you could classify Marvel Superheros or Jojo's Bizarre Adventure by Capcom as doujins.

It's also not the oldest. Technically EFZ came before it. Melty came before the original Akatsuki, but the first Akatsuki came out only very shortly after Melty.

As for it's popularity, it's actually mostly popular in Japan.

The US scene has been struggling *a lot* with the game's popularity (lack thereof) since it's original MeltyBlood and MeltyBlood ReAct versions for the PC. There has been some hardcore heavy support for it from the NY crew for years, including but not limited to: Zar, Sp00ky, XAQshinor, MasterChibi, and others. When it finally got syndicated and developed for the arcade and ported to console, the scene hardly budged and still struggled quite a bit in the US. For years there have been some other supporters that took apart the game and analyzed it bit by bit, and these people dedicated a lot of time into unraveling the game almost entirely. More recently, Arlieth and HeartNana have taken an interest in the game, and being that they somewhat big names in separate communities they have promoted some interest for the game. Arlieth started a new site and forum dedicated to Melty Blood specifically which helped centralize information and a community for it, and then it's been at tournaments both on the West and East coast recently. With the arrival of console and PC versions of the arcade release, players have started taking more of an interest in it very slowly since it's been popping up in random places. And now with Caster support it has become a very popular online game. The scene in the US is not yet what it could be though, the support for it is still blossoming. There has been a sequel game announced: MB:AA, which is expected to either make or break the scene as it is. If it turns out well, the scene will probably explode, and if it's not fun then the scene will likely be hurt marginally. If MB:AA turns out bad, it's not likely to be bought up by the few remaining arcades in existence and may not even receive any console ports, so that will probably disappoint some fans and hurt the scene.

So why has it struggled when it's stupidly popular in Japan? Simple answer: no arcade cabinets. There aren't many cabinets for Melty in the US as it is, so the game hardly gets any exposure except for videos and appearances at local tournaments. Basically no one even gets to "try" the game unless some one just strait hands it to them. And even when they do get to try it, the people who already play it are leaps and bounds ahead of newcomers as far as skill levels go, which can be rather disheartening/discouraging for fresh blood.

Another glaring issue is that a lot of players who pick it up seem to be really bad at actually playing it. There's really only a handful of US players that are even marginally good at it. Therefor a lot of players who take an interest in it don't get exposed to proper comp and never really improve their game. To be honest, even the absolute best US players are behind even average-skilled Japanese players.

Though, as it stands now, Melty is the most popular of it's "type" in the US. For Evo it got the most number of signups and most number of actual entries of the side-tournaments. It's also got a much larger turnout at other major and local tournaments than other games such as Arcana and sometimes bigger than Guilty. But it's still not "big" like it could be.

Why the Japanese love it is anyone's guess. Possibly because the original graphics novel was such a huge hit that the story and characters became endearing, much like how the Marvel characters hold a special place in our hearts. This could also explain why the Japanese have a large and long lasting love for IaMP, since IaMP is based on Touhou, which is extremely popular in Japan in many ways. It has been said that Melty is fairly well balanced in comparison to other fighters, and there seems to be a huge amount of room for people to grow and learn. Meaning, full mastery of the game seems to be a peak that is much higher than other games, since there's so many different and valid types of techniques and styles and strategy. Or it could just be really fun -- who knows.

However, please don't lump Guilty and Arcana in with the "doujin" games, because they are not doujin's at all. The only real doujin games that are even worth mentioning and are played are: IaMP, EFZ, Akatsuki, Monster. Of those, I can very easily and very safely say that Melty is "better" than at least three of those. Of course there will be a difference of opinion as to which one is superior to Melty depending on who you ask. But, I certainly wouldn't even bother mentioning BBB or several others since those games are dead and gone.

Honestly, I'd say it's even better than a lot of syndicated titles that I can think of. Though that's not really saying much when you consider that Jojo's and SvC were technically syndicated.

Hmmm... I suppose I didn't actually answer your question, hahaha. Then again, I could talk all day on the pros and cons of the gameplay in Melty but I don't think it'd answer your question either. :p

[Mike Z]

Contra for DS was eating me alive, along with a lot of the SoCal GG players.

Then I found Mario Galaxy. Everyone, their mother, and their mother's mother should own and play this game. It's an example of polish of the highest order, at least to me. Sacrificing everything for fun, control, and a good camera.

Mike Z

[Xenozip.]

On a side note, Melty Blood seems to be gaining popularity in Korea; CLmovie

[Maj]

Hmmm... I suppose I didn't actually answer your question, hahaha.

Haha, close enough. Yeah i've always considered Guilty Gear its own thing, but pretty much any game featuring anime'd out little girls gets lumped into the "doujin games" category. I do like some of the character designs in Melty Blood but overall the gameplay always seemed more vanilla than the more innovative ones like IaMP. Also 10-second air combos for 30% damage is lame. So uh, good luck with MB:AA not sucking.

Why hate on the Jojo's games? They might not be balanced but they make for some awesome combo videos. In my opinion any combat system that takes such a bold step deserves respect, even if it's not exactly a step forward.

[Xenozip.]

Haha, close enough. Yeah i've always considered Guilty Gear its own thing, but pretty much any game featuring anime'd out little girls gets lumped into the "doujin games" category. I do like some of the character designs in Melty Blood but overall the gameplay always seemed more vanilla than the more innovative ones like IaMP.

To me it's just really irritating for anyone to knock a game based on visual aesthetics. This is the kind of attitude that pisses off the communities who play the newer games and "underground" games. When it comes down to it, aesthetics do not effect the gameplay or the way we enjoy the game at higher levels at all. If they do then you're probably better off playing an RPG, not a fighter.

I've heard the "anime'd little girls" thing before, and it irks me when people say this and then go and play; Chun, Cammy, Sakura, Morrigan, Mai, Hibiki, Athena, Nakoruru, etc. I mean, how are Ibuki and the females in GG not anime cliches? Hell, Baiken was even modeled almost directly off an anime character. And half the cast in MvC2 are from comic books. Don't tell me it's acceptable to play characters based off American comic books but not acceptable to play characters based on Japanese comics. They all become pixel art in the end anyway.

People use to knock Guilty Gear for being too anime, and now look at it. That would be like me knocking Marvel for being too anime.

Though, that's aside from the point. Akatsuki has 4 females of 12 chars, Monster has 2 females of 8 chars, and they are both doujins. Meanwhile, Arcana is not a doujin and has an all female cast. You really need to pick a new label for the "anime girl" genre other than doujin, because the definition of doujin is "independently made", not "anime'd little girls".

But anyway, back to gameplay (I'm so sick of talking about aesthetics). It's true the game doesn't have any universal features that are particularly innovative. But at a core level, the stuff that's there, they did it right. It's the same as what we see in other games, but better or more sensible. Things like parrying and guard cancels and dodging appear in other games, but Melty's versions are designed better and make more sense. The cast is also very diverse, in that each character has a very unique style and can be played totally different than the rest of the cast, and yet it's also very balanced. They tweaked every little thing in a way that would make it logical and balanced with the rest of the cast (except like two characters). The truth is, it plays a lot better than a lot of the SNK and Capcom games I can think of. It might not be perfect, but IMO out of the vanilla garden variety games that you could choose from, Melty is the more enjoyable one of the batch.

Don't get me wrong though, there's plenty of reasons for why I don't like Melty. I could talk all day on why I dislike Melty, because I actually have a ton of reasons. But that's not what you asked. You asked why it was good, not what flaws it had, so.. meh. Normally I wouldn't defend Melty because there are better games to play, but I will defend it against shitty games because it's not nearly as bad as quite a few games I can think of.

Also 10-second air combos for 30% damage is lame.

Why hate on the Jojo's games?

Are you even serious?

What the fuck, seriously. I'm going to need clarification on these sentences before I bother responding.

[Maj]

Though, that's aside from the point. Akatsuki has 4 females of 12 chars, Monster has 2 females of 8 chars, and they are both doujins. Meanwhile, Arcana is not a doujin and has an all female cast. You really need to pick a new label for the "anime girl" genre other than doujin, because the definition of doujin is "independently made", not "anime'd little girls".

To me, "doujin games" is nothing more than a loose classification - admittedly born out of ignorance. I could probably use another term or find another definition, but this one is convenient enough since most people will know what i'm talking about. If you want to lay out a more accurate classification system for us though, that'd be cool too. All i need is an umbrella term to cover Melty, Akatsuki, Monster, Arcana, IaMP, BBB, etc. but feel free to define subcategories as well, if you like.

Also 10-second air combos for 30% damage is lame.

Why hate on the Jojo's games?

Are you even serious?

What the fuck, seriously. I'm going to need clarification on these sentences before I bother responding.

Melty Blood has a lot of air combos that do like 20% damage for the first five hits, then another 10% damage for the next fifteen hits - very boring to sit through. My ideal advanced combo length is what you typically get out of CvS2 C-Groove combos. Customs take way too long, but that's a touchy issue for another day. Basically any game that has CC's or Marvel-style air combos is going to run into combo duration issues.

If you're saying that Jojo's combos take way too long, that's really not a valid complaint because Jojo's lost the battle of competitive playability long ago. All that's left is to consider the merits of its combo system, which i consider a success. I wouldn't want every game to adopt those elements, but i'm sure glad someone tried. Believe it or not, i actually consider SFTM to be a success in this regard, though it may be the ugliest success in human history. By these criteria, SvC Chaos is a failure on two fronts - unplayable competitively and boring combo-wise. I guess i'm trying to say that Jojo's deserves more respect than SvCC.

[Xenozip.]

All i need is an umbrella term to cover Melty, Akatsuki, Monster, Arcana, IaMP, BBB, etc. but feel free to define subcategories as well, if you like.

Uhh, 3-button fighters, "3B-FG"?

Heh. I can't think of a term that would fit all of those but wouldn't also apply to some other game that isn't on that list. Even among just that list there are games that don't "fit" with the others. The only thing they have in common is the 3 normal attack buttons. This doesn't apply to GG and Samsho because they both have more than 3 normal attack strengths. Each of those games have other buttons that are used, and also command normals that qualify as another strength attack, but primarily they only have 3 normal attack buttons.

Melty Blood has a lot of air combos that do like 20% damage for the first five hits, then another 10% damage for the next fifteen hits - very boring to sit through. My ideal advanced combo length is what you typically get out of CvS2 C-Groove combos.

Heh, if you say so.

[laugh]

On a side note, Melty Blood seems to be gaining popularity in Korea; CLmovie

I was gonna read all the posts below this one before writing a reply to this, but you guys are posting fuckin essays and I couldn't wait that long.

DUDE. The arcade you see in that video is the current home for the Korean capcom players as well as the biggest arcade for GG players, KOF players, MB players, shooter players, and SoulCalibur players. You can see cvs2 is right next to the MB cabinets. I was actually there at the arcade when they shot that episode, and that's the arcade all the capcom players including myself go to almost every weekend. However, the film crew put their gear on the cvs2 cabinet and sat on the chair for the cvs2 cabinets to film it so fuck them. Moving on, the episode also features a exhibition fight between CL and one of the best Korean capcom players of all time, assistryu (guy wearing a black cap in the video). They staged that fight and told assistryu that he can't win due to the way the script was written. A-ryu is a top player in that game as well. MB has been popular in Korea ever since its PC days and it just got more popular with the arcade release.

Now you know where I train my cvs2 skills.

They're supposed to do an episode on 3s soon. We've been contacted already, but hasn't been told when to show up for the filming.

[laugh]

Ok, I've read all the posts below it now.

When it comes to the issue of the hatred on "anime girl fighters" regardless of whether it's mainstream or underground, I have a very specific but simple criteria for it.

If it's pedo stuff, I despise it. Arcana Heart is a prime example of that Japanese anime pedo shit. It's not cute and it's not aimed at girls either. It's targeted at the anime otakus (quite expectedly, the Japanese cvs2 player Otaku mainly plays Arcana Heart now days).

Also, the original graphic novel which MeltyBlood is based on is borderline hentai, which is another thing I have a problem with. Therefore, I have negative interest in playing MeltyBlood from knowing its origin, although the gameplay itself looks alright cuz the MB cabinets are right next to cvs2 and I get to watch high level play all the time. I don't prefer the style of gameplay it has but I think it's decent. On a side note, MeltyBlood's gameplay might seem similar to HNK from a quick glance, but HNK features very unique style of combos for each character unlike MeltyBlood where it's pretty much heavy hits before launch followed by bunch of multi-hitting attacks into either air grab or air super/special for vast majority of characters.

I have a general dislike for the things that Japanese girly anime otakus like (you know the animes that feature a lot of girls but aren't targeted at little girls but at otakus). I don't like the content of the these animes and games based on these types of materials, but I think the otakus that are into these things bother me just as much as the contents of the anime. I agree that the aesthetics don't stop you from enjoying high level play in a fighting game, but I do think that if the aesthetics stand for something you dislike it'll definitely affect your judgment on that game. This is why I think people always talk shit about DoA games and "anime girl fighters." In the same line of reason, this is why Marvel is acceptable because it's a cultural icon that everybody knows and likes and stands for good childhood memories for a lot of people, where as these Japanese animes and related games might stand for that guy you went to high school with who was into anime and was weird and "uncool."

These are the reasons why I don't like or hate a lot of the underground games but I'd like to try Akatsuki Blitzkampf (probably spelled it wrong) when it comes out to the arcades, because it looks like it has bizarre and interesting character designs (you can play as a freakin tank for example) akin to Groove on Fight and the gameplay doesn't look half as boring as some of the underground fighters from the few videos I've watched.

My essay is done.

[Xenozip.]

Also, the original graphic novel which MeltyBlood is based on is borderline hentai, which is another thing I have a problem with. Therefore, I have negative interest in playing MeltyBlood from knowing its origin, although the gameplay itself looks alright cuz the MB cabinets are right next to cvs2 and I get to watch high level play all the time.

My thing about this is that I can ignore the origins due to that way the game turned out.

It may have been based on something that was borderline hentai, but Melty has zero trace of that any more, it has even less fanservice than other games we play. No pantie shots from the girls with short skirts (not a single frame), the females are covered up with realistic clothing and there's barely any sign of gratuitous T&A or excessive fanservice costumes, and with the exception of maybe W.Ren the cast pretty much acts 'normal' toward each other. Even Capcom gives pantie-shots to characters like Sakura and Chun, among other things. And character's like Mai and Athena in SNK games are just blatant fanservice targeting their respective audiences. Melty Blood doesn't do that even though it could have.

So yeah, there's no trace of it at all except for maybe Ren's AD, which no one ever uses in actual play. And it can't possibly be classified as pedo JUST because it has a few little girls in it, considering there's lots of little girl characters in lots of other games. Really, there's only 3 "little girls" in Melty (one being an alternate ego of another, so technically only 2 little girls).

On a side note, MeltyBlood's gameplay might seem similar to HNK from a quick glance, but HNK features very unique style of combos for each character unlike MeltyBlood where it's pretty much heavy hits before launch followed by bunch of multi-hitting attacks into either air grab or air super/special for vast majority of characters.

Well it can seem rather dial-a-combo because almost everyone in the cast (save two characters) can do the basic dialy stuff that's basically chain>launch>airchain. But not everyone in the cast is really like that or does things like that in actual play. The cool thing about the designs for Melty is that the did add those dialy-type characters for the people who prefer that, but they also made it a point to add plenty of combos that weren't dialy at all, and characters that revolved around non-dialy combos. Of course, pretty much every character depends on ground chains. But, not every character is the same beyond that, since they added things like wallslam combos, ground slam combos, rejump combos, and ground-throw based combos, etc.

But to be fair, some people absolutely hate the chain cancel function all together. But for those who don't hate it, if you were to compare Melty and Marvel, I'd say Melty is a lot less dialy than Marvel (or at least not more dialy than Marvel).

[Maj]

Over the weekend i rented Xbox360 Burnout Paradise and got about halfway through the game (Class A License and ~30 cars unlocked) before boredom set in and i returned it. Pretty good game overall. They made a lot of good decisions, taking out all the super cheap stuff like Aftertouch and Crashbreaker takedowns as well as making street traffic much more hazardous.

More importantly they implemented a lot of subtle changes to take the game's immersiveness to the next level, which helped a lot in selling their sandbox racing model. For example a lot of cars have to be unlocked by finding them and shutting them down on the roads of the city after you've completed a predetermined number of events. After you smash 'em up, they appear in your junkyard in dismal shape. You have to run them through an Auto Repair station, which then enables you to change their colors by driving through a Paint Shop. The whole experience feels continuous/seamless and you don't really have to deal with GUI menus or options very often.

That said, i still found the core racing in Burnout Revenge much more focused and exciting. Driving through Paradise City often feels like crawling through a concrete jungle. You can't really drive at top speed because you're too concerned about making a wrong turn onto a bridge heading in the opposite direction. In most of my race attempts, i actually kept one or two computer opponents ahead of me for as long as possible simply to stay on track. Then i'd step on it once the finish line was in sight. It worked way better than trying to navigate six-way intersections on my own, using the tiny minimap. This sandbox thing is awesome for events like Road Rage, Marked Man, and Stunt Run but it's terrible for pure racing - unless of course you've memorized the city layout which would take me weeks, especially since there's no automatic option to restart/repeat an event. To eliminate loading time, you simply end up wherever the race ends so you'd have to manually drive all the way back to the starting point of that particular event.

There's definitely potential to make an awesome stunt video for this game though. Usually when you run into an obstacle on the road, the game puts you in "you've crashed" mode and you lose control of your car while it flips around in the air. Even if it lands on its wheels facing forward, it's still considered a wreck and you still have to wait until you're placed back on the road. However, when you perform a takedown on another car, the camera turns to show your victim's crash for a good 3+ seconds before you can get back to racing. During this time you have no control of your car, even though you usually end up going the right way cuz the AI steers for you or whatever.

More importantly, performing a takedown renders your car invincible for that entire period plus a second or two after you've regained control of your car. So what you can do is slam an opponent into oncoming traffic and immediately pull your car to the center of the road. You'll get the takedown then you'll slam into a center divider or something, and get launched into some crazy air spin which would normally get you wrecked if not for post-takedown invincibility. This has happened to me two or three times and it looks pretty awesome when you're going at top speed. I'd love to see a video built around this phenomenon but i hella don't have time to put it together myself.

One time, i performed a takedown while my car was pointed at a Drive-Through Location (a Gas Station, i think). Camera switched over to show the opponent getting smashed up, then switched back to my car which had crashed into something and was flying through the air, getting wrecked. So i guess in the world of Burnout Paradise, roll-canceling through gas stations is not allowed.

[Maj]

Rented The Darkness (Xbox360), played it for three hours and returned it. It's basically a first-person shooter with some control over a surprisingly diverse array of demonic powers. But i didn't know it was gonna be FPS and i'm still not a fan of that genre. Either way, i only wanted to sample the game since i heard good things about it.

I realized that i really dig the Achievements system on the 360 cuz it gives you something to reach for besides beating the game. Once i got bored of the missions, i checked to see how many achievements i'd unlocked and found a couple more that i could wrap up in under an hour. Ended up with like seven for that game and i can say i had fun getting there. Sometimes when you run out of time/desire to finish a game, having played through the first three levels can seem like a waste, but achievements help negate that notion.

[Maj]

Has anyone tried God Hand? Took me three or four days to finish and i gotta say, it was awesome!

They made some unusual choices with respect to camera positioning and enemy targetting, but it's not much of a bother once you get used to it. The combat system is robust and there are a ton of fighting techniques to choose from. It's absolutely amazing how many secret attacks they included. I've never seen a game so full of personality. Even though some of the content was kind of disturbing, i love the fact that they went for it without reservation.

Two things i wanna mention. First, the game has a brilliant dynamic difficulty system. One of the GUI gauges tracks player skill by filling up every time you do something right. Getting hit brings it down a lot though. As you own fools up while progressing through the stage, the gauge levels up to lvl1, lvl2, lvl3, and lvl Die. Instead of making you stronger, this actually makes the enemies much tougher in terms of damage and AI ruthlessness. At the end of the stage you get money bonuses based on the number of enemies you killed - 100G for enemies you killed while at lvl1, 150G for lvl2, 200G for lvl3, and 300G for lvl Die. Really smart way of keeping things challenging while granting players limited control. On Hard difficulty, it's basically the same game except that meter is permanently stuck on lvl Die.

Second, there's a cutscene before the Stage 1-2 where Olivia the cute sidekick girl puts a "Kick Me" Sign on Gene's back. It's still there when you start the level and it blows away as soon as you use any super move. If you actually complete the entire game with the sign on your back, you're rewarded with some extra music for the in-game jukebox. I can't imagine myself going through all that trouble, but i absolutely love the way they implemented this.

It's too bad that video game reviewers missed the boat on this one (as usual/expected). I'd pay full price for a sequel.

[Xenozip.]

Everyone seems to be playing Etrian Odyssey 2 right now.

[fullmetalross]

Has anyone tried God Hand? Took me three or four days to finish and i gotta say, it was awesome!

They made some unusual choices with respect to camera positioning and enemy targetting, but it's not much of a bother once you get used to it. The combat system is robust and there are a ton of fighting techniques to choose from. It's absolutely amazing how many secret attacks they included. I've never seen a game so full of personality. Even though some of the content was kind of disturbing, i love the fact that they went for it without reservation.

Two things i wanna mention. First, the game has a brilliant dynamic difficulty system. One of the GUI gauges tracks player skill by filling up every time you do something right. Getting hit brings it down a lot though. As you own fools up while progressing through the stage, the gauge levels up to lvl1, lvl2, lvl3, and lvl Die. Instead of making you stronger, this actually makes the enemies much tougher in terms of damage and AI ruthlessness. At the end of the stage you get money bonuses based on the number of enemies you killed - 100G for enemies you killed while at lvl1, 150G for lvl2, 200G for lvl3, and 300G for lvl Die. Really smart way of keeping things challenging while granting players limited control. On Hard difficulty, it's basically the same game except that meter is permanently stuck on lvl Die.

Second, there's a cutscene before the Stage 1-2 where Olivia the cute sidekick girl puts a "Kick Me" Sign on Gene's back. It's still there when you start the level and it blows away as soon as you use any super move. If you actually complete the entire game with the sign on your back, you're rewarded with some extra music for the in-game jukebox. I can't imagine myself going through all that trouble, but i absolutely love the way they implemented this.

It's too bad that video game reviewers missed the boat on this one (as usual/expected). I'd pay full price for a sequel.

Loved it and beat it. Too bad the combo system has a few things that breaks its own rules. As well as the funny locking infintie. And the DP infinite that works early in the game. But still this game is tons of fun. Especially from a combo sense. OHhh man I found some crazy combo in the fight against the devil hand guy that did tons of damage. It was something like while activated do a quick stun. to side kick, to super punch, dodge left, super punch, dodge, right super punch... repeat until out of godhand, if you did it right you'd finish right when they are stunned still and then you can tack on extra damage with the mash move.

[Dark_Chaotix]

Godhand is a quality game. I was going to make a combo vid on that but decided not to cos of same factors that was stopping me. Its better when you get the other techniques after you clock it the first time. I havent touched it in a while but yeah definitly a fun game. I was hoping Gene or Azel be added to the new 2 on 2 fighter by capcom.