But, all things aside I finished in the top 20 (tied 17th) which is not bad at all. My other two highest finishes were when I placed 4th at NJIT, and 3rd at an admittedly low-turnout King of the Couch in Morristown. I can confidently say that my play has improved from last year. I don’t wake up unsafely as much I used to. I still have my issues with defense (I get grabbed easily and my blocking isn’t fully solid yet) however I have gotten better at avoiding some situations. On the other side of the coin, my offense has experienced the same growth. I am trying to make the transition from being a brawler to a more refined fighter. Yes, it’s a slow one with no real metric in which to measure your success, but I’ve noticed I have been winning a bit more in ranked matches online.

I finally made a return to Next Level for the big Two tournament series. I get there, I’m excited to play, but then, just my luck, I get to play a Spam ‘Rog and his cheap El Fuerte on stream . Overall, I didn’t do too bad, but I see that the potential here. I looked way better here than I did at Apex, but I’m still too inconsistent. I missed a few key punishes but I reacted well in some situations. If you’re wondering how I did in the overall tournament, I was blown up I haven’t gone 0-2 in a while so it was refreshing to be put down for once. That means I still have work to do, but just where do I get started?

Fortunately for me, Shoryuken has many posts on how to level up your game. I have been following them when I am in the lab, however I’ve just been playing online more to see what people are doing and get a feel of what I should be doing with my character. I just don’t feel that I have enough experience versus some characters or situations. Top players have been in some fight situations over and over again, and they just know what to do without wasting time to think about it. Me? I have to think. I’m also not able to accurately manage my meters without looking constantly. I still find myself peeking when I’m mid fight. I feel that if I can get better, more intuitive with my H.U.D. management then I can do things like make better reads on my opponent by looking at his life bar, super meter or even time with ease. I’ll also be able to mentally access my situations a bit better. I think the only cure for that is experience, so I have resolved to try and make it out to more local tournaments.

I think with more practice, I’ll build up the muscle memory required to not drop combos too often. I’ve made some progress, I just need to work out the kinks. I do not easily spook under pressure, it doesn’t affect me much, so I know that isn’t the problem. I however need to be able to take my comfortable, casual state of high-level play to tournaments. The transition seems to be giving me a hard time and I think that leads to my erratic play sometimes. I’ll keep working at it!

In any case, like always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on getting better. Tweet to me guys!

“The Bandwagon Effect is a well documented form of groupthink in behavioral science and has many applications. The general rule is that conduct or beliefs spread among people, as fads and trends clearly do, with “the probability of any individual adopting it increasing with the proportion who have already done so”.As more people come to believe in something, others also “hop on the bandwagon” regardless of the underlying evidence. The tendency to follow the actions or beliefs of others can occur because individuals directly prefer to conform, or because individuals derive information from others. Both explanations have been used for evidence of conformity in psychological experiments. For example, social pressure has been used to explain Asch’s conformity experiments, and information has been used to explain Sherif’s autokinetic experiment.

When individuals make rational choices based on the information they receive from others, economists have proposed that information cascades can quickly form in which people decide to ignore their personal information signals and follow the behavior of others. Cascades explain why behavior is fragile—people understand that they are based on very limited information. As a result, fads form easily but are also easily dislodged. Such informational effects have been used to explain political bandwagons.”

Thanks Wikipedia <3

Note the first sign.

We’ve all seen this in action so many times before. When a team catches a hot streak at the right time everyone suddenly a fan of said team. Stadiums are full and once cheap tickets are now super expensive. If you want to see it in everyday life look at all the ‘new’ Yankees or Giants fans (sorry, I’ve never been a big football guy, but I did like the Chargers in the Junior Seau days) that pop up whenever the team is competing for the c’hip (or championship). For the purposes of this article, I’ll use three really good examples: The Miami Heat once they signed Chris Bosh and Lebron, The L.A. Clippers once they got Chris Paul and Chauncey Billups and the Golden State Warriors when they made that incredible play off run that produced highlights such as this.

After that dunk, Warriors tickets became the new thing for everyone. The Clippers are currently going through the same thing. This phenomenon is not just limited to sports, or politics, it also extends into the gaming world. Allow me to give you some background before I rage the hell out.

In fighting games picking a character is a much like picking a tool box. There are different tools in each of them for different situations, but they all serve the purpose of winning the match for your character. In most competitive games (especially fighters) people tend to pick their characters, teams, weapons, etc in usually one of three ways.

The first type of player picks by character loyalty. This means they simply like the character design so much that they play as that fighter/race/whatever for that reason alone. These people will usually use the same character over the course of multiple installments of a game. It’s like those die hard sports fans who like their team even if they’re horrible or someone who likes a band that everyone thinks is terrible. The second type of people pick their character based on whether the character-in-question’s play style fits in with their current skill level. For example, in my early Street Fighter IV days, starting off with a complex character like C.Viper wasn’t a good idea because at the time I didn’t have the execution required to play her effectively. This skill-based approach to choosing also leads them to experiment with other characters after they get to a certain level of proficiency with their main character. The third and final type are the people who pick characters because they are easier to win with, or ‘high tier’ ones, meaning they have attributes that outrank a considerable number of characters in the roster. While this may seem shameless, it is in fact a valid strategy. In the end, the game is about winning, so you pick whoever gives you the best chance of winning.

Teaching them early, huh pal?

With that said, you’d think things would be pretty cut and dry, right? No, they aren’t. In fact, there is a fourth shadow group no one wants to admit they are a part of. The assholes are called the bandwagoners. These are the people who I despise the most. “But Phire”, you ask, “Why all the hate towards the bandwagon?” Simply put, for the fact that these are the same people who, to use a fighter as an example, will talk about how bad your character is, how weak/low-tier they are and how you need to switch them. However, if something changes or new tech is found, they’ll jump on that character too and talk about how good they are with everyone else. Of course, if you confront them, they will deny they ever said anything negative about them and claim that they had “played them before”. Come on. It’s like they just saw the ugly girl from High School hit her stride, become hot and they’re the first in line, claiming they always had a crush on her.

No one was there for these days in Vanilla 4 or Super Turbo.

Why am I bringing this up now? Well since I started playing the SFIV series I’ve watched my Cammy develop from an ’0-2 and out’ champion to something actually kind of dangerous. With the new 2012 patch, Cammy is no longer nerfed to hell. I remember in the original Arcade Edition when they took her dive kick I was about to commit seppuku and find a new main (had my mind set on Yun at the time) but I decided to stick it out with her, and my patience paid off becuase now, I like the way she plays. But now I’m seeing Cammy players popping up EVERYWHERE claiming to have a good one, which 90% of the time they really don’t. They lose to characters that they should be beating, and when fighting against Cammy they lose horribly. Playing online, I tend to win the mirror matches because 80% of the time I know what I’m looking for, what to watch out for, I’m not doing anything stupid, because I know how she works. This is the main problem with bandwagoners, because they really don’t understand the character they’re choosing. They will see videos, or watch some matches and say “Oh man that’s so cheap, I want to do that too!”. So they practice that set of moves, go out to try, then lose to high level players who know their bandwagon character is fraudulent or they lose via being counter-picked because they have NO match up experience.

Even he wasn't safe from Bandwagon fans after death.

Having beaten several ‘Cammy’ players far worse than I should have, in situations that wouldn’t have happened (like misjudging her drill distance) if these people actually knew her well enough to call their play style ‘unique’(which most bandwagoners do by default) we wouldn’t have this problem. I personally feel that people should just pick either what they like, or what they are most comfortable with and just play the game. I think it would make for a better game overall because we’d have more diversity rather than cookie cutter clones of a particular character and play style. Newsflash: This ultimately serves you and the community no purpose, because you aren’t choosing a character you’re invested in, you’re just trending. However, this may be part of a larger problem as a whole with players who aren’t willing to do any work to win popping up in large numbers. I’ll examine that next time.

All rumors and speculation have been put to rest with the recent release of the Resident Evil 6 trailer. Set for release November 20th, Capcom’s famous survival horror series has the Internet abuzz yet again with this intense showing of it’s ever revolving storyline and easily the best visuals the series has ever seen.

One thing for sure is this, aside from amazing visuals that don’t seem to suffer in actual game play, the fact that we are seemingly dealing with ACTUAL zombies once again is a huge relief. Current generation Resident Evil games (4-5), while good and I take nothing away from them as an enjoyable experience, have seemed to suffer from some serious identity loss issues over the years and forgetting the true zombie atmosphere origins. Shifting from Survival Horror, in a strong fashion which made the series so popular in the 90′s, each installment has slowly curved towards that of an action series featuring the RE cast more than anything else. Looking at this reveal, Capcom seems to have quite possibly found the perfect mix of the two and one can only hope that the initial scare factor of the series will also make it’s return alongside the zombie hordes in scattered areas of the game.

Leon has been faced with some rather harsh decisions to be made, including shooting the infected president in the head, while Chris is seen dealing with similar viral problems over seas and doing battle in China. With Wesker out of the picture, (or not) his dream of global saturation doesn’t seem to far off considering the massive scale of infection that the RE universe has never experienced before until now. A new layer of melee combat is displayed heavily in a majority of the scenes along with an expansion on gun play similar to what we’ve been seeing in Operation Raccoon City. The two teams could quite possibly be taking notes from one another to create a Resident Evil experience that’s enjoyable to all audiences of series, old or new.

We will have to wait no doubt until E3 to sink our teeth into anything more awesome than the reveal. One of the main questions being, who else will make their return into this intertwined story. Ashley can be seen roughly around the last 60 seconds along side of a new character who seem to have a blood type that agrees with one of Umbrella’s past or current virus strands and seemingly grant him heightened combat abilities similar to how it effected Wesker. Maybe Sherri will find her way back into the story as well, considering she holds immunity to the G-Virus strand. Chocolate Lemon will be sure to keep you up to date with any and all questions, theories and rumors surrounding whats sure to be one of this Fall’s biggest  blockbuster gaming titles.

Playing In EVO 2k11

Sexy photo of me talking

This was pretty awesome because I got to hang out with the super big wigs of the Fighting Game Community (FGC), talk shit and press some buttons. As for how I did? I did okay and want to do better next year. It was amazing to have so many people who are passionate about the same sort of things in one area, and as a competitor I really enjoyed putting my skills against them. In the end, it was bitter sweet because when I got back to the city, I lost my best friend and long time companion Sheena (Greatest Dog Ever). Luckily I had some really amazing people around me during this time and I got to make it through.

Playing In Japan

Apprujack

What a difference a year makes! I didn’t go to japan In 2010 and instead spent the year working and grinding out stuff stateside. So when I finally traveled to Japan and had a chance to take my Cammy to the arcades I was super excited. Surprisingly, I fared way better than I ever thought I would and the experience gave me more confidence going into EVO. As the late Josh “SK” Colon put it when viewing my skills, I built some momentum and I should try to sustain that. After all, I still have my arcade card and I’m ready to hit 10k BP in Japan with Cammy. Overall, It was a great experience to be in another part of Japan, and Osaka is a great city to visit.

PAX East

Took the team up to Boston! This was earlier in the year so my skills weren’t really up to snuff, but looking back at it, I realize I grew a lot as player in a short amount of time. The matches I lost, I probably would have won if the Phire I am now were sent back in time to play. Also, I was able to meet everyone from the industry that I know and it was a pretty awesome experience seeing them again and then some. Not to mention, it was a birthday gift for Sol Lekz as well so he was excited the whole weekend. This is probably my favorite trade show of the year, mainly because it doesn’t feel like a trade show.

Eric the Intern’s Beard

It is so soft and conditioned. It is probably the best beard we will ever have on staff. As it currently stands it is the only beard we have that’s on staff. I’m trying to convince Eric to grow it out more and put action figures in it like baby birds hiding in a nest or some sort of death mountain playset. Will he ever do it? Who knows?

2012 patch in Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition

Cammy players are usually in this position when it comes to the nerf hammer

This has been the first version of the the Street Fighter IV series where Cammy didn’t lose anything but actually got something back. I was so sad when she lost her instant dive kick from Super to Arcade Edition that I think I’ve called the waambulence a few times but ultimately, I ended up sticking it out and I’m happy with the results. I may pick up an alternate characterin the future, but right now I’m happy.

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 being better and more polished than the vanilla version

Not only do I actually like the game a bit more now, but I am making an honest effort to learn how to play it too. The 12 new characters were a welcome refresher from what originally was offered up and they fixed some game systems I felt really needed work in the original. Some stuff still needs to be patched yes but for the most part it’s a better experience.

Actually getting two episodes done!

We were trying to get 4 out but life happens so we’ll try out best to get the 3rd out before the end of the world. But I definetly see that we can improve and our starting point isn’t too shabby

You.

Yes you reading this. None of this is possible without you reading, watching and generally not ignoring our existence. Yeah we’re not perfect, but we’re pretty damn cool nonetheless ;P . But seriously, sometimes it feels like no one is reading but when I check the site stats, I find you guys are. Thank you and I appreciate each and everyone of you

That’s been my 2011..So how was yours? tweet me yo!

Welcome to the breakdown of the latest Character Trailer which not only displays a bunch of new faces, some we expected but didn’t anticipate them ever being playable, as well as mention the all new game play mode ‘Heroes Mode Multi-player’.

Heroes Mode will be a 4v4 formatted adversarial mode featuring the classic cast of heroes and villains that were present during the Resident Evil 2 & 3 time lines. Similar to the Death-match modes of RE:5, players will have to multi-task their objectives of eliminating the other team by any means necessary while simultaneously staying alive during the viral zombie outbreak.

Some notable changes were made in terms of character design. Some well received due to some characters looking for the most part remaining unchanged while others were more ill received due to some unwanted face lifts. However, players should keep in mind that the timeline the game is set in is technically well near 20 years ago graphically, all of our beloved characters’ models debut on the Playstation all looked pretty young back then. Outside of cosmetics, if the starting campaign roster can be held as any indication as to player behavior, we can expect the line-up in Heroes Mode to also have character unique abilities and buffs that set each apart. Since no official word has been dropped as of yet, lets just take a few jabs at what can be seen from the trailer.

Leon S. Kennedy – For the most part remains unchanged from his Resident Evil 2 model outside of the obvious graphical updates. Leon seems to be the more balanced and well rounded player, we see him doing a little bit of everything without seeming over powered in one area over the next. Unique abilities must revolve around a team leader setting as he clearly is the most vocal of the bunch.

Claire Redfield – She hasn’t seen much action in the RE universe since Code Veronica X so her model is mostly unchanged. She seems to hold a bit more ‘capable’ and hardened persona compared to her RE2 counterparts, such is reflected in her small bio & weaponry reflects this. A good guess would be more of a support character role, specializing in buffed first aid spray and support type weaponry.

Carlos Oliveira – Carlos’ appearance hangs tight on the fact that he is likely the most equip for the outbreak in the group. He’s clearly got on a bit more mass to help a possible ‘tank’ persona and game play style and his weaponry doesn’t suggest anything other than that. His buffs and abilities could quite easily lie within heavy weapons and high damage output. Possibly extra grenade slots and more fluid control over the bigger guns for the more threatening B.O.W.s.

Jill Valentine – Easily the most notably changed character on the roster, Jill seems rather young compared to…well… any other previous models of herself. She surely doesn’t seem a day past 17 so this will easily be a large hit or miss with her fans. Jill seems to be highly capable with side-arms as well as CQC and dodging abilities, making her strengths seemingly focused around an agility theme.

Hunk – Not much change here, but that’s definitely not a bad thing, Hunks suit has always been bad ass from the start so a graphical update just makes it even more sweet. Of course we aren’t looking at the suit here though, it’s the disappearing act of the suit that’s caught our eye. Mr. Death seems to be part of a highly unique Stealth class which no doubt will make him even more of a fan favorite once again. His appearance is short but we can note that he might have some rather brutal CQC kills to compliment his shadow lurking. How effective that will be in these unstable environments will have to be seen when he gets more screen time.

Nicholai Ginovaef – Probably the one, if not the only, character not many of us remember. Nicholai was the backstabber from RE3:Nemesis, player decisions determined his fate on several occasions but mainly in the later portion of the game. We can note two things here, sniper rifle usage as well as equipment such as explosive traps. Nicholai looks to be the gadgeteer, possibly best at setting up defensive perimeters and fortifications against the infected.

Lone Wolf – A debut character. Lone Wolf’s bio suggests that he his most effect with firearms and tactical combat which put him in the range of a balance type character. However his appearance of a thermal suit mixed with flak jacket and multiple sightings of flame based ammunition suggests that his specialties might be more heavily focused in eradication of zombies as well as a serious threat to human hostiles.

Ada Wong – Ada definitely seems a little more Americanized each time we see her. Not much can be gathered from her, having I believe the smallest clip out of everyone. Based on the little given, she looks to be best suited with small arms and sub machine guns and similar to Jill in terms of speed and agility. A small guess could be made that one of her starting items could be the serum to the T-Virus upon infection, which we see her administer to herself during a break in combat. If that guess it right, she is perfect for supporting roles in the thick of battles against the infected.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is scheduled for a release in March, 20th 2012.

Here are the five worst characters to have on your tail as a video game villain. NO THE GODDAMNED BATMAN IS NOT ON THIS LIST, HE IS A COMIC BOOK CHARACTER WITH A VIDEO GAME.

5) Sonic the Hedgehog/Link

At number 5 it’s a tie between Sonic and Link. Sonic is a hedgehog with super speed that can destroy most object by simplify JUMPING OR ROLLING into them. You build this amazing robot death machine only to have a blue hedgehog jump and roll it to death. To make matters even worse he can become a super hedgehog capable of destroying things just by touching them and he can breathe in space. They only thing that could stop this hedgehog is not having any rings (which the world seems to have an abundant supply of), drowning him (but you’d have to make sure there’s no cracks so air can leak or or have a completely underwater fortress and risk drowning yourself if Sonic does come through and beats the snot of out of your base),trying to crush him or trying to get him to fall into a pit(both of which are completely random). And no matter what you’re planning to do Sonic will always find out and show up pissed about it.

Link is equally annoying. Think about this you have this amazing power from the Triforce, you’re immortal and you are overall bad ass. Then all of a sudden a kid in a green tunic shows up and ruins everything. The most screwed up part about it? It’s a different kid almost every time. So you’re immortal and doomed to having a kid in a green tunic just tear you up all because it’s a tradition to give every kid a green tunic at a certain time. Why don’t you just kill off all the children in every village? Then you won’t have anyone to rule over. Catch 22.

4) Ryu

So you are holding a fighting tournament to try and find a new body for yourself? You’re an inter-dimensional being that just happened to be threatening two worlds at once? Are you the most brutal Muay Thai fighter ever and have no challengers? Well it sucks to be you because Ryu is probably going to show up and punch you in the face. Even if you’re just a regular fighter he’s still just going to punch you in the face. The man wanders the world LOOKING FOR FIGHTS barefoot no less. He has fought everything from aliens and giant robots to super heroes and demons. What makes it even worse is that in the chance you actually may be winning, he’ll tap into some hidden energy reserves and go evil making him even more dangerous. His moves are always so basic but they are insanely strong. Now that he has the Soul-Glo in Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 this makes him that much more powerful.

3) Megaman

He doesn’t look like much. He looks like he’d be at home in a toy chest.If you are a robot that’s gone evil or renegade, then he’s the worse thing ever. Not only does he keep coming back if you defeat him. He has probably killed your allies and took their abilities to use on you or he is going to kill you and use your ability to kill your allies. What makes him creepy is that he always shows up without saying a word and just stares and blinks at you,later in the series he talks but for a few years he was a silent killer. And to think all this started because two old guys had problems with each other.

2) Snake

This includes the original Snake the one that the current Snake is cloned from. This man is a combination of spy, special operations soldier and mercenary commando from a black operations and espionage unit. He is tasked with disarming and destroying the latest incarnation of Metal Gear which is usually a bipedal nuclear weapon-armed mecha which is another word for giant robot. Usually Snake has to deal with people with ridiculous powers or armed with incredible skills to do so. You know he’s out there. You’re doing something that ridiculous you know that he’s going to be there and he’s not coming to negotiate anything with you, ever. While you’re trying to get your plan to completion, he’s either killing your allies or hes tranquilizing them and taking pictures of them in compromising positions, who knows what else he’s doing to them. You know what that’s going to be your fate too. This man has taken down so many organizations, robots, people in robots, ninja robots, vampires, ghosts, etc. that anything you can come up with he’s ready for. How do you stop a man like that? You don’t, you just pray that he kills you.

1) Belmonts

At the top of this list sits one family, the Belmonts. If you’re a citizen of the night this name strikes terror into your heart. If you’re a vampire and have a castle it’s even worse. These asshoels will show up at your front door, destroy everything in your house, steal your treasure and money, kill your tenants, find you in your panic room, beat the hell out of you and then sink your castle or destroy it. They ALWAYS show up and they more than likely will bring a friend or two. There’s really no way to get rid of them and they will always lecture you on morals and why what you’re doing is wrong. What if you’re not a creature of the night but have a castle? All it would take is one rumor from the towns folk and you’ll have them sniffing around in no time. I don’t think they even ask questions they just whip the hell out of everything and leave. And to top it all off they WILL be prettier than you with better hair and look cooler (in some cases) than you ever will.

What’s your top 5 ? I’d love to hear it tweet it to me or post on the Facebook!

I got 9th place out of 27 people. It’s not bad considering I just started playing this game a bit more serious. Some of the things I’ve noticed is that I tend to drop combos. Talking to Megaman Steve he told me that I should practice combos in different situations such as training dummy crouching and jumping since the hit scaling is different from the standing states. I’ve been doing vs crouching opponents in AE but not Marvel. I feel that Marvel while combos are easier there’s way more memorization and muscle memory involved because things can drastically in a combo all based on what you do to start off the combo. In the tournament I was sent to losers by an 8-bit Dojo regular, Baydo. I did ok in losers but I dropped crucial combos with every member of my team at different points. Eventually I would have had to fight Baydo again in losers if I wasn’t such a scrub.
I think he probably would have beat me again seeing the fact as if he looked like a man possessed when he took third place.

In AE there were 32 fighters and I took 4th. Not bad for my first time out of the dojo in a while. There was obviously some rust and some combos dropped abut I did my best and played solid. I didn’t do too much crazy stuff but I did do unsafe things. I fought bad match ups all day such as Guile, E.Honda and Balrog. I had to be moved away from Sol Lekz in the second round though. I ended up playing a pad Blanka with a throw macro, while not illegal it’s sort of silly and generally frowned upon because it removes some of the actual skill involved, and lost (later the dojo told me what I needed to do to win against this). I fought well in losers and I avenged my PAX demon by defeating a Chun Li when I need to. I did pretty well till I ran into Chad Viper, who defeated me with his alternate character Ryu. To be fair Ryu is a 50/50 match up due to the fact that he’s so balanced you’re going to have to out play him to win. I should have won that match up because Ryu is the most common character you see online, so at this point I should know what the situation was. The match between us is going to be available sometime on the net.

Looking back at the match I could have done so many things differently. Part of that I’m sure was tournament nerves, the other part of my loss was execution. I had Sol Lekz in my corner coaching me not so much on the game but to keep my focused at the task at hand and not let me get too wild with the things I do. He even gave me a shout out on his facebook.

“As we progress, I continue to realize that Phire is no where near the “old man” status that he claims. He has the ability to absorb knowledge as well as execute. Coaching him is fun because as a player, although not as experienced in fighters but has coached a lot in FPS, knows what needs to be done but lacks the execution to do so. As to where Phire simply forgets at times but when you stay on top of him, he stays on top of the game as a whole.”

What’s next I’m going to try my hand at Savage Saturday this weekend and then Apex next month. I have to get ready for EVO 2k12 and do better than I did. I also have to run more 8-bit tournaments because I know you miss us.

Want to spar or tell me how free I am tweet it and expose me as a fraud.

—___—___—

Eric The Intern

When the original version of Marvel vs Capcom 3 came out, I was more than excited to have a roster of 36 characters (38 if you paid for the two DLC characters Shuma Gorath and Jill Valintine), many of whom were characters that I’d been reading in comics for the past 20 years. Now granted, this was a step down from Marvel vs Capcom 2 that had a total of 56 playable characters, but the addition of the 12 new characters in Ultimate add an array of possibilities to team creation over the previous version of Marvel vs Capcom 3 and each character is unique in their play style and a very much needed to even out the game.

Some of the changes to the cast can be hard to tell in some characters as the changes are more visible in the way their moves and combos need to be executed. In other characters, it is blatantly obvious from their move speed to the addition of new attacks like Spencer’s air Armor Piercer and Crimson Viper’s Viper Beam. The changes to X-Factor from the original version to Ultimate become visible once you get into level 2 and above. The speed increase in level 3 is close to uncontrollable at first. You’ll definitely have to adjust your play style and your combos once you get to that level. I personally stayed with the same few characters I spent my hours and days learning and playing in the original game so I can’t really comment on how all the characters have changed or if they are completely unplayable from the first, but the one thing I can comment on is that there will be a need for an adjustment period.

Again, as someone who has been a comic book reader for 20+ years now, and someone who has followed Capcom games for some time now, I can tell you that without a doubt that’s the fan service is so absurdly amazing. Each color variant for the Marvel cast has a tie to another costume they have worn at one point in time in their history or the color is a reflection of an alternate version of the character (Dark Avengers Iron Patriot or Age of X Captain America). On the Capcom side, they’ve given variants that reflect their early origins or color schemes based off of another character(s) in game appearance. The attention to detail is definitely above and beyond anything I expected it to be.

The extra levels are actually a very welcome addition. After many hours of playing Marvel vs Capcom 3, I was tired of playing the same 3 levels over and over and over again. Although several of the new Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom levels are redux versions of original Marvel vs Capcom 3 stages, they are in my opinion, beautifully redone. The new Days of Future Past level has officially become my level of choice due to the ominous sentinels watching you fight and waiting for you to finish so they can hunt you down.

The achievements, if you care for that sort of thing, are heavily based off of online play now. In the original game, you had maybe 3 or 4 Xbox Live based achievement that were fairly easy to obtain (win 5 games in a row, play in any mode online, etc.). Now some of them involve playing 100/200/300 matches, getting 500,000 PP, and playing online for a total of 10/20/30 hours. They’re obviously trying to get players more involved in the online aspect of the game. I’ve only played a few matches online but from what I could tell, there was a vast improvement over the original version. Matches were joined quickly, I could see the connection of the other player and the greatest feature of all, being able to watch actual matches being played each out while in a lobby. No more watching two cards hump each other for a few minutes while you wait.

There also seems to be a lot of talk about the Ultimate version of Marvel vs Capcom 3 not offering enough in regards to modes but I think the game offers more than enough in regards to playable modes. I mean, it’s a fighting game. Aren’t you going to spend most of your time playing your friends or other people online? Capcom has offered an array of modes for you to choose from: arcade mode for classic play, training mode to practice your timing and moves, mission mode to learn basic and extended combos, Galactus mode for shits and giggles, and heroes and heralds which offers a completely new ways to play the game (yes I know its not officially out yet). I personally haven’t tried Galactus mode yet, but it looks like something that’ll be short fun since you can’t play this mode over live and honestly how many times are you going to pound on the computer as Galactus?

Conclusion: I know for the past few months, people have been complaining about the fact that the game is nothing more than an over priced character/map pack add-on, but I’d like to say other wise. I honestly think that Capcom has given us a complete package that has addressed most, if not all, of the issues people had with the original version of Marvel vs Capcom 3. The new characters, colors, costumes, stages and balances made to the majority of the cast definitely make this worth the $40.00 price tag. And please, the game isn’t meant for the story so stop complaining that there’s nothing once you beat the game. It’s a nice addition to have some sort of sense of achievement when you beat the arcade, but the true aspect of the game is to play other people.

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Jason V.

While Marvel vs Capcom 3 did have plenty of thrilling moments, both single player and especially multiplayer, there were the usual off balance characters and situations that soured my appreciation more than it should have. Not to mention the fact that there was a distinct lack of modes and other distractions that have become a staple within the fighting game franchise. If you had people to play with on a constant basis, the lack of modes and sometimes the unbalanced characters wouldn’t be such an issue, but as a lone wolf, the lack of substance was disappointing. Barely nine months later Capcom releases Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, with a dozen new characters, more game modes, “balancing” and more.  While the more things change, the more they stay the same, and that’s not really a positive thing for Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3.

What I like:

The twelve new characters introduced to this third and a half installment range from completely original to the franchise in their mechanics, to familiar feelings with a few kinks thrown in. Most of these characters feel like D-list franchise combatants (about as many people wondering who the hell Rocket Raccoon was, asked the same thing about Shuma Gorath years ago in Marvel Superheroes) though the once thought implausible way some of these characters were thought of in this franchise (Phoenix Wright) fit in rather well, with a steep learning curve involved. It feels like each character belongs, from the photojournalist Frank West, to the mystical master himself, Dr. Strange. Even with a few notable characters missing (Juggernaut, obviously Mega Man) the ones included are fresh concepts with distinct play styles.

What I am mixed about:

Everything else with Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 has a mixed feeling of “meh” and “huh?” to it. I believe every single new background is a lazy retread of the ones found from the previous title, with either minor or moderate cosmetic tweaks. The Ghost ‘n Goblins themed alternate background is probably one of the most wicked backgrounds in a fighting game, but again, it’s similar to what we’ve seen before, only with a black and white filter, with a thunderstorm going on. The Days of the Future Past stage was well done as well, mimicking the X-Men comic cover from years ago, only replacing dead, missing or captured mutants on the poster with previous Marvel vs Capcom characters (thank you for rubbing it in about Mega Man not being captured or killed, Capcom.) It’s Metro City with a changed up look though, but I’m sure you all get where I’m going with this. The extra stages are appreciated to break up the monotony, but they are still monotonous in any case.

Many of the balance issues were adjusted in some form or another. Phoenix was given even less health, with limited air action abilities. The can be circumvent by initiating flight, but they are not as severe. Dark Phoenix is still a broken character that should never have made it past the brainstorming phase, but her damage output seems slightly lessened. Still a pain in the ass, but slightly less. Invincible assists that many players loved to use as a crutch (Haggar’s lariat, Tron Bonne’s Gustaff Flame) and some of the other high priority assists (Akuma’s hurricane kick, Wolverine’s Berserker Rage to a degree) have been adjusted to make them less….cheap. Wolverine’s dive kick hitbox and seems like priorities as well seemed to have taken a hit, as well as his invincibility in his Berserker Rage, which were all adjustments that need to have been made. Sadly though, some other changes occurred that could have been done without (to its severity) or some other aspects that were buffed up….

What I dislike:

Some of the character “balancing” can be thought of as head scratching, to say the least. Dr. Doom, a rather powerful character previously, got no kind of important adjustments for the better, in terms of toning down the character as a whole. His air dashes are much faster (why?) and his jumping S is a hard knockdown (again, why?) I can easily see high level players bandwagoning the Doom train hard now, all the way to Payoff Land. Magneto, a character that definitely needed some adjusting, gained an unblockable gravity control move where he can either pull you towards, push you away from him, or pull you down from the sky. There’s a lot of recovery to that movem which was a wise move, though his air dashing has been gimped down to near Thor levels, as well as his jumping H pushing opponents farther away on air combos. The latter is more than manageable, though the air dash nerf, while needed, was too excessive. Then you have Wesker, with a minor health decrease, yet speed buffs when his sunglasses break or are removed. That wasn’t needed or warranted, and the other changes that he went through would have made him a lot more balanced.

Some of the new assists are already a bit overwhelming. Strider’s C assist, a teleportation kick, tracks opponents, even if they are at the very top of the screen, while Iron Fist’s C assist, as well as Frank’s A assist, fly out so fast that it’s can be almost unbearable to deal with. There are a few moves in the new characters repertoire that are nearly as swift as well, especially Firebrand’s QCF+S and most any move Hawkeye has when rolling forward or flipping forward or backwards. I’m not too sure how some of these new assists will fare coming up in the next few months, but I have a feeling they won’t reach the severity of the invincible assists that were toned down from before.

X-Factor has received changes as well, but the major issue of its length still remains – it’s too damn long in general. Level three still feels like an eternity, and should be toned down by at least five seconds. With everyone receiving the same bonuses across the board, some character do not feel as powerful with it. Dark Phoenix is still a broken mess with it, but toned down barely enough to be considered a partially working mess. The mechanic its self, as a come back tool, could have been done without before, but that’s just more nitpicking on my behalf.

Then there’s the bit about the extra modes talked about during previews….what extra modes? Galactus Mode is a rather enjoyable novelty, though that quickly disperses after a playthrough or two. There’s nothing else on disc that’s new, exciting or brings more replay value to the forefront. Heroes & Heralds is not available as of this writing, which could definitely put the extra modes quip on the things I like list, but again, no where to be found. Finally, online play is still not as fleshed out as it should be. It’s definitely a plus to finally be able to spectate other games going on while waiting your turn in a player lobby room, but a lot of the same latency issues from the previous release, are still running rampant. Performing intricate air combos with the likes of Magneto, are still halted or slowed down in the middle of it, even with connections between two people that are miles apart. Anything that requires fast movement and precise timing, is thrown off, just like Marvel vs Capcom 3‘s online play. While as a whole the connections fare better this time around, the important issues that plagued the online play before, are still alive and well.

Conclusion:

As much complaining as I’ve done, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 is a bit more enjoyable than before, mostly due to the new characters and how diverse they are. It’s a $40 price point, even if nine months after the initial release is way too soon for crying out loud. If you even remotely enjoyed Marvel vs Capcom 3, you’ll get as much mileage from Ultimate Marvel vs Cacpom 3, if not more. Even with the laziness with the backgrounds, conspicuously missing game modes that Capcom have been clamoring over (if they come out weeks or months after the game was released, that’s a bit misleading to players who expected them sooner), and some of the baffling character nerfs and/or buffs are all facepalm worthy, the gameplay its self remains satisfying and ripe for experimentation. Grab a friend or two, gather around your television and pummel each other silly (just avoid the online portion for now) and you’ll more than likely find more than enough reason to keep coming back. Lone wolf? You’ll get about as much playtime as you did before, with not much more to do other than Arcade mode.

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Phire

So while I was hype for the first one but then that turned to dislike and general apathy. Ultimate actually has me in training mode practicing combos and wanting to get better at the game. The expanded roster actually makes me give actually care about putting together a good team and check this out I may even use a Capcom character, not that I have forgiven them for dropping the ball on getting that Monster Hunter character in the game or giving C.Viper Cyclops’ optic blasts. While I’m not a comic buff like Eric I did appreciate the Ghost Rider and Nova adds because they look pretty damn cool. Ghost Rider’s level 3 the Penance Stare is going to be the ultimate (no pun intended) trolling technology.

The new characters bring new and familiar play styles (Strider, Frank West) and it’s quite a daunting task for me to find characters that I like considering I stuck with a team of X-23, Phoenix and Sentinel but I welcome the challenge. While people are complaining about the forty dollar price tag I think it is fair. Think about this for forty dollars you’re 12 new characters (which go for about five bucks or so, remember Jill and Shuma Gorath?), a few new stages (yes some of them are reskins while others are new) ,a more complete online system (being able to finally spectate headlining this), better presentation (let’s face MVC3 felt really unpolished, the hud was so basic also the win and versus screens, options,menus all didn’t look finished), a bunch of re-balances, more vocal work and new music. I think the price tag for this beats individually downloading characters, stages and costumes (which include more colors). I think this song is worth forty bucks alone

And the fact that it spawned this is amazing.

The game play feels a bit more solid and grounded. While there are crazy air combos the game puts more of a focus on the ground game rather than air to air combat. You need be able to open up a defender better in this game than in MVC3. While they’ve fixed some problems by allowing an air X-Factor they’ve created some of the same issues with it. The are somethings that definitely needs to be patched but this is only the first week so I expect the game to undergo so more changes in the form of some balance patch. I am probably going to play this at Evo 2012 along with AE so I definitely have a bunch of ground to cover.

Did Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 reach your expectations, or fall below them? Leave a comment below and let us know!

The original Dead Rising 2 didn’t offend me very much in terms of design flaws or perplexing protagonist play. While I didn’t have as much of an investment in Chuck Green like I had with Frank West, the storyline was interesting enough, and the combo cards added a layer of depth and fine tooth comb exploration that the original Dead Rising had lacked. I didn’t care much for the overly lagging and nearly barren multiplayer component, nor the often crippling load times that plagued any kind of access between the game and the system, but what worked with Dead Rising 2, worked commendably well. Barely a year later, Capcom cranked out what I thought would be nothing more than a re-skin of Dead Rising 2, with Chuck Green being replace by the original star, Frank West. But much to my surprise….I was halfway right.

With Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, players are placed into a “what if?” scenario, where Frank West existed in place of Chuck Green, and went through a slightly modified single player game in his stead. With this, the audio, video and mechanics have remained relatively unchanged. The only deviance experienced comes with a somewhat choppier frame rate every so often, which mostly appears in the brand new area called “Uranus Zone” which is basically a theme park with a space setting. Frank West look a bit more detailed than his first appearance and more than Chuck Green did, but not by leaps and bounds.

One of the myriad of challenge stars around Sandbox Mode, yet offers similar, generic tasks. Not a detriment, though nothing too extravagant.

Some of the biggest detriments to the Dead Rising 2 experience have been tweaked somewhat. The load times have been cut by either 1/3 or 1/2 of what they were before, though it still feels like a bit too much of a wait, mostly in terms of game freeze pauses when accessing a HDD for saving and loading information. The mostly useless and under utilized Terror is Reality multiplayer component has been axed, and to be frank, will not be missed. Money can still be made without the addition of the TIR modes The PP system from the first Dead Rising makes its return, which does grant a faster method of gaining PP, yet almost feels as if leveling as a whole is bogged down now because of it. Co-op is still available (but instead of two Chuck Green characters running around, there’s a Frank West for the host and Chuck Green for the guest) and the core mode will remain familiar to those who played Dead Rising 2.

The three big additions to Off the Record are additional combo cards, the brand new area called “Uranus Zone” and a Sandbox Mode from the get-go. As explained above, Uranus Zone gives a hefty amount of real estate to mow zombies down in, as well as some additional weapons to add to the massacre (the Alien Probe weapon was a humorous, yet effective weapon added in, which doesn’t need any explanation.) The combo cards are back, with some new additions to the mix, including the Shocker (a defibrillator + medical tray.) Having these combo cards in general really does break up any short lived monotony of utilizing basic background items as zombie stomping weaponry, and adding in even more combinations for players to mix together is a bonus that was more than appreciated.

By far the most welcoming addition has to be a Sandbox Mode right out of the gate. Frustrated over the strict time limits imposed by the core storyline mode? Why not just spend some free time in Fortune City while leveling up Frank West? With Sandbox Mode, all limitations are removed, however all storyline components have been nixed as well. Luckily though, there are distractions here and there in the form of challenge spots. Throughout each area of Sandbox Mode will be star icons, many of which are under a prerequisite of X number of zombies slain. It’s a welcome method to exploring the game world around you before you get in the thick of it all. While these tasks are as run in the mill as they come (gain X amount of PP in Y amount of seconds for Z amount of money, lure X amount of zombies to Y location) they do add enough spice to the original flavor to give it a taste worth coming back for seconds. On top of that, PP and levels gained through Sandbox Mode can be applied to a new game created, lightening the difficulty early on from a potentially under-developed main character in the early segments.

Uranus Zone, along with the Alien Probe. Childish humor, but luckily it all works well together.

The question in the end is this “if I already purchased Dead Rising 2, is there enough meat on the bones to warrant this purchase?” With the price tag at $40, it’s not as big of a blow as it could have been, and it offers a bit more than the original had offered. However I would more or less recommend abstaining for the time being. While the load times are no longer crippling, and there are a modest number of additions thrown in, Dead Rising 2: Off the Record will still seem a bit too familiar. If you are going in raw from the original Dead Rising and have had absolutely no experience with the sequel other than the downloadable installments on Xbox Live Arcade, then I can safely recommend this installment for purchase.  The amount of content at the price point it was released at is definitely worth the price of admission, even in a holiday release season that promises nothing but top quality killers.

Rating: 7.5

I’ve been on a bit on a losing streak lately. I may just be fatigued or something. I also got bodied in this online tournament ran by The Fighting Game League. I think I may just be burned out on games. Maybe I need to get back to my EVO training regimen.

Thanks to everyone for coming out.