There have been a ton of articles written about the brony culture from an outsiders perspective (you can Google them) this isn’t going to be one of those them. This is going to be more of a personal one, telling you about my experience and why I choose to represent Equestria  to the fullest. I do get quite a few puzzled looks as to why I have a plastic pony on my book bag (which is my favorite pony Applejack.)

My indoctrination into the herd started a year or two ago. I used to lurk the hive mind of the internet and during my travels I would stumble across pony threads that would contain images like this:

My curiosity was piqued and I decided to check out the first two episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which was a two-parter. As I initially expected, it was very girly for the first few minutes. What I did notice was that it was very colorful and the flash animation was pretty damn crisp. I recognized one of the voice actors right off the bat, it was Tara Strong . Tara is a fairly prolific voice actress, and during this time to me she represented X-23, a character I used in Marvel vs  Capcom 3. In any case, the episode seemed very tame until they introduced Nightmare Moon (or Luna, a horse that controls night), and the escape from prison on the moon in which she was placed by her sister, Princess Celestia. Celestia and Luna are deities of sorts because they control the day and night cycle. It’s later revealed that Nightmare Moon was once a princess too, but went nuts with jealousy over how all the ponies loved the day and slept through the night. Ultimately, she tried to cause an eternal night so all the ponies loved her too.  Yeah, she did it for the love of the ponies, but she really tried to cause an eternal night? Wow, okay I’m interested in this. And from that point it went on, I found myself falling deeper and deeper into the pony universe. They battled hydras, dragons, Cerberus, giant ethereal celestial bears, manticores, cockatrices, changelings and just about every mythological monster save for Medusa and probably Typhoon. There’s even an episode about sharing featuring  Native Americans. In this case they were buffalo and the whole episode was about how their stampeding land was taken from them by settlers out west for apple trees which were crucial to the settlers there. There was even a Star Trek homage when they had Q-like character appear and spread chaos on the show. The best part was that the character was voiced by John de Lancie. The subject matter and pop culture references made the show stand out to me, but what really endeared me was how the producers embraced the community and made references to memes in the show.

I’d like you to meet Derpy Hooves. She is a pony that was born by pure chance. Her derpy eyes were caused by an animation glitch, but that didn’t stop fans to taking a liking to her. She grew in popularity so much that in this past season  she was given a speaking part. She also was at the center of some controversy, some people…am I right? In any case, the level of fan and production interaction is refreshing. We do sometimes get it in the gaming industry, but here it seems more genuine.

The community itself has been absolutely amazing by creating music, art and even fighting games based on the series. This series has brought out some pretty creative and talented people. Below is one of my favorite rap songs of all time, and it’s pony based.

There has been a ton of parodies released and since it’s the internet, Rule 34 is always in play. The thing that surprised me most was that as bad as the ‘net can be, often the fans of the series have been positive.

Why have I chosen to become a brony and join the herd? I think I’ve always been a brony to be honest. I just haven’t had the word for it. Bronys are generally happy and positive people. I have always been one to try to see the good side of things no matter how bad a situation may be. Each of the main ponies represents something different in the series. Together they form the Elements of Harmony, something that is essential to the survival of all. In any case, my favorite ponies in the series are; Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. Applejack, a southern apple farmer represents honesty. Rainbow Dash, a high flying Pegasus daredevil represents loyalty. Pinkie Pie, a uhh… rock farmer and party hostess represents laughter.  These are the three things that I feel that represent me the best. Also, the fact that Applejack is a blonde just like my favorite character Cammy in the Street Fighter series.

I knew within a few episodes that I was a fan of this show, my Facebook and Twitter feeds reflected that. Initially people thought that I was trolling because at the time, it was the thing to do. However, in time people began to relent on their stance against ponies, at least when it came to me because they realized I was a genuine fan of the show. Eventually I became the Pony King to most of the people that know me. Someone even painted a picture of me in all my glory. What does it mean to be the Pony King? Well it’s just that I was everyone’s favorite brony. I guess that says a lot about me and the community. If you remember, I brought my Applejack toy with me to EVO to calm me down and keep me focused. Applejack has made her trip with me to other tournaments as well, and this year and people aren’t making fun of it like they used to. Not only that, but someone that I was dating (it’s complicated now) got me an amazing hoodie from the show, and an MLP ice cream cake.  A girl getting a guy a cake based on a TV show for little girls may have been seen as very questionable back in the day, but today it’s fine. I guess that’s just a sign of the times.

For me, watching the show is part of my Saturday ritual. I do what have to do during the day, come home, prepare food then watch the day’s episode and unwind. The episodes for the most part are good, but I hate some character specific episodes because not all of the characters are very interesting (I’m looking at you Rarity and Spike). Eventually I found myself gripped by the stories presented. As simplistic as they were, I often tried to figure out why the bad guy was a bad guy. In this season’s finale, I knew something was wrong but I couldn’t figure out why it was wrong, or what the bad guy was up to until it was revealed, and man I was blown away. When I suggest this show to people I tell them to watch a few episodes, because it takes you a while to get acclimated to Equestria.

This year at PAX East I have never gotten so much bro-hoof (hand shake using just the knuckles, think of a pound) just for wearing my Applejack t-shirt. I won’t lie to you, it felt incredible to be just accepted by a random assortment of people not based on my skin color,gaming ability, fame levels, money, or etc, but just based on the fact that I like ponies. I even gave out hugs! I don’t  feel as if I have trouble making friends, sometimes I’m very likable but I could see how if you are a Flutterguy (A shy brony. The name comes from Fluttershy, who is the most timid on the show) being a fan ponies could give you common ground with another person, and make it easier to talk with them. Acceptance is a powerful thing.

So come hug me bro.

We’ll start this review by talking about the offline story mode. Many of the reviews were correct in pointing out that the computer controlled A.I. is horrendous. I cannot tell you how many times I was forced to watch my teammates walk into trip wires, monsters, heal each other instead of me, block doors needlessly and do other stupid things that make me feel like I’m being trolled. It’s frustrating to have a medic that doesn’t heal. Usually in games like this, you can set some A.I. baselines, some commands that at least give them direction so they do what you want them to. Even the basic ability to tell them to move to a specific spot (and out of my way) is missing here, and I don’t know why Slant Six didn’t include this. But, while the A.I. was a constant issue in this mode I still didn’t feel that it ruined the game entirely.

Another thing the other reviewers complained about was the story. Unlike them, I found the story to be interesting. For the first time, you get to see something from the Umbrella point of view and re-visit some locales that were used in the prior games. While it is hypothetically non-canon, it does provide situations that could have plausibly happened if you remember the story from Resident Evil 2/3. Oddly enough, there isn’t much going on between the characters, and the bulk of character interaction mainly happens between whoever the squad leader happens to be, and “Command”. The characters don’t interact with each other either, except when you heal or revive each other. Aside from Vector’s blatant hero worship of Hunk earlier in the game, I can only think of one scene that there was a genuine interaction between the team members near the end, and that’s weird that they don’t at least talk every once in a while. Aren’t they supposed to be close knit due to the line of work they are in, and how long they’ve been together?

It’s odd. Slant Six took the time to give all of these characters back stories, yet none of it is ever referenced in the game. The chance to show the characters or Umbrella from a more humane perspective is squandered, and the biggest complaint you’ll hear from me about the story mode is that the ending left a lot to be desired. Depending on the path you choose, it just feels a bit anti climatic to be met with just credits once the cut scene is over. Why not at least a “What if?” ending? For once, you’ve done something that would drastically alter the Resident Evil universe but you don’t get to see fruits of your labor. It made me sad .

But enough about story. How does this beast control? Pretty well I’d say. I’ve had no issues executing maneuvers, and the cover system is passive, meaning all you need to do is walk up to a wall to automatically take cover. It does feels alien at first after playing games like Gears of War for a few years, but once you learn it will be second nature. Everything else is mapped similar to Resident Evil 5, a standard 3rd person shooter scheme with the addition of skills you activate with the Y/triangle button. You can adjust your look sensitivity to speed things up or slow it down depending on your play style, but in my experience, I don’t see how people can say that this game controls stiffly. If anything it could be mind over matter from the animations simply being being robotic at times. Despite this, other actions like diving, sprinting and melee attacks can be pulled off without a hitch. I also had issues with using trip and land mines until I figured on my own that trip mines set wherever you your cross hair is looking, whereas land mines set wherever your character is standing. Grenade’s have their own bit of a learning curve too, as I have had some grenade snafus where they bounce off things that are close to me (low hanging ceiling parts) or I’ve overshot them and completely missed what I was aiming for.

As for the visuals, the game looks good for the most part. The major issue I’d say is the frame rate. Sometimes it just starts chugging for no good reason, which can mess with your aim a bit. Skyrim had that problem too. Another minor issue to me is that by default the game is dark, super dark. Given that most of the missions take place at night, I had to raise the gamma slightly to be able to see stuff. The character models generally look good, though some like the Heroes in multiplayer look better than others. Some skill activations look a bit cheesy in an unrealistic way, however the assault class has main skills like Super Solider (temporary invincibility/damage buff) and incendiary ammo, so it balances out. The monsters all look picture perfect though. Mr. X/Tyrant and Nemesis are terrifying when you have to deal with them during the close of a multiplayer game or mission, and are very faithful to their original appearances. Raccoon City itself is faithfully recreated and laid out very well, and I feel that in this respect, Slant Six stayed very close to the source material for most of this game graphically. Occasionally, ammunition boxes have a tendency to blend into the environment, and you can easily miss bonus objectives such as cameras and data if you’re not actively looking for them. Quest/mission items are usually easier to find and are highlighted, a nice touch.

The game’s sound effects won’t stand out too much, unfortunately. The monsters noises are true to the source material and that’s always good, but the character dialogue is decent. The most interesting set of lines occur when the characters get infected. Maybe I’m just sick and I found it interesting to listen to people announce that they feel a hunger, but it’s a novel concept for a Resident Evil game. The music seems fitting for what’s going on. It seems that shooters love to either have rock music, or that weird tribal stuff going on for most action scenes. It’s mostly for the campaign though, as in most shooters, you deal with the music more in single than you do in the multiplayer game. The menu music will get in your head however, because you spend a lot of time there (more on this later on). They aren’t the most memorable tracks in any case, bother than the option screen music I can’t recall any other tracks from the game.

The real meat and potatoes of this game lies in the multiplayer. The campaign is way more enjoyable with 3 other humans. It’s an odd omission that Slant 6 didn’t include offline multiplayer or a system link option for tournaments, and depending on your opinion, this could hurt your enjoyment of the game, considering most shooters offer a split screen option. I was puzzled by this, but in the end I don’t mind having the extra screen real estate during the campaign, given the amount of things you can miss if you’re not paying attnention.

The versus mode offers four main modes (at the time of this review, the extra Nemesis mode is available  for download, I just haven’t had a chance to play it) Team Attack, which is similar to Team Deathmatch and runs on a point based system and Biohazard Mode has the objective of teams having to capture samples of the G-virus and bring them back to certain points (think capture-the-flag). The third mode, titled Survivor, is a mode where both teams must fend for themselves until a extraction chopper arrives, the catch being that only 4 people from either team can fit on the chopper, so teams have to work to get as many people out as possible.

The last mode is Heroes, where you play as previous characters from the Resident evil universe, and the game is over when all four of the heroes are eliminated. If you die as a hero you respawn as a regular character from the original sides. These four modes are fun with your friends and make for some pretty intense moments, but playing with randoms is a crap shoot because not many of them have the concept of team work down and many of them go lone wolf in most of the game modes, grabbing health ,anti viral sprays and ammo for themselves. The character classes and loadouts make this a deep shooter because you can build teams around each map and game type, given that the teammates can’t be double picked, leading to some strategy when choosing an avatar. The fact that you can have only one type of character per team not only ensures the you’re not dealing with broken teams, but forces team work and communication in order to succeed. Every role on the team is defined clearly and it is beneficial to play characters to that role. (FYI, I play Demotion )

While the multiplayer is fun, there are some serious issues to take into consideration. There is a serious issue with finding games when you have a full team, it seems to take forever to get into a game (hence my mentioning the option music getting into your head after constant exposure to it). Also, there is no way to just reset the search without one person backing out and restarting the entire process of getting the team together. Even if you do manage to find a game with your party, there’s a good chance people may just get dropped regardless. There occasionally are lag monsters that show up, but then again I’m not surprised; I can’t think of any Capcom game that has had a solid net code aside from Monster Hunter. There isn’t a ton of content to mess around with either, aside from the achievement hunting and multiplayer versus modes the game’s replay suffers a bit. Once you complete the offline objectives you may not want to go back to the campaign for any reason aside from the alternate ending, and the rest of your experience will be spent online.

Overall, Operation Raccoon City is a very fun game when you bring some friends along, but technically flawed in some aspects. The campaign could’ve been better, and the story could’ve been presented better, seeing as they had a what if situation to exploit and chose not to do so. Some things need to be patched to ensure a bit more balance in the versus mode and matchmaking could definitely use some work, but If you have a team or some friends online that have this game it might be worth a pick up. It’s a definitely a change of pace from most of the other shooters on the market, and one of the better team based games I’ve played in a while.

Rating: 7.5

Yes, that is an arm attached to his head, and yes, that is his headless torso. Also going on: Demons are being shot.

In this third-person action shooter, players are in control of Bryce Boltzmann, a demon hunter who has been alive for over 500 years. This isn’t due to some kind of inheritance, or choice, but his immortality is actually the result of a curse brought upon him by a demon lord named Astaroth. See, he has a penchant for invading worlds (as all demon lords seem to) and the organization Bryce belongs to specializes in sending them back where they belong. After a failed contract that ended with the death of his wife, he’s become a bitter, disheveled man in the passing centuries, but still holds the same demon hunting job, now using his curse as a tactical advantage. When Astaroth surfaces again and nearly destroys a city, Bryce is contracted once again by his agency to take him down. There are some ties in the story with Astaroth murdering Bryce’s wife and how it led to him becoming this sort of anti-hero, but the bare-bones plot and bad dialogue full of cheesy one-liners by Bryce made it hard to care about. Even after the conclusion, it never feels more than a bare bones revenge plot with supernatural elements thrown in, and not a very well put together plot at that.

Immortality is an ability that may make for a lack of tension in a game like this, making it either a lukewarm experience, or one absent of any real challenge. In a wise move, the developers saw to it that his partner Arcadia is there to accompany you for the duration of your missions. This not only provides you with a partner for the game, but also turns her into a VIP because should she die, it’s game over. Though, don’t let that fool you into thinking the game is one large escort mission, because outside of providing the stereotypical blonde chick with a gun role in an action game, she can actually hold her own quite well during the games many action sequences, so worrying about her death never becomes a chore, and you can focus on yourself during conflicts. This leaves you to abuse the power to detach and re-attach your limbs at will, taking enemies out left and right in a variety of ways. Being undead, Bryce is pretty tough on his own, so even when you sustain heavy injuries, your body parts just fall around the area and can picked back up by simply rolling over them. While this may make the game seem overly easy, it’s important to remember that Bryce is only immortal so long as his head is still intact, and some enemies are designed to suck up Bryce’s head for an instant kill, making it less of a crutch than you’d think. When this situation happens, a QTE is initiated to save yourself from these critters. Guess what happens when you fail?

The odd damage and companionship woes are small complaints on their own, but what really makes the game a chore to play through is Rebellion’s insistence on tedious repetition at every turn. Each of the game’s action scenes (and there are many) boil down to walking into an area, watching as the exits get barred, and fighting through waves of enemies until the barriers lift. Occasionally, they try to mix things up with the odd puzzle, some requiring the use of a body part (one of the game’s more creative ideas I wish they would’ve used more), but it’s basically the same “Clear the demons until the exits open, rinse, repeat until boss” formula for large portion of the game. This degree of tedium is exacerbated later on in the game when previously defeated bosses later show up as regular enemies. I couldn’t tell if the developers were trying to be cool by doing this, but it just came off as lazy.

Is this screenshot boring? Blame the game.

This feeling of laziness translates to the games visuals as well. Environments are bland, empty and rarely branch out from the traditional “Lonely Alleyway”, “Subway”, and “Abandoned Factory” archtypes for most of the game. Cutscenes are all done in game and do look well enough to appease the eye as Bryce and company are decently animated, but it’s during the action sequences where the game hiccups. The camera is an unfortunate pain as well, getting stuck on objects or simply not giving a wide enough view of the action. These small annoyances pile on over time and are a pain in a game so reliant on fast paced action, especially when environments are littered with things that can explode with a simple touch. This means, as a player, expect to be sent flying constantly and unfairly, which leads into losing limbs often, leading to more slowdown.

It’s then you realize that it’s unfortunate that the game is so centralized on his dismemberment, because when this happens, the limb loss animation is pretty stale and generic, and more painful to watch repeatedly than what I’m sure being dismembered feels like.

I thought that with all the other types of fail on display, the weapons would have some redeemable quality, but they are just as bland from start to finish. I did enjoy the fact that you can wield a sword and slicing through enemies does have a fun and addictive feel, but even that leaves a sour taste after a while. The gunplay consists of the standard handgun, assault rifle, sub-machine gun, shotgun and grenade launcher fare most shooters are known for. There are hidden versions of these particular guns as well as secret swords that can provide more damage to the enemies, but they come across as very weak amongst the many enemy types regardless of how powerful they appear to be. Once you find the main Grenade Launcher though, there is little reason to go and utilize any other weapon since it does the most damage and hits a bigger radius in its explosion.

Surprisingly, there is multiplayer to be found here, but unsurprisingly, even it falls short of applause, being lazily picked from other, better games. You have Onslaught which is essentially this game’s Horde mode, Fragile Alliance which is a checkpoint based race through enemies, Search And Rescue (glorified escort mission), and finally an Egg Hunt mode which has you looking for civilians to save or treasures respectively. All are made virtually unplayable due to lack of a mini-map, the environments being maze-like and it being all too easy to get lost while playing. Fun!

I really wanted to like this game, and judging by the trailers, I thought it had the potential to give me another unique experience similar to Shadows of the Damned. It’s a shame too, as its off kilter premise and bland, yet endearing characters could have provided an otherwise enjoyable experience. Unfortunately, even the main selling point of the game becomes an overused mini-game by the end, and by then you’ve likelly already realized the game has a throw away story, bland visuals and repetitive gameplay. It’s workable as a rental game, but save your cash for something better.

Rating: 4.0

The Tekken series in particular seemed to have dodged this curse with no such lapse in quality, and has actually enjoyed it’s brief stint in portable form, having waited until the Sony’s PSP to really put forth a version that could stand tall with it’s arcade counterpart. With the release of Tekken 3D: Prime Edition for the Nintendo 3DS, memories of Nintendo’s last brush with portable Tekken are already starting to creep back up:

But thankfully, this is not Tekken Advance. It’s in fact much better, with the most recent version of Tekken 6 making up the main game in the true third dimension, and a bonus 3D movie included on the cart to boot. While it seems to be lacking many of the modes that made its other versions a hit, I’m certain series creator Katsuhiro Harada was confident in the core fighting and entertainment value of the movie to carry it. Did the gamble work?

Well..it’s Tekken, it’s quite solid, but Prime,it is not.

Tekken 3D: Prime Edition
For: Nintendo 3DS
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Price: $39.99
Release: 2/14/2011 (North America)

Feeling like a shrunken down version of Tekken Hybrid (mostly due to the inclusion of the Tekken: Blood Vengeance 3D movie as a bonus) Tekken 3D: Prime Edition is the latest version of the popular franchise, which is to say 6 in a portable form, packing an impressive 3D pedigree and cramming all 40 characters and even new stages into the 3DS’ tiny frame. It’s once again an impressive feat and a testament to how talented Namco’s teams are that they can continue to keep putting out near arcade-perfect versions of their high fidelity arcade titles, but while much of this version does well in preserving the arcade-like core fighting experience, it seems to be all that’s on offer here, affecting the quality of the title in the areas that count.

If not anything else though, you won’t find too many people complaining about the graphics. Much has been said about the highly publicized fact that this version of Tekken runs at 60 frames per second (even with the 3D on!) and it delivers with flying colors. As a benchmark no game on the system has achieved thus far, the game does achieve this effect consistently and without falter, but it comes at a bit of a visual expense as some cutbacks were clearly made to achieve this. The stages suffer the most from this penalty, with a few exceptional looking ones on display that play up the 3D well, but the majority of them are missing background objects present in other versions and suffer an overall lack of life. This makes some fights look at worst like they’re taking place in barren wastelends, and the fact that some made it through without even so much as a tumbleweed to liven things up is a bit of a rub. Character models are also very sharp and detailed, and frame for frame on par with their arcade counteparts, but feature a strange lighting about them that occasionally makes them stand out harshly against the backgrounds. It’s not a bad looking game, as you can see in the photo below. It’s a smooth visual package that looks great in motion, but When the cutbacks to keep the framerate smooth are noticeable at the times they’re noticeable.

If it sounds like a bit of a bare-bones package….it’s because it is, and the game is seemingly unapologetically unashamed of being so. It signifies a disturbing trend in recent Fighting Game releases, where players are receiving packages that appeal solely to the hardcore gamer. Weren’t they they once were the trailblazers of stuffing their fighters to the gills with content? Recently they haven’t been living up to that, been releasing packages that have the bare minimum of extra content included because their core audience is solely set on pushing the engine to its limits and burying themselves neck deep in frame data. For a more casual user, one desiring perhaps a challenge, but actual content NOT involved solely in refining skill like story or extra play modes, there’s nothing for them.

The other half of this package is yet again Tekken: Blood Vengeance 3D, Namco’s second attempt at forcing this movie down our throat with a barebones port attached (okay, I’ll stop). The 3D is nicely done, with some mild depth and rare instances of popping, and the CG itself is about on par with their game efforts with a stylized realism, albeit this time in the 3rd dimension. But there was a movie to be watched underneath all that gloss, and I’ll begin by saying this: I have absolutely no investment in Tekken’s storyline. That having been said, I was hoping a movie serving to bridge the events between Tekken 5 and Tekken 6 would give the story new light in my eyes, and finally rope me in with a stylized blend of..oh whatever.

Seriously.

Truly, it boggles the mind as to why the best parts of the single-player experience were omitted for this version. If this was to preserve the 3D and make room for that ridiculous movie, then I’m even more disappointed, because, as entertaining as it was, I can’t say I would’ve sat in front of my 3DS for that long watching a movie had it not been for review purposes. It would’ve been more practical to just cut that thing out if it meant me getting the Force Mode or customization items back, which would’ve worked perfectly with the system’s social features. They could’ve omitted that indecipherable mess if it meant the arcade ladder returning, with is cheesy and occasionally larger-than-life bosses making a welcome 3D return. No sticking Goku hair on my character, no fighting an inexplicable mech, no beating up slews of faceless thugs for moneybags. Instead, I have the option to either versus, train, or turn my brain off for a little over an hour.

Prime edition?

prime/prīm/
Adjective:
Of first importance; main.
Noun:
A state or time of greatest strength, vigor, or success in a person’s life.
Verb:
Make (something) ready for use or action, in particular.

Oh Namco. You jest.

Rating:6.5

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!

Role Optional Alerts and the Team Buff

Two of the exciting features we’re rolling out for Game Update 9 are Role Optional Alerts and the Team Buff. We have metrics that show us who is queuing for what, how long they’re waiting, and a number of other really useful things. As I’m sure you know when you queue for a Duo, you tend to get in and are able to start playing right away. Alerts are a different story, especially for those of you queuing for the damage role.

It has nothing to do with Duos only requiring two people. It’s that they require any two people. As is common in a lot of MMOs, there is a population disparity between the different roles. There are as many players queuing for Damage as there are all the other roles combined. Healers are the least common, followed by Tanks, and finally Controllers. So the end result is Healers don’t wait long at all, but Damage tends to wait much longer.

All Alerts are now role optional. Generally it shouldn’t take much more than a few minutes for an Alert queue to pop regardless of your role, assuming there are enough people willing to play that Alert. When the matchmaking system tries to form a group out of the pool of queued players it tries to form a balanced group first. As minutes pass, the system becomes increasingly less picky about finding a specific role for a given group slot.

The Role Optional Alert feature is made possible by the Team Buff. Any time three or more players are grouped together, within range, and in line of sight of one another, they gain a bonus to compensate for roles missing from their group.

If your group is missing a Tank, every group member gains additional damage mitigation.
If you’re missing a Healer, group members gain a small amount of Health regeneration when they begin to take damage and gain a further health regeneration boost while holding the block button when health is at critical levels.
If your group is missing a Controller you will gain a small amount of additional power regeneration when your power begins dipping low.

The buffs are by no means a replacement for having the actual role in your group. But with some self reliance, it will provide you with enough of a boost to allow you to complete the Alert successfully. The Team Buff is not applied in PvP arenas, during Legends matches, nor will it function during Duels.

The end result of this is that wait times to get into an Alert should be dramatically decreased. Provided players are queued, you should be able to get into an instance in a matter of minutes, no matter your role.

Novice Raids

In an effort to let more players experience more of the game, we’re launching Novice Raid modes for Game Update 9. Novice Raids are far less demanding than the Expert Raids. They are intended to allow more casual players and random pickup groups a chance to experience some of our best content they might not otherwise be able to experience.

The combat rating requirement is just a little bit lower for Novice Raids so you can hit them a little sooner than you can the Expert version. The content, play flow, and boss fights are identical but the fights themselves are much more forgiving. That’s not to say they will be a complete cake walk! You’ll still need to learn and execute properly on the mechanics of the boss fights if you want to succeed. Some may find Novice Raids are a great way to get some practice in while they are gearing up for the Expert versions.

Novice Raids do drop loot, however the loot will be of a lower item level. They also award the same badges, but you earn fewer of them. Novice Raids share the same lockout timer as Expert Raids, so you can’t earn loot and badges in both during the same week.

Some existing feats can be completed in either the Novice or Expert version of a Raid. However others such as the speed feats can only be completed in Expert mode. Finally we’ve also added new feats for completing the Expert version of a raid.

New Soder Colas plans available!

Plans for Soder Cola Prime and Soder Cola Max are now available for purchase from Research and Development vendors. These recover more Health and Power than a Soder Cola Extreme but provide no additional buff effect and require no Exobytes to make.

“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.

In January of 2012 I found a game on Steam called Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon by Vicious Cycle Software. One of my friends previously owned the game on console and was raving about it nonstop, so I thought I would give it a try. Well, after trying it out for myself, let me say that I am both surprised and disappointed. What surprised me the most was how good the combat actually was. Honestly, I was really expecting nothing more than another rehashed modern day arcade shooter. Instead, what I received was a 3rd-person shooter that allowed me the unexpected freedom to navigate and shoot in a limited open-world environment. Another great thing about the game is the way the story was presented. In terms of atmosphere, one of the best things about this game was the fact that It made me feel like I was in the middle of a Science Fiction B-movie from the 60′s.

Another thing I definitely I liked about the game was the fact that it wasn’t a hallway shooter filled with 5 minutes of game play broken up by cutscenes after each objective. Each level in EDF:IA is huge, fully destructible, and open ended enough that I was able to change and go through different routes to accomplish the same goal. These three factors add more to the game in terms of tactics than any other modern shooter, making this game more than just a ‘simple’ arcade shooter.Customization with each of the classes was another thing I enjoyed. There are 4 classes to choose from: Jet Armor, Tactical Armor, Trooper Armor, and Battle Armor. Each class has their own upgrade system and weapons that can be used, with a ton of weapons for each that you can unlock by two methods: Playing the game and leveling up, or by earning credits that can be spent to unlock more weapons. Like any game with classes, each has pros and cons, so choosing the right weapon for the job is not only crucial, but the differences between them adds replay value. That plus the endless amount of color pallets and weapon combinations add so much variety that each time you play through the game, you can without looking the same way twice.

But, for each good thing the game does, there are a few equally bad things that take away from it.

As much as I enjoyed it, one thing I found disappointing was the overall length of the game. At 3 chapters long, I was done with the entire game in 5 hours and it left me wanting more, especially since the game is a bit light on the story. To the average player, 5 hours might not seem long enough, but one play through of a level takes about 10-20 minutes depending on how good you are at the game and the difficulty chosen. These missions have no checkpoints to speak of and rely on your lives, so as long as at least one partner is alive you can revive each other endlessly. If all team members are dead, that is Game Over and you have to start from the beginning of the mission. On top of that, reload times tend to take a bit longer (even with the fast reload option) so if a weapon you are using has only 5 shots, then you need to make sure you can find some cover or dodge long enough to reload and start firing again.

Some people may consider the AI of the enemies to be too easy, but it’s the sheer amount of them (numbering in hundreds) that makes them a daunting enemy. Another disappointment from the game is the online play, and while you can read what ExpertPenguin thought about the console version, I am not sure how populated it is at this moment. I do know that right now, it is difficult to find a game online, and with some games having cross platform play, it makes you wonder why the creators didn’t consider it an option. Starting a co-op game from scratch, I was able to make it through the entire first chapter without running into anyone else. Perhaps having the option to search for other players on the 360/PS3 can make its way into the sequel?

All in all, Earth Defense Force : Insect Armageddon is a fun fast paced 3rd person shooter that brings a bunch of new ideas to the table in the shooter genre. It has a ton of action, high replay value, and is one of those games you can play with several friends in local or online multiplayer, as long as you have a spare pad laying around, or were lucky enough to bump into a few soldiers online. Happy gaming!

Rating: 7.0

I played the first EDF and I lamented at how weak the mulitplayer was in that version. It supported no online play of any kind, but as a local split-screen game, it was just the type of simple, arcade fun that you would need between days of grinding out combos in Street Fighter, or just from dealing with any other similarly complex titles. My first look at this game was during PAX East and I was instantly excited for its release. I instantly fell in love with the new Heavy armor class, as large machine guns and explosives are a fast way to win my undying love, and the new online multiplayer, supporting not just two, but up to four players at the same time Most of the details about the game have been covered in the previous review, so with no further ado we’ll jump right into my thoughts on the multiplayer experience!

Seeing how I received this game pretty late in its cycle, a couple of my CL teammates already had the game and were up for blasting some bugs with me. This is great, as the game seems to come alive when you’re not dealing with some AI drones. When you can instead coordinate attacks and focus your combined firepower on the same target things become a million times easier. The only thing I don’t like is having multiple players use the same suit in battle. I feel having two battle suits walking around detracts a little bit from the overall experience because the armors share a similar control scheme, but have different play styles that can be useful on their own. It creates a situation where you’ll have two players playing the same way, with the same weapons, and with no real new techniques being shown off. The weapon balance is spread between the classes like this on purpose to encourage variety, and sharing the same weaknesses makes some stages a bit harder to complete than others. If there’s any problem I really had with this system, it’s like Geekboi mentioned earlier, that the checkpointing system is a bit unforgiving. Most of these levels take 20-30 minutes to finish, and if all players are dead, it requires a start to the very beginning of the stage. If anyone on your team is ill equipped, it can make the levels feel tedious at best and an endless grind at worst.

The net code seems solid for the job as well. As my team and I ran through the campaign, we weren’t thrown off by any slow down, and there were no hiccups to speak of. Survival mode is where we started to encounter problems though, and with 3 players in the room, things became a little bit dicey as the screen filled with enemies. we experienced some slowdown as things got hectic, but other than that? They hammered themselves out just fine.I also experienced a strange bug regarding how the game saves itself. I have backed out to the loadout screen from the pause menu more than only to have all my progress lost. It happened even when I quit to the main menu as well. I don’t know if this was a glitch they’re planning to patch or what, but going solo through 5 levels in this game tough enough. To lose it and start all over again is needlessly frustrating.

Overall, I give this game an 8 out of 10. The save hiccups were annoying and there were some slowdown issues, but it wasn’t enough to make the game unplayable, or any less fun. This is definitely worth a playthrough.

Rating:8.0

With Darksiders II almost here there’s some pretty impressive swag being released. SOTA Toys has released a Samuel statue which is pretty bad ass.

While I am a fan of collectables this bad boy given away during a Twitter contest takes the cake.

I would wear that out on dates.

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!