The only group of gamers that were getting proper downloadable content, fixes, etc were the PC gamers.  Sure you can argue for Dreamcast (Phantasy Star Online) or PS2 (Final Fantasy, Monster Hunter, etc) but I feel that the growth of X-Box live and Playstation Network changed the landscape dramatically. In the old days when you went to the store and purchased a game that was it. The finished product was in your hands, flaws and all. With XBL and PSN companies are now able to fix problems and patch balance issues. Something that the PC players have been getting for a long time.

However with the ability to just make a patch for things is just the enabler for products to get rushed out unfinished just to hit release dates. *This is a bit off topic but I do feel games just like any other work of art should be released when it’s ready not to beat out another release just to make a few bucks. I don’t think that’s fair to the people who put their hard work into it but that’s a topic for another day.* Knowing that someone can put out a game that’s 98% or less complete and that they could patch it at a later date or not at all in some cases and still have you pay full price is a bit crazy since in theory you are paying for a complete product.

The good stuff.

But beyond the practical and oh so technical patching of mistakes, DLC as it likes to be called delivers something else, it delivers content. Purchasing downloadable content could extend the life of your favorite game by giving you new missions, adding a new feature or mode to the game, new songs to play, new tracks to race on, new costumes for your favorite characters, etc. So the possibilities are pretty much endless with what you could download from companies. For instance with Fallout they added new campaigns and quests or with Rock Band/Guitar Hero/DJ Hero/Whatever-music-game band-hero-maker-thing-you-choose-to-play you’re always given fresh selections of songs. You can download classic titles from yesteryear and relive your glory days. The nostaliga factor is running high for people my age and the younger generation so this is a blessing.

Sounds great right? What they don’t tell you is that you have to be ONLINE to access the content you’ve purchased. It seems like a no brainer that you have to be online to download your new stuff but having to be online to play it is another story. It’s nice to have over 1k songs on Rock Band however if you go to your friends house with your data and they don’t have a way to get online, well you’re pretty much stuck playing whatever is available. Another dirty little sceret is that a majority of the time the DLC was already on the CD you’re just downloading an unlock code. Interestingly enough if they remove the title you’ve downloaded from their servers (XBL,PSN) you lose access to the game. I’ve had this happen with Double Dragon and there was no resolution.

And what cha gonna do?

It’s a 50/50 right? It has pros and cons just like anything else in the world. However you’re paying for most of the DLC you get, that can potentially include future patches in some cases. Nothing in this world is free, but considering that you paid about $65.31 to play the initial game flaws and all. To top it off there are versions of the game released with all the DLC included for the price for the same price or a lower MRSP.

Of course you can always say that these are just isolated incidents XBL and PSN. Want another high class fail? PSPgo all download all the time. I spent a ton of time since Chocolate Lemon has been around in a video game store and I have only seen 4 sold. Sony even went on record trying to spin the PSPGos failure as experiement in something. There are other examples of this even with Nintendo (one downloaded game per console, shop channel).

What we see.

So what is the point of the industry moving this way? Well they claim it fights back the pirates also it cuts down the sale of second hand merchandise. It would also allow them to eliminate the middle man, you know those pesky things video game stores. In that there would be a bit of money saved in distribution costs. If companies had their way they’d do away with the used game market, just ask EA. You argue it is a more cost efficent way of going green and overall it is cleaner.

What they see.

Don’t get me wrong digital distribution gives people the chance to experince something that may have never made it to disc like Braid or gives developers a chance to add something that they wanted to and didn’t have the time to complete. I also see how used game sales and piracy can hurt the industry and I’m all for a greener planet. But there’s one thing that digital distribution does and that takes away your right ownership. For example you go into a store and buy something you’re then able to take it home and do whatever you please with it. Now imagine if you buy some clothes that you can only wear while logged into the store’s web service, it will show up in your closet as a ‘Hey, yeah you have this shirt’ reminder. Imagine what will happen if the store decided to stop carrying that shirt. You’d still have it in your closet but you could never wear it because the online doesn’t support it.  It’s a stretch but that’s exactly what happened to me with Double Dragon (mentioned earlier) with no chance for reimbursement. It strips the noble hobby of collecting to nothing. Games themeselves have a finiacial value that fluctuates with the market, however their setimental value cannot be measured. Another thing that I have noticed is that when games are available for digital distribution, the quality of the sound is not as good as it should be, a perfect example is Symphony of the Night.

I will say this, I am not the first person to say it but, consoles have killed arcades. With more online play and features the are less reasons for gamers to leave their homes. That trip to the video game story allows you to chat and converse with kindred spirits. I feel that there’s a disconnect in communition in today’s society. We’re on messengers, bbms, texts and whatever you want to not have to speak to someone face to face but why should games be any different?

Love me...please?

The question is what can we do? Digital distribution seems like it should be the way of the future but it has flaws. The thing however, is that that these flaws aren’t readily exposed unless you’re forced to experience them, then you are the isolated one. Should we boycott d.d.? That won’t stand because there are a vast majority of people who won’t see the point of this action. They just want to play the newest map on Call of Duty or Halo, they have to have that newest sound or track pack. Who can blame them, the ‘it’s not that serious’ logic/mindset will prevail and people will spend their money as they see fit. Unlike the music or movie industry things are taken that a bit more seriously even though it’s all entertainment and even then it’s met with apathy. Do we sit in silence? I don’t think there’s a clear answer for this but I do know that digital distribution is not the right one.

Hmm think we've killed the Dreamcast...

This is the look of a man who denied phire a hat.

In order to get this review out in a fair amount of time I did NOT complete the entire game. I did clear about 20 or so floors in Tartarus, really tried to max out the social links and live the good Japanese school girl life.


With that said, let’s get to the review.

For those who have played Persona 3, please skip this section. For those who haven’t, read on. The story of Persona 3 puts you in control of the main character (I named mine Pro Tagonist) who is a transfer student at a new high school. The story of Persona 3 takes place in a modern Japanese city, built and funded by the Kirijo Corporation. Experiments carried out ten years ago created the Dark Hour, a period of time that exists between one day and the next. During this time, most people are transmogrified into coffins and are not aware of the Dark Hour; however, there is a select group of people who are. The Dark Hour bends reality; Gekkoukan High School(Go Gekko!!), where most of the characters attend school during the day, becomes a huge labyrinthine tower called Tartarus, and beasts known as Shadows roam the area, preying on the minds of those still conscious.  The Shadows leave their victims in near-catatonic states outside of the Dark Hour which is called Apathy Syndrome. To investigate and learn about the Dark Hour, Shadows, and Tartarus, the “Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad”, or SEES (not to be confuse with C’s or the C’s), was created. SEES is a group of high-schoolers capable of summoning Personas to combat Shadows. Great way to spend your time after school, no?

The controls of this game are very simple and I feel are the standard to all games in the genre. One of the things I do enjoy is that when you’re not in battle and you’re living your high school life, the navigation allows you to fast jump to places and navigate the world.Talking to and buying from the NPCs (non playable characters, think that guy on the subway that you see on the way to work or the hot dog stand guy) is handled the same way. When there’s something wrong or the character has something to say there’s a little “!” over their head (I totally wish some of my exes had that feature). In dungeons you control your actual character as they navigate. You can choose to initiate battle by hitting or getting hit by monsters, each with their own set of conditions. Inside of fights the battle system is menu and turn based. The game allows you to choose if you want to micromanage every little detail of the battle by controlling every single one of your character’s actions or you can set their AI and focus controlling the main character. If you’re feeling extremely lazy you can speed up the battles by hitting triangle and entering rush mode. In the dungeon you can use the shoulder buttons to control the camera. It helps but it doesn’t always catch that monster that’s hiding in the shadows. 9/10

The games music is done by Shoji Meguro. If that name sounds vaguely familiar (and I mean vaguely) it’s because he’s also done work on the Bleach anime and a few other titles. The music is catchy at some points and down right strange at the others. The rap music that plays reminds me of the stages that you played as Knuckles in Sonic Adventure 2. There is voice acting in the game. All the dialogue isn’t acted out but a good portion of it is. The voice acting for the most part is decent. I am still trying to figure out where I have heard some of the actors before. The sound effects aren’t going to win any awards because they are generic sound effects but that’s ok. 8/10

The graphics of this game look great for the PSP. The artwork is well done , the only thing the bothers me is that when you pick the female main character she looks as if she has a weird lazy eye thing going on. The animations in battle are very fluid with an almost cartoon feel to them, the Personas summoned are very detailed (since they are pretty much the stars of the game). The only downside of this game graphically is exploring Taturus. For the most part it’s the same repeating textures for a couple of floors and then you get another group of same repeating textures till you get up to the floor with new stuff on it. It’s repetitive but you tend to zone out while you run around the dungeons looking for monsters anyway. 8/10

As with most RPGs there is a good deal of play replay value. So far I can already see a few things that I would like to do differently and different relationships that I should have worked on and I could have done things a lot differently (studied more, fell asleep during class). The game follows the store of Persona 3 with some story changes, so playing as the female changes things. If you’ve never played Persona 3 then play as the guy and see the story from his perspective. You have a few options that for later play throughs. 8/10

This game overall is pretty fun. Not too many games on the market where you have to struggle to keep up your study habits, manage your social life, work part time, and train to stop the apocalypse. It’s overwhelming at times but that’s half the fun. Also I may just be getting old and forgetting facts but I never had to Google so many questions before in a video game. Some of the stuff I knew off the top of my head but some questions jeez. The game sometimes looks bland in dungeons and the music is very Japanese so there are some ‘more rhymes than Micheal Jordan-beast powered rap‘ type moments but it grows on you. I would recommend this for people who play Jrpgs or people who want to be a Japanese school girl that saves the world from monsters. 8/10

Hi I'm the Persona hat! What do I and Megan Fox have in common? We'll never be on phire!

Apparently Kanye and I made the game

The premise of the game is quite simple, dance. You have to hit poses at key point during the routine. It’s based on the Japanese dance craze (I’m unsure if it is still largely popular. It should be though) known as Para-Para which is a routine of choreographed-synchronized dance moves. Usually these dance moves are set to techno, J-pop, or the legendary genre Eurobeat (don’t lie, you love it too). This game features the Kinect so rather than looking at generic avatars you and your friends (or how many you have left after forcing them to play this) are looking at yourselves in the screen bust out these fine dance moves. There’s video of me playing it but I feel that my moves are too hot and I posted them here, I’d probably have to have age verification and we don’t want to get wrapped up in all of that.

There we are again with Gaga

The music in the demo were two songs I didn’t openly recognize but they featured a song that I did, Nights of Fire by Niko which is probably going to become my new theme song for everything I do. I can only imagine what sort of goodness will be on the soundtrack. Konami also did Jubeat which is another game that I love. I wonder if they will include some of the tracks from that game. I know that Snow goose would be a good addition to this game.

I think we should sue at this point.

How does the Kinect control? Quite well actually, I got down and funky with some buddies of mine and we were ripping it. This game may be the sole reason why I get a Kinect in the first place but that’s just me. I initially got my Wii for Monster Hunter Tri and was treated to some good games such as No More Heroes and Muramasa. Maybe the Kinect will have some gems but as it stands right now. There’s going to be a ton of Para Para going down in my house. Hopefully at some point I can beat this guy:

E3 2010 was Chocolate Lemon’s first. I am happy to see that we have gotten a few new readers and lured back some of the old. It’s really awesome to see the progress we’ve made. Looking back on E3 now that I can gather my thoughts, I can answer some of the questions that some people have asked me randomly.

One of the first questions and most consistent ones I have gotten is :

“Did you get those X-boxes that were being given out?”

No we didn’t, we weren’t invited to the private press conferences that some of the bigger sites, shareholders, investors, etc get into. Being our first E3, I think the big 3 kind of disregarded our existence. Ironically, we would end up partying with them at various points during the trip.

What’s it like?

At its core E3 is trade show, it just so happens that this trade show appeals heavily to us because of the exclusivity. It’s like being kept out of a really cool club. The price tag and timing of E3 discourages many people (it’s in the middle of a work week plus it’s extremely pricey for tickets for all 3 days). High price point and exclusivity aside it’s not for the lazy or faint of heart. It is a lot to take in (that’s what she said). There’s a lot of walking involved, E3 is broken down into two halls South and West with meeting rooms and smaller booths on the outside of the hall. The halls are where most of E3 takes place.The meeting rooms are (media only) where some presentations take place. The big press conferences are held in other locations.(Once we start getting into those I’ll let you know). On the floor you’ll see all sorts of people; booth babes, celebs, fan boys who haven’t bathed, and big name execs. I bumped into Verne Troyer, Seth Killian, some folk from reality television and some people from Nintendo.

Did you get any cool swag?

Not really.  I mentioned this earlier but unless you’re the big guy or someone super important you’re getting the standard run of the mill stuff. I have a few buttons, t-shirts and a couple of bags. I really wasn’t swag hunting, all of the stuff I received was during the course of the day I was set up for. I have a few trinkets I can give out but the people who will get them may not love me anymore.

The games I played were pretty much based on my interest. There are a ton of games to be played seriously. I think if you were to sit down and try every single game it would take you about four days to a week due to the lines on some of the titles. The Nintendo and Capcom booths both had ridiculous lines. Disney also had long lines as well.  To me it kinda felt a bit like Comic Con and PAX with all the commotion. To be honest there was really cool displays there. The lightcycle from Tron being display made a few dorks cream. I never was a bike fan in general until I saw this thing.

There was a really bad ass Halo Reach statue carved out. I would have much rather played the game but it does get the imagination going.

Sometimes the mere sight of something had people excited. I know when I saw this image I was a little bit excited. By the way it doesn’t look half bad as a game .

The only negatives I can say were that some companies tended to talk about their wares a bit longer than they should which makes you a bit late for appointments. The food is overpriced. And sometimes some people smell like they literally crapped themselves. Another annoying thing was waiting in line sometimes you were subjected to some less than interesting commentary about the show and some ridiculous complaints. My personal favorite was hearing some dude complain about having to stand to play with the Kinect. It took a great deal of self restraint not to rage out on him.

One thing that blew me away was Rock Band 3. I feel that might have been the best game of E3, overall. With the new features they added, the expanded song list and the overall feeling of ease this game completely erases Guitar Hero from memory. Yes, I’ve always played Rock Band but I did like some of the tracks that were available in Guitar Hero. I wish I had some gear from the show so I can do an in-depth but it will have to wait. I think that game will change the landscape of music and gaming completely. I do feel sorry for the people who made the “it really teaches you to play the instrument” non-Rock Band inventors (editor’s note: Inspired Instrument’s “You Rock Guitar”). I sat through some presentations and thought to myself “Hey this isn’t too bad after all” that was until I sat in the Harmonix presentation. It was really that much better. I couldn’t even look the lesser folk in the eye anymore. I felt bad for them. The Fender is actually a Fender, it plays just like a real one when you hook it to an amp. Rock Band 3 also supports midi instruments you may have at home. I’m sorry if it feels like I’m riding RB3. I’m just still bowled over by it. Post-presentation I got to play Bohemian Rhapsody on drums (I played hard. Err pause) and that was an awesome experience.

One thing that did bother me a little bit was the lack of professionalism or courtesy from people with media badges. On separate occasions I’ve seen a few media types act like total jerks to the people working the booth or just other media. One of the funnier examples came from the Sega booth where I was waiting to play Vanquish. CL had an appointment so we were doing what we were supposed to do and waited patiently. One of the reps went to go ask someone to get off the console so someone else could get on and the guy raged out. He started flashing his badge to the guy and in his high cracking voice he demanded he ask someone else and kept repeating that. I guess because he’s writing for a bigger publication he has to ignore what the people running the booth have to say. Another time came occurred at the Rock Band both where this girl kept getting on keyboard every time she got in line. I asked her how many times has she played keyboard she said about 10 times, someone turned to her and asked if they could get a turn on it so they can do a write up and she said no and promptly got on the keyboard again. Line cutting for ‘friends’ and the usual bad behaviors at conventions were in full effect.

I don’t think E3 is for everyone. There’re a lot of things you have to deal with. It was refreshing not to see kids running about. So, no, I don’t think you should bring your kid to E3 (editor’s note: according to the ESA, children aren’t permitted anyway). It’s video games yes but it’s not really for kids. I’m pretty sure some parents paid money for their darlings to go but they were in their teenage years so that’s not too bad.

On another note I am quite proud of myself. I didn’t have a meltdown health wise like I did at PAX. I’ve learned the golden rule DO NOT SHAKE ANYONE’S HAND UNLESS YOU HAVE SANITIZER. Yeah I gave Starslay3r a hug but we are adults and you can’t judge me. Now that I’m back on the east coast it’s time to get back to work. Thanks for following our coverage!

Look at my horse.....

The action in Fist of the Northstar is brutal kung fu action. So brutal that people’s heads explode when the get hit. It has translated well into the fighting game that was released on the PS2, but how would it do in a Dynasty Warriors format? I mean how do you get this

or this

which is predominately a one-on-one fight, into one vs hundreds? Also, fights are very quick when some of the main characters fight scrubs.

This is video from the Japanese release. It looks smooth but there are some issues. One that I’ve noticed is that the actual fighting is very slowed down. I don’t know if this is to emphasize the beefiness of the hits or the size of the characters but there are some things that execute very slowly, like grabs. Maybe it’s just me or it’s the game design, but controlling Kenshiro is a bit clumsy as well. In comparison to other the DW titles the characters kinda handle like buses. On the plus side you can ride Kokuoh-Go (Raoh’s manly horse) through walls and pillars which is nuts. All of the moves from the series are in the game. So if you hit some baddies with Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken expect to see some exploding folk on the screen.

I may have torn my DW gameplay ligament along time ago so this game didn’t seem that exciting to me even though I love the series. If you never really played DW and the millions of other similar titles then you may love this. If you’re a die hard fan of the series and the previous statement is true then you definitely have to play this. If you want to play HNK without the ridiculous combos or instant deaths then this game is for you.

If you agree Kokuoh-Go is amazing then this video is for you.

So after a long wait it’s finally back, Splatterhouse. For those who don’t know Splatterhouse is a horror based beat-em up that debuted in arcades and on the Turbo Graphix 16 back in the day. Ports have been made and there have been sequels, but nothing spoke to a generation like the gory original. This game holds a special place in my heart because it was one of those rare games that scared me shitless even if I wasn’t playing it or in the room at the time. The genesis titles were good but they didn’t have the same pull that the original had.

This game features a retelling of the first game with some new twists added. I can’t wait to see what they are. The gameplay is a bit more complex than the original but it does include homages to the older versions, such as a berserker mode. It’s standard beat-em up fare with some wrinkles. One of them is that you have to feed your mask and you do that during certain combos you get bloody and the mask feeds on that. Some of the old weapons are in the game as well.

The controls handled well considering it’s a simplified scheme. There’s not much to it, I just wish there was dodge mapped to the analog stick in the build I played. I am not a fan of the block then roll animation. Otherwise, beating your enemies skulls in with their own limbs is quite relaxing in that game. The sound track consisted of hard metal, I am sure that Rick would probably listen to that while wearing his terror mask so I won’t complain.

The game is all single player so once you beat it you’re done. Maybe there’s going to be Easter eggs in there that you could hunt down.  I think it would be cool if they included an original Rick skin in the game, we’ll have to see what happens on release. However, a plus is that the original versions (the uncensored one will be featured in the game),  will be in the included.

This is the first Lara Croft that is a digital download, so the old girl is keeping up with the times.  The game is presented in a top down view which is new for Lara. This view reminds me of Smash TV, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and similar games. This lends itself to classic arcade action found in those previous titles. The environments I saw went from lush jungle to cold rocky tombs. Character models looked good and the special effects from explosions and magic (yes magic) looked convincing.  Playing at the booth there was practically no load time. The game  just flowed smooth as we went from one area to the next. The graphics of this game aren’t going to beat out other more recent Lara Croft titles that are on disc, but they are pretty good considering what you’re getting.

The game is very run-and-gun but there is item management and some puzzles that can be solved with teamwork. For instance, Totec can throw spears which Lara can jump onto in order to reach higher ground, or Totec can hold a shield over his head which allows Lara to jump off of  it. There are ‘leaps of faith’ where one player makes it to the other side of a large chasm and the other has to jump across and trust that they will be caught by the waiting player.  This adds to the dynamic of  ‘Coop-petition’ which is at the root of some co-op games what have a score system or items that could be picked up. (Not to go off on a rant but there have been times when I was playing arcade games back in the day, yes I am that old, and people kept picking up the health that they didn’t need. What really irks someone has a 95% full health bar and 2 lives and I am on my last legs and they really pick up the  health). The controls are extremely easy to pick  up which is a huge plus so you can play this game with someone who isn’t that good of a player.  There are multiple paths and different ways to solve puzzles so you do have the freedom to get creative in your game play.

The game itself is very fun. It’s a good pick up and play with a buddy to unwind. I’m pretty sure you could probably trick your significant other into playing it because it’s so easy to play. I only played the multi-player during my time at E3. However, this game also supports a single player campaign.  I love Lara, I’ve always loved her but there are other games out there and quite honestly I can’t invest as much time into our relationship as I would like to. This game is helps our relationship because I can squeeze in my Tomb Raiding-fetish and not interrupt the heavier gaming that I’m currently doing.  The game looks to be about  1200 Microsoft Points / $14.99 PlayStation Network, PC respectively.

Jason V.

phire

Chocolate Lemon

Since I’m soo awesome. I’ll answer questions you may have about E3 while I’m there Via tweets and Facebook. Honestly, I don’t know what to expect from the West Coast.  My only experience with Cali come from rap videos from the 90’s .

But for E3, oh man I am pretty excited. There’s going to be live music, Methodman and Redman are preforming. They aren’t Megaman villains but they might as well be. There’s going to be some Lucha Libre going down. I want to interfere in the match and cost someone the belt and then oil up.

Gamewise I’m excited for Rockband 3.  The team and I will be getting a hands on-session, with that expect lots of video. Fist of the Northstar will be there. I don’t know how Cali will handle all that manliness. Sega is going to be on hand with a few goodies such as Phantasy Star Portable 2 and a new Sonic game. Capcom is up to its usual hi-jinks if there’s some MVC3 you’ll know. The list is extensive of all the stuff that’s going to be there.We’ll do our best to cover all the booths for you guys. I mean with booth babes I don’t know how much is going to get done but we’ll try to git’er done.

But with that said.
I am proud to say check in with Chocolate Lemon for its E3 coverage. Let’s rock!

Even when Hogan did his NWO nonsense and was “Hollywood” I still…No wait I didn’t, I was a Rock fan around that time, but in my heart I was still a Hulkamaniac. When he had that ugly divorce and his son crashed his car, I felt terrible for him. I saw that once invincible man beaten. The same man who beat Andre the Giant and starred in all those movies that aren’t that good but still they were family-friendly, actually dealing with real world problems. Even with that crappy reality show or his daughter’s lack of talent, I wouldn’t dare laugh at his struggles.

That is until today. Hogan suing the maker of Cocoa Pebbles, accusing the company of appropriating his image in commercials for the cereal.

Here’s is the commercial in question.

Now is the character’s name Bulk or Hulk Boulder? In the beginning Hulk did call himself Terry Boulder.

And yes this character

does look a lot like a young Hulk.

What do you guys think? I think Hogan may have case but that’s extremely far fetched. I do think if Hulk wanted to sue, he should sue the guys over at Team Ninja. Want to know why? Two words

Bass Armstrong.

Sure in the movie the had the big sexy Kevin Nash play him and yeah it was semi-close. I mean the dude played Shredder in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.

Lets just be honest it’s based off this man

And his daughter Tina Armstrong

doesn’t look too much like Brooke

however her back story summarizes Brooke Hogan’s aspirations and goals.

Tina is a wrestling star from the United States who dreams of even greater fame. She first joins the Dead or Alive tournament, hoping that she can use it as a vehicle for becoming discovered as a supermodel, but her father Bass forbids it. To ensure that she does not achieve her goal, he also joins Dead or Alive to put an end to her fame-seeking. After competing in the first tournament, Tina is apparently defeated by her father, Bass, and enters the second tournament to achieve her dream of becoming a model. During the transition between the two tournaments, Tina changes her hair color from brown to blonde.

In her subsequent entries into the Dead or Alive tournament, she changes interests from wanting to be a model to wanting to become an actress and finally a rock star. These actions had further disappointed her already disgraced father, who only wanted one goal for her. Tina enters New Zack Island in Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 to escape the clutches of her over protective father, whom she needed to stay away from to prevent any more conflicts between her and her father.

It’s like Itagaki had some sort of time machine and went into the future. I wouldn’t be surprised who knows what goes on underneath his sunglasses.

In any case, Hulk please get out of the limelight and rest peacefully in my memories. I don’t wanna remember you as the guy who sued Fred Flinstone. This is how I wanna remember you:

Makes you patriotic, don’t it?

Let me start of by saying the games that I am going to play. I figure I’ll play two fighters, Tekken 6 and Super Street Fighter IV. Then my racing game of choice is going to be Forza 3, Project Gotham Racing I can pick up and play so I don’t need too much time with it. My shooter is probably going to Halo Reach.Why not Call of Duty 2 MW? I haven’t seen too much of a tournament scene for it. With Halo Reach I’ve been trying to put together a team so I figured I’d play on it. It’d be Sol Lekz and I, then we can hold a tryout for the last two slots.

So how will I fit practice into my daily routine? I set aside one hour blocks for what I want to get better at. I have set aside a 1 hour block in the morning for me to play Street Fighter and actually sit down and practice one of the three characters I use (Cammy, C.Viper, or Hakan). No invites, no endless battles, and little to no distractions. However, I really hate the training stage music so I am forced to hook up my iPod to my Xbox every single time. I even had the chance to talk to Justin (Lemon) Wong about my new regimen and he said “lol that’s too much” but he did understand that I want to get better so he’ll be helping me with some stuff in the next couple of weeks and I’ll share that with you guys.

Just what do I practice? Well to be honest the basics for each character. It’s nothing too spectacular but it’s effective. I just focus on my input execution then practice the simple strings. As I progress I hopefully will spend less time working on my input and advance in my combo/damage dealing game. Something that you just can’t practice is experience. It sounds weird but hear me out. I can practice everything ’til I can do it with my eyes closed but what good is it if I don’t have experience fighting other people? I’ll fall for the simplest of set ups and absorb the stupidest losses. I’d be a paper tiger. So after I spend the hour practicing, I’ll take it online and play some matches to see how it all comes together. I’ve caught four of my matches today post training and I must say even I see an improvement from my regular Street fighter 4 Cammy.I don’t want to be mean but these guys aren’t that fantastic. They are nowhere near the top. To be honest they only have more points than me because I rarely play ranked matches. But matches like these are the ones I am supposed to win right?

This match vs Gen was very ugly in the first round. I kept eating whatever low attack that was and I couldn’t beat out his 100-hand slap/poke/slap chop/whatever. I also tried to hit him with a light attack to set up my throw on his wake up and I got an ultra for it. The other rounds I settled in and did what I had to do. I almost had a perfect on him in the last.

As Krismas would say, I turned the beat back on this Cody. The first round I was actually losing but I stayed calm and made the comeback. The second round I just made short work of him. I even hit the instant cannon strike (glowing dive kick thing for those who have no idea) into her ultra combo to finish the match. Not bad.

This match was awkward because of the game settings. Not much to say about it, he wasn’t that good. I have trouble playing people way worse than me because I have no idea of what they are going to do. In these situations I guess I have to take the things that most good players would do forget them and just do whatever I want. Lemon did tell me “until someone actually does something good, consider them a scrub and play with confidence.”

There aren’t too many things going there. I eat a bunch of things i should have just blocked. I really gambled throwing out that ultra. I really have to get out the habit of doing that.

Just how will I fit the other games into my schedule? I have no idea, but I think together we’re going to find out how this is going to work.